It's Gone?!-- A Feb. 2020 Quick Birthday Trip with Plant Based Options and Too Many Desserts

PurplePencil

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 2, 2016
Hi! Every trip I tell myself that I'll write a trip report and then I forget...so here goes.
The family decided that while we all could get time off we would do a quick weekend jaunt to celebrate birthdays and get away from the cold Ohio weather. Planning for the trip was made a bit complicated by our main planner (Mom) being out of town 60 days prior (AKA Fastpass Window). Without a further ado I present a 3 day trip of eating way to many sweets, exploring plant based options and reminiscing of missing attractions and construction walls.
The Cast:

Me (PurplePencil)
The Birthday Girl
Favorite Ride: Soarin'
Favorite Restaurant: Can't Choose

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Mom
The trip planner, organizer, and all around rock star
Favorite Ride: Toy Story Midway Mania
Favorite Restaurant: Boma

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Dad
The Birthday Boy
Favorite Ride: Flight of Passage
Favorite Restaurant: Jiko
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Bro
21 year old too cool to admit he enjoyed the trip
Favorite Ride: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

Favorite Restaurant: Wherever has good food and beer
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Day 1 (0?)
Travel Day

Mom, Dad, and I couldn't get out of Ohio until after work/school, so we had an early evening flight. We all had our bags packed (for the most part) the night before, so I headed off to a full day of class, while Mom and Dad headed off to half days of work. They both left work around noon and got lunch together while I headed off to a Philosophy exam. The original plan was Dad would pack up the car while Mom got me, but my exam ended a bit early so they both ended up meeting me and we had some extra time at home to quadruple check that we had everything we needed.


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Bonus donut my Calculus professor brought in

Note: On previous trips, we had taken a 6:30pm Southwest flight. However for this trip that flight seems to not exist anymore, and our only evening non-stop option on any airline was a 4:50 Southwest flight, so we managed to work with it. Bro was coming from a work trip so he came down the night before and we met up with him at MCO.

We headed off to the airport around 2:15 for our flight, anticipating some Friday of a holiday weekend traffic. On our way to the airport we got an alert that our flight was delay 15 minutes, but we weren't very concerned. We parked the car, checked our bag, sped through security only to....wait. Our airport has very little to do after security, and we weren't hungry for dinner yet so we walked laps around the concourse and worked on our iPads for a bit. Our flight didn't end up boarding until close to 5, which gave us time to grab a cheese plate as pre-dinner snack, but boarding was quick and uneventful.

Once in the air the pilot announced that we would most likely make up time in the air since the flight time is far shorter than the amount of time blocked. Since it was Southwest's favorite holiday (Valentine's Day) alcoholic beverages were free, but Mom nor Dad felt like getting a beverage. Our flight was quiet, and gave us (me) a great view of a gorgeous sunset somewhere over Georgia.
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We ended up landing at 7:15 (original landing time) and were on the Fake-o-rail by 7:30. We met Bro near baggage claim (it was a very joyous reunion) and made our longest walk of the trip trek to DME. Even though we were in line around 7:40, we didn't end up getting to Beach Club until 9:15. We stopped at Rivera, Caribbean Beach, Boardwalk, and Yacht Club before arriving at Beach Club. We quickly checked in, including a threat of the CM deactivating Bro's MagicBand if he didn't stop complaining about how hungry he was, and make our second longest trek to our room in the Villas.

We booked a 1-Bedroom Villa, and were assigned room 347. Yes, 4 people in a 1-Bedroom Villa with only 2 beds. When we originally booked the trip it was just Mom, Dad, and I; so we booked a 1-Bedroom at Beach Club since I requested the resort and we like the full kitchen. Then, Bro decided he wanted to join us, and we added him to the reservation AND waitlisted him for a studio in the Boardwalk area. As you can guess, the waitlist never came through and we brought a sleeping bag along for him. After all, it makes sense for the Birthday girl to get the sofa bed and the 6'+ dude to sleep on the floor.
 
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Interested in seeing how your trip went. what did you think of the crowds and weather? and what was your experience like riding ROTR (if you did ride it).
 


We stayed at Beach Club recently and got a corner room. Don't recall the room number but the balcony was huge and being in the corner gave us our own hallway.
 
Interested in seeing how your trip went. what did you think of the crowds and weather? and what was your experience like riding ROTR (if you did ride it).
We were pleasantly surprised by the crowds. Being a holiday weekend, we were expecting wall-to-wall crowds, but only ended up experiencing them on Sunday when we went to Hollywood Studios. The weather did get warmer than anticipated at times, but for the most part was in the high-60s and a nice break from the 20s-30s back home.

We contemplating try to Rope Drop HS (and originally were planning on it for EMH) but then Disney changed park hours and we decided we weren't waking up at 5 to ride ROTR. From what we saw of Star Wars Land it was cool, but also overwhelming with so many crowds.
 


