Trip Report Two broke guys & a dog (for the last time.) (now with Christmas 2024!)

No, I’m not mad at Disney. We’ll be back (in fact, it can’t be soon enough.) But this turned out to be our last trip together as a family.

Who: Brian (R) Tony (L) and Kylie.

When: May, 2023.

Can’t tease this, so I’ll just come out with it.

We’ve posted TRs over the years under the “Two broke guys & a dog” banner (and other titles.) Our May trip was short, and we had already booked August for my birthday (complete with a planned meet up with @Tuvalu) so I thought I’d make one double TR after August.

I ended up with Covid mid-month and we had to postpone to December for Brian’s birthday.

In the meantime, Kylie, our 14 year old German Shepherd/Chow Chow was diagnosed with heart failure. That “heads up” turned out to be a gift and a blessing that allowed us to spend so much extra quality time with her.

Kylie’s 14th bday on Halloween:

She stayed with us through the holidays, rubbing on the Christmas tree when she walked past it, per usual (like a cat lol) and was really doing well - eating, going for walks, snuggling. I expected more of a slow, gradual decline…but she passed yesterday. Now my heart is failing.

I don’t know how far I’ll get with this today. It might actually be too soon. But I thought it could be therapeutic, and a nice tribute.

For some reason, since my 30s, if I cry even a little, my eyelids swell up and it’s hard to undo. Ice helps only temporarily. I fear typing all this out will continue the waterworks (it already has) and prolong that condition. OTOH, they’re already swollen, so WTH? I’ll play it by ear, if that’s ok.

This is my love letter to my pup.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

It wasn’t long before Brian said, “I think I took too much insulin.” That has never happened (in my presence) before. I had brought plenty of snacks, but they were all low or no sugar, so that wouldn’t help.

We got into the car and went to the main square. I dropped him off at the entrance to save time, and went to park. When I got inside, I looked for him where all the QS food is (Sassagoula) but didn’t see him. He was over at the beignet place lol. He said they would bring our order to the table. OK.

In about two minutes, out came these:

Mickey beignets with bananas foster sauce(!) He knows I love banana desserts. And yes, they were delicious.

But that was only half the picture. There were 6 of them!

We each ate one and took the rest to go. Brian was feeling better, and we briefly stopped into the gift shop

…but didn’t buy anything.

We took a quick look at our immediate surroundings, and took a rest as the temperature dropped.

The little friendship boats go to Riverside as well as to Disney Springs. I kind of wanted to just take a boat ride to nowhere and come back!

There were no available carriage rides on the 14th, 15th, or 16th (at least according to the app.) Oh, well.

Up next: Valentine’s Day dinner at Epcot.

 

[mpaulam]

Sounds like you’re having a great time! Enjoy.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Sounds like you’re having a great time! Enjoy.

100%!!! And thank you!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

About 7:30, a little late, we headed over to Epcot. On the way to the car, we reminisced about how many “fights” we had before GPS, trying to follow the signs and find where we were going. Ah, good times going in circles.)

At some point, the directions put us on Bonnet Creek Parkway. I remembered that Port Orleans and Key West were near Best Friends Pet Care, and kind of hoped we wouldn’t pass by it everywhere we went while staying at FQ. I swear, Kylie would get excited in the back seat as soon as we turned onto that street, every time. She knew where she was going and loved it.

We got another great parking space (there were no attendants) and walked right in.

Our ADR was at 9pm, and Spaceship Earth was a walk-on, so we took a trip. Always liked this image at the entrance - very 70’s Sci-fi movie poster looking.

And here are my blurry ancestors from Rome.

My pic of all the perfectly spaced lights towards the end was even blurrier, had to delete it. But I love that part. I did notice a few lights out. (tHe MaGiC iS gOnE )

And here’s proof their predictions are nuts:

We continued on, ruled out visiting Moana again because of time constraints. Arrived at the Mexico pavilion in plenty of time.

Still enough time for the boat ride past our restaurant.

If you’be been reading from the beginning, you may recall when we had an 8:55 ADR at Rose & Crown, they let us watch the fireworks first, and be seated after.

I hopefully walked up to the host at San Angel Inn and asked the same question. This time, I was told no, the restaurant closes at 9, and if we weren’t here by 9, we would lose our reservation. Oh, well, you win some - you lose some.

I half considered skipping the dinner. (Did I mention I ate another Mickey beignet at the room? )

We wandered around the Mexico pavilion for a bit.

Puppy sighting.

