Trip Report Didn't we JUST do this?

Yup. We did. Yup, 2nd trip in a couple months. In June, we did a rather unique trip for our clan. Playing the vague role of chaperones, but really just a safety valve, and doing what amounted to an adults only trip was pretty cool. Then we got home, and we got to talking, and dates showed up on RCI, and my parents had some extra RCI points b/c of no traveling for 18 months, and we wanted one more family vacation before our daughter heads off to college.

Need I say more? So, we are back at Old Key West from August 20-27. Hot on the heels of two weeks of me teaching marching band camp, our daughter saying goodbye to many of her friends going off to other colleges (her college starts very late - we drop her off on Labor Day weekend for a week of freshman orientation - classes start a full week later), and lots of online teacher training for whatever the new school year holds.

We decided to put the impetus of planning on our daughter, so she has picked our days in which parks as well as most of our table service meals (we jumped in with a couple ideas). If you've never followed along on our trip reports, I'm a rather... well, let's just say excessive planner. So, being a bit hands off this time is tough for me! But knowing that our original plans for the past two summers included an extended trip around Europe and college tours of the northeast and California, both of which had to be canceled - well, she deserves to have a little control over something!

Obviously, no control over the masking situation... but we did totally fine last July!

Normally, I'd wait until the week before our trip to start the Pre-Trip portion of the proceedings, but I'll be teaching marching band from 8am-5pm for the next couple weeks and the mental state upon return home those nights is fragile at best! The few days before we leave are not quite as intense, but I don't foresee a ton of PTR time during those days. So, here we are. I'll check in tomorrow or Friday with the basics of the plan!

 

[brifraz]

So, here we are! It's about 3:30pm now and the girls are both sound asleep. I'm hoping to get there soon, but I don't tend to work that way... a blessing and a curse. Let's get back to Magic Kingdom to share our few hours there.

As mentioned above, as soon as we were in the park, we headed to City Hall and scored some tickets for tonight's Boo Bash. Having never gotten to enjoy the limited crowds of the After Hours party, I'm really looking forward to it (assuming I'm still awake). BUT, on the way to City Hall, we had to pause for a quick moment as there were some characters out on the train station balcony. And not the usual ones for sure!

Yup, that's Alice (waving from inside the wreath), Moana, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and Gaston. Seems like an odd crew and perhaps a sign of limited staffing. I can hear the discussion behind closed doors right now. "It's a glorious meet and greet with all the princesses and their princes" "You got Alice, Moana, Mary, Peter, and Gaston and the train station balcony." *gasps incredulously* (I'm hoping you read that in the correct voices).

Boo Bash tickets in hand, we needed food pretty desperately. So we put in a mobile order for Columbia Harbour House and headed that way. But not without the obligatory first castle picture!

And as usually between Meffy's Mom vision and my height, we got a unique view of the 50th sign as well.

We knew that Columbia Harbour House would hit the spot pretty well, so we split the fried platter (shrimp, fish, chicken, hush puppies, and fries) and the salad (not a whole lot of apple in there, but still very good) and a frozen lemonade - I mean the mobile order told us we should add it to our meal and who are we to argue? We were a bit hungry to waste any time on food pictures, so... sorry!

Our room still wasn't ready and lines were pretty short so we decided to hit It's A Small World First. I'll bet you can guess what time we arrived:

Walked in at 1:15pm and the wait was showing as 15 minutes. As we have found with most lines over the past year, we were on a boat in a mere 5 minutes. And I don't think any of us nodded off during the ride this time. Another daytime priority was checking in on Tron, so we headed to People Mover for a ride there as well. Almost the exact same wait time experience followed by some great views of the construction that is ongoing.

As we left Tomorrowland and headed toward park exit, we got the notification that our room was ready which made it much easier to head out. Of course, we couldn't head out too quickly because our crew from the train station was now out and about.

No picture, but Mary Poppins was on the back of the little float. It was getting close to 3pm at this point and we just wanted to be in the room and resting which is precisely what is happening now! So, I will bid you adieu until later tonight when I hope to be sharing some pictures of empty queues and happy (and masked and rested) faces!

 

[RememberWhen]

Hope you’re boo bashing is awesome! We have tickets in October, but that trip is looking more and more iffy.

