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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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
I thought the guy running with the stroller was going to have a heart attack! :eek:

Beer flights and meals look delish. :hungry:

I never knew about the Easter Eggs in World Showcase. Was there once in April but that was a long time ago.

I thought he was going to have a heart attack too. I'm sure glad he didn't!

I think the Easter Egg is fairly recent it is fun looking for them. They do the same thing in Disneyland too, and I will be there in a couple weeks. So I'm looking forward to hunting for them there too.
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Bring on the trip! Thanks for the tag! You know, this is the time of year that the Disney withdrawals get REALLY bad. This is just the "medicine" I need. Now, on to the reading!

All of the flowers are great, but there is something amazing about that huge planting. Especially when you are escaping the brown dead (ok, usually snowy) look of the midwest.

I am such a chicken. Green only for me!

Disney withdrawls are the worst! I hope you are enjoying the read! And don't worry about being a chicken, think about it this way usually the green line is shorter, so at least you win with that!
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sorry it has been a busy week, so I haven't updated much. Last I posted we were on day two, at Epcot and it was early afternoon and we had been snacking and wandering the World Showcase.

My hopes for an avocado margarita were dashed with a long line but we still found the Easter egg in Mexico. Click on the spoiler if you want to see where it is.

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A look at the cool new topiary for Mexico.
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We had two more snacks. From the Mexico booth we had the tres leches cake and the hibiscus margarita. The margarita was good but a little reminiscent of Hawaiian punch. The cake was good the orange zest on top added a nice zing, I wish there would have been a bit more.
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We also got the Jamaican braised beef from the Caribbean stand. I liked it a lot last year and it was still good this year but this time it was really stingy on the beef.
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We made our way out of Epcot and back to the resort for a bit of downtime.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
The plan had to have some downtime at the resort for a bit and then head to Trader Sam's. We napped a bit to long and didn't end up making to Trader Sam's because we had a fast pass for Big Thunder we didn't want to miss. So we headed to the Magic Kingdom for the night.

At the Magic Kingdom entrance
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I really loved the colors of the flowers this time in Town Square.
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We wandered down Main Street, said hi to Walk and Mickey before heading to Big Thunder.
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After Big Thunder we cruised the Rivers of America.
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A look at my favorite mountain.
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Coming back to the dock
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
It was time for dinner. We both agreed on Friar's Nook for mac and cheese. He got the pot roast one and I got the BBQ chicken one. Which is kind of funny because normally Brad loves anything BBQ and I can take or leave it, but he prefers the pot roast one and I like the BBQ one. Anyway, it was yummy and filling.

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We wandered around a bit, and then since it would be our last time watching Wishes we went to Main Street to see if we could get a decent spot. We found a spot in the front of a tape line and made sure with a cast member that it was a spot we could sit in and camped out for about 45 minutes. It wasn't a bad wait as I had a view of the castle.

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I didn't want to watch Wishes my last time through my camera but I did take a few pictures. I also had my camera ready so I could just lift it up and take a quick pic if the mood struck. And my camera isn't the best for fireworks, but I got a few that I liked. And yes, it was my last time watching the show in person, so I had some wet eyes throughout the whole show. I usually just get weepy at the end when When You Wish Upon a Star is going.

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Tinkerbelle's flight.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
More of Wishes....
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We went into Tomorrowland after Wishes and rode the Peoplemover and just wandered a bit. We watched the Once Upon a Time show, it is a cute projection show, but I think I liked Celebrate the Magic a little better.

