Trip Report Food, Flowers & FARTS… Festival Fun In 2025

I’m taking a page from @Tuvalu 's playbook and combining our 2025 adventures together. Perhaps I’ll even keep it (mostly) updated?? Lol

Thank you all in advance for joining along on our adventures! I have so much fun sharing with all of you!

Let the festival fun begin…

 

[Figment Forever]

I stopped in Italy... Ross had only asked for one thing - a cannoli in Italy. I was such a good wife, I got him 2. Hope was loving the ravioli.

Julia stopped in Japan for more Matcha

Morocco was next. I had been wanting to try this treat, but honestly, I think I was too full to enjoy it.

Julia did not like it and Hope didn't want to try it - she was holding out for a crepe.

 

[Figment Forever]

We walked over to the Skyliner.

And just like that, our girls trip had come to an end. We headed back to POP and called a LYFT back to MCO. OUr fight was on time and we bundled up to land in a frozen NY.

Sad faces for the trip home...

I changed my countdown...

Thanks to all of you for following along. It's so much fun to relive our trips here on the boards. It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad we did it. It's something I would defiantly do again!

 

[Swissmiss]

I changed my countdown...

Oh ; I will miss you by just days.

 

[Figment Forever]

Oh ; I will miss you by just days.

Bummer!! When are you going?

 

[Swissmiss]

August 6-13. By my calculations you arrive 2-3 days after we leave.

 

[Tuvalu]

Oh ; I will miss you by just days.

August 6-13. By my calculations you arrive 2-3 days after we leave.

I think Mary’s 82 days countdown was for her Flower and Garden trip (the “Flowers” part).

 

[Figment Forever]

August 6-13. By my calculations you arrive 2-3 days after we leave.

I think Mary’s 82 days countdown was for her Flower and Garden trip (the “Flowers” part).

Yes - @Tuvalu is right... that was my countdown for Flower & Garden Festival which is the next chapter in my TR...

 

[Swissmiss]

I think Mary’s 82 days countdown was for her Flower and Garden trip (the “Flowers” part).

Yes - @Tuvalu is right... that was my countdown for Flower & Garden Festival which is the next chapter in my TR...

Then I can be less and continue to follow along with a

 

[lindawdw]

I so enjoyed reading about your adventures together and can't wait to read all about your Flower and Garden TR!!! Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[dizfan917]

I think Hope ate more crepes on that one visit than I've had in all of our visits!! It's good to know what you enjoy and keep on eating 'em!!

 

[Figment Forever]

I so enjoyed reading about your adventures together and can't wait to read all about your Flower and Garden TR!!! Thanks for sharing with us.

Thank you so much!! Going to try to start it tonight.

I think Hope ate more crepes on that one visit than I've had in all of our visits!! It's good to know what you enjoy and keep on eating 'em!!

She loves them! We can no longer go through France without her asking for one! lol

 

[Figment Forever]

Food, Flowers & A Whole Lot Of Mickey Waffles

EPCOT's Flower & Garden Festival​

Day 1 Monday, April 28

A Little Backstory…

Some of you may know that we lost my dad last year. April 28th is his birthday, so my emotions were already on high alert going through this day. My mom, who is having serious issues, was a million times worse today. She didn’t want me to go. It’s so hard guys…. My support system, aka siblings, are dwindling… and taking care of her is getting so tough. We left her with Nick until my oldest brother got to my house. He was staying with her for most of the week and then driving her to my other brother’s house for the remainder of our trip.

Our journey begins...

I was so excited to leave for the airport . I was completely mentally exhausted and I needed an escape from reality.

Traffic on Rt 17 was horrendous. Even though we weren’t on the road for too much longer, it was just annoying being surrounded in congestion the entire way.

We arrived at the park & fly and hopped on the shuttle to Newark.

We checked our bags and got through TSA pretty quickly. Poor Julia got flagged again and they had to check her hands out. We’re thinking because she puts a special cream on them for her eczema. Maybe that could do it?

On the way to our gate, Hope discovered Newark’s Sensory Room. I have to say, it was amazing! They even had a simulated airplane that people could practice boarding. I wish they had that when Hope was younger. Even Julia admitted the area was calming and helpful. Since we had plenty of time, we explored and hung out there for a bit.

 

[Figment Forever]

We were on our way!

Aquaman was traveling with us.

A stop at the Leggo Store of course!

We got to our gate and settled in a spot since we had about an hour before our flight. The girls and I went off in search of Matcha and coffee and lemonade.

Unfortunately, as we were walking back to our gate, I got an alert from JetBlue that our flight was delayed. It would now be taking off at 6:30 PM. Apparently, our plane was in Richmond, Virginia. It was diverted there because something happened and it could not land at its original airport. Truth be told the word, “Diverted” did not make me feel very optimistic.

I was really bummed, but I must’ve really been just so happy to be out of my life for a while that sitting in an airport was relaxing to me.

 

[Figment Forever]

Sadly, about a half hour after our first delay, our flight was delayed even further. We were now boarding at 6:35 and taking off at 7:01 PM with an arrival to Orlando at 10 PM.

I just really hoped that our flight was not going to be canceled.