 

[brifraz]

Live from the Boo Bash!

Arrived in park about 8:20. Rode Big Thunder twice to catch the fireworks while riding. Then Pirates and Jungle Cruise. It’s just 9:50 and we are sitting and snacking for a couple minutes. Pictures and more info later!

 

[brifraz]

Pictures and more info... tomorrow. I’m exhausted!

 

[brifraz]

Good morning! Before I get to the details from last night at the Boo Bash, I need to share the incredibly unique experience that I just had this morning. This is really some amazing stuff. Almost scary... I slept in until 7am. That's right, for those of you who have followed along before - no 5:30am post, no 6am walk, I actually slept until my alarm went off! Who knows what will happen next - Rise of the Resistance Boarding Groups never totally filling (check out that thread, it really happened last night).

Enough of this silliness, I've got a whole 'nuther brand of silliness and that is the Boo Bash. Not to delve into the arguments of worth and cost and all that, but I agree with everyone - it's definitely too expensive to be worth it and it's definitely worth the expense. Good luck breaking through that logic!

We got on the Magic Kingdom bus at about 7:55pm (little unreliable there, we were at the bus stop for over 30 minutes) which got us into Magic Kingdom at about 8:15pm. A few others have mentioned that that last hour of 'regular' park admission is pretty crowded because of the party-goers arriving and the day guests still there, but it still seemed somewhat empty to us. After checking in for the party, we headed right back to Big Thunder Mountain as one of the requests for this trip was watching some fireworks from that location. In line at about 8:25 and the wait was showing for 20 minutes so we knew we might be a little early. And... we were - the wait was only really about 15 minutes. Even after letting some people cut in front of us. We got off the ride and were walking back around as the first fireworks started to go off. So, we got back on - wait was now showing 10 minutes! And the wait was, well... maybe 3 minutes. I'm not sure if this is the surprise over the short wait or the total shock that I would do a roller coaster twice in a row.

But it was worth it for sure!

After the ride, we walked over to the Tom Sawyer boat docks and watched the last couple minutes of the show from there.

Right after the show ended we headed to Adventureland where we knew the lines were showing 10 minutes for Pirates and 25 minutes for Jungle Cruise. We walked straight onto a Pirates boat at about 5 minutes after 9pm and then waited about 10 minutes for our Jungle Cruise boat. Skipper Monica was in great form and had a couple lines that I don't think we have ever heard. This was our first time seeing the changes to the ride, but seeing as it was in the dark, I'm going to hold off on any judgement right now.

After our two boat rides it was about 9:45pm and we decided it was time for some of those free snacks, so we grabbed a water bottle each, a couple boxes of popcorn, and some sodas as well. Being the lunatic about hydration that I am, I always make everyone drink their water bottles first! We just sat and relaxed while we snacked - in the Bazaar area right across from Swiss Family Treehouse.

A little energized, we headed across the hub to Tomorrowland. But... there was a little traffic along the way. Sadly these folks were a bit rude and made us wait for their entire party to get past!

Honestly, we hadn't planned to catch any of the cavalcades or entertainment, so this was a little bonus! Once into Tomorrowland we took a little time to check the shops for a few items our daughter is hoping to grab, but no luck. At 10:25pm we walked straight onto Buzz and helped saved the toy universe from Zurg and then the girls rode Space Mountain while I took another spin on the PeopleMover. Those two early roller coasters were enough for me for me so far! How often is it that you can split up a party for those two attractions and both be done at the exact same time? Yup - walked right onto both rides which meant we were headed to Fantasyland at 10:45pm.

 

[macefamily]

So, here we are! It's about 3:30pm now and the girls are both sound asleep. I'm hoping to get there soon, but I don't tend to work that way... a blessing and a curse. Let's get back to Magic Kingdom to share our few hours there.

As mentioned above, as soon as we were in the park, we headed to City Hall and scored some tickets for tonight's Boo Bash. Having never gotten to enjoy the limited crowds of the After Hours party, I'm really looking forward to it (assuming I'm still awake). BUT, on the way to City Hall, we had to pause for a quick moment as there were some characters out on the train station balcony. And not the usual ones for sure!

