Winging it with No Dinning Plan! A Feb. Trip Report

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

(And the boys have frying pans?! How cool!)

Def need to have Alex take Landon in and check it out.
IMG_1732

Epcot bag check is the worst!!!! I hate it. It's even worse when you're doing it with a baby and the stuff that goes with a baby.

I remember those days! We used to have princess dresses, snacks and god knows what else.

I love this photo! Gwen may look like you but she has her Dad's personality.

She is def a mix of both of us.

We always go straight into the World too. I keep telling myself to stop but get overruled.

I get overruled alot too. I feel your pain.

I love Guacamole too! I need to try this.

So good! I need some now.

I'm very impressed! I think it looks great. How did it taste?

I have to admit, I always use box mix if I am making a fancy cake. And I didn't even eat any of it, since I am trying to loose some lbs... But Morgan and Gwen said it was good. The brown was chocolate flavored fondant, so I think it was a little better than just regular fondant.

I missed this too. I would love to interact with them. I think it's neat that Morgan was the one having fun with them.

I do think that is part of why it was so fun, that Morgan was the one to want to actually talk with them.

This is a great family photo. Maybe Andy needs another adult beverage?

I think we both did!

You both look great! Good work. I know it is hard, I half only been halfway doing the whole diet thing after my wedding. I need to get serious again, but maybe not til after Disney

Our Disney trip is my carrot to keep me motivated. Hopefully.

 

[MissMaryQC]

I am loving the hat photos! Sorry you couldn’t find the chef hats. Poor Morgan.

Love the living art photos too, embarrassing dad pics are the greatest!

Wow! You guys looks great in the then and now! Losing weight is super hard, and keeping it off is harder. Stay strong for those extra few pounds!

 

[Lesley Wake]

We had Gwen Last "birthday party" Well, it was just my parents and sister with her family over. Nothing special other than the cake we made...
Untitled

I think we did a pretty good job for our very first fondant covered cake. It def could have been better but you can tell it's a Porge!

I think that's a pretty good job!

When we came out to collect our stroller we saw a group of 20 something big guys. Like football player big. They were ALL sitting on EVC's chit chatting. They looked like they had all rented EVC's for the day to drink around the world on. I am just glad we didn't see them in a drunken state drinking and driving on them! Ha.

Wow, that would be something...interesting!

So, When Morgan put the fedora on, we said it looked really good on her.

It does look cute on her! For a while (probably when I was her age) I collected hats. I had probably 20 that I never ever wore! Including a purple cat in the hat one that I got at a county fair, and an Indiana Jones hat from DL!

 

[kastoney]

Italy_Hat_Morgan
She wanted to buy it but I knew she would never wear it. But I said if that was her one thing. Which she did NOT want to do.

The girl does where it well. You totally should have caved for her

Photo Op
And then the Photo Pass Photographer posed us for the next photo. Pretty sure Morgan is laughing because she knows we are kissing.

Love this! It totally looks like Morgan is just carefree flying a kite while you two kiss.

Oh he and Jason will get along too well.

Italy_Hats around the World
Her eyes say it all.

Oh yes they do! Casey is a HUGE rule follower too so she would have wanted to keep it authentic as well.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Day Five: America & Japan

We headed to the American Pavilion next. We have done the least in this pavilion. I haven't even seen where they sell food in here... We started off looking for our hat. Well, this was even a bigger bust than Italy. All they had were baseball hats. So, we didn't do a picture here.

US Hats

In fact the whole store was stuff for different states. Which I found slightly odd. I live in New Jersey, I don't need to buy a hat of it... but maybe some people want to. It was interesting to see which states they picked, as it was def not all 50 states. Andy asked a CM who said that it is based on stats of who comes to visit.

We headed inside the pavilion itself. We had never been inside. The Show was closed for refurbishment, so we couldn't do that. But there was going to be a Voices Of Liberty starting shortly. So, we checked out some of the exhibits while we waited for that to start.

American Pavillion
The girls really liked the projection lanterns. And went around and listened to all of them.

It was about 3:20 by now, and we found a place to sit and listen to the Voices of Liberty. I really didn't know what to expect.

American Pavillion
The girls and Andy really enjoyed this. I liked it as well, just not as much as them. They are all much more musically inclined than me. I did keep thinking how this is probably an amazing job to have it you are a singer.

After the show, we headed back outside and Andy checked out the Festival of Arts Booth that was near there. He decided to try the Pork

Festival Of Arts Pork
Sorry, I didn't get a picture until after we started eating it.

