Trip Report Time for Flowers! Flower & Food (Garden) March 2017

Hello and welcome to my trip report! My hubby (Brad) and I returned a little over a week ago from a quick trip to the World to celebrate Flower and Garden, which we refer to sometimes as Flower and Food. It was my husband's first time at F&G, but I had gone a few times solo and we have done Food and Wine. So he was interested in how this festival would be.

So here's a little quick info:
Who: hubby (Brad) and myself (Amy)
When: March 3-March 6
Resort: All Star Movies (cheapest option, and all we need is a place to sleep)

Some tags to people who have read some of my other reports (I know I will forget someone, but everyone is welcome!): @figmentfan423 @Gabe1 @donaldtoo @betty rose @PacNWTigger @Tuvalu @fractal @JenniferS @bee @BuddyThomas @Mr Ferret 88 @MouseDreaming @PUSH @Wrangler-Rick @MOXOMUMD @MinnieM123 @Songbird76 @Cesar R M @prfctlyximprct @93boomer @Courtney6682 @MySmallWorldof4

Okay....Ready now....Here We GO......

So the vacation actually started on March 2, but late. I had parent-teacher conferences that night and our flight was early Friday morning so we decided to stay the night up in Minneapolis so we wouldn't have to get up so early. We only live about an hour- to hour 15 minutes away from the airport but we wanted to be close to the airport for that early flight. So when conferences got done at 8pm my husband was waiting outside the door ready to pick me up.

We spent the night in a Homewood Suites and connected to it was a Chevy's restaurant. All during conferences (which I only met with 8 parents that night in a span of 3 hours and I have 150 students) I was thinking about a margarita at Chevy's. So what did we do once we checked in? That's right headed over to Chevy's, it was a little after 9pm by then so at least we got late night happy hour! We also got their sampler platter which was pretty good.

With my margarita!
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After margaritas we went back to our room and watched the 10 pm news for a couple minutes and then headed to bed. Our flight was leaving a 6am so we were going to be up early!

Our journey to the airport was pretty uneventful (thank goodness) and security wasn't too bad, about a 15 minute wait. I had bought us mini-muffins from our grocery store at home so we had those and I had a coffee that was finally cool enough to drink once we started boarding!

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If you have flown Spirit before you'll know that they have their Big Seats Up Front for an extra charge. I think that charge is worth it for extra space, so I booked those seats for us. The flight was good we both slept a little, read magazines, and I listened to Disney podcasts.

Goodbye Minneapolis!
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Somewhere between Minnesota and Florida

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Hello Orlando! I was able to spot the Swan & Dolphin and Spaceship Earth this time from the air. I was pretty excited about it but I don't think it really shows up in my pictures.
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When we landed at MCO I saw a really big Air Force plane and I thought to myself "That's weird and so big. Hey wait I've seen that type of plane before when I saw..." and then I saw it....Air Force One. Our president was also visiting Florida. I'm not going to get political, but I think it is pretty cool seeing Air Force One. The only cooler Presidential experience I had was when I was near the Washington Monument and I was facing the White House and Marine One rose up off the lawn and flew right over my head. I saw AF1 before when we landed in Minneapolis a few years ago and it was exciting then (except for the 2 hour traffic jam we had because President Obama was touring the city) and I was excited this time too but now worried about the traffic. I had a fast pass to get to. Luckily this time we didn't have bad traffic as the president had already left the airport area.

Anyway, we got to our gate and because we were in the front we were off and to Magical Express pretty quick. I was a little nervous about the wait for ME especially after some people's recent experiences (@Tuvalu ) but as we arrived it wasn't bad at all. The total time of check-in, boarding, and leaving was about 10 minutes. Excellent!

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We have arrived HOME!
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Walt even welcomed us on the METV!
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myhappyplace

Crazy Cat Lady
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We looked inside the temple for the egg, I didn't really think the egg would be in here but I had recently read someone's trip report (sorry I can't remember which one) and had seen a picture I wanted to try to recreate. And I didn't want to see Brad roll his eyes if I told him that. So we went in and I just happened to have the "idea" for this photo. I think the other person's picture was better especially since I got that lovely vent in my picture . Maybe I'll try again another time.
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I think it's me you're talking about! I took this shot on my February trip while waiting in the temple to meet Mulan, and if memory serves, you commented on it. No need for Brad to roll his eyes, I imitate shots I see on TRs all the time!



And then voila! I was able to get this....
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I was pretty pumped at getting a picture of the male and female, just hanging out. Some might say "lion" around.

