Trip Report **COMPLETED** The Tale of Two Trips (finally moving on from the PTR)

Hello everyone!!! I'm sorry for the long delay, but I am finally starting my TR I apologize in advance for the insane amount of pictures I got a new camera and took over 3000 pictures and videos! If you did not read my PTR I went on two trips in the span of a few weeks...hence the title I will split them in two but keep it all in the same thread. Also, I have a lot of last minute residency requirements to navigate through the next few weeks or so so I'm sorry if this takes me forever! Anyway, enough of me rambling - let's begin!

First trip!
Who?
From left to right: Me (Megan), my Mom (Mary), and my sister (Jill)

When?
March 11, 2017 - March 18, 2017

Where?
First time staying an entire trip here...the Polynesian!

Why?
I had to take an exam in Kissimmee on the 14th and I got the whole week off from work to go My Mom and sister came along for the ride.

 

[DryerLintFan]

After this we stopped for a photopass picture.
The CM was like "Jill? Megan?? Is that you?"
My Mom says "Chris good to see you!!!"
Chris (CM) - "I haven't seen you guys since you were little !!!"
Me- thinking to myself what? That guy is for sure younger than my sister Jill or similar in age...who is this person?
Jill - laughing
Me - muttering "I don't get it"
Everyone else - laughs at me...joke based on the fact that our names are on the back of our hat
I'm dumb haha

This made me laugh so hard. I do this kind of stuff All. The. Time.

 

[RyPat]

I once got into an argument about this with a friend when I said people in the south call it coke and they didn't believe me Now I have proof!

There are parts of the country where they call it POP, which just seems wacky to this ol' Texan. Only in the south do you order a coke, and the clerk will say "what kind of coke do you want?"

 

[LeighM]

YOU CAN BUY BOTTLES?! how did I not know this

They had the bottles for sale in the Festival Center Google the winery - Florida Orange Grove Winery. You can order online and they'll ship

 

[TrolleyFollower91]

Oh but it's not a guarantee that a solo traveler gets to sit alone....have you forgotten the story of how a stranger barged in the car and sat next to Em?

Literally the worst.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

While I did not follow along on the podcast, my entire Twitter feed was full of condolences when Alan Mize passed away. So sad about his baby girl. Just goes to show, go to Disney! As much as you can, whenever you can! Life is far too short Super sweet that you had a drink in his honor!

Love the egg hunt pictures! I now need to go for Easter time!!

The frushi looks delish! I must try it! Where do you get that at exactly??

 

[Doc Disney]

I don't think that bug was a pollinator....

For sure not! Wrong sign buddy

This made me laugh so hard. I do this kind of stuff All. The. Time.

Glad its not just me

 

[Doc Disney]

 

[Doc Disney]

They had the bottles for sale in the Festival Center Google the winery - Florida Orange Grove Winery. You can order online and they'll ship

This is the best news ever! Thank you so much!!

Literally the worst.

I can understand on like roller coasters and stuff but Spaceship Earth?! Come on man

 

[Doc Disney]

While I did not follow along on the podcast, my entire Twitter feed was full of condolences when Alan Mize passed away. So sad about his baby girl. Just goes to show, go to Disney! As much as you can, whenever you can! Life is far too short Super sweet that you had a drink in his honor!

Love the egg hunt pictures! I now need to go for Easter time!!

The frushi looks delish! I must try it! Where do you get that at exactly??

He was so young, its so sad!
The egg hunt truthfully was hard...especially in the heat . It was cool to see the eggs but thank God for the hints!
Frushi is actually a Flower and Garden Festival booth food from Japan

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
Is this plant's name Stanley? The guy who likes to hide when you "scare him"

One of the best parts of this tour is the cucumbers you get to eat!

This was a cool way to grow stuff. Hunter told us how we could do it at home but honestly can't not remember

This was Hunter's actual project - micro growing

Look at those roots!

