Trip Report COMPLETE -- Long Time Lurker, First Time Reporter...March 2021 Trip

After reading many, many trip reports on here over the years, I have finally decided to come out of the shadows and make my debut as a bona fide trip reporter.

My name is Bryan. I am 36 and from outside of Philadelphia. I have had an AP for several years now but I came to Disney later in life. My first trip to Disney was not until 1999 when I was 14 as a present for graduating middle school. I believe we went in August and the biggest thing that stood out to me was how hot it was. Our family would not go to Disney again until 2003 as a high school graduation present. After that there were a few trips with friends during cooler months when my love for Disney really started to grow. It wasn't until 6-7 years ago that I went on a trip during the F&W Festival that I really became hooked. The following year I decided to purchase my first AP and have had one ever since.

Now that my brief introduction is done, here are the details for this trip:

When: March 4th-9th
Who: Me (Bryan), my mom (D), and my friend (A)
Where: Doubletree Suites by Disney Springs



This is a picture of the three of us from a few years ago. I am on the right and A is on the left. A is actually the person who is responsible for my Disney addiction. He was the one who got me into the joys of Disney as an adult and encouraged my AP purchase. After hearing stories from our trips, my mom decided to tag along and eventually purchased an AP of her own.

That brings me to the why of this trip (Not that there needs to be one...). My mom and my APs are scheduled to expire in the beginning of April after the COVID extension. My mom is on the fence about renewing her pass for various reasons but wanted to get one more trip in before our expiration date. Thankfully, we were lucky enough to not have any cancelled trips in the disaster that was 2020. My mom and I were in WDW the week before the world shut down and our planned October trip with A still happened.

Now that all of that is out of the way, I invite you to follow along...

 

[MickeyCB]

Following along and enjoying your report!

 

[riverside]

Enjoying your TR!!

 

[BwlrBry212]

Welcome lurker!

Looking forward to the rest of your TR!

I am here as well.

Big time lurker here, following along!

Hallelujah!



So happy they brought back the iconic lucite pylons (and fountain) at the entrace to Spaceship Earth.

Oh, I'm following along your TR here, too!

Following along!

Following along! I too enjoy the Baseline and the breakfast Ronto Wrap.

Following along and enjoying your report!

Enjoying your TR!!

Thank you all for following along!

 

[BwlrBry212]

DAY 2 CONTINUED -- MARCH 5TH

After some adventures in Future World, we made our way back to World Showcase. We had an ADR in about an hour so we didn't want to fill up too much on food booths on our way to our restaurant. We took a right and headed towards Canada. We decided to hit up the booths that were inside World Showplace for a little appetizer before dinner.

I really like the set up in World Showplace. There are tons of tables available and being able to check three booths off our lists in one location is very convenient. The booths in here are Festival Favorites, Cider House, and Farmer's Feast.

I didn't want to have anything too heavy and I was on vacation so why not have dessert before dinner?

I got the Key Lime Tart from the Festival Favorites booth.

Sorry for the horribly cropped picture but I took a bite before I remembered to take a picture. I am a big fan of Key Lime anything and this did not disappoint. The filling was tart without being overly sour and it was nicely balanced with the sweet meringue and graham cracker crust. If you like key lime, I would recommend this dish.

A ordered the Spring Onion Soup with Crispy Shallots and Micro Chives from the Farmer's Feast menu. I am not a fan of onions at all and this soup reeked of onions. A said that he enjoyed it but I wanted no parts of it. This booth is supposed to have a rotating menu so I am not sure how much longer this will be on the menu if this is something that sounds appealing.

I think my mom decided to save herself for dinner and chose not to get anything.

Also, if you go all the way to the back of World Showplace they have a handful of tables with chairs so you can actually sit and relax and enjoy your food instead of the stand up tables.

From here, we continued around World Showcase to our ADR destination, Via Napoli. All three of us love the pizza here and it had been a while since we had eaten there so we were all excited. We were surprised to be greeted at our table by a server from Italy. I did not know that any of the cultural representatives were back in the park. It was also interesting to note that only the staff that was from Italy were allowed to wear the costumes. The American staff wore simple black pants and white shirts. We decided to split an order of the fried mozzarella, which for some reason was buried on the kid's menu, and a Quattro Formaggi pizza. Of course, I failed to take any pictures of the food because we devoured it too quickly. Trust me that it looked as good as it tasted.

