A Grand Adventure – May 2019 - Day 2 - Epcot ventures

[lumosq102]

Hello. Well, it has been a while between illness, travel and an utterly manic time at work I haven't been able to dedicate any time to this. Fingers crossed this is all changed now and we are back on track. hopefully a few of you still want to read along! Now, shall we head back to WDW?

Index is here

Day 1 is here

Thursday 16 May – from no sunrise to sunset

Although sleep had come quickly the night before it didn’t stay for long – I woke up again and again before finally giving up and getting out of bed at 5.20am. It was still dark outside so I hurried to get ready for the day so I would be out of the bathroom before R wanted to get up, and before the sun started rising and I could see what photos I could get of the sunrise from this side of the building.

I popped the coffee on en route to the bathroom so by the time I was heading back I could get myself good and caffeinated. How to cope with jetlag the Kirsty way – all the caffeine.

As for that sunrise? Nothing to see here kids, we were on the wrong side of the building. It was here that I started to realise there was a problem with Hercules the camera. He had taken a knock at a recent work event that I was taking photos at but I didn’t realise that it had caused an issue, but he was having serious trouble focusing.



see?

Once the sun was up it was looking gorgeous – it was going to be a beautiful day.



R was enjoying monorail spotting





As we headed back inside we notice that there was a message on the telephone – management had called to check that we still wanted to change rooms today. We called back very swiftly to confirm and were told that we would have a text message that afternoon when our room became available. Huzah!

We called bell services at 6.30 am to take our luggage for the day and headed on out to start our day.



We hopped on the monorail from the Grand Floridian a little after 7am, changing at TTC to head to Epcot. It has become a bit of a tradition for us to start our first full day at Epcot, and today it worked out perfectly with EMH from 8am.

View of the Grand from TTC – it was such a gorgeous morning.



When we arrived at Epcot the lines to go through bag check were absolute carnage, and then there was a line that went all the way back to the path from the car park to get to the turnstiles that were being used for EMH.

There were already a few people lining up for “normal” park hours.



By the time we got into the park it was a few minutes before 8am and instead of panicking to get ahead of the crowds that were in before us, we decided to just relax and mosey around the welcome plaza planter instead. It was less extravagant than in previous years of Flower and Garden festival since they were just about to start pulling down the leave a legacy tombstones.









Lovely, and a nicer way of starting the day than rushing in a crowd. Instead we took a nice slow walk up through Future World and over to the Land Pavilion and Soarin. The hoards ahead of us were already through the line, it said 15 minutes on the way in but we walked straight through the line, pausing only to wait for a show so we could sit front and middle. It really has been so much easier to get on Soarin since they opened the third theatre. I still remember waiting in line for almost 2 hours on my first trip back in 2008. That line is unbearably dull so I can’t say I miss the long lines. I do miss Soarin over California though. My notes just say we need to stop riding Soarin.



We were heading out of the pavilion before we made the very wise decision to head back downstairs and hop on (as there was no line to be seen) Living with the Land.



Forever an Epcot favourite.



It is such a soothing ride



Flower and Garden festival was making its presence known here too











We headed back on out into the park and decided it was time to answer the call of our need for (more) caffeine. We hopped over to Fountain View Starbucks and grabbed a couple of cold brew coffees with sweet vanilla cream. It’s our WDW go juice.

I fell in love with these mugs in line – look at little Mickey dressed as the Dreamfinder – adorable.



Hello my love



We took our coffees and headed for a bench close to the Fountain of Nations and just chilled for a little bit. It was a lovely relaxed way to start our day, and to be able to just take some time to enjoy one of my favourite things in Epcot that would not be around for much longer (and has indeed now closed – seeing the first photos of it drained was just really sad, I’m avoiding the demolition pics). Whilst we were sat here we adjusted our fastpasses for the day since we would no longer need our Living with the Land fastpass, switching it to Nemo instead. Spoilers – we never made it over there.









We decided to grab a photopass photo in front of the fountain whilst there was no line. I thought I had lost these photos when I neglected to download them in time, but I found a couple that I had saved to my phone on the day. Not the best photos, but I was just relieved to have our last photos in front of my beloved fountain.





