A Not So Scary, Very Merry, Not So Solo, Solo Trip. Oct/Nov 2017. Day 4 - Epcot & Disney Springs.

[stace&tink]

Do you ever get up in Florida and those first few steps of the day are agony as your feet seem to still be throbbing from the day before? Well… today started like that. I always struggle with my feet on active holidays (especially since my arches have fallen) – that’s why you’ll pretty much only ever see me wearing sketchers go walks/flip flops or crocs! I wish I could wear lovely sandals etc all day but I just can’t.

Anyways, I was up and ready pretty quick. No brekkie today as I wanted to get to Epcot for EMH opening at 8 am and was planning to hit Food and Wine festival quite hard. I love food and have never done F&W properly so I was very excited to get my passport and go on my food journey around the world.

I arrived at Epcot just after 8am and was straight in.

I headed to Test Track first and rode within 2 minutes going on as a single rider. As much as I quite enjoy designing a car my fave part of the ride is the speed test at the end….I love this bit and would happily ride just that part all day long haha, the rest of the ride really doesn’t do a lot for me so I wasn’t too fussed at missing the design your car section of the queue.

From Test Track I went and had a good look around mouse gear. It was so much more enjoyable when there was no one around. I pretty much had the whole shop to myself. I ended up buying quite a bit, including an Alex and Ani bangle (The Hakuna Matata silver one) and some Thomas Kinkade jigsaw puzzles. I filled out a form to have the puzzles shipped over to POP so I didn’t have to carry them around with me all day.

From here I headed over to Soarin. The queue was only showing as 10 mins so I joined right away.
One of the cast members controlling the queue tried to get me to guess where she was from. She asked me how many were in my party and as soon as I said 1 she replied with “oooh another Brit. Can you guess where I’m from?” I am rubbish at that sort of stuff and had no idea. Her accent gave nothing away and she could have been from anywhere. After a while I think the family behind me could see I was getting a bit fed up so started trying to help me out and guess too. I had no idea where this girl could be from and she was not letting up. She was really pressuring us to keep guessing, Anyways no one guessed and soon enough we could move on in the queue and she finally told us all she was from Egypt! I’d have never guessed Egypt!

By the time my ride on Soarin was finished it was just gone 9am, the park had opened and the queue was going to get longer. I decided to quickly join the queue and ride again. Making a very swift move past Miss Egypt when I reached her podium.
I really loved the new Soarin around the world. I loved Soarin over California too and cannot quite decided if I have a favourite. Both are fantastic.

Next I headed to the Character Spot as I had a fastpass. I think I waited about 10 minutes. Saw the usual Mickey, Goofy and Minnie. Nothing too exciting happened at any of these meets. Goofy gave us a twirl and took my Minnie ears and tried them on, Minnie was really cute.

I had about 30 mins until my spaceship Earth fastpass opened up and the queue for the Inside Out Characters Joy and Sadness was only 20 mins so I went and joined. I’d never met them before so it was fun to tick some more characters off the list. They were really fun however I had an even better meet with them later on in the holiday.

Next was a visit to Judi Dench in Spaceship earth. My feet appreciated the sit down. Not a massively exciting attraction in my opinion but I always enjoy it and it’s a good one for a little rest.

Now it was finally time for the Food and Wine Festival to start. (or world showcase to open) I decided to go anti clockwise around the world showcase as had plans with JA etc to return to F&W later in the holiday and we’d talked about going clockwise when we did it together. I visited 7 countries in total, in about 2 hours, after which I was too full to do anymore.

First stop was Hawai’i. I had the Kalua pork slider and Passion Fruit cheesecake. Both were delicious. I could have easily eaten a 2nd helping of the cheesecake. It came with toasted macadamia nuts, I’m not normally a fan of nuts but this was soooo tasty. I love anything passion fruit to be honest.

Moving on, next was Patagonia where I tried the grilled beef skewer with chimichurri sauce and boniato puree. Again, soooo good! Who knew I liked chimichurri sauce and boniato puree?! Lol.