It was Roasted Pork Roulade with Butternut Squash Purée, Marble Potatoes and Baby Carrots with a Red Wine Sauce

Andy and I shared it and I think Morgan had a couple bites as well. It was really good. The pork was moist and all of the items worked well together.

America_Cookie
The girls split a Artist Palate cookie. It was really cute looking and was a perfectly fine cookie. It was chocolate chip. Nothing special.

Cookie Half Eaten but Painted
None the less they enjoyed the cookie. Andy had asked the CM when he was waiting for his pork what they did with the circles that they cut out for the cookies. He said that some just get eaten by the CM but most they use for bio-fuel. Interesting.

I had peeked at what beers they had at block and Hans but none were really calling out to me, so I decided to wait.

We had stat down at a picnic table and were using the whole thing, and a lady came over and asked if she could sit down with us. We said sure. She had also gotten the Pork. We chatted with her a bit. She was down for a solo trip and we chatted about how she perfers this and the flower and garden over food & wine just because it is getting too busy and popular.

After we finished our goodies, we said goodbye to our bench friend and headed to Japan.

Japan is usually a big shopping stop for us, but the girls had already gotten there one thing. Gwen did have 1 more thing since she didn't get something yesterday. But we needed to find a hat first. So we headed into the shops. We settled on these Anime hats.
Japan_Hats around the World
These weren't exactly what was on the sheet but Morgan accepted these as close enough. It is NOT the most flattering picture. But it checked the box!

I also forgot that Morgan brought Perry with her today. She had decided she wanted to get Perry a hat. Oye! Like a tiny some fedora for him. That of course did not happen. But he got in a picture as least. And I think she is trying to put a hat on his head in this picture.

With the hat picture taken care of, Gwen looked around for something in the store. Morgan and I checked out some of the candy. In September I grabbed a string of a candy that I heard a boy saying were really good. I didn't know what they were or anything but I figured why not. turned out the girls loved them. Then were kind of melt in your mouth candies.

We ended up with a couple different kinds to try at home.

Japan_Stuffie
Gwen checked out all of the stuffed animals. Finally, Gwen found a bear in a bunny costume, which she called Bunny Bear. Similar to her "kitty Perry" doll.

Japan_Totoro
I snapped this picture for my sister. She loves Japanese movies and Totoro is one of her favorites.

With our purchases made, we headed out of the store. I said that I def wanted to try the sushi from the Festival of the Arts Booth. So, Andy went to order that, and I took the girls over to get them a Katakori to try. I have been meaning to let them try this and we always seem to forget.

Japan_Sushi
This was AMAZING!!!! The fish was fresh. And delish!!!
Chirashi Sushi and Haupia Pearl: Salmon, Tuna and Yuzu Miso with Coconut Tapioca Pudding

The Tapioca Pudding was just ok. It was not sweet at all. But was nicely balanced if you had a piece of fresh fruit with it. I am just not a big fan of that kind of thing. Rice Pudding, included. We all tried it. But the sushi was the star of the plate for us.

Japan_Sushi
I want one right now. Granted you need to like Sushi and there really wasn't anything to to crazy about it.

We debated ordering a second one, it was so good. And I still wish we had. Also, check out the plate they served it on. It was plastic but totally looked like slate. We may or may not have cleaned it off and put it in my back pack and took it home... And I may or may not have used it a handful of times for parties and what not....

While Andy and I enjoyed that, the girls tried the Rainbow Katakori.
Japan_Kakagori
This is also how they would sit in the stroller, Gwen would wedge herself into the back part and Morgan would sit in the bucket feet part.

They liked it but I don't think they were in love with it.

Japan_Sakitini
I also decided to try the Saki-tini. I ordered Blueberry Saki-tini. It was ok. It tasted like a spiked water ice. I am glad I tried it but I think I would rather try good old regular saki next time, or wait for France and/or Germany for a drink.

The drummers were out playing while we were enjoying our treats. So, we listened to that for a bit and then we decided it was time to more on.

Up next Morocco & France!

 

[MissMaryQC]

My tablet is being a jerk and I can’t really quote, but I was laughing so hard at the slate plate bit, lol!

Japan was always a favorite spot of mine in Epcot as well.

Sorry about the hat situation in America. It’s weird they’d have hats from each state. I agree if I wanted a home state hat, I’d get it in my home state... weird.

