Trip Report Time for Flowers! Flower & Food (Garden) March 2017

Hello and welcome to my trip report! My hubby (Brad) and I returned a little over a week ago from a quick trip to the World to celebrate Flower and Garden, which we refer to sometimes as Flower and Food. It was my husband's first time at F&G, but I had gone a few times solo and we have done Food and Wine. So he was interested in how this festival would be.

So here's a little quick info:
Who: hubby (Brad) and myself (Amy)
When: March 3-March 6
Resort: All Star Movies (cheapest option, and all we need is a place to sleep)

Some tags to people who have read some of my other reports (I know I will forget someone, but everyone is welcome!): @figmentfan423 @Gabe1 @donaldtoo @betty rose @PacNWTigger @Tuvalu @fractal @JenniferS @bee @BuddyThomas @Mr Ferret 88 @MouseDreaming @PUSH @Wrangler-Rick @MOXOMUMD @MinnieM123 @Songbird76 @Cesar R M @prfctlyximprct @93boomer @Courtney6682 @MySmallWorldof4

Okay....Ready now....Here We GO......

So the vacation actually started on March 2, but late. I had parent-teacher conferences that night and our flight was early Friday morning so we decided to stay the night up in Minneapolis so we wouldn't have to get up so early. We only live about an hour- to hour 15 minutes away from the airport but we wanted to be close to the airport for that early flight. So when conferences got done at 8pm my husband was waiting outside the door ready to pick me up.

We spent the night in a Homewood Suites and connected to it was a Chevy's restaurant. All during conferences (which I only met with 8 parents that night in a span of 3 hours and I have 150 students) I was thinking about a margarita at Chevy's. So what did we do once we checked in? That's right headed over to Chevy's, it was a little after 9pm by then so at least we got late night happy hour! We also got their sampler platter which was pretty good.

With my margarita!
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After margaritas we went back to our room and watched the 10 pm news for a couple minutes and then headed to bed. Our flight was leaving a 6am so we were going to be up early!

Our journey to the airport was pretty uneventful (thank goodness) and security wasn't too bad, about a 15 minute wait. I had bought us mini-muffins from our grocery store at home so we had those and I had a coffee that was finally cool enough to drink once we started boarding!

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If you have flown Spirit before you'll know that they have their Big Seats Up Front for an extra charge. I think that charge is worth it for extra space, so I booked those seats for us. The flight was good we both slept a little, read magazines, and I listened to Disney podcasts.

Goodbye Minneapolis!
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Somewhere between Minnesota and Florida

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Hello Orlando! I was able to spot the Swan & Dolphin and Spaceship Earth this time from the air. I was pretty excited about it but I don't think it really shows up in my pictures.
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When we landed at MCO I saw a really big Air Force plane and I thought to myself "That's weird and so big. Hey wait I've seen that type of plane before when I saw..." and then I saw it....Air Force One. Our president was also visiting Florida. I'm not going to get political, but I think it is pretty cool seeing Air Force One. The only cooler Presidential experience I had was when I was near the Washington Monument and I was facing the White House and Marine One rose up off the lawn and flew right over my head. I saw AF1 before when we landed in Minneapolis a few years ago and it was exciting then (except for the 2 hour traffic jam we had because President Obama was touring the city) and I was excited this time too but now worried about the traffic. I had a fast pass to get to. Luckily this time we didn't have bad traffic as the president had already left the airport area.

Anyway, we got to our gate and because we were in the front we were off and to Magical Express pretty quick. I was a little nervous about the wait for ME especially after some people's recent experiences (@Tuvalu ) but as we arrived it wasn't bad at all. The total time of check-in, boarding, and leaving was about 10 minutes. Excellent!

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We have arrived HOME!
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Walt even welcomed us on the METV!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
My favorite food from last year! So glad they brought it back.:hungry:
When my DH and I were dating, we took our first trip together to Disney during Spring Break '96. I only just realized it was during one of the first years of the festival. They had a strawberry trifle that year that I still cannot forget.:) I remember constantly going back for more. Wish that would be brought back.:happy:

I went with my family during one of the first years as a festival too, but I just remember there being extra topiaries I don't think my parents were too into the food booths.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After the land ride we headed to Sunshine Seasons, not for more food but for a beverage. I don't drink soda much (rarely a Diet Coke) and the Seasons is one of the few places in Epcot, well actually in all of WDW that I can get a sparkling water. So I try to buy a Perrier wherever I can in hopes it will boost sales and they will expand sales in other spots. Side note, when I went to Disneyland Paris Perrier was for sale every where and I loved it!

So anyway now that we had our beverages we headed over to the butterfly house and we passed some Fantasia themed topiaries along the way.

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Pretty pretty flowers!
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We saw a decent number of butterflies inside the butterfly house. I spied this one all closed up on a flower and decided to take a picture anyway because it was close by. As soon as I went to hit the button it splayed its wings out, almost as if it knew it was getting its picture taken.
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Whenever I think of butterflies I giggle a little, because one year I dared Brad to dress as a butterfly for Halloween. He did and it was funny (I won't post a picture of him), so I called him a Brad-erfly. So I was looking at butterflies with my Braderfly.

