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
I was amused that you found so many Easter eggs. (I clicked on all the spoiler alerts to see where they were! :p)

We wanted to find all of them, but sometimes we forgot. Or like with the UK and France, never made it back to look inside the buildings. We didn't do the official egg hunt, even though it was fairly cheap at about $6. We were satisfied just looking for them and taking a picture. We did find a couple more eggs.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I love love love the Voices of Liberty!! They are amazing!!!

Yes they are. My husband is a huge fan of theirs, he a a little more musical than me. He watched them and even did a Facebook Live broadcast. I wandered around looking at the paintings, I really like the paintings. I like that they were done by Imagineers, it is a nice chance to see how talented some are as artists.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After Germany we continued on our journey around World Showcase. We found our next egg in the African Outpost. Again click on the spoiler if you want to see the location.

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Then we were off to find the egg in China.
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We looked inside the temple for the egg, I didn't really think the egg would be in here but I had recently read someone's trip report (sorry I can't remember which one) and had seen a picture I wanted to try to recreate. And I didn't want to see Brad roll his eyes if I told him that. So we went in and I just happened to have the "idea" for this photo. I think the other person's picture was better especially since I got that lovely vent in my picture . Maybe I'll try again another time.
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Another look at the dragon.
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We found the egg (click on spoiler to see) although the picture itself doesn't totally give away its location.
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Then we went to Mexico and I was hoping to get an avocado Margarita but once we did make it inside the line was super long. Maybe another day. But when we arrived in Mexico the band was playing so we looked in the little shop outside to see if we could find the egg. We found these instead.
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I actually have a picture of me in a sombrero like this when I was a kid. I wanted one really bad but Mom said no but took a picture of me instead. So I was thinking I would find the old picture and do a side by side frame. Too bad the price tag is hanging over the edge, so it is like I'm trying to channel Minnie Pearl or something. :confused:
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MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
I really like the pink and yellow flowering trees at WDW in the spring. As a science teacher I should know their names, or at least what to know their names, but I don't. I like to call them pink and yellow trees. I also like to call them pretty!
Maybe the pink are Crape Myrtle? I can always tell by the bark, but that pick is too far away for me to tell.
 

MySmallWorldof4

Well-Known Member
It was getting close to 11 am now, so the World Showcase would be opening soon. And more importantly, the Flower and Garden food booths. So we headed out that way.

Yellow tree flowers.
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Canada! It was neat to see the totems. I know that at least one of them was new. I think it was one the right, that I kind of cut off.
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The UK had some hopscotch set up. I won't post the picture of hubby hopping scotch, but let's just say he is better at drinking scotch! We did have a nice chat with the cast member (who is kind of in the picture) before moving on.
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We wandered through the UK looking for the Easter egg, we didn't find it, so we think it was in one of the shops that was still closed. We didn't find it in France either as we waited for rope drop of World Showcase.
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So once rope dropped our first stop was the Florida booth.

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We got the carne asada to share, and although it was very tasty, I let Brad eat most of it. I let him have a lot of it because I got the beer flight and the key lime tart. I love key lime pie and he hates it, so I don't get it often. The tart was delicious. So with that and the kumquat beer in my beer flight I was in heaven.
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I am totally getting the key lime pie. Dh, dd6, and I love Key Lime pie. A few years ago they had a kumquat pie. I never had a kumquat before, but that pie was delicious.:hungry:
 

amjt660

Premium Member
After Germany we continued on our journey around World Showcase. We found our next egg in the African Outpost. Again click on the spoiler if you want to see the location.


Then we were off to find the egg in China.
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We looked inside the temple for the egg, I didn't really think the egg would be in here but I had recently read someone's trip report (sorry I can't remember which one) and had seen a picture I wanted to try to recreate. And I didn't want to see Brad roll his eyes if I told him that. So we went in and I just happened to have the "idea" for this photo. I think the other person's picture was better especially since I got that lovely vent in my picture . Maybe I'll try again another time.
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Another look at the dragon.
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We found the egg (click on spoiler to see) although the picture itself doesn't totally give away its location.

Then we went to Mexico and I was hoping to get an avocado Margarita but once we did make it inside the line was super long. Maybe another day. But when we arrived in Mexico the band was playing so we looked in the little shop outside to see if we could find the egg. We found these instead.
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I actually have a picture of me in a sombrero like this when I was a kid. I wanted one really bad but Mom said no but took a picture of me instead. So I was thinking I would find the old picture and do a side by side frame. Too bad the price tag is hanging over the edge, so it is like I'm trying to channel Minnie Pearl or something. :confused:
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Minnie Pearl reference - love it

Max
 

mlegerto

Well-Known Member
"If I pass out, ask the people behind us for help. They have been behind us for awhile, so it's like we know them. They'll get your mom." I'm like, "WHAT?!" in my head, and then we just laughed a little. I guess hubby and I look trustworthy! Nice to know we don't look like kidnappers. Anyway, by the time we got on the ride his breathing was fairly normal, but then he couldn't get his kids buckled in right away and was a little panicked. I just wanted to tell him to settle down and everything would be alright. Maybe you had to be there but all the actions of this guy was like some exaggerated comedy routine. And that is why we don't run!