Leaving the Fountain of Nations, we headed to a booth just along the breezeway to buy our festival gift card we saw the cutest umbrellas, ponchos and raincoats. I was seriously tempted by the Tiki Birds raincoat, and the Tiki Bird umbrella found its way into my suitcase later in the trip…





More topiaries!



I got rather lucky and as we headed towards the butterfly tent this view greeted me:



The perfect Epcot Flower and Garden scene – flower quilt, monorail, blue skies. Not the perfect photo, but certainly a sight for sore eyes. Epcot never looks more beautiful than during Flower and Garden.

[lumosq102]

So, shall we go look at some butterflies?







newborn butterflies!















Waiting for the perfect time to escape and travel the world (showcase)



There is something very zen about the butterfly garden, all running water and tiny wings.



It was 9:45 when we left and we had a little time to kill before our fast pass and no particular plans. I suppose you could say that this fellow inspired us



Yup, it was Figment time. It had no wait at all – we literally walked through the queue and straight into a waiting car



Our chariot!



Here is my Epcot confession. I hate Figment. A lot of the animatronics were not working today so it seemed like the cm’s who look after the rides were not so fond of it either. Well, we had checked it off the list for the next few trips at least.

Lets move on. Shopping! Well, window shopping anyway. We were heading for a little roam around one of the most dangerous places to my bank balance – Mouse Gear.



Pardon the lack of focus (Herc and I were really having a hard time today) but here’s one of the dresses I was convinced would be coming home with me this trip



Who doesn’t want to look like a geodesic sphere? Me apparently, I tried it on later in the trip and it was awful on me.

I became a little obsessed with this little metal earth kits, but completely forgot to pick one up. They’re so cute.



We zipped over to the Art of Disney (also now closed – so long other place that I have spent so much money over the years) and was rather delighted to find this – Fantasmic art!



I adore Fantasmic, it was my favourite Disney film when I was a kid, so was rather delighted to find this. I never did find a print version though.

Next up, it was time to head to our first fastpass of the day – Spaceship Earth. We knew that we wanted to ride this as much as possible this trip as we knew that it wasn’t going to be around in this iteration for much longer.



Geodesic sphere 4 eva



Shall we ride?

















And then came the return to earth, where we got stuck. As usual. We were sat reclined on the hill before your future video for a little over 20 minutes. I can only say this with an air of certainty thanks to the time stamps on my photos – I might have had a little Spaceship Earth nap. I would have preferred to be evac’ed out and got to walk down the ramp, but alas they got it working and we got to see where the future would take us this time.

My future involves tan pants and a brave Mr Majeika hairdo. Pray for me.



40 minutes after we sat in our time machine, we fell back to earth and out to see this:

[lumosq102]

It was a gorgeous WDW day. Bonus – it was 11:15 and the Flower and Garden food booths were open. Time to go find ourselves some yummy snacks!

Loved the Daisy topiary









I knew exactly where I wanted to start – Trowel and Trellis. It was sponsored by Impossible Foods, the meat free meat company that had been making such a stir since our last trip. Everything was vegan at the booth, but I had my eye on this:



Farmhouse Meatball with Lentil Bread, Spinach, Marinated Vegetables, Creamy Herb Dressing (V) – $5.50

And once more after I had taken a bite



This was delicious. Fresh, the bread was gorgeous, like a less flaky paratha, the veggies were glorious, the herb dressing was creamy and cool and as for the meat? I can’t say that it was or wasn’t a great dupe for beef – its been too long since I have eaten the real version - but it was yummy and looked so realistic with the slightly pink centre that I would have been worried if I wasn’t expecting it. I showed great strength in not getting straight back in line and ordering 2 more.

Whilst I had been getting far too excited over a meatball, R had headed off ahead to hop in line at the Mexico booth, Jardin de Fiestas, to pick up one item for her and a cake to share:



Tlacoyo: Blue Corn Masa topped with Black Bean Spread, Ground Chorizo, Queso Fresco and Mexican Cream — $6.50

And

Tres Leches: Milk-soaked Sponge Cake topped with Cajeta Whipped Cream and Almond Powder — $4.50

R loved the tlacoyo, although it was a bit messy to eat the flavours were fresh and plentiful.