In case you forgot what tomatoes look like

Next up: surprisingly more Behind the Seeds pictures

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
My Mom was super into zooming in on things and people

Here comes the fish part of the tour

Jill and the two others took the opportunity to feed the fish, my Mom and I gladly stayed back

After the fish we moved into the most beautiful part of the green house - here we played the spice game where you have to guess spices. I was terrible at this but Jill (and the one guy with us) was pretty good. At one point Hunter pointed out the chocolate plant (aka coca plant) and for some reason my Mom like lost it with excitement. Its like she finally woke up

Our tour ended up lasting about an hour and 20 minutes and took us right up to our dinner time which was great! Hunter was a wonderful tour guide I'm pretty sure the extra 20 minutes came from Hunter telling us all the reasons to love Iowa (where he was from).
I highly recommend this tour, especially for the price it was great!

Next up: dinner!

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
We headed upstairs to check in for the Garden Grill. I thought it would be cool to eat there after seeing where the stuff was grown on the tour This was Jill's first time here!
We were seated pretty quickly after checking in

I love these Welcome Back cards

Pluto came around like 2 second after we were seated

We started off with bread and potato salad...not sure why these two came out at the same time honestly

I don't remember having that potato salad before, but it was tasty!
Then salad. I love this salad! One of my favorites

Next up came the skillet with potatoes, sausage, corn, turkey and pot roast (turkey and pot roast hidden in the back).
I was happy there wasn't any fish...and as surprised as I was to see the pot roast it was really good! You could cut it with your fork it was so tender.

Last up (for entrees) was the mac and cheese and fries. As @Tuvalu pointed out no more sweet potato fries. I was disappointed too @blgauger but overall the meal was so great I just let it slide.

Next character up was Chip

Next up: Garden Grill continued

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2
Chip was really into Jill. I told him she was taken and she showed him her ring. After that he tried to walk away with her

Dale came around quickly after that
Oh wait, but first....a light

Hello Dale

Our dessert came out before Mickey came around

I don't think I ate any of this (not a sweets person) but Jill and my Mom liked it
Mickey finally showed up, and he was worth the wait

I just think he is so cute in those overalls!
Thanfully, unlike @Tuvalu, our service was quick and while we didn't see our waiter super often we never wanted for anything. He would grab something very quickly for us if we wanted it. I would still recommend the Garden Grill. We thought the food was great and so were all of our character interactions
After dinner we had a FP for The Seas so headed there. I'm actually not sure why I even made the FP but whatever haha

After The Seas we headed out back to the Polynesian. We made it in time for me to catch the Electrical Water Pageant and Wishes

Next up: just a bunch of Wishes

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 2 continued
I watched Wishes by myself this night and it was very peaceful (well except for a brief moment when a Mom had to call her husband to help her carry ice cream because it was melting everywhere)

Love the boat in this one

After Wishes it was off to bed

Next up: Day 3

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3
We got up around 7 am this morning and got ready before grabbing another bagel and croissant breakfast. We had plans to go back to Epcot so we headed towards the TTC/monorail
When we got off at Epcot we encountered HUGE crowds. Like the biggest I have ever seen at Epcot. It was partly school crowds so they were shuffling people around and we somehow ended up in the parking lot security. It looked like this

Oh well, we weren't in a huge rush anyway!
We were pretty pleased when we got through security that the passholder entrance was a thing because that saved us easily another 15 minutes. Our first FP was for Test Track so we headed there. The stand-by line was already up to 70 minutes like 20 minutes after the park opened and it didn't seem like it was exaggerated.

Our lovely car

No dancing

I got the wrong ride picture attached to my account so I will spare you that I could probably locate it but I'm not that concerned about it.
We needed to get a passport sticker for the Cars garden so we headed over there

New character from Cars 3

The colors are so beautiful

Next up: more butterflies

 

[Doc Disney]

Day 3 continued
Our next FP was for The Land so we headed in that direction. It just occurred to me looking at this picture that we are all wearing essentially the same shorts

The quickest way to get to The Land was via the butterfly garden

From this picture you can see that even Living with the Land had a long wait

This picture pretty much sums up my Moms feelings on The Land

Jill and her fish friends

Can't get enough of this scenery

Next up: Egg Hunt adventures

 

[bee]

Yes, that's Stanley!

 

[blreinsel]

Glad you still enjoyed Garden Grill.. I think about it everyday. But I think I've convinced myself to keep it because the sweet potato fries weren't the only thing that I enjoyed about the meal.

 

[LadyBelle]

Odd question: What's with the goldfish on the mac and cheese?

 

[Tuvalu]

Odd question: What's with the goldfish on the mac and cheese?

To make macaroni and cheese more kid friendly