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]

What Crepe is the one Hope always gets? It looks soooooo good!

Red Berry Crepe with Vanilla ice cream added on. Sometimes 1 scoop, sometimes 2! lol

Hope’s gotten so tall! She and Julia are the same height! Looks like a lovely day at Epcot. I’m very interested to hear about your thoughts on being off site.

Yes - Hope actually is just a tad bit taller than Julia, who is not happy about it.!!

It was a very large arcade space which also included tables and a quick service counter (burgers, chicken tenders, fries.) My kids loved that arcade and we went there often even when we were not CR guests.

Our first experience with Disney paramedics occurred there when Em was 4 years old as we waited in the food line. A woman accidentally hit Em in the eye with the corner of her food tray. Brave little Em fought back silent tears as the woman profusely apologized.

Swelling and bruising appeared immediately and the paramedics arrived to check Em out. There was no laceration or anything more serious than a bad shiner. After a week of swimming in the resort’s saltwater pool her injury was barely noticeable.

We got our food for free.

Wow.. sounds like you certainly have material for retro TR's! lol I'm glad Em recovered quickly. That arcade sounds like it was a fun time! (Unless you were getting hit with a food tray.)

View attachment 861537
I used to be able to sit like this not sure I'd be able to get up if I sat this way now....lol

LOL I'm in the same boat!

Hope's got a nice beginning to a Gator chomp going on! Go Gators, come on Gators, get up and go!

Haha... You never know... 2 years and counting to moving! (Hopefully). Maybe I should get her a t-shirt!

More crepes!! ha! I'll eat poutine with Julia ANYTIME!! I will also be eating those fruity crepes when we get back to WDW!!

Hope announced to us this past trip... "It is NOT Epcot unless you eat a crepe!" lol

Let me just tell you... Julia waited a half hour for those curds! She is hooked!

 

[Figment Forever]

We made our way out of Epcot around 8 o’clock walked over to Beach Club, and waited for a bus to Disney Springs.

Once we were there, we began to hunt for Hope’s Croc’s.

The good news is, we found a young lady in the world of Disney that was so very helpful. She was able to search all of Walt Disney World Resort to see what store have them located in her size. The bad news is the answer was none. They were completely sold out weeks ago. And she had no knowledge of any return. Sorry Hope!

After that, we headed over to the Lego store. Hope had no problem finding an item or two that she wanted.

We walked around a few more of the stores. Julia went into the Ron Jon Surf Shop and picked herself up a rash guard. Unfortunately, she got some sunburn at Blizzard Beach on her shoulders and it was bothering her. She really didn’t want to have her shoulders exposed if we went to Typhoon Lagoon a couple days later. She found a really nice one and was happy to purchase it.

 

[Figment Forever]

Somehow, we were all hungry again, so of course we ended up at Blaze Pizza. We all got a variety of items. One nice thing about staying offsite is that we had the kitchen in our room with a full refrigerator and a microwave. Therefore we didn’t mind ordering without having to worry about throwing the leftovers out. We brought everything back to the room to enjoy later.

 

[Figment Forever]

After Blaze I walked over with Julia to Gideon’s.

I really wanted to get the cookie of the month, carrot cake, and since today was the last day of the month, I was hopeful. Of course, as soon as we got on line, the employee was telling everyone that the carrot cake was sold out earlier that day. Oh well, we remained in line so I could get a peanut butter cold brew, which was delicious along with a regular chocolate chip cookie.

Hope stayed with Ross since she HATES Gideon’s. She doesn’t like the decor nor does she like the smell of chocolate. Go figure!

After that, it was 11 PM. Disney Springs was closed and we headed out.

We walked over to the ride share area, which is kind of cool because it’s at the original entrance to the original downtown Disney. We caught a Lift pretty quickly and soon we’re back in our hotel and off to dreamland.

 

[Figment Forever]

Day 4 - Thursday May 1, 2025

I was the first one up today. I opened my eyes at about 7 AM. I went into the kitchen and I had my morning lemon tea while I sat with my ice pack on my leg. Even thought it was Thursday, it felt like Wednesday to me. The craziness of our travel day and those two days merging together was still throwing me off.

Hope was up soon after me and she started to build her Legos. I went down to the breakfast area with Julia and we brought back some Mickey waffles and an assortment of other stuff. I have to say, the hotel had a different spread every day. It was well stocked, except for the fresh fruit, which disappeared quickly and was usually never filled again.

I decided while everyone else got ready to go out to the hot tub and relax for a few minutes. It was a beautiful area outside.

I found myself a chair right next to the hot tub.