The cake was fantastic too, creamy, perfectly fluffy and moist cake with an icing that didn’t feel too sweet. We both loved it. We were also getting good use out of our new plastic cutlery too:



So cute – a Primark purchase that we had brought along so we didn’t have to keep disposing of the plastic cutlery that Disney hand out. Not too much of a faff as it turned out – we just kept them in a little bag in our handbags and rinsed them off in the ladies.

We were not quite done with Mexico yet – time to head to our favourite new-ish stand, Choza de Margarita.



We both adore the Guac here, if you have read my previous trip reports you will have seen me wax lyrical about the delights of the guacamole, the glorious fried chicharrones, that hot sauce and the seeds, mango chutney… heaven. We had missed it so we would of course make a trip here a priority. And whilst we were here it would be rude not to get a couple of frozen margaritas. It WAS almost 5pm back home after all.



We both went with our usuals – fiesta (all three flavours) for me, classic lime for R.

We were really feeling the heat however, so we took our snackage and headed into the Odyssey building where I knew they had hidden some seating away. We lucked into a table with actual chairs, so we collapsed into cool cool metal chairs in that lovely a/c on max building.



Not a bad place for a little rest. That first day heat was taking it out of us already.

Yum



We ate, we drank, we chilled (literally and figuratively) before we headed back on outside into that heat. We had friends that we wanted to visit



I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally see these topiaries in person, and now I was no longer stuffing my face I could get a decent picture of them, before heading on inside the pavilion to get on their ride.



How you can tell its festival season? There was a line to get on. The horror!
Always worth it though.











This here is Epcot bliss for me. There is something about the sounds and smells on this ride that takes me straight to my happy place. Its just joy, pure tranquill joy.



Cuties



Back in the showcase we were starting to get a little cloud cover, but the temperatures were not cooling from the lack of sun – it was already 31 degrees and we were not at the hottest point of the day yet. Phew.



It’s so beautiful though



It was a little after 1pm and it was time for our next fastpass – time to go back, back over the falls with Frozen



According to my notes there was some weirdness at the touch points with someone trying to scam the system. Isn’t there always? People have much more gall than I do.

We were through the FP line in a jiffy and soon on our boat greeting these lovely fellows:







I’m not going to make the joke again.







It’s adorable



We decided to head quickly around to the American pavilion to watch the next Voices of Liberty performance, but I couldn’t resist pausing to take another picture of the lagoon. It’s just so beautiful and we were both having that first day holy heck we are hear moment – after months of planning its always such a shock to be stood there, in your happy place, breathing it in.



We made it in, and managed to get seats on the lovely cool marble floor by the red circle, but not front and centre – we were a little too late for the primo seats. They were terrific, as usual.



They included Seize the Day from Newsies which was new too us – the choir lead introduced the song by saying it was a reminder that it was up to us to be the change we want to see in the world. I may have got a little teary.

Sick of lake views yet?

[lumosq102]

It was a little after 2pm when we started to head out of Epcot, heading towards the International Gateway entrance, but of course I was waylaid by topiaries. Muppets! I adore Kermit, have done since I was little



The Rainbow Connection makes R cry, so I may have been a cruel cruel friend humming the song as we moseyed along.



The view from the France bridge towards the UK



This seems like old hat now, but as we exited Epcot we were both so excited to see the Skyliner gondolas overhead. We were surprised at just how fast they were passing through – they really to have some speed to them. So cool though, can’t wait to ride them on our next trip out.





Seeing one uncovered with its character art on show was a bit of a thrill too



We were heading to Disney Springs for the afternoon and decided that the most sensible route would be to wander over to Beach Club and pick up the bus there. Buses don’t start running to Springs from the parks until 4pm, and on our last trip we were waiting from a little before 4pm for almost half an hour in the blazing sun before a bus turned up – this time we were ready.



We love the Crescent Lake area. Must stay here again soon, even if it’s a split stay. Its such a lovely area, and so convenient.

The face of someone who has turned around one too many times to find me 50 steps behind, taking photos. The ever patient Kirsty R.



