Pre-Trip Confirmations made, so here we go again.....

I just got back from my 'short trip w/ limited Disney' report a few weeks ago. I visited my daughter while my wife stayed back in PA. The wife is conserving some vacation time for one more FL trip. A review of the airfare found that we could pay less than $120 per ticket if I use some reward points. We figured that this will be the last FL trip until August or September since our daughter would be moving back home for the summer (off because she works for a school district). So we're going to fly out on a Friday morning in mid-May, and return home on Tuesday A.M. My daughter already booked our park reservations although she's having trouble landing a Saturday. As it gets closer we'll keep looking given the new Disney policy of releasing tickets 48 hrs prior if the reservation doesn't have a purchased ticket for that day. I'll keep everyone posted and log a bunch of pics.

 

[ShookieJones]

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Only WDW fans who fly to FL know what a beautiful sight this is right here.
Following along.

 

[macefamily]

Only WDW fans who fly to FL know what a beautiful sight this is right here.
Following along.

Indeed. But I miss the StormTroopers....

 

[macefamily]

Only WDW fans who fly to FL know what a beautiful sight this is right here.
Following along

Yes, and I had my kids convinced that the MCO monorail was the first Disney ride of the trip until they were 8 or 9.

After an awesome ride on Flight of Passage, we decided that the next AK adventure would be the Safari. It was time
for a mid-afternoon snack so it would be peach lemonade and an iced coffee with a cute little brownie treat the three of
us shared.

 

[macefamily]

Onward to the Safari. It was a nice day for a trek through the plains. There were quite a few animals out. I've never seen these hyenas moving about, but the whole pack was out walking around. The baby gorilla was having a blast. They just threw them a few heads of lettuce and bamboo.

 

[macefamily]

After Safari and taking a leisurely walk through Gorilla Falls, we walked right past Expedition Everest which was only a 20 minute wait. We were tired after waking up that morning at 1:30AM, driving 2 hours to the airport, and flying for two more hours. If the airlines would finally start serving alcohol, I'd be in much better shape after a few bloody Mary's But not so. We walked through Dinoland and did some strolling around the shops to check out the new merch. It was late in the afternoon so we decided to hop over to Epcot for a walk around to our favorite outdoor kitchens at Flower and Garden.

 

[macefamily]

First stop......

 

[macefamily]

Coming down from PA in late spring is a big change from our environment. From our part of NE PA we barely had any buds on the trees, compared to Philly which had some trees starting to bloom. Then you come down to FL and see all of nature's beauty just popping. It's a great preview of what we expect in just a few weeks. Well, not as beautiful as these displays, but I'll take seeing our honeysuckle and rose bushes blossom along with a few humming birds
Does Florida have a humming bird population in the spring/summer or do they migrate north ? I never saw one in FL.

 

[macefamily]

First stop at Trowell and Trellace was for the wife and daughter to get the corn on the cob w/ garlic. They are both connoisseurs of the sweet corn. They rated it about an 8 out of 10. Back in PA, we live about three miles from a vegetable farm that puts out awesome sweet corn from July through September. We have it at least three times a week.
We continued around the lake with our next stop at the Magnolia Terrace. The wife got the pecan cake and my daughter and I each got a serving of the roasted oysters. Next up was Hanami. We got a shrimp and crab and the soy glazed pork shank. Both were really good. My daughter was looking forward to the next stop at Fleur de Lys. She fell in love with the beignet with caramel sauce, and has had it all three times we visited. The wife spotted a rare open table and scurried to grab it (as you can see in the pic). We relaxed for a little while and headed over to the World Showcase.

 

[macefamily]

It was a beautiful evening. Our last food stop would be inside at the Festival Favorites. We shared the beef brisket slider and the fried green tomatoes with crab. My daughter had to get her other favorite at the show; the pink lemonade hard cider. There was nothing in there that appealed to me. I already tried the maple bacon stout and the watermelon mint wheat ale which were interesting to try, but not up my alley. After hanging around for awhile preparing for that hike out of Epcot, we were ready to call it a long first day; almost 19,000 steps. And we've been up 18 hours. To make things even more difficult, when we got to our hotel in Kissimmee there was a line out the front door for check in. My wife volunteered to stand in line which took 55 minutes. I was surprised that we were on the 12th floor. I thought most 'hotels' in Kissimmee were just the standard two floor walk-ups. At least it was clean. It wasn't a Disney resort, but we have to accept it because we could only stay in pet friendly places because my daughter has her dog with her. By the time we walked in our room it was after 11:00 PM; been up for 22 hours. But Saturday was going to be a pool day because we couldn't land any reservations at the parks. But we did land a noon brunch reservation at Art Smith's which I was excited about. It's the best.

 

[cgersic]

Does Florida have a humming bird population in the spring/summer or do they migrate north ? I never saw one in FL.

I've lived in SouthWest Florida for 25 years and I've heard 2. Never saw either of them, but I come from Colorado where we have tons, so I know what they sound like. I've also only seen 1 lightning bug.

 

[macefamily]

OK, we woke up Saturday and put on the local news. OUR MINDS WERE BLOWN The mask mandate has been lifted. No masks required in the outdoors. What ? We arrived at Disney Springs and felt like we were doing something wrong. It felt weird walking around people where you can see their entire face. Feeling the breeze across my nose and mouth was different. It felt like we were doing something naughty. My wife actually couldn't do it. She's vaccinated, but continued to wear her mask; her Biden move. I actually found myself walking around at times for a few minutes wearing my mask outside after leaving a shop or two. Masks still required when you enter any place of business.
This was crazy to us that this happened while we were down there. It definitely took some getting used to.