View attachment 581103
Yup, that's Alice (waving from inside the wreath), Moana, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and Gaston. Seems like an odd crew and perhaps a sign of limited staffing. I can hear the discussion behind closed doors right now. "It's a glorious meet and greet with all the princesses and their princes" "You got Alice, Moana, Mary, Peter, and Gaston and the train station balcony." *gasps incredulously* (I'm hoping you read that in the correct voices).

Boo Bash tickets in hand, we needed food pretty desperately. So we put in a mobile order for Columbia Harbour House and headed that way. But not without the obligatory first castle picture!

View attachment 581106

And as usually between Meffy's Mom vision and my height, we got a unique view of the 50th sign as well.
View attachment 581105

We knew that Columbia Harbour House would hit the spot pretty well, so we split the fried platter (shrimp, fish, chicken, hush puppies, and fries) and the salad (not a whole lot of apple in there, but still very good) and a frozen lemonade - I mean the mobile order told us we should add it to our meal and who are we to argue? We were a bit hungry to waste any time on food pictures, so... sorry!

Our room still wasn't ready and lines were pretty short so we decided to hit It's A Small World First. I'll bet you can guess what time we arrived:
View attachment 581101

Walked in at 1:15pm and the wait was showing as 15 minutes. As we have found with most lines over the past year, we were on a boat in a mere 5 minutes. And I don't think any of us nodded off during the ride this time. Another daytime priority was checking in on Tron, so we headed to People Mover for a ride there as well. Almost the exact same wait time experience followed by some great views of the construction that is ongoing.
View attachment 581111

As we left Tomorrowland and headed toward park exit, we got the notification that our room was ready which made it much easier to head out. Of course, we couldn't head out too quickly because our crew from the train station was now out and about.
View attachment 581099

View attachment 581104

No picture, but Mary Poppins was on the back of the little float. It was getting close to 3pm at this point and we just wanted to be in the room and resting which is precisely what is happening now! So, I will bid you adieu until later tonight when I hope to be sharing some pictures of empty queues and happy (and masked and rested) faces!

Peter Pan and Gaston look a little puffy. Costume ? Or was it just a good pandemic ?

 

[brifraz]

To recap (like you didn't just read the last post), we had finished three lands of everything we wanted to do (no Splash with the girls in their dresses - little uncomfortable to be wet in) in just two hours. Attraction count is at 6 (well, technically 7 but we were split up for the last one). Now in Fantasyland, we started with the Teacups. Well at least the girls did. Teacups is a hard no from me, especially given how fast they get them spinning.

Then we headed to visit with Pooh. Again, everything is merely walk-on or maybe wait a couple minutes for a ride vehicle.

Then we headed over for a visit to the much maligned Under the Sea. Personally, I don't get it. Yes, the next to last scene is a bit lame and you can sometimes see the ceiling. But, the same complaints could be made about Pan and I never hear anyone make those! I guess it's just the promise of what could have been... Those two plus some strolling around got us to about 11:25pm when we finally did what this night is all about - The Haunted Mansion! Even though the wait was listed at 20 minutes, we only had to wait for the doors to open to the first room, there wasn't actually any real line. If you haven't heard about Lady Coletta entertaining guests outside the attraction, it is quite fun and looks awesome.

Having that major mission of the night complete we decided to do another of the unique features. And trick or treat! Actually, we first grabbed some ice creams and enjoyed those for a few minutes and then hit the trick or treat stations at Pinocchio's Village Haus, Cosmic Ray's, and the Laugh Floor. A couple old adversaries of Pinocchio were there to greet us at that location.

It was a little after midnight and we wanted to do Seven Dwarfs with the shorter wait so we headed back there. The wait time was showing at 40 minutes so we figured that would be about right and maybe we'd be able to sneak on one last thing afterwards. Actual wait time? How long does it take for the next train to come in? Yeah - we walked right on and got the first two rows.

And that meant we had more than enough time to go over and do Pan, which was showing 20 minutes. Didn't quite walk right on, I think we had to wait about 4 minutes after weaving quickly through the Darling's neighborhood. And, if you are following along on the math you might realize we STILL had time for another attraction, so back to the dwarves mountain!