We got a spot close to the castle.
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Here are some shots from the show...
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I do like the Cinderella projections on the castle, it seems quite fitting as it is Cinderella's castle and all.
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The Peter Pan is pretty sweet too.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
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After the show we decided to get in line for the new Photopass photo op by the Tangled bathrooms. I love the movie Tangled so this was something I really wanted to do. We thought the line would be shorter towards park close. The line wasn't too bad but it was full of teenage girls, so it moved slow. Because they wanted group shots, partner shots, and solo shots. So we were in line for about 35 minutes.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Here is a couple of our shots. They turned out pretty cool I thought the one of us looking at each other would look dorky, but I ended up liking this one better then us looking at the camera. I think this channels Rapunzel & Eugene/Flynn.
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And I did a solo shot too.
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The Magic Kingdom closed around 11 that night I think, so after we got done with the photo op we had time for one ride, so we went on small world and Brad fell asleep!
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We made our way out of the park, but we have a tradition of relaxing with a snack by the castle. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the hub the popcorn/ice cream cart was closed. So we headed down Main Street to the one by the train station. Brad got his popcorn and even though it was cold I got my Mickey Premium bar. We headed up the stairs to the train station and sat up there and enjoyed our snacks.
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And we are out for the night....
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amjt660

Well-Known Member
Here is a couple of our shots. They turned out pretty cool I thought the one of us looking at each other would look dorky, but I ended up liking this one better then us looking at the camera. I think this channels Rapunzel & Eugene/Flynn.
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And I did a solo shot too.
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The Magic Kingdom closed around 11 that night I think, so after we got done with the photo op we had time for one ride, so we went on small world and Brad fell asleep!
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We made our way out of the park, but we have a tradition of relaxing with a snack by the castle. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to the hub the popcorn/ice cream cart was closed. So we headed down Main Street to the one by the train station. Brad got his popcorn and even though it was cold I got my Mickey Premium bar. We headed up the stairs to the train station and sat up there and enjoyed our snacks.
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And we are out for the night....
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Looks a little chilly to be enjoying ice cream!!??!!

Max
 

ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
Day Three! We are up early, but then again we had gone to bed comparatively early because the hours in early March aren't very late.

At the bus stop and ready to go!
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Hollywood Studios this morning. Our goal is to hit the 3 T's: Toy, Tower & Tours.
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We joined the rush to Toy Story first.
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After Toy, in which Brad won and I don't know how I was leading the whole time until the end, we went to Tower. The wait wasn't bad but we had to walk through a lot of the gardens.

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I'm definitely ready to drop!
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Time for Star Tours!
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
We headed over to Muppet's next and checked out the construction. Then watched a fine and hilarious show! Sam Eagle has got to be my favorite in this attraction!

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It is always fun to look at all the gags in the pre-show area.
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Then we went to One Man's Dream. I love all the photos of Walt and the displays.
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And Brad pretended to be the camera man.
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A dress from the new version of the Beauty & the Beast movie was on display as was a rose from the movie.
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ajrwdwgirl

Premium Member
Original Poster
After One Man's Dream, Brad wanted to check out the Launch Bay. I rested on a bench and let him run around checking out his Star Wars stuff.

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I thought this was funny, because it kind of looks like Brad is chasing down the Storm troopers!
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We had some time to kill before were were going to try to snag a spot at the Tune In Lounge for a little lunch. The Great Movie Ride line was long but the Frozen Sing Along was going to start in about 2 minutes so we saw that. It was cute, the storytellers really do a good job of entertaining the crowd.
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And of course the dreamy Hans....
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Well, by the time the Frozen show got done it was just a minute or two after 11 so we headed to the Tune in Lounge in hopes of a seat at the bar. Well it was full and we were out of luck. The Brown Derby Lounge didn't open until noon, and we were hungry so we headed to the quick service on Sunset and shared an order of chicken strips, which we like but it was no Tune In Lounge food.

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We did stop at Sweet Spells and got a cookies and cream whoopie pie to share and that was pretty tasty. Although Brad stole the half of the Oreo cookie on top! There is half of an Oreo on top for a garnish and he thought (or at least claimed) I had already eaten the other half so he thought it was for him. You'd think he would have noticed that when he bought it and carried it to our spot.

Anyway, we soon left Hollywood Studios for a short break at the resort before heading the Animal Kingdom later.
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