Sorry I've neglected this TR! I've even gone back to Disney twice for weekend trips (and am about to go back for a third this weekend) and haven't finished this old report. Better late than never?
Day 3. cont.
We had opted out of daily housekeeping at checkin in exchange for a $5 resort voucher, which we decided to use on an iced latte from the coffee shop in the Swan. It came to $5.35 total but the barista told us not to worry about the 35 cents. Woohoo! We enjoyed our beverage on our way to the dock, where we waited just a few minutes before the boat arrived.
We were both hungry since it was nearing 6:00 and we hadn't eaten since our (enormous) breakfast. Our first stop was the Dominican Republic booth where we each had a Soufflé de Yuca. I could sure go for one of those right now! Then it was back to Innoventions for the second stamp.
MmmmmMMMMMmmm. (Side note: I'm trying to go dairy-free again and my skin seems to look better and I'm having fewer issues with acid reflux which can REALLY affect the voice...but damn that cheese looks good
)
Before the trip I made M promise to ride (watch?) Captain EO with me. I had never done it in the park and had only seen a very poor quality version on YouTube. We arrived just in time for a show to start and it was totally fun! The plot is quite thin, the spaceship technology is dated, and the muppet things are kind of annoying. But I'm a huge sucker for big group song-and-dance numbers so when MJ and Co broke out into the song about changing the world I was mesmerized!
My first and last Captain EO
After Captain EO it was booth time once more. We headed to Farm Fresh to try the cider flight, which consisted of Woodchuck Raspberry Hard Cider, Wyder's Dry Pear Hard Cider, Two Henrys Elderberry Hard Cider, and ACE Hard Pumpkin Cider. I was surprised at how much I liked the pumpkin cider (again, not a big pumpkin alcohol fan) but my favorite was the dry pear cider. It had just enough sweetness but the tartness was the dominant flavor here.
Mmmmm cider (Other side note: I'm also drinking less in an effort to make up for how much I drank/how much weight I gained over the holidays. Again it seems to be helping my voice but seeing all of these beautiful Disney drinks is making me question my choices
)
It was around this point that we noticed just how many drunk @$$holes were in Epcot this evening. I'm not talking buzzed or tipsy, I'm talking waaaaay past their limits to the point where they are totally obnoxious to all the guests around them. I know it's Halloween, I know it's a Saturday night, and I know there is lots of beer here. But there are also people here who are just trying to enjoy their evening and REALLY don't need to hear you scream out your own special out of tune version of "Oh Canada" (yes, this happened! And these guys weren't even Canadian!). It was especially bad around the booths of Showplace Plaza, which are already cramped to begin with (poor planning on Disney's part), and when you throw in even a few staggering drunks who aren't watching where they're going it becomes borderline dangerous.
We were getting hungry and had tried almost all of the veg F&W options but none of them stood out as worthy of a repeat at this point. So we began making our way to Germany for
@wdisney9000 's wife's favorite: some good ol' Nudel gratin! On the way we got stopped at the bridge between China and the African Outpost so some of the IllumiNations boats could enter World Showcase Lagoon. It didn't bother me; if anything it made me more excited to see IllumiNations that night! Shortly we were entering Germany, and we decided to split up so I could order the Nudel gratin and M could get us a Riesling flight from the Germany kiosk. The three wines were J&H Selbach Bernkasteler Kurfürstlay Riesling Kabinett, Selbach-Oster Mosel Riesling Spätlese, and J&H Selbach Bernkasteler Kurfürstlay Riesling Auslese. M liked all of them and I the Kabinett as it was the driest. But when it comes to whites I almost always prefer drier so this came as a surprise to no one.
Bridge
Can't go wrong with Nudeln und Wein!
Following our visit to Germany we decided it was time for a flavored latte. The American Adventure Coffee Cart was offering a Harvest Latte which included apple spice syrup. While we were waiting for a CM to make the beverage we overheard a woman talking on the phone, presumably to her husband, about how their daughter (who was maaaaybe two years old) was (AND I QUOTE), "being kind of a b1tc#!" is wrong with people???
Latte
We enjoyed it back in the Chase Lounge (which still didn't have the AC turned up enough!), where I also had some Vitamin Water from the fancy Coke machines. We decided to try the two Festival wines, a Chardonnay and a Cabernet, both of which were fine but nothing special.
More Wein. Oh yeah, and free candy!
While we were in the lounge our flight checkin time came and for some reason the Delta app wouldn't let me check in! I kept refreshing and closing and reopening the app and it kept telling me to wait until 24 hours before the flight, so I gave up and was able to check in using my browser. Not that it made a difference because almost everyone on the flight was lumped in the last zone and mobbed the boarding area the next day...I digress. After we were finally checked in we left the lounge and headed to the Ireland booth, where we shared the cheese plate (Reserve cheddar, Dubliner with Irish Stout and Skellig) and a Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale. I think I liked the cheddar best. I didn't hate or love the beer. In fact I'm having trouble remembering it at all. I think I was just super tired of drunk 455h0l35 at this point and wanted to get drunk myself. Which wasn't going to happen from drinking, as
@Tony the Tigger put it, "baby beers."