Yup, that's right - Seven Dwarves twice and Pan once in half an hour. It was 12:34am at this point and everything was closing down so it was time to head out.

Here's the castle from behind in all its Halloween lighting splendor (plus the moon photobombing).

And from the front as well - plus the spooky wide angle from below.

And the view down Main Street from the castle.

Our total attraction count in about 4 hours of park time was 13 (14 if you want to count our splitting up). Plus we had a couple extended snack breaks and some shopping. Oh, and three very full bags of candy. It really was quite an enjoyable evening. Had we been in full commando mode, I suspect we could have hit 20 attractions - but we were also working on very little sleep, so we took it easy!

Off to breakfast at Olivia's and then a full day of Epcot fun!

 

[macefamily]

To recap (like you didn't just read the last post), we had finished three lands of everything we wanted to do (no Splash with the girls in their dresses - little uncomfortable to be wet in) in just two hours. Attraction count is at 6 (well, technically 7 but we were split up for the last one). Now in Fantasyland, we started with the Teacups. Well at least the girls did. Teacups is a hard no from me, especially given how fast they get them spinning.
View attachment 581360

Then we headed to visit with Pooh. Again, everything is merely walk-on or maybe wait a couple minutes for a ride vehicle.
View attachment 581361

Then we headed over for a visit to the much maligned Under the Sea. Personally, I don't get it. Yes, the next to last scene is a bit lame and you can sometimes see the ceiling. But, the same complaints could be made about Pan and I never hear anyone make those! I guess it's just the promise of what could have been... Those two plus some strolling around got us to about 11:25pm when we finally did what this night is all about - The Haunted Mansion! Even though the wait was listed at 20 minutes, we only had to wait for the doors to open to the first room, there wasn't actually any real line. If you haven't heard about Lady Coletta entertaining guests outside the attraction, it is quite fun and looks awesome.
View attachment 581362

Having that major mission of the night complete we decided to do another of the unique features. And trick or treat! Actually, we first grabbed some ice creams and enjoyed those for a few minutes and then hit the trick or treat stations at Pinocchio's Village Haus, Cosmic Ray's, and the Laugh Floor. A couple old adversaries of Pinocchio were there to greet us at that location.

View attachment 581363

It was a little after midnight and we wanted to do Seven Dwarfs with the shorter wait so we headed back there. The wait time was showing at 40 minutes so we figured that would be about right and maybe we'd be able to sneak on one last thing afterwards. Actual wait time? How long does it take for the next train to come in? Yeah - we walked right on and got the first two rows.

And that meant we had more than enough time to go over and do Pan, which was showing 20 minutes. Didn't quite walk right on, I think we had to wait about 4 minutes after weaving quickly through the Darling's neighborhood. And, if you are following along on the math you might realize we STILL had time for another attraction, so back to the dwarves mountain!
View attachment 581369

Yup, that's right - Seven Dwarves twice and Pan once in half an hour. It was 12:34am at this point and everything was closing down so it was time to head out.

Here's the castle from behind in all its Halloween lighting splendor (plus the moon photobombing).
View attachment 581364

And from the front as well - plus the spooky wide angle from below.
View attachment 581366

And the view down Main Street from the castle.
View attachment 581365

Our total attraction count in about 4 hours of park time was 13 (14 if you want to count our splitting up). Plus we had a couple extended snack breaks and some shopping. Oh, and three very full bags of candy. It really was quite an enjoyable evening. Had we been in full commando mode, I suspect we could have hit 20 attractions - but we were also working on very little sleep, so we took it easy!

Off to breakfast at Olivia's and then a full day of Epcot fun!
View attachment 581367

AWESOME picture of the moon in between the castle towers especially with it being Boo Bash !

 

[brifraz]

Good morning from Epcot. Spaceship Earth is a little shy this morning. But I see it there. Yes I do. I see you, Earthy!

 

[brifraz]

Who’s got two thumbs and knows what it is like to be first in line at Epcot?

This guy!

 

[brifraz]

Happy mid-day all my Trip Report Following Friends and welcome to any newbies! Hope you are having a good Saturday wherever you are. Where we are today is Epcot and we have been having a very good Saturday. Let's get started before park time to get caught up.

