Showing posts with label Disney Springs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney Springs. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

August 2021: EPCOT / Food & Wine Festival

Our entire trip for August was planned around our resort stays. Since this one was a split stay with one night at Bay Lake Tower and the remaining time at Old Key West, I knew we wanted to revolve days one and two around the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Also, I'd never eaten at The Wave and with its temporary location in the California Grill, I knew we had to go for it! 


It was very hard to say goodbye to our room, though! I would love to stay here again, for a longer period of time.


Walking to the California Grill was a super nice perk! Also, we were able to leave our bags in our room and return later for checkout since the timing was going to overlap. I love it when things work out that way!


It had been AGES since we'd dined at the California Grill but I didn't forget the views. They are gorgeous!


It was such a perfect day, too!


For breakfast, I ordered the sweet potato pancakes. I know these are a huge hit but I personally don't remember them being anything spectacular. They were good but I would still take the waffles at Topolino's any day!


Brayden had the Mickey Waffles with a fruit cup...


...and Jason ordered The Wave feast which we all got to snack on.


After leaving, we walked back over to our room to gather our luggage and check out. We had bell services transfer it all over to Old Key West while we hopped on the monorail to Epcot.


Again, the timing of the whole morning worked out perfectly since Epcot didn't open until 11 a.m.!


Our plans for Epcot included Future World first with a little Food and Wine for late lunch/early dinner.


Pro Tip: If you can travel with it, bring your kids previous trip toys which they will love! (We purchased this bubble wand at a Disney Store...rest in peace...a year ago and he still loves it! We bring batteries and bubble refills!)


One of Brayden's favorite parts of the Living Seas is the huge fish tank! Oh yes, and also the escalators...hah!


The line for Soarin was incredibly short, so we hopped over there, followed by a ride on Living with the Land to say hi to the cucumbers.


Yep, the cucumbers were all in good shape!


We also spied Mickey at the Garden Grill and he was waving to kiddos outside of the restaurant. I thought that was a nice touch!


Early afternoon, we walked over to World Showcase for a little Food & Wine fun!


Our first stop was the Noodles station for Pho, which neither of us had ever tried (even at home) and it was delicious!



By mid day, it was so hot!


We also had Jason's favorite, the pork sliders from Hawaii....


...followed by my favorite, the pot stickers from China!


The traditional Germany photo was not to be missed, either.


In Italy, I tried the Bomboloni which was a cream filled donut with raspberry sauce. I wasn't super impressed because the insides were still frozen. I don't think this treat was meant to be a "frozen" one, so I was kind of confused and it took away from some of the flavor. Oh well...on to the next one!


Jason ordered the Ravioli which we split. It was very tasty!!


Over in America, we took a quick water and shade break because it was HOT, y'all!


Brayden also somehow miraculously took a nap! We had the fans going on him and everything!


While passing America, I heard a familiar group of voices, so I had to stop to see! It was the Voices of Liberty! I love them so much, they are one of my favorite parts of Epcot.


After making our way over to France, we stopped for the Beignet filled with cheese. Normally, this would be right up my alley - bread and cheese, but it was so hot out and this dish was so warm, we just couldn't enjoy it. Instead, we decided to try and find some AC!


Mission accomplished! The old O Canada theater room was so nice and cool and I loved the look!! We didn't order anything inside, but it was nice to chill out (literally) for a few minutes.


With that, we finished up our scavenger hunt and headed back to our resort. We had fun doing this, although Brayden slept through half of it and I had to finish it for him! Hah!


I knew an ominous cloud was heading our way, so we got to the bus stop and made our way to our resort in a flash!


Our room was ready by this point, so we called for our bags and relaxed.


One of my favorite parts of Old Key West are the room sizes!


We also loved the little kitchenette area, as well as the fact that this room include da vacuum cleaner. I know this is crazy, but people with long hair will understand. On our February trip, I remember how dirty the floor of our room at Pop Century got after 5 nights. We might have had housekeeping one night through (I can't remember) but I couldn't stand the hair. Seeing a vacuum cleaner here made me so happy!


The balcony was perfect, too...and right on the golf course!


By this point, Brayden was fully awake and hungry. So, I ran through the rain to get him an order of chicken nuggets at the little quick service area.


By the time I got there, the rain really started to come down. I was incredibly thankful for my rain jacket!


After the rain subsided, we decided to spend our evening at Disney Springs. We split a pizza at Blaze...


...and I HAD to get back to Everglazed. Ive been dreaming about this place since our last trip!


SO GOOD!


...and with that, we called it a night! It was a long but fun day at Disney!


Up next: Hollywood Studios! Stay tuned for more!! :)

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Disney 2021: A Day At Hollywood Studios

On our first full park day with friends, we planned to visit Hollywood Studios and hopefully obtain a Rise of the Resistance boarding group. We also had another Hollywood Studios day planned later in the week, just in case a Rise boarding group didn't work out that day. 