Tomorrow!



Our bus plan seemed terribly sensible, but we just missed a bus as we walked up to the Beach Club bus stop. Drat. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait too long until the next one as that bus stop seemed to be the gathering place for the last of the love bugs. Ick.

As we sat waiting for the bus I checked my email to find that we had a message saying our new room was ready. Fantastic.





It was a little after 3pm by the time we arrived at Disney Springs. Our first stop was World of Disney. We had bought our park tickets directly from Disney & the offer included a free Toy Story Land magicband. Never ones to miss out on free merch, we headed on in and proceeded to get utterly lost in the new store layout.

I was very tempted by this:



Before we settled on Kirsty R and Kirsty W, I was known as Barbie Kirsty for my love of all things pink and Barbie, so really, not too much of a shock. She should have made it back with me – she’d look great next to my Marilyn Barbie…

We eventually found a cast member who went off to track down another cast member who would be able to get our freebies for us. It was a little bit of a faff, but look how cute:



Because we are a couple of luddites (not really) we were not enjoying the new World of Disney (its so open, its unsettling and was not inspiring purchases) so we exited out on the Marketplace side of the store and headed on in to the Co-op.

I really wish I had picked this up - I adore Hercules, especially Meg, and the art style is so up my street, so I took a snap with the intention of coming back for the smaller print back in the trip. I failed.



And of course, I had to step into the Dress Shop briefly to see where all my spending money would be going later in the trip. Spoiler – I did make it back here…



After a little wander around the Christmas Shop our tummies were calling to us – it was time for our traditional first day dinner.



Someone was excited



And who isn’t excited for Pizza?



Blaze have the most amazing soda too. R went with a good old fashioned lemonade, but I went with my forever love, the black cherry soda. This stuff is so so delicious.



We didn’t have to wait too long until our pizza’s were ready – R’s up first:



And then mine shortly thereafter.



We both made a mistake and added ricotta to our pizzas – we both love cheese. All cheese. But ricotta doesn’t work on pizza. Everything else however was delicious and looking at this now, I want Blaze pizza. I always want Blaze pizza.



Sigh.

As we sat enjoying our pizza we decided to have a look to see what fast passes we could get for Hollywood studios that evening – we lucked out and managed to get a fast pass before just before closing for Alien Swirling Saucers. Huzzah! It was that or Muppets, nothing else available at all, so we must have got lucky as someone else cancelled their plans.

Pizza consumed, tummies happy we headed on out, nipping into Sephora quickly (for us, that’s a 30 minute visit) for a few essentials before scooting round to the bus stop to head back to the Flo. There were a few people in line so we figured that we hadn’t recently missed a bus.

We waited.

And waited.

And waited.

We eventually made it to the Grand at 6.30 – an hour and a half after we arrived at the bus stop. I love Disney Springs, getting back after Springs always seems to be a nightmare.

However – we had excitement afoot – new room! Sure, we would only be in it for the night, but it was lovely, and had room for us to sort ourselves out and get ready for our next days adventure.





Entrance, closet and kitchenette



Bathroom part 1



That shower is heaven itself


Bathroom part 2 – you can close it off with a sliding door so 2 people can be getting ready at once – essential for us



Inside the closet



The little kitchenette



These beds are like clouds





We were looking out towards the main building and the monorail beam again



And the sun was just starting to set… lovely. We were on the same side of the building as our first room, so although we didn’t have a sunrise view, we had a glorious view of the sunset.



Room giddily inspected, we called bell services to come up and deliver our cases up to our room. It was a little before 7pm by the time they arrived, which to be fair was just about 10 minutes after we called down. Our delayed journey back from Springs had really pushed our evening back. Studios was due to close at 9pm, but by the time we would get there we would only have an hour in the park. We decided to give it up and stay in, ready for our early start and adventure over to Port Canaveral in the morning.

We unpacked our “essentials” from Sephora:

My mini haul -


The Drunk Elephant kit was my birthday gift for being a Beauty Insider member – its free to join, you earn points to redeem little samples & they gift you something lovely like this on your birthday so if you are a makeup person its well worth signing up (and completely free).