Irish Kilkenny Ale and cheese plate
We knew we wanted to try the two Kona Brewing Company beers from Hawai'i, but on the way I got distracted by the Vegan Moussaka from Greece. M didn't really care for it the first time around and didn't want any now so I ate THE WHOLE THING. I wish it had looked more appetizing, but it definitely tasted WAAAAAY better than it looked. I think it's the darn vegan "cheese" on top.
Mousakka. I could go for this RIGHT NOW. It even works with my mostly-dairy-free diet!
After I devoured the Moussaka, we made it to Hawai'i for the two Kona beers. The CM pouring the beers was from Elizabeth, NJ, not far at all from where we live! On the way to the bench M had somehow scored despite the crowds, yet another drunk 3-hole (geddit???) appeared and bolted in front of me, causing me to spill some beer. It wasn't that much but it's the principle of the matter! Anyway, there was still plenty left to enjoy, and enjoy we did! M liked the Big Wave Golden Ale and I preferred the Pipeline Porter.
Left: Pipeline Porter; Right: Big Wave Golden Ale
Following the Hawai'i incident we decided it was time for some more corn cheesecake from Mexico. Against my better judgment I ordered a Guava Margarita. It's not that I was too drunk at this point, or that those machine margaritas are particularly strong, but more that...well, machine margaritas. But order it I did, and we walked back inside the Odyssey in hopes of finding an air conditioned place to sit. Inside it was still WAY too hot, but we decided it was a little bit better than outside and, surprisingly, there were fewer obnoxious drunks inside! We found a fairly quiet area away from the loud drunks and the loud children running around to enjoy our Mexican purchases. The whole time I was drinking the machinarita I was beating myself up for not asking for salt. Not that it would have magically improved the quality or anything, but the salt would have made the extreme sweetness of the guava flavor more bearable. Welp, you win some and you lose some.
Machinarita and Cheesecake
As we finished the stuff from Mexico we really wanted more beer, so I ordered the second beer flight from Craft Beers, as well as the snack mix and the pimento cheese dip again. I really have no idea what was in this flight, because they were sold out of some things and the beers in the carrier were definitely not the beers listed on the card. I do know that choice number four was the mysterious peanut butter stout from the day before. While we were trying to enjoy our food and beverage a group of three kids decided that it was a good idea to play tag (or whatever run-around-while-screaming games the kids are playing these days) RIGHT NEXT TO US EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS SO MUCH ROOM THAT ADULTS WHO WERE NOT THEIR PARENTS WERE
NOT OCCUPYING. And their parents told them to leave us alone and come back where they could see them, and the kids completely ignored them, and the parents did NOTHING. UGH. [rant] Yes, it is a theme park. Yes, it is Halloween and the children want to have fun. But is this building which has basically been turned into a temporary bar (all they're selling is beer and beer-accompanying snacks! There's no juice for Tommy or chicken nuggets for Suzy!) the best place for your kids?? I think you can do better, parents![/rant]
Snax and drinx!
(PS I might be making it sound like we weren't having any fun. We truly were despite a few unsavory moments from other guests!)
After awhile the kids left us alone and the family left the Odyssey and we had some time to just talk and enjoy each other's company. Spending time with M never gets old. She is truly my best friend and she makes me laugh and feel loved every single day. We have been through some rough stuff in life but everything just brings us closer together and we keep learning to appreciate the good times.
Around 9:30 we left Craft Beers to find a spot to watch IllumiNations. We also wanted one last Festival item of the night: the Dole Whip with rum. While we waited I finally saw a water sidewalk artist for the first time! (Surely they have an official name that isn't water sidewalk artists. What are those guys called?)
Spiked Dole Whips!
We settled on using a trash can as a table, and our trash can spot turned out to have a pretty good view of the fireworks! Except, of course, for the two times that other guests who hadn't thought in advance to find a place to watch stopped and stood DIRECTLY in front of us. Both times we asked them to move and, upon realizing they were being kind of rude, they actually moved and didn't give us a hard time. There was also the guest who started smoking right next to us in what was absolutely not a smoking area, but at least she left to go bother someone else soon.
I <3 You, Illuminations.
Even though we weren't right on the lagoon we could see almost everything and we weren't packed in with everyone else trying to get the best view. After IllumiNations ended we waited in our spot for at least fifteen minutes as the hoards came pouring out of WS and toward the front entrance. Even after waiting we still had to fight through the crowds to get to the International Gateway. At least two boats' worth of guests were waiting at the dock to go to the Epcot resorts so we walked back to our room for our last night at the beautiful Walt Disney World Dolphin. When we arrived our phone's message indicator light was blinking. We figured it was just a checkout reminder, but it was actually a message reminding us of Daylight Savings Time! We had an extra hour of Disney time ahead of us!
Up next: We check out and enjoy a few more hours in Epcot.