I was so excited to put my foot in and that’s when I discovered it was not a hot tub. There was nothing hot about it. I was so sad! This couldn’t be! I didn’t want to hike it over to the Hilton, so I just resided to relax for a little bit by the “not so” hot tub.

As I was looking around, I realized a small rock wall up against the pool and a man emerging from behind them. Could I be wrong? I walked over and there it was, a very hot and bubbly hot tub. I had mistaken the kiddie pool for the hot tub. Silly me.

For or the next half hour or so I relaxed and enjoyed.

I called my brother and my mom to check in and make sure she was doing ok. I was relieved that everything was ok back in NY.

It was a beautiful morning. It didn’t bother me that I was not at a Disney Resort, but something was missing… so I pulled out my phone and put on my Disney playlist. There was no one around, so I wasn’t worried about it disturbing anyone. Much better!

 

[Figment Forever]

When I got back to the room, I tried to organize our day in my mind. At this point, I should explain something. There was no planning in this trip. Seriously… no schedule. The only things that I had planned were:

May 4th - Hollywood Studios
May 3rd – Reservations for Julia’s B-Day Dinner Request
Also at some point, I was hoping to meet up with @Tuvalu

That’s it. Long gone are the days when I had a notebook filled with notes and confirmation numbers.

I had made some park reservations; I was allowed to do five, but most of those were bumped when they became Good-To-Go days. So I really didn’t have to plan where we needed to be. In a way it was good, but in a way it was also very odd. It felt strange not having an itinerary to follow.

So where would we go today? Hope decided for us. She said that May 1, 1989 was the first day that Hollywood Studios then MGM Studios opened. She said we should go there because it was its anniversary. Decision made. Off to the Studios, we go! By 11:30 we were outside waiting for a lift.

It would not be a vacation without Ross having some business drama. Ross was on the phone to several people, including Nick trying to figure out where his shipment was going today. It never fails, when we are away, something happens with the business. This trip was no different. Apparently, the delivery truck driver had no idea where his was going. So instead of NY, Ross’ shipment was somewhere in PA. I tried to calm him down. It is what it is, but so frustrating!

We headed into HS and made our way to Frozen.

Ross took a nap.

 

[Figment Forever]

We took a bathroom break and noticed the sign from VOTLM was finally gone. I hope the new show was as good as the old one. I really enjoyed it.

Next up was MMRR.

We had time before our next ride, so we took a walk-through Pixar Place, or whatever it may be called these days, and met some friends. On our way, Hope decided to get a Celebration button. What was she celebrating? HS of course!

I always try to encourage Hope to have a little bit of a conversation with the characters. So I helped her come up with a question for each.

She asked Edna mode for some fashion tips, and Edna was very happy to oblige along with the photo helpers. They commented that they liked how Hope coordinated her shoes with her T-shirt.

 

[Figment Forever]

After Edna, Sully was due out in about 10 minutes, so we decided to wait.

I’m glad we did because while we were second in line, it grew quite long behind us. W also got to see him make a very cute entrance. As much as we all love Sully, we are all hoping they bring back Mike to meet after Monstropolis opens.

She asked Sully where Mike was and if he had taken a ride in Mike’s new car lately. Sully told her that Mike was busy doing paperwork and now he was staying far away from his car. Lol

 

[Figment Forever]

We are headed back into Toy Story Land, and rode Midway Mania.

As we were waiting, we saw a service dog in one of the vehicles.

It was very strange because the poor dog looked so scared. At one point he looked like he was trying to climb out of the vehicle. It definitely seemed like he did not want to be on that ride. The people riding with him kept pushing him down. I don’t know if they were training him or what, but I felt bad for him.

The girls rode together and Ross and I battled each other. Actually on this ride we really don’t battle each other. We really try to work together to hit the targets. But I stink. This was the first time we got the alien ring toss to work. Yet it was not good enough! Someone in front of us got over 400,000 points. I have no idea how people manage that. We did OK for us. I did OK for me, but Ross was not happy with his score.

After that, we were hungry so we decided to get some lunch. My favorite quick service here is Backlog Express. It has something for all of us.

I mobile ordered, so when we got there we found a table and Ross and I went up to pick up our food. The cast member loved my shirt and gave us a free cupcake.

He was so sweet. I gave him a cast compliment

Lunch was really good. I really enjoy the southwest chicken salad and I’m happy that they put it on the kids menu because I can’t eat an adult portion of it, but I’m surprised something so spicy is on the kids menu.

 

[Figment Forever]

We rode Star Tours and Hope was very excited to get Asoka and the scene with the space whales. (Or whatever they may be.)

We had a return time for RoR, but when we got there, the ride was temporarily down. They turned our return time into a multiple experience. I made another return time for Smuggler’s Run and then went to see our Muppet friends.