Yikes! That seems like a terrible start to the day for that man. When will people learn. Glad you don't seem like kidnappers to the general public LOL. This reminds me of a situation years ago when I was a kid - I was maybe 7 or 8. We (my grandpa and I) were in line for splash mountain and while waiting made nice with the group in front of us (a grandma and her grandson- he must have been about 7 or 8 as well). After the ride we ran into each other again at Peco's Bills and the grandma just asked my grandpa to watch her grandson for a bit and she'll be back. My grandpa did of course, but we still talk about how overly trusting she was of us and that my grandpa would never have trusted me in someone elses care - especially as we only spoke for many 15 minutes while in line!

After the ride, Brad wanted to look at the Star Wars stuff. And I'm sure I've seen this mural behind the registers it hadn't stuck with me. I thought it was pretty cool though.
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I haven't seen this before either - most likely because Mission makes me incredibly sick so when I do ride it I stumble my way out OR I don't ride it haha. The small things you never notice eh'.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Yikes! That seems like a terrible start to the day for that man. When will people learn. Glad you don't seem like kidnappers to the general public LOL. This reminds me of a situation years ago when I was a kid - I was maybe 7 or 8. We (my grandpa and I) were in line for splash mountain and while waiting made nice with the group in front of us (a grandma and her grandson- he must have been about 7 or 8 as well). After the ride we ran into each other again at Peco's Bills and the grandma just asked my grandpa to watch her grandson for a bit and she'll be back. My grandpa did of course, but we still talk about how overly trusting she was of us and that my grandpa would never have trusted me in someone elses care - especially as we only spoke for many 15 minutes while in line!



I haven't seen this before either - most likely because Mission makes me incredibly sick so when I do ride it I stumble my way out OR I don't ride it haha. The small things you never notice eh'.

I've had people ask me to watch their children before in restaurants while they run to the bathroom. One time it was a dad with a toddler. I'm always a little shocked that parents would be so trusting. I have always declined, except for the guy with a toddler, so seemed in urgent need and the toddler was in a high chair and I had a friend with me. Also our table was so close it was like we were at the same table anyway.
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
I thought the guy running with the stroller was going to have a heart attack! :eek:

Beer flights and meals look delish. :hungry:

I never knew about the Easter Eggs in World Showcase. Was there once in April but that was a long time ago.
 

MouseDreaming

Well-Known Member
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!

View attachment 194234

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.
View attachment 194238

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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Bring on the trip! Thanks for the tag! You know, this is the time of year that the Disney withdrawals get REALLY bad. This is just the "medicine" I need. Now, on to the reading!
 

MouseDreaming

Well-Known Member
As we continued on our journey of our extended lunch....the next stop was France. I really liked the onion tart last year and I was looking forward to having it again. I had even bought a couple last year that I took home with me. I even tried making it at home, it wasn't the same. And on a visit to Trader Joe's they had what looked like the onion tart from this booth in France, it however was vile. So needless to say I was very excited to see it was back at Flower and Garden this year. Did it live up to expectations??????

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I really like this announcement post in France, it reminds me of ones I saw with real announcements in Paris.
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We did a couple of photo pass shots in France. The photo line was short just one couple finishing and then another couple and their toddler. Well the couple with their toddler took forever. They wanted shots of them, shots of the toddler, shots of them with the toddler, then the adults separate! :rolleyes: Maybe I was just anxious for the onion tart....
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The onion tart was ........
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very tasty! We shared it, with the thought that we would come back another day, sadly we didn't. So I have the recipe in my Epcot Festivals cookbook, so I may attempt it again this year. I might even plant the herbs that are supposed to be used for it so I can use fresh herbs.

Just a couple pictures of around the pavilion...
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It was time to head back to Future World and start using our fast passes. We had a 12:30 to 1:30 fast pass for Spaceship Earth so we were in the middle time for that so we headed over.

We took the pretty path back. Brad said that what he was looking forward to most about Flower and Garden was seeing the flower quilt between Future World and World Showcase. He had enjoyed my pictures of it that last couple years that he was excited to see it for himself. He said he was not disappointed.

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All of the flowers are great, but there is something amazing about that huge planting. Especially when you are escaping the brown dead (ok, usually snowy) look of the midwest.
 

MouseDreaming

Well-Known Member
Day Two: Epcot in the morning!
We got to the entrance of Epcot and the lines were super long, but the AP entrance was open and had a short line so that's were we went. I grabbed a couple pictures of the entrance topiaries before they let anyone into the park.
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Then we were held by Spaceship Earth for a little bit. So I just took a few pictures. And I just love pictures of Spaceship Earth.
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We had done Frozen yesterday and our fastpasses were for the Magic Kingdom later tonight so we headed with the herd to Soarin'.
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Interesting and somewhat funny story: So we all know that there are runners at park open. We are not runners. Heck, I can't remember the last time I ran! Hubs and I think runners are silly and can cause problems so we make fun of them. We are however, fast walkers at park open. Anyway, we got behind a family that was moving pretty fast and they had a stroller. It is important to note that the dad was about 6 foot tall and a very large man. (Not that I'm making fun of large people, we are no skinny minnies.) Hubs and I could hear there conversation about how worried they were about all these people beating them to Soarin'.....blah blah blah. With the amount of people headed to Soarin' we still were going to get through with a limited wait. So their concern amused us. Anyway, the Land building was coming up and the guy with the stroller tells his family to keep walking and he would catch up.