I forgot to mention it when we ate at Boathouse the night before but at least in our experience there did not seem to be any change in the mask policy that was recently updated for restaurants. We waited until after we ordered and our drinks and/or food arrived at the table to take our masks off but no one ever asked to us to put them back on while we were not actively eating or drinking. The way that I read the new policy made it seem like unless you were taking a sip or a bite that you needed to keep your mask on while sitting at the table. Thankfully, we never found that to be the case in our experience which is good because as the wise @Darstarr has said "eating at WDW is hard." and masking up after each sip or bite would have been rough.

We settled the bill and continued around the WS loop. We were dramatically slowed down after the amount of cheese we just consumed so our appetite for more booths was diminished. We all decided to complete our lap and head out for the night.

We did make one final stop at The Citrus Blossom booth. A wanted to snag the Orange Bird sipper and figured that since we were leaving afterwards that it would be a good time to get it so he didn't need to lug it around the rest of the day. I decided that I had room for a little after dinner dessert to go with my pre dinner dessert.

I ordered the Citrus Shortcake: Orange Chiffon Cake, Lemon Curd, Mandarins, Whipped Cream, and Citrus Crumble and a First Magnitude Brewing Lemon Hefeweizen.

The cake was very good. It tasted exactly like a Creamsicle. I did not taste any of the lemon curd that was in the description but this was a very nice and light dessert and a great way to end the night. The beer sadly was just meh. It tasted like a basic hefeweizen and had no lemon flavor at all.

We knew we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow, which also looked like it would be a pretty soggy and rainy day, so we made our way to the front of the park. I believe A made a stop in Mouse Gear to try to find the specific mask he was looking for in his size. Mom and I found a bench outside of the Mouse Gear exit that fit us just right. A came out empty handed and we continued our journey to the car. The newly updated entrance area looked just as good at night and made those construction walls a distant memory.

NEXT: Brunch, a return to Epcot, more park hopping, a rainy forecast, and weekend crowds

 

[DisneyGigi]

Great start so far! That Citrus shortcake looks amazing!

 

[Zipadeelady]

No critiques here @BwlrBry212 !! Looks like You, A, and your mom are having a great time. I'm in.

 

[BwlrBry212]

DAY 3 -- MARCH 6TH

Originally, our plans for this day were to spend most of the day at Animal Kingdom and then hop to another park in the evening. We have learned from previous trips to try to avoid Epcot for the most part on Saturdays, especially during festivals. In the past, festival Saturdays tend to draw large crowds of locals and groups whose sole purpose is to drink around the world and check off the boxes on their matching shirts. However, our plans changed when Disney decided to change park hours during our trip and now Epcot was going to be open until 11pm this night. We decided that we would end our day at Epcot and try our luck with rowdy festival goers. Then, as the trip got closer and some park passes started to be unavailable we made the decision to switch our original park passes from AK to Epcot because we were worried that the park might hit capacity and we would not be able to park hop there to take advantage of the late hours. As long as Epcot was our original park reservation, we would be allowed back into the park even if park hopping was unavailable. So, the new plan was to go to Epcot until 2pm, hop over to AK until they closed at 8, and then return to Epcot until 11.

The one thing that did not change with our plans for the day was starting off our morning with brunch at Homecomin'. We usually end up there almost every trip. The food is consistently great and we have always had great service there as well. The weekend brunch has been a stand out meal there and did not disappoint this year either. We all knew what we were getting before we even got there. My mom loves the avocado toast and A and I both ordered the Hallelujah Biscuit.

It is a cheddar biscuit topped with pimento cheese, bacon, fried chicken, gravy, and two perfectly runny eggs with your choice of side. I went with the cheesy potato gratin which essentially was a bowl of delicious mashed potatoes topped with about a quarter inch of melted cheese. I could feel my arteries clogging in the most amazing way.

I had been craving a cookie from Gideon's Bakehouse since they announced that they were opening up in DS. I have literally drooled over the pictures of their food on Instagram. In my crazy fantasy world, we could finish up our brunch, pop on over to Gideon's, grab some cookies, drop them off at the room, and go about our day. This was not to be.