Anyway, here were some in their cocoons.
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And a list of all the butterflies we could possibly find.
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And back outside
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And a neat looking shirt for sale.
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Songbird76

Well-Known Member
Our first stop was to the Northern Bloom booth in Canada. Brad wanted the scallops (i'm not a seafood fan so that was all his but I did steal a couple beans). I got the beef, although he stole a beef chunk and I let him have the mushrooms. And we got the Nanaimo bar trifle, but I ate most of it, and it was delicious. He enjoyed the scallops and the beef was really good too.

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Just a closer look at the trifle....:hungry::hungry:
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Next stop was the UK.
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We decided to share the pear cider brined corned beef and cabbage. Neither of us like cabbage that much so we were planning on just eating the meat, well the cabbage was really tasty.
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Then we wandered around the pavilion.
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I love those butterfly topiaries!!!

So...they have booths at F&G like they do at F&W? Or was this a quick service thing that's always there? That beef looks soooo good!!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
The food booths have been increasing every year.
See, now I can't wait for my kids to be older so Hubby and I can take trips without them. They are so strict about school over here, so we can not go when school is in session or we'd get in HUGE trouble. But Summer is the only really big break where we could take the kids with us, and it's too expensive with flights and everything. This is making me want to go back NOW, but I can't!000
 

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
See, now I can't wait for my kids to be older so Hubby and I can take trips without them. They are so strict about school over here, so we can not go when school is in session or we'd get in HUGE trouble. But Summer is the only really big break where we could take the kids with us, and it's too expensive with flights and everything. This is making me want to go back NOW, but I can't!000
Have you ever been to Disneyland Paris?
 

Figgy1

Premium Member
After the land ride we headed to Sunshine Seasons, not for more food but for a beverage. I don't drink soda much (rarely a Diet Coke) and the Seasons is one of the few places in Epcot, well actually in all of WDW that I can get a sparkling water. So I try to buy a Perrier wherever I can in hopes it will boost sales and they will expand sales in other spots. Side note, when I went to Disneyland Paris Perrier was for sale every where and I loved it!

So anyway now that we had our beverages we headed over to the butterfly house and we passed some Fantasia themed topiaries along the way.

View attachment 194739

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Pretty pretty flowers!
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We saw a decent number of butterflies inside the butterfly house. I spied this one all closed up on a flower and decided to take a picture anyway because it was close by. As soon as I went to hit the button it splayed its wings out, almost as if it knew it was getting its picture taken.
View attachment 194731

Whenever I think of butterflies I giggle a little, because one year I dared Brad to dress as a butterfly for Halloween. He did and it was funny (I won't post a picture of him), so I called him a Brad-erfly. So I was looking at butterflies with my Braderfly.

Anyway, here were some in their cocoons.
View attachment 194732

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And a list of all the butterflies we could possibly find.
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And back outside
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And a neat looking shirt for sale.
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I want that shirt.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Love your report so far; DH and I will be headed to F&G for the first time at the end of April/ beginning of May, so thanks for the preview :)

Thanks! I'm glad to be of service of providing a preview. It is a pretty great time to go to WDW.

The food booths are a recent addition to F&G. :)

I figured they were more recent, but I wondered if maybe it was just something we didn't do.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
We revisited this topiary again. And while hubby went to check out one of the merch kiosks, I enjoyed this bench.
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While relaxing on my bench I finally got a monorail shot. A little blurry because of course I wasn't ready for it.
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We then headed over to the Festival Center to check out what was going on and walked past the road rally topiaries.
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We then ran into the Jamitors but in their garden finery so we watched them for awhile.
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So into the Festival Center we went, I bought some merch and we check out some displays. I also took a quick back into time for when it was Wonders of Life. I wish Body Wars was still around, I know it grossed some people out, but it was always fun to me. But I don't get grossed out by blood and that kind of stuff.

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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Here is some merch I did not buy, but though was okay.
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I really liked this top with the color and the same design as the ears I bought. But the cut of the sleeves were too short for me. I don't tend to like the short sleeves on women's tops, they are always too short for me.
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Inside the Festival Center. I miss though bikes from Wonders of Life that had the video screens. :( I always wanted to do them but my mom said we didn't have time, and I could do them next time. There was no next time for the bikes for me. (Okay, enough of my pity party.)
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So after the Festival center we continues on toward Mission Space so hubby could see the Buzz topiary.
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We continued into World Showcase and we were headed to the Mexico pavilion to do the ride and maybe grab a margarita.
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Well the line was long for the ride, all the parts of the queue were open and it even looped a couple of times in front of the restaurant. So we thought, we'll maybe a margarita to go from La Cava...nope that line stretched up the ramp to the entrance to the Plaza. :( So we walked out the side door of the pyramid and had a look at the orchids. The orchids this year were cascading from the trees. They were just so lovely and many of them smelled so good too!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
It was almost time for our Frozen fast pass anyway, so we wandered into Norway until we could check-in. We also found the Easter egg, we didn't do the official hunt but just some pictures.

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I can't remember what the wait time was, but it was something I would not have waited for had we not had a fast pass. I didn't even attempt any pictures on the ride this time and just enjoyed it. I did think that some scenes seemed a little brighter this time, but I might have been imagining it.
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Well folks my computer seems to be having attitude tonight. It doesn't want to upload most of the pictures I'm trying to put on (and they are within the guidelines) so I'm just going to call it a day. Have a nice night/day!
 

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