Next was Australia. I had the grilled sweet and spicy bush berry shrimp. OMG I could eat a bowl full of this right now. I love shrimp, I love sweet, I love spicy and I love sugar snap peas. This was probably my favourite snack of the whole food and wine festival.

From here I hopped over to New Zealand. I had the Lamb meatball in spicy tomatoe chutney. I didn’t like this much to be honest. The meat ball was ok, but it came on a soggy Yorkshire pudding type thing (I’m really fussy about a good Yorkshire pudding lol) and I wasn’t too keen on the sauce. It was ok, but not one I’d go back and have again.

Next stop, Canada. I had to try the Le Cellier wild mushroom beef filet mignon. Ok… I totally see what the fuss is about. It was amazing! Easily the 2nd if not joint first favourite try along with the shrimp.

I had the kefta pocket in Morocco which was very tasty, it was a simple offering but I really enjoyed it. I had a sit down here and rested my feet for 10 mins. I seemed to be struggling today. Thankfully it didn’t last the rest of the holiday.

Final stop for today was Japan, I tried the Teriyaki Ginger Pork. I loved the flavvours but the meat was a bit chewy and fatty so I ended up chucking away half of this. I don’t think it helped that I was starting to feel very full. I called it a day for F&W at this point.

I also watched the drummers in Japan. This was something I wanted to see but hadn’t planned in as such. Good timing as I arrived at the Japan pavilion just as they started their set. They were brilliant.

My last fastpass booked today and my last stop in Epcot today was Frozen Ever After. I had about 20mins to wait until my fastpass window opened. It was boiling hot and I was so thirsty. The only water I could find available in Norway was VOSS water! I was expecting to be ripped off big time as it came in a fancy bottle but it was only 50c more than the normal Dasani water. Still I was paying extra for a fancier bottle that was still destined for the bin within the following 20 minutes.

I also popped into the little Frozen exhibition type place (not really sure what it’s called) to escape the heat and kill some time.

My verdict on Frozen ever after – ok it’s cute and yeh I can totally see why kids would love it. For me, soooo not worth the hype and I definitely wouldn’t queue more than 20 mins for it.

It was now around 2pm and I had plans to go back to POP and chlll out for a bit before going to Disney Springs tonight. I noticed the Bubblegum wall on way out of Epcot and had to go take what now seems to be an obligatory selfie. Haha.

Now, up until this point I had been quite impressed with the Disney buses. That now all changed. 45 minutes I waited for a POP bus (an AOA bus never showed either)…and there were several people waiting in front of me too. I don’t get angry about it but it does really annoy me. Don’t advertise every 20 mins if that’s not the case, and it just makes me feel like an hour of the day has been wasted. I don’t do wasting time in Disney.
Anyways eventually I was back at POP and did manage a little R&R time by the Pool before I needed to get washed and ready to head back out.

I had to buy myself a bag of white chocolate pretzels….I love love love these! And I’m not ashamed to admit I got through a few bags in the 12 days I was there haha.

Tonight I was going to Disney Springs to meet Julie-Anne and her friend Vicki for dinner at the Boat House. I was soooooo looking forward to this. I had originally planned to head to Disney Springs an hour earlier than our reservation to have a wonder around world of Disney and maybe do a bit of shopping but that never happened. I did arrive before JA and Vicki though so stood and watched the amphicars come and go for a bit. It was a very pleasant evening weather wise. Not sweaty warm but not cold either.

Soon enough the ladies arrived, Vicki and I had a hug and hello and we went to check in. We were asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside and decided to sit outside. Later on into the evening we were all so glad we did as it was so loud inside. Outside on the water was so peaceful and relaxing. *Please take me back to that moment now*
Fresh warm bread rolls were brought to the table first and Drinks were first to be ordered.
Up until this evening I had never had a Disney cocktail - I know, I can hear you all gasping through the pc screen! Haha. So….I’m not a big drinker, I don’t really like the taste of alcohol, I’m more than happy with a soft drink or fruit juice. BUT I desperately wanted to try some Disney cocktails.
I asked the ladies to pick a cocktail for me as I had no idea what I would or wouldn’t like. With a little help from the server an alcoholic blueberry lemonade was ordered. It was really nice and though I could taste the vodka it wasn’t too strong at all. – first Disney cocktail was a success.