 

[macefamily]

Look Ma, no masks ! Yes, it felt very different after one year of donning that facial appendage. We were about one hour early for our brunch reservation so we decided to express our new facial freedom and do some shopping. I promised the wife on Mother's Day that she could select her MD gift while we were in Disney. The line at Starbucks was long, but there was a bar cart that just opened up across from it. We decided to go cocktail instead of caffeine. My daughter ordered the Patron Margarita and I had the Florida Mule. Very good drinks It was a great morning to walk in the warm FL sun, sip a drink, and check out the shops.

 

[macefamily]

I told you that my wife had a "Mother's Day credit" in her pocket as we went from shop to shop. She's a health care professional who does alot of work on the road so she has 'stuff' she needs to lug around with her so a bag is crucial for her. Her current rag-tag backpack was falling apart so she found this at the Vera Bradley store. Her favorite color is purple so this stood out to her. I tried to convince her that a nice Carhart backpack would be just as functional, but it wasn't working. We got the passholder discount, and it came with free embroidering so she had her initials stitched in bright yellow. Good thing she got this at Disney Springs because there were no purple backpacks at any of the other Disney shops we stopped by during the next few days. #Father'sDayPoints

 

[macefamily]

I consider it a blessing every time we can get a brunch reservation at Art Smith's. It's just so good. I was a bit disappointed when we were called to our table 20 minutes late, but I noticed a wedding party brunch that was going on. Pretty cool actually. Everyone was donned in old southern attire. Pretty daring because some people nowadays would start pointing, screaming, and cancelling. Not in FL I guess.
Anyway, this was our fourth brunch at Homecomin' so we knew the lay of the land. I learned that if I order a Southern Mary and I pick at appetizers, I'm pretty much full before the breakfast main course comes. So the choice was to skip the Southern Mary and get the main, or get the Southern Mary. You can see my choice. Just can't leave my beautiful Mary with the fried green tomato, thick bacon, and plump olive. You need to get a bit of that Cajun salt on the rim with every sip. Perfect. I did get three Church Lady deviled eggs and I had my share of the fried green tomatoes as well. My wife and daughter got entrees, and of course, they couldn't finish them. I bought my two bottles of Art Smith's Deep South Hot Sauce to hold me over through the summer. I still have two more bottles at home. They make their own hot sauce. It's a sweet upfront taste with the warm notes hitting on the backend; very flavorful. They do not sell it online; only at the restaurant. However, one time the manager of the restaurant, Mr. Jimmy gave me his card and told me that he will ship me whatever I want. Pure southern hospitality. Y'all come back now.

 

[cgersic]

That Mary just made my mouth water!!

 

[macefamily]

After our brunch at Art Smith's we went back to pick up my wife's Mother's Day present. We were heading back to the hotel to enjoy a pleasant Florida afternoon by the pool. We had a cooler of hard ciders and vodka mixers (vodka & Fresca). When we stopped by the pool before we went up to our room, we noticed there was not a chair available. Also, the amount of people bobbing in the water and laying around each other creeped me out. I mean, it was day one without masks, but that pool just reminded me of a bacteria soup. I told the wife and daughter that I was going to pass. I knew that there was a SpaceEx launch in less than an hour so I was going to hang out to see if I can catch it. Sure enough, right on time I was able to see the take off. I had a much better picture of the contrail but somehow the file won't transfer. Anyway, if you look to the right of the cloud you can see the miniscule orange dot. Believe me, it looked much more interesting in person.
The other picture below is of the Magic Castle motel. It's of interest to me because it was a main location for the 2017 movie The Florida Project. I highly recommend it. Since we've been in Kissimmee countless times, it interests me very much because of all the local places that are in the movie that I'm familiar with. William Dafoe should have received the Oscar for best actor for it in my opinion.

 

[macefamily]

Sunday, day three and we're back at the parks. My daughter managed to get us into group 60 for ROTR. We had a late afternoon reservation at the Brown Derby which would be our first time there. We were just going to wing it and enjoy the day.

 

[cgersic]

The other picture below is of the Magic Castle motel. It's of interest to me because it was a main location for the 2017 movie The Florida Project. I highly recommend it. Since we've been in Kissimmee countless times, it interests me very much because of all the local places that are in the movie that I'm familiar with. William Dafoe should have received the Oscar for best actor for it in my opinion.





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SUCH a great movie!!! Thanks for sharing this!

 

[macefamily]

Another beautiful day. We decided to walk straight down Hollywood and do Runaway Railway enjoying the sites along the way. 50 minute wait. We didn't have time to grab breakfast so we figured we could do this first ride and then head to my favorite walk-in place in all of Disney.

 

[macefamily]

This is what happens when you don't have a light breakfast. I ordered my usual flight to sample the different beers. I was at the counter ordering and I pretty much got one of everything that Baseline offered...charcuterie tray, soft pretzel, and the ribeye puff pastry. My daughter had a very tasty Ace Space hard cider. We were lucky enough to get a nice table in the shade and watch the crowds and relax. These are the times that I'm thankful for or maybe those IPA's were just a bit too strong