Legs, Nerds & Wings - Day 11 - Epcot - Food & Wine Festival

[miss_mouse]

Trip Report Index


Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who is 13 and partial to the odd teenage moment and Louis is 10 and our fussy eater.

Monday 22nd October 2012
Day 11 - Epcot

We had another morning with no alarms set. We woke around 7.30am and did our usual of curtains back, balcony doors open and enjoyed the sunrise over the lake with a cup of tea in bed.


(scuse the clean non dryer washing )

We were planning a very laid back afternoon at Epcot.
I'm sure you've noticed by now that pretty much everything is laid back when we are in Orlando. No alarms, no rushing around, no full day parks and no huge queues. This is how we like it

The kids woke around 8.30am. We didn't head out until 10am though. I worked for a bit, Ade dealt with the washing. That's his job whilst we are away as I have to work a couple of hours each day. Whilst we did that the kids did this. They also had some breakfast.



I love that the sun comes straight in to the condo. It's so sunny inside.

So we left at 10am. It was a hot one again.
We headed on to the 192 and made a stop at Super Target our fave store. There's a lovely Starbucks in the front of the store and it's the one thing that I really miss when I'm out here my daily latte fix.
We have a really good coffee machine at home so tend to have 2-4 lattes daily. We both work from home, so it's our daily treat. Plus I tend to start work around 5am and the thought of a good latte helps me get out of bed

So it was cakes, lattes and the kids both just wanted water this morning.

Hollie had a blueberry muffin.


I had the most delicious pumpkin/creamcheese muffin that was sooooo good. It's a favourite of mine that I make at home and this one was just as good.



Louis and Ade had the lemon cake that was super moist.



Louis moaned first though as he's so fussy. He wasn't going to have one but we told him he'd like it. He likes homemade lemon cake so there was no reason he wouldn't like this one.



He did and ate it rather akwardly.
We often go out for coffee as a family at home. It's a treat we all really enjoy. It just feels really relaxing and it's a great time to sit and chat.



Hollie used her ipod to take photos this year and didn't bother bringing her camera that we bought her for the last trip.
We spent $15.39 here and then wandered around Super Target.


We all did some shopping. I got Ade to do sneaky Christmas shopping for some stuff we'd previously seen for Hollie and me managed to buy and take to the car without them noticing he was gone.
(not sure if that's a good or bad thing! )

Over $100 later we were on our way to Epcot.



We got here at 1pm and it looked deserted.
Just how we like it. That's the great thing about arriving later in the day. We parked up in Discover and waited for a tram. There weren't really any other people around.



We waited for a bit. We could have walked down, it wasn't too far but it was too hot and felt like too much trouble.



So we amused ourselves for a bit.





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Until the tram came. The trams now have doors on by the way. A new addition since our last trip a couple of years ago.
We do love the trams for some reason. It's such a Disney thing



More pics during the short and quiet drive in.
I love my ears. I bought them in Epcot back in 2007. Hollie won't wear hers anymore



And my munchkins.



And their sore knees from Aquatica.



More photos when we arrived. (you have to, don't you?!)



Hollie had a few photo ideas of her own before we came out. This was one of them.



The Food and Wine festival was on and we had planned to skip lunch today and have lots of bits in the World Showcase.



Louis was the usual Map Man.



We decided to go in and see what the Fast Pass time was for Soarin first.
It was hot but Hollie was managing.



Soarin was a 60min wait and the fast passes were 8pm. We hadn't planned to stay that late today so we left it.
We wandered back to Spaceship Earth. It's always worth leaving this ride to the afternoon. We've never had to wait for this. It said 5mins waiting time but there wasn't anyone else around.



We all love this ride.
It did stop near the end as we were coming down backwards and we sat there for a while before starting again.



We came out and wandered around. We all love this park and we've always had great days here. It just feels so relaxed.



The boys spotted this but didn't stop.



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Instead we wanted to find Club Cool.



This was another 'Dibb' finding. We'd never heard of this place during our previous visits and loved it here. It's sponsored by Cocoa Cola.
It's a really cool store.



It's fun and bright inside with some really cool merchandise. We spent quite a while in here.



We managed to convince Ade not to buy a Cocoa Cola cap. Caps really don't suit him and he'd bought a Gators cap in Target the other day. And we also had to convince Louis that this wasn't a great idea either.



Boys!

We'd really been looking forward to trying the free samples of fizzy drinks from over the world. The Fanta from Costa Rica was the best and we thought the Italian was the worst.



We thought we'd wander over to Nemo next and bumped in to these cheeky guys.



Louis loves Chip n Dale so was so pleased.
Did you know that Chip is the one with the brown nose as in Chocolate Chip? I never until this trip
There was no photopass photographer and Hollie didn't want to meet them.





I love how Chip n Dale stay in charachter the whole time, they are so funny to watch.
Nemo next, one of my fave rides.





