4 go on an adventure October 2017 - Day 13

[Bellesdream]

Monday 30th October 2017

INDEX

We had quite a slow and late start to the day today, think we are all getting tired now! Caitlin and James ate the cupcakes we bought from sprinkles for breakfast! I was nice and healthy and ate a rice crispy mickey head! Well it is holiday after all!
We made our way over to Epcot; the weather had made a turn for the cold and we really felt the chill! We arrived at Epcot just in time for our Fast Pass with Test Track… now you may remember that James has not liked the any fast rides etc…. so, during the queue, we looked at the ride and explained what was going to happen (well as best we could as we had never been on it before) James was enjoying designing his car,

Caitlin loved designing ours.

We got to the ride and…. James wanted to go on it, surprise surprise... we had single riders sat next to us but they caused no problems and we were off… we got off the ride to a very excited James who had LOVED the ride!

I was so happy but also slightly frustrated as it was much faster than any of the other rides that he had refused to do! But it did mean that he had a brilliant memory of Epcot and would be happy to go back next time! When we came out of Test Track we decided to work our way round World Showcase and the Food and Wine Festival – we had been looking forward to using lots of snack credits on the food and enjoying the food/drink.
I warn anyone reading there is a LOT of food eaten today and we loved it! We also had a LOT of snack credits to use up so were planning on using them here.
It really was quite chilly and I was feeling the cold! We grabbed a Mocha and a hot chocolate from Joffrey’s stand to try and heat up a little. From here we walked towards Mexico, we stopped at the Mexico Marketplace and used 2 snack credits on 2 lots of Churros and caramel Sauce. We sat outside as there is no indoor seating there and ate the Churros between us, we all enjoyed these, they are small bitesize churros which were perfect for what we wanted, there were 8 per pack so 4 each.

From here we walked into the Mexico Pavilion and looked around, we went on the ‘Grand Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros’ which was fun, James loved it as it had Donald Duck’s Nephews in – James loved them as he saw them on our way to and from the parks on the Old Key West DVC sign. As we came to the end of the ride we came through the pavilion and through the San Angel Inn inside the pavilion. We came off the ride and read through the menu, everyone said they would like to eat there that evening so I tried to changed our ADR that we had booked for Coral Reef (I had seen some bad reviews on Coral Reef but had kept it in as the kids wanted to eat by the aquarium), we decided that we would try and cancel during the day and would see what happened. When we came out of the Mexican pavilion we were looking in the stalls outside and saw the Epcot Passport, we thought this might be a fun memory for the kids so I purchased this. We then walked through Norway, deciding that the Frozen ride was too long to wait for (40 minutes) we would be here all day so we would keep an eye on the wait time. I remember looking round the pavilion but not seeing anything we really wanted – which is silly as I had researched and knew there were several things I wanted to try! Silly silly me! We continued through to China, Caitlin, James and Stuart went to find the Passport Kid Spot to get our first stamp and sticker, the children decided that they would take it in turns for who would take the passport to the fun spots. James took the first turn with it being China and he loves China, Pandas etc. The CM wrote ‘Dear James’ in Chinese and that made James’ day, I think we could have come home at that point and he wouldn’t have minded he was so happy that he had Chinese in his book and his name in Chinese! I queued up at China Marketplace and used 2 snack credits for Beijing Roasted Duck Bao Bun, with hoisin sauce

and Spicy chicken Bao Bun.

We managed to grab a little tall table and we stood there eating (we had our refilled bottle of water as normal) James doesn’t eat any spicy food at all and usually only eats beige food, he ate all of the spicy chicken Cao Bun! And he loved it. We all tried the duck and it was ok but we wouldn’t go back for it, the chicken yes but the duck wasn’t amazing. We went into the China pavilion, Caitlin had a meet and greet with Mulan – James refused!

There was a big display about Shanghai Disney and James decided that he would like to go there!

We walked back outside and walked around the gardens, they were beautiful and there was a gorgeous view of the Epcot Ball from across the lake.