This is AMAZING!!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Enjoying the report! A few observations;

I didn't know you could hold a lantern at Tangled restroom area. Very cool.

Your fireworks and castle projections photos are good. To get any better you need a tripod (or top of a trashcan?) and ability to control camera's shutter speed, ISO and aperture.

That backwards drop of EE does get tough on a full stomach.

Great photos of the lions - especially the male & female. Bummer about the elephants. I can't remember ever not seeing them. Next time, if you have a "sports" setting on your camera use that. The higher shutter speed will help with the blurry pictures.

Double bummer about the welcome show. Make me sad knowing I won't be seeing the old one.

Love the daytime castle photos!

Thanks! The Tangled photopass is new. It was supposed to be for a limited time, but has now been extended.

I do tend to use the sport mode on the safari, but sometimes it still blurs. I have thought about a small tripod in the past, but now I'm just to lazy I don't want to carry it around, and I have enough in my purse!:) So I guess I'll just have to deal with what I can do handheld. The trash can idea is pretty good though, thanks!

The new welcome show is okay, it is better than nothing. But I guess that isn't really a ringing endorsement of it.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I think it's me you're talking about! I took this shot on my February trip while waiting in the temple to meet Mulan, and if memory serves, you commented on it. No need for Brad to roll his eyes, I imitate shots I see on TRs all the time!





This is AMAZING!!

Thanks. And yes, yours was the picture I was thinking of. Now that I see yours again, I see that it is so much better than mine. I will try again in June.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
A few more pictures of the hub area before watching the new castle show.

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I was taking a few black and white pictures, and I guess I forgot to change the setting because my first few pictures of the new show were in black and white. Opps!
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The new show was okay, I like the old one better. But it was nice to have some sort of welcome ceremony. So better than nothing!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Our first stop was Peter Pan, no pictures though. Then we went to Haunted Mansion.
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It was nice to take some pictures in the queue without a lot of people around.
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Then it was back to Fantasyland for some teacups, for me. I always try to get a green cup, because I like green.
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Then a little soarin' on Dumbo!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Before I left there was some talk that Cosmic Rays was down, so as we headed there after our 7 Dwarfs fast pass on our way to Buzz. And he was up and running with nobody around. He was crooning a slower song, so hubs and and I decided to dance to the music. It was silly but fun.
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Off to Buzz, I wanted to ride together this time. As I have finally faced facts that I don't do well and that is my fault not hubby's. But hubs wanted to ride separately. The queue wasn't moving too slow but slow enough for me to take some pics.
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With all the work on Buzz and dancing around, we were hungry. It was somewhere between 10:30 and 11 something so of course we headed to Aunite Gravities' and shared a hot fudge sundae!
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And here was our view...
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After our snack of a hot fudge sundae we went to Main Street to find the Dapper Dan's. My husband loves the Dapper Dans.
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They sang a about 3-4 songs and then they said they were going to head over to Tony's Town Square Restaurant. Apparently they sing there to open the restaurant. So hubby wanted to follow them there, so we did. They sang Bella Notte.
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Then we wandered through the Emporium before heading over to Liberty Square to check out the Muppet show there.
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We saw the signing of the Declaration of Independence Muppet show. It was hilarious. We highly recommend it.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Some more of the Muppet show.
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Then we headed over to Big Thunder for our fast pass. I think it must have gone down earlier because the wait time was 100+ minutes and the fast pass line was long. It took us about 15 to 20 minutes to get on.
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It was lunch time by then and lunch was at Pecos Bill's we both got the fajitas. We had forgotten how much food there is, we will have to remember next time and share. We left super stuffed.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After lunch we headed back to the hub to see the Friendship Faire show, it is a cute little show. We found a tiny patch of shade under one of the hanging baskets, and that was really nice to have a bit of shade while watching the show.

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After the show, we headed to Tomorrowland to take a spin on the Peoplemover. It really is a great attraction!
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Then we moseyed over to Frontierland to find a spot for the parade. All the shade was taken but it wasn't too bad in the sun, at least it wasn't July. That would have been unbearable. The band did march by, so that was fun to see while we waited.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After the parade we used a fast pass for Pirates. Then we had a snack, I got a citrus swirl and hubs got a Mickey pretzel. Then we had to make our way out of the park and back to the Movies to meet Magical Express. :cry::(
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Back at the airport. It was a quick trip but we packed in a lot of fun and yet it still was pretty relaxing too.

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So that's the end of the report folks! I might update with some pictures from our phones this weekend. But thanks for following along! And I can't wait to get my Disney fix again. That will be in 9 days, but it will be at Disneyland. And it will be solo!:inlove:
 

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