We had a good wander around the aquarium after. The manatees were really active and eating their lettuces. We went up to the top and chatted with the CM sat in with the manatess and chatted to her about them. She was very informative but didn't have the usual Disney spark. Hollie said she reminded her of Amy Farrah Fowler from Big Bang Theory

We enjoyed ourselves here. The toilets were really grubby though I have to say. Hollie bought some bracelets in the little shop for her friends at home and the CM started talking about how much we olook a like. We get that all time. I really don't see it at all.

We took a slow walk over to Misson Space next. As we don't queue we've yet to ride on this. We took some photos on the way. I love how pretty this park is. My sister who had left a few days ago wasn't bothered with this place but it's one of our faves.







We stopped and chatted with the lovely cranberry lady. It was really interesting to hear how cranberries grow and get cropped. They grow on these bushes and then the fields get flooded and left. The cranberries all come away from the bushes and float on the top of the water. She threw a handful in and they just bounced and found a space.



It was so hot so this cool mist was very welcome.



Finally found it to Mission Space.



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We weren't too sure what to expect. We thought we'd try green first as it's tamer. The green wait time was 5mins and the orange 15mins.
We went through really fast but the orange queue was even quicker so it really wasn't 15mins.
It was really fun and we all enjoyed it so went straight on to the orange ride next.
That was funny and such a strange sensation, but none of us felt sick.
A little silliness was then had in the store when we came out.



It was now time to hit the Food and Wine Festival. We were all ready for some food.



There were little kiosks all the way around World Showcase all selling samples of their food and drinks.

We didn't buy food in Mexico, we just sampled their hats. The kids always do this.





The first food stop was China.



We had some Chicken Satay sticks which were $4.25.



We had steak and sweet potato in South Africa. $5



The kids didn't want to try. It was really good though.



We always stop in Germany for a bratwurst. We all love these and have one each time.



I grew up in Germany. My Dad's family are German and although the sausages aren't quite the same they are still really good and I love being around the Germans there too.



We carried on wandering and enjoying the busy atmosphere. It felt a happy place to hang out this afternoon.







I carefully look into each day when I plan. I picked Epcot for this day as Hanson were playing. During the Food and Wine Festival a different singer/band play each day.



We aren't Hanson fans, but thought it would be fun to bop to 'mmmbop'.

We got the the theatre early, some were queuing for front seats We weren't that desperate so had a look around Japan and found Japanese Snow Cones. How cool are these?!



We picked one each and they were just $10.48 for all 4 and were big.



They were perfect on this hot day. Louis loved that when he licked it his tongue got stuck.



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The kids had cherry and Ade and I had watermelon.













It was now time to head back to America for Hanson. We got there just before they started and got seated easily.



It was really good fun and the boys were really good. Some of the girls there knew all the moves. It was so fun to watch. We waited for 'mmmbop' and then left.



We wandered a little more. The sun ws thinking about setting soon which looked so pretty and made some lovely photos. We generally get some of our best holiday photos in this park.



I love this one.



Louis got so excited to find some Chelsea gear in England.
He's had his eye on this away kit and we had to convince him not to buy it. Both of the kids had saved like mad and had a nice amount of spending money but I really didn't want him buying this here. We wanted to get him the set with his name on for Christmas. Thankfully we managed to persuade him.



We got to France and had to go for the escargoes.
One of us though (our fussy one) would not try even with the tempt of being paid to try.



The snails came in these mini brioches smothered in garlic and weren't actually too bad. $5.25. Even Hollie quite liked them. Just a little chewy





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We did check on the queue time for Soarin and it was still 50mins so we walked past.
We popped back in to Club Cool for some more pop, Ade tried to buy the cap again...tut tut!

Hollie asked to stop in the Art shop on the way out which really pleased us. I love them getting older and noticing different things during this trip. We spent quite a long time in here and could have spent a fortune. The artwork was so good and all so different.
I think we might treat ourselves next time we come.

We left the park as the sun was going down.
Final photopass pic of the We decided to call it a day here now. It was getting towards 6pm. We headed through Canada.



And had the last photopass pic of the day.



And an arty one from Ade.



We left around 7pm in the end.
We were glad that we didn't stay for the fireworks tonight. It felt like a perfect day and we were ready to leave. We got back to Bahama Bay at around 7.30pm. Feeling full still from grazing all day but we all finished off our cheesecake from the other day.
We then spent the evening down in the pool with the usual music and buds

It's so nice now the kids are older and not worrying about bedtimes etc..

A perfect day!

We were so excited for the following day.
Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party

[Guest]

Fab day - the food and wine festival is one of our favourite bits of going at that time of year ... theres just something about wandering around and sampling everything !

Looks like you were there a few days before us - we had Billy Ocean

[Guest]

Wow , that food looks ace ! , like the idea of trying something from each country..live on the edge eh !?!

Cracking report with great pics , looking forward to next installment

Cheers !

Dave

[miss_mouse]

Originally Posted by Rollercolster

Fab day - the food and wine festival is one of our favourite bits of going at that time of year ... theres just something about wandering around and sampling everything !

Looks like you were there a few days before us - we had Billy Ocean

See more...

Yea, I did get the feeling that you are doing everything just a few days after us.
I bet Billy Ocean was quite good.

[Guest]

Brilliant day and fab pics