As I mentioned earlier, the day started with the nearly unthinkable - I slept in until the 7am alarm. Once we were all awake and ready to get moving, we had a brunch reservation at Olivia's (although, I think 8:15am should still be considered breakfast personally). We really do like the vibe of Olivia's and the food never disappoints.

I had the chicken and waffles which features sweet potato waffles and the fried chicken has a bacon jam on it. It was awesome (there is a cameo in the picture by a couple of my daughter's turkey sausages).

@MeffysMom went with the omelet.

And our daughter had the banana bread French toast, minus the coconut whipped cream.

As mentioned, they were all excellent. We also had some leftovers of all three that will get enjoyed later in the visit (most likely by me and most likely late at night or early in the morning). Once our leftovers were safely back in the room we drove over to Epcot. For anyone with visits coming up soon, the main entrance road of Epcot Center Drive is currently closed for construction so you will need to get in from World Drive. We got to the parking plaza at about 9:40am (for an 11am opening). While not first in the parking lot, we were in the first row. Waited about 10 minutes to get through security and then ended up as the first at the tapstile for Annual Passholders. They started letting people in at just a few minutes after 10am and our daughter led the way toward Test Track. We were then held right by the UoE/Guardians building for a faux rope drop for another 10-15 minutes. During that time we learned that Test Track was going to be a bit delayed in opening, so we decided to book it back to Frozen first thing. When they released the masses our daughter again led the entire mass of people (except those who decided to wait for Test Track and the few who headed to Mission:Space) back toward Frozen. We went via the Odyssey bridge which was quite beneficial as it got us just ahead of the people coming from International Gateway. All of this meant... first in line at Frozen.

If you have never been there that early, they open the building with a kid doing the 'Anna knock' from the movie and while our daughter was secretly hoping to do it, they pulled up a couple very little kids and so our trio may not have 'opened the gates' but we did get a boat all to ourselves as the first folks in!

After visiting Elsa's Ice Palace (and with rather wet backsides), we headed back to check on Test Track. It was up and running and showing a 40 minute wait which we were okay with. The actual wait only took about 25 minutes and we were quite happy to have waited since the design stations are finally open again. Check out these three works of art and engineering - starting with our daughter's environmental masterwork, then my wife's power machine, and finally my 'decent at everything but exceptional at nothing' car.

An enjoyable ride, of course, and glad to have gotten it done without too much of a wait. I suspect there might be another ride in our future (maybe single rider since we now all have cars saved on our accounts). The girls wanted to do Mission:Space (orange) next so they headed in there while I hung out with the DVC kiosk folks and shopped through Mouse Gears for a few minutes. No real wait at all and they enjoyed it... I have no idea why.

 

[brifraz]

We decided it was time to grab a few bites to eat so we stopped off at the Mac and Eats, Flavors from Fire, and Earth Eats and grabbed some food that we then took up to the DVC lounge in Imagination to relax and eat (and have some water!!!).

Our daughter had the simple Mac and Cheese. It was excellent - very creamy and cheesy and definitely hit the spot.

@MeffysMom this time went with the Chimichurri-up Offense which is smoked steak with chimichurri on a corn cake with veggie slaw. She really enjoyed this one.

I got the 3 bean Impossible (so, fake meat) chili. Much as you might think Chili on a 90+ degree day isn't ideal, it actually totally hit the spot. And it is definitely one of the larger food portions that I've ever seen at the Food and Wine Festival.

Also, I'm not one to brag about DVC perks or anything, but that lounge in Imagination is really excellent. Great view, generally very quiet, and free drinks. So we enjoyed a good half our or so up there. And, in case you didn't believe me... we really enjoyed our food!

Feeling much refreshed and refueled, we headed over to The Land to ride Soarin. Managed to get the best seats (row 1 in the middle section) and enjoyed the ride. Living with the Land was currently down and we voted for nap over any other attractions so we headed out and have been back at the room since about 2pm. We will head back to Epcot this evening for more dining and maybe a couple drinks and a viewing of Epcot Forever later. See you then!