This is my crude drawing of what the line looked like around 15-20 minutes before Gideon's was even scheduled to open. I am not 100% sure how far back the line went, that was just as far as we could see. After opening at 10am they started registering people for the virtual queue right outside of Homecomin'. I knew then that my delicious cookie fantasies were not going to be realized. It turns out that they were selling a limited chocolate dipped cookie cake that weekend which I think really increased the line.

The forecast for today was not looking good. As late as that morning on the local news, they were calling for an 70-80% chance of rain and my phone was saying there could be up to half an inch of rain. It was also a bit on the chilly side for Florida and wasn't supposed to get out of the 60s. It was the rare day in Disney where I actually wore jeans and a lightweight rain jacket was comfortable. A had only packed a short sleeved rain jacket that he used when golfing and thought that it was going to be too cold later in the day to only have short sleeves. After brunch, we went over to the Columbia store and A purchased a new rain jacket that would keep him a little warmer later on.

Now that we were full of carbs and cheese, we waddled back to the car and went over to Epcot.

 

[MinnieM123]

I am a big fan of Key Lime anything and this did not disappoint. The filling was tart without being overly sour and it was nicely balanced with the sweet meringue and graham cracker crust. If you like key lime, I would recommend this dish.

I also love Key Lime anything! Living up here in the Northeast, I can never find excellent Key Lime desserts. When I visit Florida (which hasn't been for a few years at this point), I always get Key Lime pie. As you mentioned, there is a definite knack to getting the filling perfectly balanced between sweet and tart.

 

[mpaulam]

Our first trip to Disney Springs, the line for Gideon's was wrapped around the building, and I'm not even sure where the end was. That was a Tuesday afternoon. We went back again Friday afternoon and we were the 5th couple in line, so we decided to wait

 

[BwlrBry212]

DAY 3 CONTINUED -- MARCH 6TH

We arrived at Epcot shortly after the park opened and the crowd level was pretty low so far. Maybe this would be a good sign or the forecast was keeping the locals away for now. None of us were in the mood to eat anything so we decided to stay in Future World and do some rides while we digested. First up, we took another trip around the world on Soarin'. We got coveted spot right in the middle of the theater so all of the monuments appeared as they should.

After our flight we were going to check out the butterfly house. We did it last March and it was a neat experience. The line to get inside the butterfly house stretched back towards Figment so we thought it might be better to wait until later to try it out. Figment, on the other hand, was a walk on so we to a Journey Into Imagination. When we exited the ride, we noticed that the next showing of the Disney/Pixar short was just starting so that was where we headed next. I know that at least two of the three shorts are now available on Disney+ to watch at home but it is a much better experience to watch them on the big screen in 3D. I really love all three of these shorts and it is a great way to just sit and relax for a bit, a Disney rarity. After the shorts were over, A realized that he lost his sunglasses somewhere. He determined that he took them off on Figment so we circled back there. He asked at the gift shop if they had been turned in. They had not but the CM suggested going back in to the unload area for the ride and see if they had them there. Thankfully, he returned with his sunglasses in tact and we could move on with our day.

Somehow, A had some room left for food and he stopped to grab the Strawberry Mousse with Chocolate Crisp Pearls from the Flavor Full Kitchen booth that is located on the path between Figment and WS. There were no rave reviews so I assume that it was just ok. We ventured further into WS and we found a centrally located table and split up for some goodies. My mom, who only had avocado toast at brunch, went to Refreshment Port to get the Popsicle Trio: Honeydew, Raspberry-Mint, and Coconut-Lime. She had this at last year's F&G and raved about it and she seemed to enjoy it just as much this year. I had no interest in this because I don't like melon and I can't stand coconut. Instead, I opted to enjoy my treats in liquid form and got the beer flight from the Northern Bloom booth. BTW, I am so glad that beer flights are back after not being around for F&W in October.

81Bay Brewing Apricot with Maple Syrup, Collective Arts Brewing Blackberry Fruit Beer, and Goose Island Beer Company Lost Palate Hazy IPA with Mango and Cinnamon

The apricot beer with maple syrup was my least favorite of the trio. It did not taste like apricot or maple... The blackberry beer was in the middle. It was nice and fruity without being too tart. It would be a great hot weather beer. I thought the Goose Island was the best of the bunch. I didn't get much mango flavor but the cinnamon came through and made for an interesting sip.