As most of you know, Hope is so excited for this to become monsters. It’s hysterical. I had to tell her to stop reminding the cast members because not everyone is as excited as she is. In all honesty, I am almost just as excited as she is. I was never a Muppet fan. Sorry Kermit!

 

[Figment Forever]

After Kermit and friends were done, we checked to see if Rise was back up, but it was not, so we walked over to the Falcon.

Julia and Hope were gunners while Ross and I were the engineers. The two pilots that were with us were hilarious. They made the ride more fun. Ross hates this ride. I love it just because I’m on the Millennium Falcon. Hope informed us that they are doing an update which sounds like fun.

I stopped to get a cold brew.

Hope was so excited to see the Mandalorian and Grogu. I was sad I wasn’t quick enough to get better pictures.

 

[riverside]

Ross took a nap.

Reminds me of someone I know!!

 

[rshell68]

Reminds me of someone I know!!

I almost posted something to that effect teehee

 

[cgersic]

The Sully interaction looks like a lot of fun!

 

[Figment Forever]

Reminds me of someone I know!!

I was thinking that too! lol

The Sully interaction looks like a lot of fun!

It was! I'm just hoping Mike does a meet and greet soon!

 

[Figment Forever]

We noticed that RoR was back up and running so we headed that way.

Up Next with Slinky Dog. So fun, but I still say it’s better at night time.

 

[Figment Forever]

We all needed a restroom break and then got some frozen lemonades.

Up Next, Potatoland! Hope was sad that she forgot her ears back at the room.

 

[Figment Forever]

After a quick hello to Gertie the Dinosaur…

…there were two rides left on our agenda. Neither of which I was excited for… Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster, while I really like this ride, I wasn’t feeling it today mostly because of my hip and leg. I was afraid that it would jiggle me around too much, but I sucked it up and rode anyway. It was OK. I do wonder how it will look with The Muppets takeover. As I said, I am not a Muppet fan, but I do hope they make this entire area a Muppet theme, not just R&R.

Next was my least favorite… ToT! Ross loves my pics on it.

 

[Figment Forever]

We were with a hysterically, funny group of people on ToT which made it all the more fun. We struck up a conversation with them while we were online. At the end, I saw them taking a picture of the photo pass screen, and Ross and I said if if they gave us their number, I would text them the picture that I got. They did and said a huge, thank you! For once there were other people that looked just as terrified as I did. I just hate free fall rides!

After Tower Of Terror, we stumbled upon a surprise character meet & greet. Hope was so excited to see Pocahontas and Nico! She reminded us that it had been years and years since she met Pocahontas and was excited to see that Pocahontas remembered her! Lol They had a lovely conversation and then when we went on to meet Jasmine.

Again, trying to help Hope with conversations, I told her to think of a question to ask Jasmine. She needed some help, so I suggested that she asked Jasmine what it is like to fly on a magic carpet. Jasmine told her she was quite frightened at first, but Aladdin calmed her nerves and she trusted him completely and then it became fun. Hope shared that she conquered her fear of omnimover rides. lol

I was really happy with this experience. Usually I find that character meet & greets are so rushed, but this was not, so it was very enjoyable.

 

[Figment Forever]

We had a little time before Fantasmic, so Ross and I wanted a rematch on Toy Story Mania.

As we were just about to tag in, there was a fight between the cast member at the LL podium and a woman who was so nasty! I don’t know what was going on, but she was demanding to go on the ride. She said, “I’m getting on this ride right now!”

The cast member very calmly said, “No, you’re not.” He told her that she needed to go to guest services to fix whatever issue she was having. She kept screaming at him and telling him that she was just going on the ride. Then she demanded, “I want your name!” His calm response? “Show me your ticket.”

I felt bad for him, but was impressed how calm and courteous he remained through the whole exchange.

Soon enough, we were out of the commotion and walking onto the ride. It was the first time that Ross and I did the alien screen and got the mouth to open up, or whatever it is to open and toss the rings into.

Ross was so close to 200,000. He was very annoyed that he didn’t get it. I still stink.

We walked over to Fantasmic and got seats. It was a great show. A beautiful night with no rain in sight!

Hope & Julia wanted to ride the Skyliner. I like the hotel we’re staying at, but it’s weird not hopping on the Skyliner and going back home to Pop. It seemed like a good idea, so we did it anyway. We headed to the skyliner, rode to Pop and got some food.

I had mobile ordered. We got the notification that our order was ready and picked it up. E relaxed and ate our food which was all good. Something was weird with the mobile order notifications because I kept getting the notification that they’re still preparing my order and I would get that notification until the next morning! lol

We all went back to our hotel via Lyft from POP and crashed.