We walked round to Germany, we did miss some of the food and wine stalls but we didn’t fancy some of the food. I did manage to purchase a couple of soaps from one of the Festival stands, I bought a ‘Cabernet soap’ for our friend is who looked after the house and a beard soap for Stuart for Christmas! It was a great little store by the Africa Food and Wine festival stall, full of all different kinds of soap. We made our way to Germany and the Germany Marketplace where we used 2 snack credits it – Roast Bratwurst in a Pretzel Roll

and Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce.

We all really liked these, I really enjoyed the strudel but I do love strudel! We walked round Germany and had a look round the Germany shop and looked at the Beers available, Stuart didn’t want one so we continued. Caitlin got the passport signed at the Kids spot and it has a very beautiful Pascal drawn so she was really happy! Our next stop was Karamell-Kuche! Yippee… I had been waiting to visit here and I had so many choices that I wanted to try that we all found it quite hard to choose! In the end we used 5 snack credits – 1 Popcorn (to take home, next time it will be more), 2 Chocolate Covered Marshmallows for Caitlin and James,

1 Chocolate cookie with a caramel filling for Stuart

and 1 chocolate covered smores biscuit for me.

We sat by the lake and enjoyed our treats! They were amazing! I was so happy with my choice but I had also wanted the chocolate covered strawberry but I couldn’t eat it as well so I was glad I hadn’t looked at getting it as it would have been a waste as although lovely the chocolate/caramel combination was a bit stickily making! We walked to the next Food and Wine stall – Spain, I had watched a few Vlogs and had seen that the Charcuterie in a cone had been rated very highly, so I used 2 snack credits for Charcuterie in a cone (with a selection of imported Spanish Meats, Cheeses and Olives with a Herb Vinaigrette)

- whoops ate it too quickly!
and Traditional Spanish Paella with Shrimp, Mussels, Chicken and Crispy Chorizo.

We all shared these and really enjoyed them, they were lovely! The Charcuterie was excellent as something different and not being friend etc. We walked round to Italy, James took the Passport to be signed in Kid spot -Pizza drawn so he was really happy! We didn’t get anything to eat here, I think we were quite full from Germany and Spain! But enjoyed looking around the pavilion. We walked on to America and used 2 snack credits for a Root Beer Float and an American Dream from the Fife and Drum Tavern.

Hanson were going to be playing that evening as part of the eats to the beats concerts, Stuart was mean and refused to let me stay to watch, mainly because his sister (who is the same age as me) always used to be listen to them therefore he hated them. We sat in the seating area of the concert and enjoyed our drinks whilst we had a little rest! We were feeling the strain of the food, drink and walking today! After our drinks we went into the American pavilion and had a look round, we didn’t buy anything but did see a lot that we could have bought! We were really restrained really! Caitlin went had the Passport signed by the American team and we decided to walk on to the next area – Japan… We walked into the pavilion, James and Stuart went to the Kid spot again – James had his name written in Japanese which made him really happy. Caitlin and I went into the Japanese shop and looked at all the different sweets etc. We purchased 2 bags of sweets, one was soft chews and one was hard boiled sweets (we have only recently eaten them!) We came out and there were Japanese Drummers who gave a display/show,

we watched and then went to the Japan Food and Wine Festival Stall, I used 1 snack credit to try Wasabi Shumai Steamed Pork Dumplings,

these none of use liked, James refused to try them, Caitlin and I didn’t like them and Stuart ate them but only because we had bought them! Lots of water and we felt a bit better! We walked round to Morocco, we walked round the pavilion, Caitlin got the Passport signed and then I used 2 snack credits for Kefta Pocket: Seasoned Ground Beef in a Pita Pocket
and Spicy Hummus Fries with Cucumber, Tomato, onions and Tzatziki sauce

these were really nice and I really liked them, again nice to have something different. I don’t think the others liked the hummus fries but I quite liked it, we all liked the Kefta pocket though. We walked past the Belgium Food and Wine stall and would have got a waffle but the line was massive and it’s not like we hadn’t had any food or waffles over the holiday so we continued through to France. We walked round, James got the passport signed, I had a look in Les Halles Boulangerie-Patisserie but we decided to get an ice cream, initially we went into L’Artisan des Glaces for a ice cream macaroon but then we realised that it was a little small so we used 3 snack credits on 1 strawberry macaroon,

1 ice cream cone for Caitlin (I think Coconut)

and 1 ice cream cone for James (I think vanilla – notes a little rubbish on this day!)