 

[brifraz]

It's late Saturday night here at Old Key West. Close to midnight and we are very tired. We headed back into Epcot at about 6pm. Let's start a little before that, though. At about 5pm we started getting ourselves ready to go. A check of the weather showed some decent thunderstorms around, but nothing near Disney and nothing forecast for the area. The thunderstorm warning from the late afternoon had been lifted, so we headed to the bus ready to conquer the crowds of Saturday night during Food and Wine Festival. Now as you most likely know, late summer weather in central Florida is finicky at best. On the bus ride over, the Disney bubble was burst and it started to pour. And pour it did. Local radar showed all the colors of the rainbow and it had simply popped up over the southern half of Disney property.

When we arrived, all the people from our bus huddled under the bus drop off canopy for about 10 minutes before one family decided to venture out. This was NOT us. We waited a few more minutes and it did lighten up a little, so off we went. Getting rather wet in the process, but hold tight to the tree line and under any canopies we could find. As soon as we got in, we headed straight to Spaceship Earth for a ride (and to be out of the rain). The rain had gotten a bit lighter and our hope was that after a ride it would be even better. We could not have been more wrong! After Spaceship Earth, it was once again pouring - perhaps even heavier than before. We hid for a few minutes at the exit and then decided to go over to guest relations to deal with a few issues that had cropped up (our daughter not having charging privileges with her Magic Band, some continued frustration with getting into our room). It was a bit of a mad dash across the pathway in the torrential downpour, but it's all good, right?! Issues resolved, we hid out for a little while longer until the rain was at least slightly lighter. And off we went!

The plan had been to gather food from kiosks in Canada, UK, and France and eat while we watched the Jammitors perform in Canada. But there was definitely no performance, so we split up to grab our foods and planned to meet back up inside Canada (the movie area being currently transformed into a dining area). The rain had gotten much lighter, BUT... the lightning had not. While getting food there were two strikes that were at a minimum on Disney property and likely one hit Tower of Terror and the other someplace behind The Living Seas. A little startling, but luckily none of us have too big of issues with lightning.

Regardless, we got our food and got to Canada to enjoy for a little while. Here's the haul! The bangers and colcannon from Ireland - very good and comfort food for sure.

The cheddar and bacon soup from Canada. Always very comfort-foody as well. Although it seemed a bit heavy handed on the bacon.

The beignet with three cheese from France. An interesting mix of sweet and savory. It didn't totally work for me, but the girls both loved it.

To drink, I had a Kilkenny from Ireland (a personal favorite) and @MeffysMom enjoyed the mimosa flight from Shimmering Sips - I'm not a huge mimosa fan, but they were pretty delicious.

By the time we left Canada, the rain had let up quite a bit so we walked around World Showcase in a counter-clockwise fashion, stopping off in the stores of UK, France, and Japan. We also took a little time to look at the Native American and Jazz exhibits in the American Experience - I don't think we've ever seen the Native American one and it was pretty cool. We then continued to travel around World Showcase as the rain made a return visit. Never quite to the downpour level of earlier, but it definitely was raining a decent bit again. Still a bit hungry and looking for a dry spot, we got some dumplings from China and staked out a spot right at the Stave Church in Norway (a spot we've hidden in before). Also grabbed a Norweigan beer to enjoy. In fact, here's our beer with Erik the Red doing a little photobomb from in front of the church.

And here's the chicken dumplings hanging out in the same place but without Erik being silly in the background.

The dumplings were quite good and the sweet and spicy sauce was a pleasant surprise - good balance, but enough spice to be interesting!

To try to stay a little drier, but keep doing... well... anything... we headed over to Mexico to shop a little bit and also ride with the 3 Caballeros. Sadly, Donald and friends were indisposed (or the ride was down) but we did shop through the pavilion and our daughter bought a cute hand painted cat Alebrije. The rain had pretty much stopped so we headed back around World Showcase in a clockwise manner to get our favorite firework viewing spot for Epcot Forever. But... it's time for me to get some sleep so the fireworks pictures (and a little end of night food and drink) will have to wait until tomorrow. And, speaking of tomorrow, I hope to be posting right after we get some Rise of the Resistance passes! Although, with the way the afternoon pass distribution has been this week I feel like we have a pretty good plan B if we are unsuccessful.

 

[brifraz]

It's fireworks time! Our viewpoint for the evening.