 

[amalone1013]

I would be tempted to keep that plate too! It's really cool! Honestly the only thing that would probably stop me is I just carry a small purse right now... but if I had a merchandise bag... :

I cracked up over Morgan fretting about following your hat quest rules

 

[amazingact21]

Comparatively, the American pavilion has nothing compared to the other WS places. It's strange that they didn't have hats for all 50 states. If that's going to be your merchandise, you'd think they would go all in with every state.

Glad the sushi was delicious. And that plate did look really cool, I don't blame you for "forgetting to return it."

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Sorry about the hat situation in America. It’s weird they’d have hats from each state. I agree if I wanted a home state hat, I’d get it in my home state... weird.

Right, I guess maybe you would want a different state... Or if you are from another country, you would want one? Maybe?

I would be tempted to keep that plate too! It's really cool! Honestly the only thing that would probably stop me is I just carry a small purse right now... but if I had a merchandise bag... :

One of the benefits of having kids I guess...

Glad the sushi was delicious. And that plate did look really cool, I don't blame you for "forgetting to return it."

I don't think you were to return it. It didn't even occur to me that we should, to be honest. It def seems like semi-disposable... Man now I wonder if we were to return it.

 

[jchurch0409]

Love the Living Art photos! Also, I sooo would have kept the plate as well!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Good Morning Everyone!

Morgan and I are currently bindge watching Once upon a Time. Morgan is loving it! I have watched most of the seasons, so it has been fun to start over. And Morgan has really gotten into it now that she is a bit older.

I uploaded all the pictures for our last day of this trip. And I want to start that day! So many good memories! Not that our EPCOT day was bad, just MK is "our" park. So, I am going to try and get another post in this morning before I pry myself away from the computer to go swim!

Day Five: Morocco, France & England

I left off with us leaving Japan and heading to Morocco. We have explored Morocco a decent amount in past trips, so we didn't stay long. We found our hats, fairly easily.
Morocco_Hats around the World
We were getting tired of finding someone to take our picture. So, we used the fancy mirror.

We checked out the items for the Festival of Arts in Morocco. But decided against them as I am allergic to Pine Nuts and we both do not like Olives. So, we passed. We took a bathroom break here as well. We usually stop at this bathroom for some reason.

I made the girls finish there katakori that was now melting into a gross mixture.

We moved on to France next. It was about 5:00 by now, and I think were all starting to get hungry for some real food. We were all starting to loose steam from being at the park all day.

But we got our Hat photo first!
France_Hats around the World
While grabbing the hats, Gwen nocked over ALL of the hats, which in turn made Andy angry. We were really just in need of a little rest and food. So, we headed out of France.

Looking back at it, I have no idea why I didn't suggest getting dinner there in France?!? Maybe the line was really long. I don't know. But we headed out. I also wanted to get a drink but I was too full of sweets. I def needed real food.

We headed to England next. We decided to get an order of fish & chips to split.
Yorkshire_Fish & Chips
This is always excellent! It hit the spot for Andy and I. Morgan tried some, and I think she said it was good. They had some snacks from our bag as well.

Yorkshire_Beer
Andy and I split a beer aw well. It was good.

While we sat and ate, there were some ducks circling around waiting for dropped food. The girls commented on the ducks and an older man near us gave us a LONG explanation about how girl duck are duller in color than the men ducks. Who knew... Gwen of course thought this was crazy talk. Why would it be that way.

England

After we ate our "dinner" we headed out and went to find a hat in England... Nope. No luck. They didn't really have anything. They also, only really had baseball hats.... So, at this point, we were DONE with the hats around the world. We almost made it all the way around.

Andy decided to actually buy a trucker style hat with the Flag of England on it. He loves it.

England_Doctor Who Lunch Box
I found some Doctor Who stuff and sent a picture to my sister to see if she wanted any. She didn't reply, so she lost out.

I went into the tea shop to see what they had, but I didn't see anything I really wanted. So, we headed out of England and towards Future World. We were still pretty tired.

I forgot to mention earlier, after our Fast Pass ran out for Spaceship Earth, I found a FP for Soar'n. So, I grabbed that instead. But it wasn't till 6:30 - 7:00 wish. I think... So, we were hoping to make it till then.

Up next Future World Again

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Day Five: The rest of our Evening

We headed to Figment. The Disney App said that Figment finally didn't have a wait. So we headed there next!
Figment_sign

Figment
I love that this has Dc. Nigel in it. It's the best part to me...