It was getting close to time to park hop so we only had time for one more thing. Arguably, where we were headed next is one of the most important stops in all of WS.

Seriously, did you even go to Epcot if you didn't get a Grand Marnier slushie??? Surprisingly, there was no one in line. Everyone was in line for the Fleur de Lys booth.

While enjoying my slushie, I took the opportunity to snap a picture of eyesore that is occupying the WS Lagoon.

I am holding out hope that the barges will look much better when they are turned into fountains during the day. Right now, they are just plain ugly and obstruct the views around WS.

Since we were still in the area and park hopping was active we headed out the IG to the Yacht and Beach Club to catch a bus to AK. We waited for a few minutes and had an almost empty bus to AK. Not quite Shirley Status, but not too shabby...

 

[BwlrBry212]

DAY 3 CONTINUED -- MARCH 6TH

We arrived in AK and quickly made our way through temperature and bag check. We checked wait time and saw that FOP was only a 30 minute wait so we made out way over to Pandora. My mom has retired this ride due her increasing motion sickness. Her jacket that she brought was too heavy so she went on a hunt to find a lighter jacket while A and I went on the ride.

We were surprised to find that the line actually started inside the proper queue. However, in front of us in line was a large family that was trying (and failing) to figure out how to child swap with the young kids. Instead of pulling them over to the side and letting other people get in line the CM blocked everyone else while this family took 10 minutes to get their act together. We asked the other CM if we could go around them while they figured it out and we were told that we had to wait. Every other attraction that we encountered always pulled families to the side to set up child swap. This was the family that kept on giving though. During the entire wait, they would spread themselves out over several distance markers and would not move up when the rest of the line moved. Eventually, we made our way to the part where they separate the line into rows to go into the chambers and one of the kids didn't want to ride anymore. So, we had to wait for another 5 minutes behind them while they figured out which adult was going to take the kid out and then getting instructions from the CM to get back in to join up with the family. Thankfully, once we got up the ramp, they needed a party of 2 to fill out a ride so we got to skip past the super annoying family and enjoy one of the best rides in WDW.

We met back up with my mom and she was able to find a lighter jacket and actually threw her other jacket in the trash. It was probably at least 15 years old and on it's last legs so it was not really a huge loss. If you are keeping score, that is now a total of two jackets purchased and so far there has been nothing more than drizzle.

Our next stop was the safari. The line moved almost continuously right up to getting on a ride vehicle. We were seated in the middle of the truck and I was sitting in between my mom and A. Because of the plastic barriers and being in the middle of the row, I decided not to even try to take any pictures. Our driver was really good and threw in some facts that I have not heard before.

One of my favorite things I have learned on the safari is the names for groups of animals. Some of the best, IMO, are a dazzle of zebras, a bloat of hippos, and a flamboyance of flamingos. I did learn a new one on this safari. A group of crocodiles in the water is called a float but if they are on land they are called a bask.

After our trek through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve, we wandered our way through the Gorilla Falls trail. I could spend hours watching the gorillas go about their daily lives, but there was a pretty pushy CM urging everyone to take their pictures and move along.

It was getting later in the day and we did not have time to make it to the trails in Asia so we decided to go over to Dinoland for a little break. We stopped into the Restauranosaurus Lounge and grabbed a some cocktails. We were hoping we could get the AP exclusive drinks that they recently added there but they are only available on weekdays. Either way, this is a great hidden gem of a spot. The drinks were all made to order and they were pretty strong too! My mom and I both had mojitos and I don't remember what A had. We would have stuck around for another drink but they were closing for the night.

Since we were in that neck of the woods, A and I took a trip back in time on Dinosaur.

I am happy to report that we made it back safely with one more passenger extra large.

We started to make our way back towards the front of the park, but Everest only had a 5 minute wait so there was no way that we could pass that up. Here we encountered another annoying line issue. There was a teenager who hopped over the rope in front of us. I thought he said he was looking for his phone and A said he thought he said he was looking for his family. Either way, he was shortly joined by two girls. The line moved continuously and this rude group found neither a phone or their family as they happily hopped on the ride. If there had been any kind of an actual wait I would have said something but decided to just let it go. But seriously, who needs to cut the line with a 5 minute wait?!?