That's from our favorite trash can, just slightly on the Japan side of the US Pavilion, right by where the Earth barge used to sit. I'm not a huge fan of Epcot Forever as a show, but I'm sure a lot of that can be explained by my incredible love of Illuminations:ROE. Yes, I listen to the soundtrack regularly. First half of the show looked great, but the heavy weather meant that the smoke from the fireworks just sat in the lagoon and the second half was not quite as visually impressive. Here's a couple shots from the show.

When the show ended, the tacos appear to have sprung a few leaks.

And, evidently there is a secret Star Wars ending to the show that we didn't know about where Darth Maul comes to attack the American Adventure.

We then took a VERY leisurely stroll out of the park to get some nighttime and relatively empty pictures of the pavilions. My next post will just be a collection of those pictures, so enjoy!

 

[brifraz]

Japan

Morocco

France

UK

Canada

Lagoon from Canada

Lagoon and Italy from between Canada and Showcase Plaza

Imagination

Certainly love some of the photo capabilities of the iPhone 12!

This morning we are heading to Hollywood Studios with Rise Boarding Group #32 in hand. See you later.

 

[macefamily]

It's late Saturday night here at Old Key West. Close to midnight and we are very tired. We headed back into Epcot at about 6pm. Let's start a little before that, though. At about 5pm we started getting ourselves ready to go. A check of the weather showed some decent thunderstorms around, but nothing near Disney and nothing forecast for the area. The thunderstorm warning from the late afternoon had been lifted, so we headed to the bus ready to conquer the crowds of Saturday night during Food and Wine Festival. Now as you most likely know, late summer weather in central Florida is finicky at best. On the bus ride over, the Disney bubble was burst and it started to pour. And pour it did. Local radar showed all the colors of the rainbow and it had simply popped up over the southern half of Disney property.

When we arrived, all the people from our bus huddled under the bus drop off canopy for about 10 minutes before one family decided to venture out. This was NOT us. We waited a few more minutes and it did lighten up a little, so off we went. Getting rather wet in the process, but hold tight to the tree line and under any canopies we could find. As soon as we got in, we headed straight to Spaceship Earth for a ride (and to be out of the rain). The rain had gotten a bit lighter and our hope was that after a ride it would be even better. We could not have been more wrong! After Spaceship Earth, it was once again pouring - perhaps even heavier than before. We hid for a few minutes at the exit and then decided to go over to guest relations to deal with a few issues that had cropped up (our daughter not having charging privileges with her Magic Band, some continued frustration with getting into our room). It was a bit of a mad dash across the pathway in the torrential downpour, but it's all good, right?! Issues resolved, we hid out for a little while longer until the rain was at least slightly lighter. And off we went!

The plan had been to gather food from kiosks in Canada, UK, and France and eat while we watched the Jammitors perform in Canada. But there was definitely no performance, so we split up to grab our foods and planned to meet back up inside Canada (the movie area being currently transformed into a dining area). The rain had gotten much lighter, BUT... the lightning had not. While getting food there were two strikes that were at a minimum on Disney property and likely one hit Tower of Terror and the other someplace behind The Living Seas. A little startling, but luckily none of us have too big of issues with lightning.

Regardless, we got our food and got to Canada to enjoy for a little while. Here's the haul! The bangers and colcannon from Ireland - very good and comfort food for sure.
View attachment 581535

The cheddar and bacon soup from Canada. Always very comfort-foody as well. Although it seemed a bit heavy handed on the bacon.
View attachment 581537

The beignet with three cheese from France. An interesting mix of sweet and savory. It didn't totally work for me, but the girls both loved it.
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To drink, I had a Kilkenny from Ireland (a personal favorite) and @MeffysMom enjoyed the mimosa flight from Shimmering Sips - I'm not a huge mimosa fan, but they were pretty delicious.
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By the time we left Canada, the rain had let up quite a bit so we walked around World Showcase in a counter-clockwise fashion, stopping off in the stores of UK, France, and Japan. We also took a little time to look at the Native American and Jazz exhibits in the American Experience - I don't think we've ever seen the Native American one and it was pretty cool. We then continued to travel around World Showcase as the rain made a return visit. Never quite to the downpour level of earlier, but it definitely was raining a decent bit again. Still a bit hungry and looking for a dry spot, we got some dumplings from China and staked out a spot right at the Stave Church in Norway (a spot we've hidden in before). Also grabbed a Norweigan beer to enjoy. In fact, here's our beer with Erik the Red doing a little photobomb from in front of the church.
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And here's the chicken dumplings hanging out in the same place but without Erik being silly in the background.
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The dumplings were quite good and the sweet and spicy sauce was a pleasant surprise - good balance, but enough spice to be interesting!