Figment_Eye Sign
The girls love this ride, but man alive this ride is SOOOOO outdated!!!!

Figment Moon
Every time we ride it, all I can think is that this COULD be an amazing ride. Just think if they could actually make it that you feel like you are actually upside down! Oh well.

Figment
The girls played in the dump area. They always want to make there own figments on the SUPER old computers. We never get the email with the Figments they made. So, I took a picture of Gwen's but Andy didn't of Morgan's... Morgan found that out, and she got all upset.. Oye!

And then while Andy and I were discussing wether we wanted to stay for Illuminations or not. (We haven't seen it yet) Morgan "fell" jumping around in the music area... And we didn't even see her fall and we didn't even ask her if she was ok. So, she started crying. Oye.

So, I said, that we should Probably NOT stay for Illuminations.

We went up to see if the wait had gone down for spaceship earth and it was STILL kind of long... So, we headed into the pavilion to grab some food and wait for our fastpass for Soarin.

Morgan Cement Lights
On the way over, we discovered the lights on the ground. Morgan wanted to get some photos...

Gwen On Lights

Gwen_Night Cement LIghts

We let them check it out a bit but then I ushered them inside to get some food. We had to park the stroller in the sea of strollers. And then headed in.

We had never really eaten at Sunshine Seasons before, but I was impressed with the choices. They def have some healthy options.

Gwen's Dinner
Gwen choose Mac n Cheese because that is all she ever eats...

Morgan's Dinner
Morgan went with the whole grain pasta with turkey meatballs.

Both meals were good and they both needed the food. But they were getting punchy and tired and NOT listening well.

Gwen being silly

We decided that we def needed to head out soon. And it wasn't really a good idea to stay for Illuminations, even though we wanted to see it.

While eating Gwen wanted to go on Living with the Land, but it closed at 7:00, so, by the time we were done, it was closed. Oh well. Once the girls were done, we hit the bathroom and then were able to use our fastpass for Soarin.

The girls wanted to ask for the middle seats but when we got up to the CM they chickened out. And didn't. And then they got mad that they didn't ask... And cried again! Def time to head out! We ended up on the far side and it was def not as good.

After our ride, we headed out to collect the stroller. When we got out there almost ALL of the strollers were gone. It was kind of funny. I tried to take a picture but it was so dark out!

As we were walking out, Spaceship Earth FINALLY had no wait. So, we decided to make it our last ride.
Spaceship Earth Mural
Spaceship Earth Jesus..

All my pictures turned out blurry since I was using just my phone camera. I will need to start using the big camera instead of Andy. He used to take a TON of pictures, but has kind of stopped.

Spaceship Earth_M&G
We enjoyed our futures... And headed out.

We were in slightly better moods by now, and it was SUPER hard to not turn around and go watch Illuminations but we stuck with the plan. We returned the stroller and headed to the busses. We figured it would be best to bet the masses out.

Which, I think we were able to do.
Spaceship Earth_Night
One last shoot as we headed out!

We made it back to the hotel, changed and all went straight to bed! It was a good day, but a long day! And we only had one more day left!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a busy afternoon! I'm sure you made the right call skipping Illuminations!

 

[goodeats]

Enjoying your trip report because I'll be travelling with our two daughters with similar ages (9 and 6 1/2) in a few days! Interesting to see what they like or are bored by.

So you got through World Show case in about 5 hours? Not that you saw everything, but that makes it seem a little more doable.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Enjoying your trip report because I'll be travelling with our two daughters with similar ages (9 and 6 1/2) in a few days! Interesting to see what they like or are bored by.

So you got through World Show case in about 5 hours? Not that you saw everything, but that makes it seem a little more doable.

Thanks for reading! I really found reading the trip reports a good way to get a feel for real timing of getting around and all.

Enjoy your trip!!!! Let me know if you have any other questions before you go. As, I am sure I won't be getting any more updates in before you leave!

It looks like we "officially" went to Mexico around 12:30 and left England around 5:30. We always seem to miss Canada each trip. So, about 5 hours. You can def do the walk in a shorter amount of time, if you find that you and your family aren't as into the countries as much. We have done scavenger hunt around the different countries in previous years, which helped keep the girls really engaged in each county. And they have the Phineas & Ferb Challange where you have to find Perry in the different counties that the girls have really liked doing. I think that is now on the play app that Disney has.

 

[vamassey1]

We always say that Gwen looks good in any hat or glasses. So, When Morgan put the fedora on, we said it looked really good on her.