 

[93boomer]

About 7:30, a little late, we headed over to Epcot. On the way to the car, we reminisced about how many “fights” we had before GPS, trying to follow the signs and find where we were going. Ah, good times going in circles.)

At some point, the directions put us on Bonnet Creek Parkway. I remembered that Port Orleans and Key West were near Best Friends Pet Care, and kind of hoped we wouldn’t pass by it everywhere we went while staying at FQ. I swear, Kylie would get excited in the back seat as soon as we turned onto that street, every time. She knew where she was going and loved it.

We got another great parking space (there were no attendants) and walked right in.

Our ADR was at 9pm, and Spaceship Earth was a walk-on, so we took a trip. Always liked this image at the entrance - very 70’s Sci-fi movie poster looking.

View attachment 768759

And here are my blurry ancestors from Rome.

View attachment 768760

My pic of all the perfectly spaced lights towards the end was even blurrier, had to delete it. But I love that part. I did notice a few lights out. (tHe MaGiC iS gOnE )

View attachment 768761

And here’s proof their predictions are nuts:

View attachment 768762

We continued on, ruled out visiting Moana again because of time constraints. Arrived at the Mexico pavilion in plenty of time.

View attachment 768763

Still enough time for the boat ride past our restaurant.

View attachment 768764View attachment 768765

If you’be been reading from the beginning, you may recall when we had an 8:55 ADR at Rose & Crown, they let us watch the fireworks first, and be seated after.

I hopefully walked up to the host at San Angel Inn and asked the same question. This time, I was told no, the restaurant closes at 9, and if we weren’t here by 9, we would lose our reservation. Oh, well, you win some - you lose some.

I half considered skipping the dinner. (Did I mention I ate another Mickey beignet at the room? )

We wandered around the Mexico pavilion for a bit.

View attachment 768768

Puppy sighting.

Beignets are soo addictive!!

 

[Lilofan]

Beignets are soo addictive!!

Pre 2001 Port Orleans French Quarter had an all u can eat breakfast buffet $11.95 included grilled steak and beignets. It was delish ! The beignets were just as good as Cafe Du Monde in N.O.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Beignets are soo addictive!!

Especially with freaking bananas foster sauce!!

Pre 2001 Port Orleans French Quarter had an all u can eat breakfast buffet $11.95 included grilled steak and beignets. It was delish ! The beignets were just as good as Cafe Du Monde in N.O.

I noticed they sell the Cafe Du Monde mix in the gift shop. I wonder if that’s what they use.

 

[Tiggerish]

Especially with freaking bananas foster sauce!!

I noticed they sell the Cafe Du Monde mix in the gift shop. I wonder if that’s what they use.

When I had actual beignets from the actual.Cafe du.Monde in NOLA last year, I found they didn't hold a candle to.zeppoles.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

When I had actual beignets from the actual.Cafe du.Monde in NOLA last year, I found they didn't hold a candle to.zeppoles.

I have always thought they tasted like zeppoles!!!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

We went back to the restaurant a few minutes before 9, and were seated right away. There were still a number of people there. Unlike Be Our Guest and Rose & Crown, both of whom went out of their way to let us know there was no rush even though the park was closed, this felt a little more rushed.

I was hoping to treat myself to an Ocho Añejo, neat. It’s a nice sipping tequila I discovered years ago at one of the Epcot Food & Wine pairing lunches. I asked our server if she could find out if it was available, even though it wasn’t on the menu. (La Cava is right there.) She left and came back with the manager to tell me it wasn’t possible. OK, no need to get all serious lol.

I went with this nutty concoction:

Isn’t she pretty?

This is the corn old fashioned. The ingredients list is bonkers. I do enjoy old fashioneds, and spins on old fashioneds, so I gave it a whirl. It tastes something like an old fashioned with tequila. I love trying new wacky things, and this fit the bill and was very enjoyable.

Brian had a beer.

Our server asked if we would like chips and salsa “for an appetizer.” I hesitated because of the phrasing, but said yes. Who knew how long it would take our food to come out, right?

The chips came out, and before I could finish chewing the first one, our entrees were on the table. OK.