To try to stay a little drier, but keep doing... well... anything... we headed over to Mexico to shop a little bit and also ride with the 3 Caballeros. Sadly, Donald and friends were indisposed (or the ride was down) but we did shop through the pavilion and our daughter bought a cute hand painted cat Alebrije. The rain had pretty much stopped so we headed back around World Showcase in a clockwise manner to get our favorite firework viewing spot for Epcot Forever. But... it's time for me to get some sleep so the fireworks pictures (and a little end of night food and drink) will have to wait until tomorrow. And, speaking of tomorrow, I hope to be posting right after we get some Rise of the Resistance passes! Although, with the way the afternoon pass distribution has been this week I feel like we have a pretty good plan B if we are unsuccessful.

Loving your trip report. Nice pics of the food. Wonder if your paths and my daughter's path crossed yesterday. She drove down from Jacksonville with her dog. She boarded him at Disney Best Friends kennel while she went to Epcot. She mentioned to us that the monorail is opened back up from Epcot to MK. She took advantage of that yesterday for a hopper. She also said it was incredibly hot yesterday with not much of a breeze.
My daughter agreed with your assessment of the brie cheese beignet. Just OK. She loved the spicy hako sushi from Japan. She also raved about a cream filled mini pastry with raspberry sauce called Bomboloni. She said every lobster dish looked amazing, but she settled on the lobster tail w/ bisque sauce. Last one she could fit in was the corned beef tortilla chips. When we attend we usually split a single serving between three or four of us. That way we can try more. She said that having to eat by herself limited her ability to try more. But we will be heading down the end of September so we'll give it another try. Keep all the great pics coming.

 

[macefamily]

Also forgot to mention that I love your framing ability with your picture taking. The shot of the tower through the water effect is amazing.

 

[LSV]

photos are brilliant!

 

[brifraz]

Loving your trip report. Nice pics of the food. Wonder if your paths and my daughter's path crossed yesterday. She drove down from Jacksonville with her dog. She boarded him at Disney Best Friends kennel while she went to Epcot. She mentioned to us that the monorail is opened back up from Epcot to MK. She took advantage of that yesterday for a hopper. She also said it was incredibly hot yesterday with not much of a breeze.
My daughter agreed with your assessment of the brie cheese beignet. Just OK. She loved the spicy hako sushi from Japan. She also raved about a cream filled mini pastry with raspberry sauce called Bomboloni. She said every lobster dish looked amazing, but she settled on the lobster tail w/ bisque sauce. Last one she could fit in was the corned beef tortilla chips. When we attend we usually split a single serving between three or four of us. That way we can try more. She said that having to eat by herself limited her ability to try more. But we will be heading down the end of September so we'll give it another try. Keep all the great pics coming.

Yeah, prior to the storms, the heat was pretty oppressive yesterday. Today as well. Although, so far August hasn't been quite as painful as June was this year.

I'm considering getting the sushi when we are back at Epcot in a few days. The Italy line was far too long for us to consider getting that Bomboloni - but maybe next time as well! I'm glad she had a good day.

 

[brifraz]

Also forgot to mention that I love your framing ability with your picture taking. The shot of the tower through the water effect is amazing.

We have a unique team approach. Prior to the iPhone (I think 11, maybe), I always brought an SLR digital camera (I have had a couple of very nice Nikons), but a couple years ago we noticed that @MeffysMom's pictures were at least as clear if not clearer than mine. So we started to share her camera to take pictures. Eventually she started to sense when I might want it and what I might take pictures of. Most of the time now, she is the photographer and I just make the occasional angle or position suggestions.

By the way, there's no water effects on that shot of the Italy tower through the stargate - that's just all the firework smoke sitting in the lagoon mixed with zooming in a little further than usual.