The fedora really does look great on Morgan.

In the area we were in, was a wine tasting that I wanted to do but I had literally just finished our pineapple beer.

Michelle got her first adult beverage in Disney here sampling the wines.

When we got to Italy, they had one of those Living Painting Photo Ops. So, we gave it a try. Much to the Girls dismay...

We had a blast with these.

Andy decided to embarrass the girls with a photo by himself...

After our photo shoot we went to find our Italy hat. And this is where the hats around the world started to fall apart.... My sheet had a chefs hat on it, and well, we couldn't find a chef hat anywhere. And Morgan is a very literal and a rule follower. Also, some how Morgan STILL believes the Tinkerbell Gifts are actually from Tinkerbell. I don't know how but she does. And Tinkerbell would KNOW what hats there was in EPCOT, right?! Oh...

Morgan is the rule follower. We had a hard time in Italy finding dress up stuff.

We had both worked hard on loosing some weight, so he wanted a comparison shot. I think we did pretty good.

Your hard work paid off. You both look great!

 

[vamassey1]

Def need to have Alex take Landon in and check it out.

I love that you have this picture.

We started off looking for our hat. Well, this was even a bigger bust than Italy. All they had were baseball hats. So, we didn't do a picture here.

No much here. We lucked out and found colonial tricorn hats several years ago.

The girls and Andy really enjoyed this. I liked it as well, just not as much as them. They are all much more musically inclined than me.

I love this show! Not only is the signing great they make it fun.

It was Roasted Pork Roulade with Butternut Squash Purée, Marble Potatoes and Baby Carrots with a Red Wine Sauce

Yum! I think we split one of these too.

We settled on these Anime hats.

I love that you used anime hats.

I snapped this picture for my sister. She loves Japanese movies and Totoro is one of her favorites.

I have 2 kids that love all things Asian.

Morocco_Hats around the World
We were getting tired of finding someone to take our picture. So, we used the fancy mirror.

This is fabulous!

But we got our Hat photo first!

Really cute!

On the way over, we discovered the lights on the ground. Morgan wanted to get some photos...

Very cool. I tried to get pictures here too but they didn't come out really well.

We had never really eaten at Sunshine Seasons before, but I was impressed with the choices. They def have some healthy options.

I'm glad they liked it. It's one of our favorite counter serve places.

The girls wanted to ask for the middle seats but when we got up to the CM they chickened out. And didn't. And then they got mad that they didn't ask... And cried again! Def time to head out! We ended up on the far side and it was def not as good.

Poor kids, sounds like they were about done. Epcot seems to be the park for meltdowns.

One last shoot as we headed out!

Very pretty. I'm looking forward to MK, it's my favorite park.

 

[amazingact21]

Sunshine Seasons is a great QS place in Epcot, especially if you're looking for some actual fruits and veggies.
Bummer that LwtL closed early and that the girls became scared to ask for the middle on Soarin'. I still think it's crazy that the seats matter as much as they do...kind of wish the original film would return.

Happy to see you were finally able to hop on Spaceship Earth. A perfect last ride of the night.

 

[kastoney]

What an awesome day in Epcot, though I'm sure you were all ready to hit the hay when you got back. You have me so excited for our WS extravaganza in just a few days Have the girls ever done the Phineous and Ferb thing? Think we may try it or the now emphasis hat challenge this trip to help keep Casey entertained.

 

[MissMaryQC]

Both of these are great!

They also, only really had baseball hats

What is up with that?!

Andy decided to actually buy a trucker style hat with the Flag of England on it. He loves it.

The girls love this ride, but man alive this ride is SOOOOO outdated!!!!

I've not been on it in many years, but it was outdated then, lol! Rides in that area need to be updated often to stay with the times.

Morgan "fell" jumping around in the music area... And we didn't even see her fall and we didn't even ask her if she was ok. So, she started crying. Oye.

OOF! That's a rough one. Time for a nap!

We had never really eaten at Sunshine Seasons before, but I was impressed with the choices. They def have some healthy options.

I've read the same. Glad you guys got some "real" food. It's nice to eat whatever on vacation, but when you don't eat like that at home it takes a toll!

Both meals were good and they both needed the food. But they were getting punchy and tired and NOT listening well.

I wouldn't have stayed either. They're doing away will Illuminations, not sure when, but permits and such have been filed. I haven't seen it since 2011 and to be honest I had just finished Drinking Around the World and my memory of it is vague.