R’s bounty –



We showered the day away, pulled on our jammies and applied our eye masks, happy to have a peaceful end to our day (and adjust a little more to the time zone – we’re always more tired on the evening of our first full day than we are on arrival day)

We did have to spend a little more time with that sunset before settling in for some quality bad tv though



Glorious





Monorail!



There was a young girl having her Quinceańera photo shoot down by the fountain – it was a long one, she had been in the entrance as we were getting off the bus. Her dress was fabulous, and she was holding up brilliantly considering how hot it still was.



The last gasp of the sunset.



Looking back towards the main building





Yes, I do pull the camera out whenever I see a monorail. I’m that person.



I eventually pulled myself away from the balcony for an evening tucked up in our room watching whodunnits (it was the husband). That view is just glorious, I could have stayed out there all night happily.



R pulled down the single bed under the TV & we were both in the land of nod by 11pm, ready for an early start and finally getting back on Disney Cruise Line after 5 years away the next morning. We were both obnoxiously excited. I know, what else is new…

Day 3 is here

[Palm trees]

Your Epcot photos are fantastic, it's so beautiful, especially with all the flowers.

[Tinkermom]

Stunning photos, can’t wait to hear more about your trip!

[Goldia]

I'm so excited to see that you're back with the next day. I'm sorry to read that you've been poorly. I hope you're feeling much better now.

I'm trying to see what's wrong with the focus in the photos but I'm afraid I'm too much of a luddite to spot. Sorry!

Epcot looks stunning in the morning with the brilliant blue sky. Plus the photos of the butterfly garden are glorious.

Oh no. You hate Figment. That's sad for me to read. I'll try and forgive you.

Lots of tasty treats from the world showcase. It definitely is 5 o clock somewhere and no need for an excuse for a marg in the world showcase. I love the Fiesta one too.

It sounds like it was really hotting up with the temperature in WS, it's terrible for shade out there.

You must have been shattered by the end of the day. Beautiful sunset photos though.

Aah, so nice to have another day to read. Thanks for sharing it Kirsty x

[DisneyElles]

Grand Floridian villas look absolutely stunning. Love the fiesta margarita! What a great day. Love some Meg and Herc merch as well, so glad Disney are bringing the 90s back!

[lumosq102]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Your Epcot photos are fantastic, it's so beautiful, especially with all the flowers.

See more...

Thank you so much Its never more beautiful than during Flower and Garden Festival

Originally Posted by Tinkermom

Stunning photos, can’t wait to hear more about your trip!

See more...

Thank you I've been editing photos like a crazy person today - hopefully we will have this back on track shortly. It has been lovely to go through the photos again - especially the cruise ones. Hopefully they'll upload quickly and I can get on with the writing!

Originally Posted by Goldia

I'm so excited to see that you're back with the next day. I'm sorry to read that you've been poorly. I hope you're feeling much better now.

I'm trying to see what's wrong with the focus in the photos but I'm afraid I'm too much of a luddite to spot. Sorry!

Epcot looks stunning in the morning with the brilliant blue sky. Plus the photos of the butterfly garden are glorious.

Oh no. You hate Figment. That's sad for me to read. I'll try and forgive you.

Lots of tasty treats from the world showcase. It definitely is 5 o clock somewhere and no need for an excuse for a marg in the world showcase. I love the Fiesta one too.

It sounds like it was really hotting up with the temperature in WS, it's terrible for shade out there.

You must have been shattered by the end of the day. Beautiful sunset photos though.

Aah, so nice to have another day to read. Thanks for sharing it Kirsty x

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Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

So sorry about the figment issue. We never gelled. I tried!

We really were exhausted by the end of the day. It tends to be when it catches up with us - i think this was the first time it cut our day quite so short though! AT least we got to see that sunset though, it was glorious...

Originally Posted by DisneyElles

Grand Floridian villas look absolutely stunning. Love the fiesta margarita! What a great day. Love some Meg and Herc merch as well, so glad Disney are bringing the 90s back!

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They're gorgeous - i prefer them to the main Grand Flo buildings TBH, they feel much nicer.

Have you seen the new Hercules merch in the UK Disney Store? So so cute