The Hunt for Food

After dropping our stuff off in the room we left in search of dinner. On a previous trip we had an issue getting food when arriving late at night, but we were't as concerned this trip since there is a plethora of food options in the Boardwalk area. Our first stop was a very brief visit to Beach Club Marketplace, where we confirmed that there were no good vegetarian dinner options. We then headed over to Beaches and Cream in the very slim chance there was walk-in availability, which there was not. We also tried the various bars, but there were no pleasing options either. Finally we ended up at The Market at Ale & Compass, where everyone found something that sounded good...except when we ordered we were told they were out of everything we had ordered (over an hour and a half before closing).

Tired and hungry we decided we would try one more option before giving up and eating Caprese sandwiches from Beach Club Marketplace. We made our way around the Boardwalk and ended up at the Pizza window. Bro got a personal sized Veggie Pizza while Dad and I shared a personal sized Cheese Pizza. Mom decided to go into Boardwalk Bakery to see what they had and got herself a yogurt parfait. We did notice that there was a kiosk on the Boardwalk that had a Beyond Burger, but none of us were interested.

After re-energizing we headed back over to Beach Club to get some provisions for breakfast and get ready for a restful night of sleep. After we arrived back at the room I discovered that there were no sheets, blankets, or pillows for the sofa bed so I called housekeeping, who brought some within 20 minutes.
 
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Day 2
High Tea? More like Mid-Morning


This day was a new experience, and one of the highlights of the trip.
We had a special experience reserved at 9:45, so we all woke up around 7:30. We brought oatmeal, english muffins, peanut butter and tea bags, and purchased eggs and cheese from Beach Club Marketplace. We had oatmeal, egg sandwiches and tea for breakfast and then headed off to Epcot for a 9:15 Spaceship Earth Fastpass. After discovering what our future holds we made our way over to Rose & Crown for the Rose & Crown Tea Experience.
When planning the trip, Mom and I agreed there would be one special experience, but none of the tours worked with our schedule for such a short trip. We were thrilled to find a description of the Tea Experience which was perfect for my family since we are all tea buffs.

Review of Tea Tasting

We checked in at Rose & Crown and were led to the outdoor seating area to wait. While we were waiting, CMs came around to those that had indicated they had allergies to check on what the allergy was. This is when we informed them that we are pescatarians. After about 10 minutes each party was led to their table. On the table when we arrived were 4 tea bags per person, cream, sugar, and a tea timer. After everyone got settled two cultural exchange CMs from the UK introduced themselves and briefly taught us about the history of Twinings. We then began our tea tasting, starting with English Breakfast and the Spiced Apple Chai. We then were served finger sandwiches and Iced Lady Grey Tea, and the chef came out to describe each sandwich. Everyone else was served 4 different sandwiches including one with curried chicken, but we instead received a double vegetarian sandwich. Afterward, our plates were cleared, our hot water was replenished and we learned about our next two teas. The chef then came out again, and we were served two scones with clotted cream and jam. Once we were done with our tea and scones we were each presented with a sachet full of 4 tea bags. Overall we all really enjoyed the experience, and thought it was a good value.

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Cucumber and Cream Cheese (left and right), Branston Pickle and Irish Cheese (front), and Egg Salad (back)
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To Food and....Construction Walls?

I forgot to add that when we woke up we had a voicemail from Bell Services informing us that our checked bag had arrived at around 11:30 (after we were all asleep).

Once we were done indulging in tea, we headed off for an exhilarating hang-glider ride to help us digest. The queue for Soarin' always seems exceptionally long, and today it was no exception. We joked that we walked all the way back to Beach Club to get on. Our original plan had been to grab a lunch right after the Soarin’ fastpass since we know that Sunshine Seasons has a multitude of vegetarian options. However, we were still full from tea so Sunshine Seasons would have to wait til later. I needed something to drink so I grabbed a “Deconstructed Breakfast” with no Bacon from The Deconstructed Dish. It was easy to get without the Bacon, and although the drink was sweet I don’t think I missed anything without Bacon.
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Looked like this minus the bacon
Once I was provisioned and mom finished a Joffery’s coffee we headed over to Mission Space for our next FastPass. On our way to Mission Space Dad began to exclaim "It's gone" to every construction wall lining the path, to which Mom and I had a chuckle since we had told him that a lot of things were under construction in Epcot. He seemed the most sad by Club Cool, which I'm also sad about. We all enjoyed our Space missions, Mom doing Green while Dad, Bro and I did Orange. After our space missions, we were finally hungry for a light lunch so we chose a couple festival booths to try as we circled World Showcase.

My memory is failing me as to everything we stopped and got, but I do know we got the following items:
- Smoked Salmon and Cream Gâteau with Egg Yolk Cream, Paddlefish Caviar and Micro-herb
- Mediterranean Flatbread with Zaatar, Olive Oil Artichoke, Olives, Mozzarella and Feta Cheese
- Vanilla, Rose Water and Pistachio Panna Cotta
Mom also grabbed herself another drink, and we sat on a bench near Germany, where we were joined by a friend.
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Artsy shot of Mom's Coffee
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"Donald"
 

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