It was time for us to hop back over to Epcot. My mom and I wanted for a few minutes while A looked in the shops on Discovery Island for the mask that he was after. Again, he had no luck. We made it out of AK a little before closing and caught a bus back over to Epcot to end the night.

Would the skies open up? Would there be a sea of people? Stay tuned...

 

[DAKOTADISNEY]

Following along and loving your trip report!

 

[macefamily]

DAY 3 CONTINUED -- MARCH 6TH

We arrived in AK and quickly made our way through temperature and bag check. We checked wait time and saw that FOP was only a 30 minute wait so we made out way over to Pandora. My mom has retired this ride due her increasing motion sickness. Her jacket that she brought was too heavy so she went on a hunt to find a lighter jacket while A and I went on the ride.

We were surprised to find that the line actually started inside the proper queue. However, in front of us in line was a large family that was trying (and failing) to figure out how to child swap with the young kids. Instead of pulling them over to the side and letting other people get in line the CM blocked everyone else while this family took 10 minutes to get their act together. We asked the other CM if we could go around them while they figured it out and we were told that we had to wait. Every other attraction that we encountered always pulled families to the side to set up child swap. This was the family that kept on giving though. During the entire wait, they would spread themselves out over several distance markers and would not move up when the rest of the line moved. Eventually, we made our way to the part where they separate the line into rows to go into the chambers and one of the kids didn't want to ride anymore. So, we had to wait for another 5 minutes behind them while they figured out which adult was going to take the kid out and then getting instructions from the CM to get back in to join up with the family. Thankfully, once we got up the ramp, they needed a party of 2 to fill out a ride so we got to skip past the super annoying family and enjoy one of the best rides in WDW.

We met back up with my mom and she was able to find a lighter jacket and actually threw her other jacket in the trash. It was probably at least 15 years old and on it's last legs so it was not really a huge loss. If you are keeping score, that is now a total of two jackets purchased and so far there has been nothing more than drizzle.

Our next stop was the safari. The line moved almost continuously right up to getting on a ride vehicle. We were seated in the middle of the truck and I was sitting in between my mom and A. Because of the plastic barriers and being in the middle of the row, I decided not to even try to take any pictures. Our driver was really good and threw in some facts that I have not heard before.

One of my favorite things I have learned on the safari is the names for groups of animals. Some of the best, IMO, are a dazzle of zebras, a bloat of hippos, and a flamboyance of flamingos. I did learn a new one on this safari. A group of crocodiles in the water is called a float but if they are on land they are called a bask.

After our trek through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve, we wandered our way through the Gorilla Falls trail. I could spend hours watching the gorillas go about their daily lives, but there was a pretty pushy CM urging everyone to take their pictures and move along.

View attachment 539488View attachment 539489View attachment 539490

It was getting later in the day and we did not have time to make it to the trails in Asia so we decided to go over to Dinoland for a little break. We stopped into the Restauranosaurus Lounge and grabbed a some cocktails. We were hoping we could get the AP exclusive drinks that they recently added there but they are only available on weekdays. Either way, this is a great hidden gem of a spot. The drinks were all made to order and they were pretty strong too! My mom and I both had mojitos and I don't remember what A had. We would have stuck around for another drink but they were closing for the night.

Since we were in that neck of the woods, A and I took a trip back in time on Dinosaur.

View attachment 539491

I am happy to report that we made it back safely with one more passenger extra large.

We started to make our way back towards the front of the park, but Everest only had a 5 minute wait so there was no way that we could pass that up. Here we encountered another annoying line issue. There was a teenager who hopped over the rope in front of us. I thought he said he was looking for his phone and A said he thought he said he was looking for his family. Either way, he was shortly joined by two girls. The line moved continuously and this rude group found neither a phone or their family as they happily hopped on the ride. If there had been any kind of an actual wait I would have said something but decided to just let it go. But seriously, who needs to cut the line with a 5 minute wait?!?

It was time for us to hop back over to Epcot. My mom and I wanted for a few minutes while A looked in the shops on Discovery Island for the mask that he was after. Again, he had no luck. We made it out of AK a little before closing and caught a bus back over to Epcot to end the night.

Would the skies open up? Would there be a sea of people? Stay tuned...