I ordered a shrimp and pepper dish - some heat, some sweet. It was very tasty, and I skipped most of the white rice because…you know, beignets. (And fortunately, I had no allergic reaction. I don’t remember if I told the story here, but something happened recently which made me afraid I may have developed a shellfish allergy. I’m pretty sure it was something else that caused an odd reaction a few weeks ago, and not the shrimp. This proved it. But before I took the first bite, I warned Brian to be prepared to try and get a Benadryl or an EpiPen.) #dramaqueen

Brian ordered the fish tacos, and I have to say, they were the best we’ve had lately. Definitely better than CBR. Unusually, they were made with a battered cod like you would find in fish and chips. Brian loves fish and chips. I thought this was better than fish and chips because it had more flavor. I think there was some kind of slaw with pineapple or something. Tony approved.

And after about 2,000 tries, we realized we just weren’t going to get a good selfie.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Do you remember this?

We found ourselves asking the opposite question on this trip: where’s the bread?

Overall, we enjoyed the meal and the experience at San Angel Inn. Our entrees and drinks were great, the place was fairly empty. Like lunch at Tony’s, it was a very good choice for a romantic Valentine dinner.

When the bill came, I realized I was right to have been suspicious of our server’s wording about the chips and salsa. It wasn’t the language barrier, it was trickiness. Those chips were $8.99. Seriously?

We all know those are free at every Mexican restaurant. And there was no reason we needed to pay for an appetizer when the food came out 30 seconds later. If we had wanted an appetizer, we would have ordered a better one and paid for it.

I didn’t make an issue of it. But we stayed, and Brian ate those damned chips. (Hey, I still had to finish all the beignets because he can’t!)

No, I didn’t make him. It was his idea.

We talked and recalled something I thought was odd at Tony’s: they had garlic bread on the menu as a paid appetizer. We didn’t order any; we assumed they’d bring plain bread. They didn’t.

Now, I’m not a big bread eater. It’s gotta be crunchy Italian or French for the most part, or something out of the ordinary to get me interested. I just thought it was weird.

I started thinking: we had bread a few weeks ago at BoG, but that was prix fixe. Ditto Sebastian’s.

Doubting my own memory, I wondered if this was ringing a faint bell, as if I had read something about this here? I honestly couldn’t remember, but maybe?

Hmm…what would the next meal bring?

Here are a few pics of the empty Mexico pavilion as we exited.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

This time, despite the hour, we were not one of a handful of people leaving the park. A good bunch of people were still exiting the park.

We took a little more notice of the new gardens this time. We missed the Walt statue back in January.

I still get a kick out of our bands lighting up the right color to match different things.

Trying to capture the ground lighting was not so easy. Oops.

There he is.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

OK now, here comes the weird story, and it won’t have pictures. We exited Epcot to a fairly empty parking lot, easily found the car not very far away, and expected a quick and easy ride back to the hotel (and another beignet?) as it had been a quick and easy ride to the park.

You know how I said we were just talking about the times we used to get lost without GPS?

First, somehow I ended up right back at Epcot, and had to make a U-turn.

We went around another wrong way, and it was now taking a ridiculous amount of time to get back.

Then it was telling us to go to the right, but it looked like we were going to another park or something, and we were stuck in this Twilight Zone loop, so we kept going straight ahead, but we were completely turned around.

I said, “If this puts us in front of Best Friend’s Pet Care…”

I had no idea why this was happening. It was dark. And no, I wasn’t drunk from one drink with dinner.

Just then, we see the sign on our left:

“Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort.”

I said out loud, “Are you kidding me?”

That’s where we stayed with Kylie for the last several years. I never even thought we might be near it.

The directions seemed to make more sense now, and get out of the loop.

What’s the next thing we see? I slowed down almost to a stop in the middle of the street. On our right: Best Friend’s Pet Care. I said, “Son of a b.” Both in a row like that. If you had asked me to find either of those on my own, I couldn’t have. (Of course, I have no sense of direction.) There they were, one after another. On Valentine’s Day. Brian said out loud, “We hear you.”

I don’t know who believes in what. We believe in God. We believe in the afterlife. We both have had fairly convincing experiences with people who have passed that are tough to refute, although I’ll say Brian buys into it more fully than I.

But even I said, “Thank you for letting us know you’re still here with us.”

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if these things are “real.” They can be comforting either way.

We were a little freaked but felt better.

You can bet I ate another beignet in the room before bed.

Nothing ever took us past either of those two locations for the rest of the trip, despite being on Bonnet Creek Parkway every time we went anywhere.

 

[Tiggerish]

OK now, here comes the weird story, and it won’t have pictures. We exited Epcot to a fairly empty parking lot, easily found the car not very far away, and expected a quick and easy ride back to the hotel (and another beignet?) as it had been a quick and easy ride to the park.

You know how I said we were just talking about the times we used to get lost without GPS?