I believe JA ordered a Mojito and I can’t remember what Vicki went for – possibly a Bellini. She likes her drink and in all honesty I couldn’t keep up with her haha.

This restaurant is 2 dining credits off your plan so I wanted to order something I wouldn’t normally have anywhere else but also wanted to order something that wasn’t too adventurous so I knew I’d like it. I’d never tried lobster before and love mac n cheese so opted for the lobster mac n cheese. It was DELICIOUS! I didn’t want the meal to end and could eat that again in a heartbeat. The portion size was perfect. Don’t get me wrong I could have eaten more but didn’t need to.

For dessert I had the Key lime pie in a mason jar. Again delicious.
I’m really rubbish and can’t remember what JA and Vicki had to eat – I think Vicki had a steak but also remember her being very indecisive when ordering so may have gone with something else lol. This is what I get for not taking any notes and relying on my memory and photos to write this report.

I’ve just now realised that other than the food I took no photos of this evening.

I loved everything about this meal. The food, the drink, the atmosphere…it was such a nice night. If I’m lucky enough to return to WDW one day with dining plan I’d definitely eat here again. It’s probably a little out of my budget to pay OOP though.

Once we’d finished at the boat house we all parted ways and headed off to our resorts. It was getting quite late and we had an early breakfast reservation in Magic Kingdom tomorrow so I decided not to hang around and shop at Disney Springs tonight.

Tomorrow – Magic Kingdom and a Monorail resort bar crawl.

[Pussycat Doll]

Lovely day, the Boathouse is one of our favourites.

[i love jack]

Sounds like a lovely day and perfect evening. Some of those F&W snacks look delicious

[Goldia]

Your poor feet, my DH said last weekend that he really needed to get his feet into training so they'd be ready for our trip this summer...We know exactly what you mean! I hope they didn't hurt too much. It looks like you had some great snacks in world showcase, some lovely looking food.

[stace&tink]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Your poor feet, my DH said last weekend that he really needed to get his feet into training so they'd be ready for our trip this summer...We know exactly what you mean! I hope they didn't hurt too much. It looks like you had some great snacks in world showcase, some lovely looking food.

See more...

I always suffer. Even went to a foot specialist once (After spending a lot of my 2014 trip in tears because my feet were so painful) and got some special insoles but I couldn't get on with them. Luckily I didn't suffer as bad on this trip as I have done in the past. I'm learning what footwear is best for me and the afternoons relaxing by the pool really helped.
I have dlp and Disneyland CA this year. Both will be full on weeks with not much down time... those could be challenging trips.
F&W was great. I'm so glad I've finally done it properly. I do the other half later in the holiday. thank you for reading.

[Nesbits]

I wouldn't go n the frozen ride again (well unless my Grandson asked )

However you must go to the frozen show at California Adventure, it's fantastic!

Nice report, I'm enjoying reading along

[TigerLily8]

That's the exact cocktail I had when we went to the Boathouse - my favourite night/meal of the entire holiday. So jealous! x

[xxSmileyKyliexx]

I don’t think any of us could keep up with Vicki 😂 that Mac n cheese looks yum! I didn’t see the fuss with the frozen ride either! Xx

[disneydaft70]

Fab photos from today at Epcot...we didn’t take any at the Boathouse either, except some rather blurry food ones from a tipsy Vicki’s phone 😂😂😂 I did love my meal here but I don’t think it’s worth 2 credits xx

[NatsyNoo]

Love this day!
I too love everything passionfruit! We'll need to find something at C2C! You' love a Disney Cruise if this is the case by the way!
And that fillet from Le Cellier is indeed to die for - a must do for us every trip!
Your food at the Boathouse sounded yummy!