Must be a "thing" on Everest. When we were there last week, the line started back at Nemo. It took about 15 minutes to get back to the ride entrance. Right at the entrance, three drunk skanks with their drinks cut into an opening in front of us. My daughter immediately said "Dad, don't say anything." I wasn't listening and getting ready to approach them when a CM pulled them out of line and told them no drinks past that point. As I passed them, I told them 'good for you.' Of course my kids were embarrassed.

 

[KellBelle]

Seriously, did you even go to Epcot if you didn't get a Grand Marnier slushie???

Seriously, this!!! I love those so much! Welcome! Loving your report!

 

[38053WDW]

DAY 3 CONTINUED -- MARCH 6TH

We arrived at Epcot shortly after the park opened and the crowd level was pretty low so far. Maybe this would be a good sign or the forecast was keeping the locals away for now. None of us were in the mood to eat anything so we decided to stay in Future World and do some rides while we digested. First up, we took another trip around the world on Soarin'. We got coveted spot right in the middle of the theater so all of the monuments appeared as they should.

After our flight we were going to check out the butterfly house. We did it last March and it was a neat experience. The line to get inside the butterfly house stretched back towards Figment so we thought it might be better to wait until later to try it out. Figment, on the other hand, was a walk on so we to a Journey Into Imagination. When we exited the ride, we noticed that the next showing of the Disney/Pixar short was just starting so that was where we headed next. I know that at least two of the three shorts are now available on Disney+ to watch at home but it is a much better experience to watch them on the big screen in 3D. I really love all three of these shorts and it is a great way to just sit and relax for a bit, a Disney rarity. After the shorts were over, A realized that he lost his sunglasses somewhere. He determined that he took them off on Figment so we circled back there. He asked at the gift shop if they had been turned in. They had not but the CM suggested going back in to the unload area for the ride and see if they had them there. Thankfully, he returned with his sunglasses in tact and we could move on with our day.

Somehow, A had some room left for food and he stopped to grab the Strawberry Mousse with Chocolate Crisp Pearls from the Flavor Full Kitchen booth that is located on the path between Figment and WS. There were no rave reviews so I assume that it was just ok. We ventured further into WS and we found a centrally located table and split up for some goodies. My mom, who only had avocado toast at brunch, went to Refreshment Port to get the Popsicle Trio: Honeydew, Raspberry-Mint, and Coconut-Lime. She had this at last year's F&G and raved about it and she seemed to enjoy it just as much this year. I had no interest in this because I don't like melon and I can't stand coconut. Instead, I opted to enjoy my treats in liquid form and got the beer flight from the Northern Bloom booth. BTW, I am so glad that beer flights are back after not being around for F&W in October.

View attachment 539373

81Bay Brewing Apricot with Maple Syrup, Collective Arts Brewing Blackberry Fruit Beer, and Goose Island Beer Company Lost Palate Hazy IPA with Mango and Cinnamon

The apricot beer with maple syrup was my least favorite of the trio. It did not taste like apricot or maple... The blackberry beer was in the middle. It was nice and fruity without being too tart. It would be a great hot weather beer. I thought the Goose Island was the best of the bunch. I didn't get much mango flavor but the cinnamon came through and made for an interesting sip.

It was getting close to time to park hop so we only had time for one more thing. Arguably, where we were headed next is one of the most important stops in all of WS.

View attachment 539377

Seriously, did you even go to Epcot if you didn't get a Grand Marnier slushie??? Surprisingly, there was no one in line. Everyone was in line for the Fleur de Lys booth.

While enjoying my slushie, I took the opportunity to snap a picture of eyesore that is occupying the WS Lagoon.

View attachment 539379

I am holding out hope that the barges will look much better when they are turned into fountains during the day. Right now, they are just plain ugly and obstruct the views around WS.

Since we were still in the area and park hopping was active we headed out the IG to the Yacht and Beach Club to catch a bus to AK. We waited for a few minutes and had an almost empty bus to AK. Not quite Shirley Status, but not too shabby...

Yep - "Eyesore" - Walt would have said " ah no" ....

 

[BwlrBry212]

DAY 3 CONTINUED -- MARCH 6TH

Sorry for the delay in updating. My work schedule has been all over the place the past few days.

When I left off, we were heading back to Epcot to take advantage of the late night hours and see how crazy the first Saturday night of a new festival would be.