So, around 6:50 a.m. my little group met up in the courtyard outside of our rooms (near the Lady statue) to try our hand.


Sadly, the odds were NOT in our favor for the 7 a.m. boarding group round. It was ok though, because we could try again at 1 p.m. from inside Hollywood Studios and we were ok with that!


Since we were up and ready to go, we decided to join the Skyliner line and hit up Hollywood Studios early. We'd heard that they were letting people inside of the park before official park opening time and we wanted to experience that if so.

The Skyliner line was quite the orchestration at the Caribbean Beach hub, but those cast members knew exactly what they were doing and it all flowed very very well! (However, it looked like a hot mess to the outsider!) 


We had time to stop at Joffrey's for coffee, so we ordered toffee flights! With an incredibly short wait time at the hub, we were off to Hollywood Studios! (I'm pretty sure it was right at 7:45 a.m. when they started running - and HS wasn't set to open until 9 a.m.!)

After arriving at Hollywood Studios, we joined the line for temperature and security screening and by 8:25 a.m., we were inside of the park. It was SO strange seeing it so empty but also incredibly cool to be among the first to enter the park that day!


A new to all of us ride was Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, so we all headed straight there and it was a walk on! 


Runaway Railway is seriously the CUTEST ride EVER! We all loved it! Sadly, we only had the opportunity to ride it one time this trip but will definitely remedy that next time! I think this is Brayden's new favorite WDW ride!


After Runaway Railway, we walked over to Slinky Dog and waited maybe 10-15 minutes to ride. It wasn't long at all! 


So so cute!


After Slinky Dog, Brayden spotted Alien Swirling Saucers which was yet ANOTHER walk on!!

We felt like we had been transported in some kind of magic Disney bubble because this couldn't be real life!

By this point, it was officially 9 a.m. and "park opening time" and we'd already hit three rides - two of them being major headliners with little to no wait!


Next up was Star Wars Land and a ride on the Millenium Falcon. By this point, the lines were growing throughout the park and this one had about a 40 minute wait. Still not bad considering!


After flying the Falcon and crashing horribly, we all enjoyed a little blue milk treat. I've tried both and prefer blue over green. Anyone else?


We returned to Toy Story Land and Toy Story Mania. The posted time here was 75 minutes but we didn't end up waiting that long, thankfully!


He's not a toy but he sure is a cute little fella!


Before lunch, I had to take my traditional "Karen" photo at One Man's Dream. These date back all the way to 2007! On one trip, they changed the outfit to "Cubby" but it was back to Karen and has been ever since!


By this point, it was closer to noon and definitely time for lunch! We tried ABC Commissary and their new (to us) menu. I really really enjoyed the curry shrimp dish. This is totally something I would never order while out and about around home, but I like to try new foods and was pleasantly surprised!


We hung around ABC Commissary for a little while, waiting on 1 p.m. and the time to snag a Rise boarding group. I was also trying to get Brayden to take a nap, but he was not interested in any of that!

Thankfully, we were successful this time and were set to go! YAY!


While waiting for a boarding group, I sent Jason and our friends over to Rock n Roller Coaster while Brayden and I shopped around and again attempted a nap.


The runDisney merchandise inside of Hollywood Studios was by far the best selection I saw out of any and all of the parks! So, if you're headed there, be on the lookout - this store was on the road way headed to Tower of Terror.


This time, our nap time attempt was successful, and we hung out for a few minutes beyond our rise boarding group return time to give him a little time to sleep. People over on instagram were amazed that he still takes naps in the stroller and yes, he definitely does!


Rise was just as amazing as we remembered and Jason tried to get us all in trouble by attempting to convince the resistance that he actually belonged on Tatooine. They were quite funny in their banter back and forth! 


Our last quest of the day was the brand new Scenic Selfies challenge hosted by Disney Vacation Club. After scanning a QR code at a DVC desk, scavengers set out throughout the park to take selfies with the various landmarks/clues put out by the website.


After completing the challenge, you return to the DVC desk, show the guide your completion, and obtain your button! It was a lot of fun and we learned some trivia/facts about the parks we wouldn't have otherwise known!


Our plan for the evening was to return to Disney Springs for dinner. We wanted to try Chicken Guy as none of us had been there yet.


This salad was SO good!! I would definitely order it again!


We ended our evening with dessert at Ghirardelli and it was truly the perfect way to top off our day!


My plan for the next morning was to run the 5K around the lake at Pop Century prior to heading to EPCOT. I truly loved not being at the parks until midnight then waking up and doing it all over the following day. We actually had a chance to relax and get some sleep on this trip and it was perfect to me!

Up next: EPCOT and Festival of the Arts!

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