So he takes off at a full sprint with the stroller to the stroller parking area and by the time we make it into the Land's doors (still walking behind his family) he catches up still running. He clearly is not a runner has he is sweating profusely and breathing heavily. His wife is clearly concerned about him and he says he is fine and they have to keep moving or more people will get ahead of them. By now the whole crowd has basically formed the line and we are all walking down the stairs to the ride, no one is really getting ahead of him anymore. The guy is still wheezing and now swaying a little and talking about how light headed he is. So now at the entrance for the ride the mom takes the youngest, who is too short off to the side and we are still behind the guy and his two other kids. The queue is basically empty and he keeps moving super fast and we are still close enough to hear him tell his kids that he doesn't feel so great and that is heart is racing, while trying to pump his kids up about how great the ride was going to be. I'm thinking, great this guy is going to pass out on his kids all because a couple people were going to "get ahead" of him for a ride. We catch up to the line and the guys breathing hasn't slowed and I'm starting to get concerned for him. And he sways a little bit and he looks back at us and the tells his kids, "If I pass out, ask the people behind us for help. They have been behind us for awhile, so it's like we know them. They'll get your mom." I'm like, "WHAT?!" in my head, and then we just laughed a little. I guess hubby and I look trustworthy! Nice to know we don't look like kidnappers. Anyway, by the time we got on the ride his breathing was fairly normal, but then he couldn't get his kids buckled in right away and was a little panicked. I just wanted to tell him to settle down and everything would be alright. Maybe you had to be there but all the actions of this guy was like some exaggerated comedy routine. And that is why we don't run!

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We went to Test Track next, but the wait to go on together said 45 minutes so we did single rider and were on in just a little over 5 minutes. Both of us missed the designing the car, as single rider you basically just choose if you want to go for power, efficiency, so really just a basic option. The ride was still fun though.

Next was Mission Space. Both lines were super short, but Brad has a hard time with orange. He get motion sick from spinning and he hadn't taken any dramamine. Spinning doesn't bother me, I could ride the tea cups all day and be fine. But I wanted to ride with him so we did green. The two versions don't really seem that different to me, so it was fine. We ended up having our own capsule, which was nice as we geeked out and really pretended we were the crew and played along and talked in the capsule like we were the crew. It was a good mission.

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I am such a chicken. Green only for me!
 

gdisneyfans

Well-Known Member
We had received a text that our room was ready, so we were pretty pumped about that. We were assigned a first floor in the Mighty Ducks section. I had requested 1st floor (well done Disney) and to be near transportation (didn't look like Disney came through for this). I looked at the map and it did not look like we were really close to the Movies bus stop, but I wasn't going to complain as it was a short trip and we could handle the walk. Well, as it turns out we were about a 5 minute walk away from the Movies bus stop BUT only a 1 minute (we timed it) walk from the Music bus stop! So we ended up using the Music bus stop often.

Our room also turned out to be a king room. And honestly we were both looking forward to having our own beds. But it was fine.
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The wall border is cute.
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We did have an alarm clock! We did tend to use our phones and the wake up call service. The wake up call was Mickey this time, the last couple trip it was Baymax so I was pretty happy waking up to Mickey in the morning.
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So we had gotten to the resort before noon (I think it was even before 11am), so we headed to Epcot. The front display this year was pretty cool with Mickey and the gang around the Maypole. To be honest seeing flowers blooming in March always captivates me, since I come from snowy and cold Wisconsin.
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Coming up....more Flower and Garden fun. And more importantly food from the Flower and Garden booths. Flowers and Food! :joyfull::hungry::)
The Maypole is sooo cute!!!
 

gdisneyfans

Well-Known Member
We were a little early for our Yachtsman reservation but just by a few minutes so we checked in and soon we were seated.
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A look at the restaurant from my left.
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The ceiling nearby, I think it is lovely.
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Soon the sourdough rolls and the onion pull aparts arrived with salted butter and roasted garlic. Yum!
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The onion roll and my Sam Adams seasonal beer. Brad surprisingly had a Mai Tai but I don't think I have a picture of that. He strayed from his normal rum and coke!
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My steak: rib-eye with malt vinegar fries
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Brad's Kansas strip steak
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Brad wanted the caramelized onions and I wanted the truffle mac and cheese. The onions were fine, but they didn't add anything to our steaks. The truffle mac and cheese however.....is so divine. I could probably eat a vat of it. Maybe even a vat and another one after that!
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A close up of heaven....
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:hungry::hungry::hungry: Oh my goodness that food looks heavenly!!!
 

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