While we were on the bus from AK to Epcot, I overheard some people talking about the weather and having to wait out storms earlier in the day. I don't know if they hit AK before we got there or if they were somewhere else but we never dealt with anything more than a little drizzle the entire day.

When we arrived at Epcot there was a pretty steady stream of people heading out of the park which was an encouraging sign.

None of us had eaten anything since our huge brunch so food was our top priority. We headed to the left side of Future World, which is much more wall-y than the other side, towards Test Track. We could hear a CM outside of TT saying that the ride was down again, which makes me think they were having issues all day.

The first booth we hit up was the Sunshine Griddle booth, a new one this year, that was located outside of Test Track near Cool Wash. There were several things at this booth that I was looking forward to trying. I was staving so I decided to get the Blackened Shrimp and Cheddar Cheese Grits with Brown Gravy and Sweet Corn Salsa because that sounded like the most substantial offering.

Please enjoy a blurry picture of my food...

As you can clearly see (HA!), there were four decently sized shrimp on top of an ice cream scoop of grits. The shrimp themselves were cooked well and very nicely seasoned with just a little bit of spice. The grits were not great. They were on the cold side and they were not cheesy or creamy. I need my grits to be super cheesy and creamy. They were a little better when mixed with the sauce and the corn salsa. The fresh corn gave nice little pops of sweetness to the dish. If the grits were on point this would have been a home run but it was still a solid dish.

My mom and A both went with the sweet choice from the booth and ordered the Fried Cinnamon Roll Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Bacon. They both enjoyed them very much. I had a bite of my mom's and it was tasty. I knew a full order of these for myself would be in my future.

We took the bridge past Odyssey/Epcot Experience and started another lap around WS. There were some things that I wanted to try at the Mexico booth but I am a little picky when it comes to Mexican food particularly when it comes to onions. At this point in the night it was too dark to inspect my food and as we all know the lighting around WS can sometimes leave something to be desired in most areas so I decided to skip this booth for now.

On a side note regarding lighting, I was really bothered by the fact that almost none of the topiaries were lit up at night. I couldn't understand why they put so much effort into making these beautiful displays and they couldn't be bothered to stick some stake lights in the ground so they can be enjoyed at night. I work at Home Depot. I know that Disney can afford some spot lights. Rant over.

The line to get inside the Mexico Pavilion was not bad so we hopped in line to go take a boat cruise through our neighbor to the south to search for Donald Duck (and Ted Cruz...sorry, couldn't resist). Unfortunately, our concert with the Three Caballeros was in 2D. All three animatronics were replaced with cardboard cut outs. Cardboard cut outs were so 2020.

We disembarked from our boat and went off in search of more food. We continued on through Arendale Norway. I wanted to stop at the beer cart there for a nice glass of Aass but they were out of it and would be out for the rest of our trip.

I am not a fan of Chinese food at all but I was looking forward to the Lotus House booth in China more than almost any booth this year. The only things that I really like from Chinese restaurants are fortune cookies and crab rangoon. Luckily for me, this booth had one of the two things I like. My mom and I split and order of the House-made Crab and Cheese Wontons when we were there last March and honestly I had been thinking about them ever since. I was so excited that they were on the menu again. All three of us grabbed an order of these and they were everything that I remembered.

They were warm and gooey on the inside and nice and crispy on the outside. They are topped with what tasted like duck sauce. The sweetness from the sauce helped cut through the richness of the filling. And now I am making myself hungry just looking at the picture.

We contemplated riding Frozen but the line stretched back into China and we had more booths to graze at so we pressed on. A was interested in grabbing a beer at the booth in Germany but this was one of the only booths that had a long line so we kept moving. The booth in Germany is in need of a menu makeover. They have had the same food at this booth for as long as I have been going to the F&G Festival and there are so many German foods that they could include, but what do I know?

Another booth that has traditionally been a let down is the Italy booth. The food there is never exciting. Last year, they did have Zeppoli which were good but this year it was back to boring. I am also not a wine drinker and the beverages here, as you would think, lean heavily in that direction. They always have the Italian Margarita which is one of my favorites but you can get one at the gelato stand right across the way all year long.

I'm going to pause here for now. I hope to finish up this day later on today before celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

 

[BwlrBry212]

DAY 3 CONTINUED -- MARCH 6TH

We continued to make our way around WS and we could hear something that we haven't been able to hear for the past year...LIVE MUSIC!