Stuart decided he didn’t want anything. We went and sat on one of the walls in France and enjoyed the ice cream! It had heated up by now and we were happy for the ice cream! I didn’t think James would eat all of his but he surprised me and ate all of it! We walked round to the UK pavilion and Caitlin got the Passport signed, not a great CM signing! We didn’t’ really fancy anything from the UK – we can eat UK any time! We walked round to Canada and decided to watch o’Canada, this was good to watch, though it did send my Vertigo off a little! I felt a little dizzy and spacy so as we came out we were at the Kid spot so James got the passport signed and we sat together and they coloured in a Duffy bear each.

We came out and decided to go to the Canada Food and Wine stall for 1snack credit – ‘Le Cellier’ Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle butter sauce. This was a little fatty but really lovely, I loved the mushrooms too!

Now we had completed the whole World Showcase! Applause for us! We decided to go to guest relations to ask whether we could change our ADR for Coral Reef to San Angel Inn, the CM at guest services was brilliant and we were able to change it over. We came out and decided to ride on Spaceship Earth, we rode this and then we went for our Fast Pass for Mission Space Green. This was a walk on and we had no time to wait at all (I really can’t remember what we did with our fast passes and I didn’t write it down!) We all LOVED this, we came off and we all wanted to go back on for a second time. Adrenaline junkies Caitlin and Stuart decided to go on the Orange side… James and I stuck to the Green! We are wimps but we loved it! We followed instructions – the little boy who came in our ‘ship with us didn’t follow instructions…. James wasn’t happy about that! Hahaha! We all got off at the same time, Caitlin and Stuart had loved the Orange side but agreed we were best to not have gone on it!
We made our way back to Mexico pavilion for our dinner at San Angel Inn, we checked in and were seated pretty much straight away, we really liked the atmosphere here the only issue we had was that the tables were a little close! We ate –
Tortilla chips and dips to share.
Stuart – Carne Asada Tampiquena and Mousse de Chocolate, root beer to drink

Charlotte – Tacos de Carne and Mousse de Chocolate, Pink lemonade to drink

Caitlin – Tacos al Pastor and I have no idea…. It looks like chocolate cake and ice cream! My notes were not good! Pink lemonade to drink

James – Kids Meal - Steak Tacos and Dulce De Leche Ice Cream and water or chocolate milk to drink

We really enjoyed the meal here and it was nice to have a Mexican as James can be a bit flavour shy but even he really liked it. Caitlin did really well with eating her main as it was really spicy! We left our usual 20% tip. When we had finished we went back onto the ‘Grand Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros’ then we all went to get the Passport signed off at Mexico and then Norway. We walked back to the bus all full and ready to go to bed!

[Goldia]

I'm glad that test track went down well, but as you say it is a bit of a surprise as it's so fast! The snacking and kidcott stops also seem to have been big hit. I could really eat one of those tasty karamel kuche treats.

[Excitedx4]

What a really successful day for you,guys and riding test track too!

[Palm trees]

We've never stayed onsite so haven't benefited from any of the dining plans. Reading through your snack list today is making me both hungry and envious of the plan! It all sounds lovely

[christoby]

Wow, I don't know how you can eat all of that, amazing!

[collybird]

Well done James for being so brave, let him know he rode the fastest ride in Disney so he needn’t be scared of anything else now, what a champ. I love the photo of him with his chocolate marshmallow.

I loved reading about today, Epcot is my favourite park and I just love how on the surface World Showcase doesn’t appear that exciting but it’s actually amazing. It was lovely to see how much the kids got out of today.