DAY 1 -- OCTOBER 13TH
I've been back for a couple of days so I figure it is time to start this thing.
It was strange but not in a bad way to not be getting up at 3am to catch the first flight of the day out of PHL. Our flight was not until 12:00 so I was able to get a reasonable amount of sleep after working until 10:30 the night before.
A's parents picked me up and we made it to the airport with no troubles. The check in process with Southwest was so much smoother than Spirit or Frontier. We breezed through the TSA line and had some time to kill so I grabbed some food from Burger King.
The flight was uneventful and after watching the first two episodes of Loki we were landing at MCO. There was a little wait for our bag but nothing too crazy. We grabbed our rental car with no issues this time and we were on our way.
At 3:55, we were greeted by this sight and we were back home.
It had been a while since the airport BK, so food was the first thing on our minds. We stopped at the Flavors From Fire booth for a snack.
Spiced Chocolate Tart with BBQ potato chip crust, salted whisky-caramel, and smoked sea salt – $4.75
This was very rich but quite tasty. It hit all the notes: sweet, salty, smoky, smooth, crispy.
A got the corned beef chips that he loves so he was a happy camper.
Our next stop would be Guardians. I woke up at 7am at home and got us a boarding group just in case. From everything that I have read, they are very lenient when it comes to return times at GotG (unlike Tron). My thoughts were to give it a try and the worst they would tell us was no. We scanned our bands and it flashed blue but the CM didn't even look at us or say anything but hit a button on his screen and we turned green and off we went. Our punishment, however, for bending the rules was getting stuck with Conga...
After saving the galaxy, we started our first of many laps around WS but not before making a stop in the Odyssey building for some wings.
Garlic-Parmesan Wings – $7.50
Sun King Brewing Caipirinha Lager
Brew Hub French Connection IPA
3 Daughters Brewing Old Fashion Porter
The wings had good flavor but they could have been hotter and crispier. The beers were all pretty average. The Caipirinha Lager was the best of the bunch. It had a little hint of lime and was nice and refreshing.
We made our way over to Mexico and got lucky and there was a fiesta that day so we took a boat ride to find everyone's favorite duck. The line actually stretched all the way back to the ramp at the entrance to the pyramid but it moved quickly.
We strolled around for a while before stopping again in America for some food from the "new-ish" Flavors of America booth.
Chilaquiles: Corn Tortilla Chips tossed in Salsa Verde with Ranchero Chicken, Queso Fresco, Cilantro-Lime Crema and a Soft-Poached Egg – $6.75
Rogue Dreamland American Lager
The chilaquiles had great flavor and I thought there was a decent amount of food in the bowl for the price. My chips were a little on the stale side but once everything was mixed together it wasn't as big of a problem. I don't quite understand why that was at the America booth but it was good and filling nonetheless.
Again, the beer was pretty average. I actually ordered a different beer but the CM rang it up wrong but I just rolled with it instead of complaining.
While eating, I was able to indulge my late teenager self and got to listen to Hoobastank's performance. I thought I knew more of their songs but the only ones I recognized were their two biggest hits which they ended their set with including my favorite song:
We moved on after that and continued around WS. We decided that were going to make our way out of the park since it was getting close to closing time but we had to stop first for an old favorite.
Guinness Baileys Coffee Shake — $12.00
This one never disappoints. The coffee taste is not very strong at all which is why I enjoy it. But it is a great drink/dessert that I wish they would keep around all year long.
While we were finishing our shakes, we overheard a group of women with what I assume was their mother in a scooter talking. The mother was saying how she loved a Guinness and two shots of Jameson. A woman after my own heart! One of the daughters came back with this shake and let the mother taste it. Her eyes lit up and she refused to give it back!
After our drinks, A needed a bathroom break. The bathrooms in England are currently closed for renovation so they have the bathrooms at World Showplace between England and Canada open. If you have never used these restroom, they are very large. When A came back, he had a big grin on his face. He told me that while he was in there, there was a man who was actually measuring the size of the bathroom by counting paces and exclaimed in a thick Southern drawl "This place is so big, you could land a Cessna in here!" For the rest of the trip, whenever one of us needed to use the bathroom, we often times would say that we needed to "land a Cessna."
We left Epcot after that and headed over to Disney Springs to get something more substantial for dinner and landed on Polite Pig. I wasn't terribly hungry so I went with the BBQ Meatballs -- House Brisket, Cheddar Grits and Layla’s Sweet BBQ Sauce. These were very yummy and just the perfect size for my hunger at the time. The only thing I didn't enjoy was that it was covered in crispy onions that were not mentioned in the description and I am not a fan of onions at all. I was able to push them off to the side though. I remembered that I didn't take a picture of them halfway though eating and I didn't think any one wanted to see my half eaten meatballs.
We wandered around DS for a little bit after that before calling it a night. We were staying one night at the Doubletree right outside of DS so we didn't have far to go. I had checked in already on the app but when trying to access the digital key so we could just go to the room it told me that I had to go to the front desk. We pulled in and the lobby area was under construction so it took a bit to figure out where I had to go in. We finally found the side door that lead to the makeshift front desk that was set up in a hallway. They checked my ID and ran my credit card and we were finally good to go to the room but no without our complimentary warm chocolate chip cookies and bottled water.
UP NEXT: Back to DS for brunch and off to AK