We went over to the America pavilion to grab some more food and enjoy the concert. Disney was giving local bands the opportunity to play on select nights (Fri-Mon) during the festival. The band this weekend was called Epic and they were a cover band that played everything from Gloria Estefan to Journey and other party songs. The energy in that area was so high and you could tell that everyone was loving the chance to hear live music for the first time in a very long time. Even the CMs at the Magnolia Terrace booth were dancing and singing along while taking orders. A got and order of the Crawfish Étouffée with Andouille Sausage and Dirty Rice. He enjoyed it and was a little surprised at the level of spice since Dinsey food doesn't tend to be overly spicy. I went with the House-made Boudin Two Ways with Spicy Mustard and the beer flight.

I tried this dish last March and liked it but this year it was much better. It was a little on the dry side last year and they improved upon that. Boudin is a creole pork and rice dish. The round ball had pork and rice formed into a ball and fried like an American arancini and it was topped with a creole cream sauce. The other two pieces were pork and rice formed into a spicy sausage which sat on top of spicy mustard. The spice of the dish paired well with my beer flight.

(L-R) 81Bay Brewing Co. Orange Coriander Wheat Ale, Wicked Weed Brewing Day Light American Light Ale, and Parish Brewing Co. Ghost in the Machine Double IPA

The wheat ale was nice and refreshing. My only complaint is that is was a little too floral for my liking. The light ale was the by far the worst of the bunch. It was a small step above Miller Lite and very bland. No offense to the Miller Lite fans out there. I have consumed more than my fair share of Miller Lite (or worse) but I have developed into a beer snob and prefer craft beer if given the chance. The DIPA more than made up for the clunker in the middle. I had this beer last year and it was and still is my favorite beer that I have ever had in all of WDW. It was hoppy but not over powering and had hints of citrus. In my opinion, there is nothing better than sitting outside on a beautiful night (still no rain), drinking a beer, and listening to live music. We hung out here for the rest of the band's set before moving on.

We headed though Japan and Morocco but nothing at either booth really spoke to us. I was in the mood for something sweet so that meant a stop at the France booth. I forgot to mention that the other night we all got the Beignet Caramélisé, Fourré Crème Vanille, Glacé au Caramel Fleur de Sel: Caramelized Beignet filled with Vanilla Cream and Glazed with Caramel Fleur de Sel. When the menus for the festival came out this was one of the dishes I was most looking forward to trying. Unfortunately, it was a little bit disappointing. It was basically a cream filled donut that had sugar burnt on top like crème brulee. This made the outside of the donut warm but the inside and cream filling on mine was ice cold. I think it would have been a lot better if the middle had been at least room temperature. It was also a lot bigger than I was expecting and it was very sweet to eat a whole one.

This time I went with the other sweet option: Macaron au Chocolate en Sucette: Large Chocolate Macaron Lollipop

This was a tasty treat. The chocolate flavor was great and it was not overly sweet. The little crunchy bits on the outside gave it a nice texture even though they kept falling off while eating it. I'm not sure why it needed to be on a stick other than being gimmicky. I paired it with a Kronenbourg 1664.

It was getting late at this point and we were all running on empty. We finished up our lap around WS and were going to leave but we saw that the wait for Frozen was shorter than it had been all trip so we joined the queue just over the border between Norway and China. We only waited for about 20 minutes before boarding our boat to see our Arendale friends.

We are hidden in the back row and if you can't tell I was terrified of the massive drop...lol. I was disappointed that the Oaken feature in the queue was turned off. I love me some Oaken and love busting out my Oaken impression during that part of the line. I later read that it was turned off to prevent people from lingering there and holding things up.

It was getting close to park closing and we made our way back to the car and to the hotel. We were all pleasantly surprised that the weather held out all day for us and that the Saturday crowds were relatively low and tame.

The next day would be our first trip the Magic Kingdom...

 

[heatherhy01]

All caught up! Enjoying your TR so far

 

[Swissmiss]

Enjoying your TR.

 

[Songbird76]

only critique.... dont name someone in your group A.... since A is used as A word so often that it can get A bit confusing..... Any other letter would work though

Except "a" as in the word isn't capitalized like it is for a name....so not really that confusing. At least for me.