We all settled in and did our own thing. Mostly all of us on our screens. They had moved our gate three times. It was hilarious, they would make an announcement and you would see an entire group of people gather up all their stuff and move. Ross asked if we should move again, I suggested we just stay put and when they decide on the final gate, we can just go there. I was getting text updates from JetBlue so it wasn’t like we wouldn’t know where to go.

Unfortunately, a few moments later, I heard the word “cancel” loud and clear over the loudspeaker and almost simultaneously I got a text from JetBlue and I immediately knew what it was. Our flight was canceled. The groans, moans and yells throughout the airport were heard everywhere. It was pure carnage! Everybody went scrambling.

I instantly took my phone and called the Mosaic line because I knew everyone would be doing the same. I immediately tried to get us on the 8 PM flight that night, but the operator told me that it was too canceled. That’s when we realized that all flights in our terminal were canceled. Later in the week, we would find out that there was a complete ground stop at Newark.

The JetBlue agent got me on the earliest flight - 6 AM for the next morning. Because the issue was not Jet Blue’s fault she said there was no compensation. I wasn’t about to argue on the phone, I just thought I’d give it a shot at a later time and see if they wouldn’t do anything for me. I didn’t expect them to, but I was hoping they may throw a few extra points my way seeing that we would now have to pay for a hotel and a meal and miss our check-in for our resort. Oh I forgot to mention we were staying off property this trip.

I also had to call Paisley by JetBlue because that’s where I booked our hotel through. We were not staying at Disney this time. And it’s very clear that if you don’t show up by your check-in time, you forfeit the vacation and lose all the money. I tried calling the hotel directly, but there was no answer. I got through to Paisley immediately, and they contacted the hotel for me and assured that we could check in the following day without any penalty or worries.

We then gathered ourselves together and headed to baggage claim to get our luggage that had gone nowhere, just like us.

I pulled up my Bonvoy app and got us a room at the Renaissance by Marriott. Now I made a mistake, I meant to get a room at the Residence Inn by Marriott. But I guess I mixed them up.

Getting the shuttle for the hotel was a nightmare. We must have walked 3 miles trying to figure out where to get the air train in order to get to the correct loading area for hotel shuttles. Why I just didn’t tell Ross we should just grab a lift- I don’t know.

Hope exclaimed, "Look - the monorail!" So we took Newark's monorail to the opposite side of the airport.

It probably took us over an hour to get to the right location and then took us almost another hour to get the shuttle because so many people were congested and running for the shuttle that we didn’t even get on the first two.

 

[Figment Forever]

Finally, we made it to the hotel and boy did I blunder. I managed to pick the only Marriott that does not have an in-house restaurant or a pool! But they did have a 24 hour fitness center. Was my subconscious trying to tell me something?

We were all hungry so we searched the menus in the room to order something. We settled for Leo’s pizzeria. It was pretty bad. Actually, it was disgusting.

No matter. We were all tired and stressed and just wanting to get to Florida. We got settled in bed. We set our alarms for 2:30 AM and tried to get some sleep.

 

[Swissmiss]

I hope the rest of the trip goes better and makes up for the start!

 

[Figment Forever]

I hope the rest of the trip goes better and makes up for the start!

It wouldn't be a trip for us if it didn't have some drama. lol. Yes - It was a wonderful time!

 

[Figment Forever]

Day 2 (AKA Day 1 Part 2) – Tuesday, April 29

At 1230 am, I was still restless…. Checking the Jet Blue site for any updates. I tried to get some more sleep, but I wasn’t having much luck. By 1:30am, I had noticed our plane changed again - this time our plane was coming from Puerto Rico and it had landed at Newark Terminal A Gate 34… which was to be our departure gate. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Our plane was where it should be. Now I just had to worry about it being able to takeoff.

At 2am, I gave up any hope of sleeping. I took a shower and threw on the same clothes. All of us did. There was no way I wanted to pack and repack to get fresh clothes out. But don’t worry, I did rummage through our toiletries bag so we wouldn’t stink! The hotel towels were horrible, not much more than a thick paper towel! Julia was up next followed by Ross and then sleepy head Hope.

At 3:25am, we closed the door of our Renaissance paradise and headed down to the lobby to catch the shuttle back to Newark. There was no way I was going through the ordeal of navigating the airport again, and I told Ross that we would just get a Lyft back, but I was happy to learn that the shuttle dropped off directly to the terminal, so that’s what we did.

Once again, we checked our bags with JetBlue and made our way over to security. Once through, we headed for our gate.

Take 2...

Most of the shops and eateries were still closed until 4am, yet, the airport was busy! There were tons of people, and by the look of it, many had slept there.

Once we got settled at our gate, Julia, Hope and I went to get coffee and tea and some snacks for the flight. I was nervous and kept checking the app to make sure our flight remained on time and luckily, it did.

Ross sent me a text while we were off getting our coffee saying however, a lot of people who are waiting were completely grumpy and nasty. I guess he heard some real good ones! One person got upset because we left our backpacks on our seats when we left and they were annoyed that Ross was taking up four seats.

 

[dizfan917]

oy. Things can ONLY get better, right?! I hope that is the case...

 

[Figment Forever]

When we finally boarded, I was so thankful! The flight itself was really good.

I know… it’s barely 7AM – Don’t Judge!! Lol

My movie of choice for this morning….

I usually can NOT sleep on planes, but I happily managed to get a few naps in.