First, somehow I ended up right back at Epcot, and had to make a U-turn.

We went around another wrong way, and it was now taking a ridiculous amount of time to get back.

Then it was telling us to go to the right, but it looked like we were going to another park or something, and we were stuck in this Twilight Zone loop, so we kept going straight ahead, but we were completely turned around.

I said, “If this puts us in front of Best Friend’s Pet Care…”

I had no idea why this was happening. It was dark. And no, I wasn’t drunk from one drink with dinner.

Just then, we see the sign on our left:

“Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort.”

I said out loud, “Are you kidding me?”

That’s where we stayed with Kylie for the last several years. I never even thought we might be near it.

The directions seemed to make more sense now, and get out of the loop.

What’s the next thing we see? I slowed down almost to a stop in the middle of the street. On our right: Best Friend’s Pet Care. I said, “Son of a b.” Both in a row like that. If you had asked me to find either of those on my own, I couldn’t have. (Of course, I have no sense of direction.) There they were, one after another. On Valentine’s Day. Brian said out loud, “We hear you.”

I don’t know who believes in what. We believe in God. We believe in the afterlife. We both have had fairly convincing experiences with people who have passed that are tough to refute, although I’ll say Brian buys into it more fully than I.

But even I said, “Thank you for letting us know you’re still here with us.”

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if these things are “real.” They can be comforting either way.

We were a little freaked but felt better.

You can bet I ate another beignet in the room before bed.

Nothing ever took us past either of those two locations for the rest of the trip, despite being on Bonnet Creek Parkway every time we went anywhere.

View attachment 768869

imma just going to have to say...thats fricking amazing.

 

[MinnieM123]

I don’t know who believes in what. We believe in God. We believe in the afterlife. We both have had fairly convincing experiences with people who have passed that are tough to refute, although I’ll say Brian buys into it more fully than I.

But even I said, “Thank you for letting us know you’re still here with us.”

Sometimes it doesn’t matter if these things are “real.” They can be comforting either way.

We were a little freaked but felt better.

You can bet I ate another beignet in the room before bed.

Nothing ever took us past either of those two locations for the rest of the trip, despite being on Bonnet Creek Parkway every time we went anywhere.

That was some spiritual energy you experienced, Tony.

 

[rshell68]

Hands (and paws) down best story!! She is definitely still with you

 

[KILUMTL123]

I believe!

 

[Tuvalu]

Love the Kylie story. There are no coincidences.

Leaving Epcot you were incredibly close to POFQ. Left on Overpass Rd., left on Bonnet Creek and first right into POFQ.

However upon leaving Epcot GPS routes you back into the Epcot parking lot (specifically CM parking.) Then it takes you that lengthy giant loop past the campground and BFPC. This is what happened to me last month when I relied on GPS rather than my memory!

But as I said, no coincidences.

Disney’s Mexican restaurants started charging for chips and salsa a few years ago. (Money grab.) My first time was at La Hacienda - Em and I ordered guacamole ($13) figuring it was an upcharge with the chips and salsa. It arrived without either. I flagged down our server and said, “We need chips.” Chips arrived (no salsa) and they weren’t hot, tasting like they had been dumped from a bag.

They were an additional $5. Chips and guac were $18!

The more you know….

 

[PineapplePrincess]

I am loving your report and am heartbroken for you and Brian. As others have said, there are no coincidences. You were right where you were meant to be.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Btw since this is the end of Valentine’s Day proper, and despite saying we weren’t doing gifts (the trip was the gift) I am this corny:

Publix had BOGO on Hallmark, but I didn’t need another card, and saw the Mickey bag. What to put in it?

A couple of aisles over:

Heart-shaped cheerios (which have always been low sugar) with “Mi Amor” on one side and “My Love” on the other. And they were BOGO, too!

Plus, I found a sugar free candy on Amazon which I’d never seen before. Brian seems to have a good opinion of the Ferrero Rocher chocolate hazelnut balls, often giving them as gifts. This is the zero sugar version. I guess he liked them, given what’s left!

So we were prepared if we didn’t find sugar free desserts.

Speaking of, forgot to mention from Tony’s: I did ask the question when the server asked the question, “Did we save room for dessert?”

He was insisting that a plant-based strawberry shortcake (I think that’s what it was) on the menu was sugar free or no sugar added. The menu itself made no such claim. I asked him again and he repeated it was plant-based.

Does our sharp server know sugar isn’t meat?

As you already know, we passed on dessert at Tony’s.