LIVE - Animal Kingdom Lodge and winging it! Day 3 Epcot And Garden Grill

[debidee]

Today was Epcot day, we grabbed breakfast down in Mara, all the systems were down so after a mild panic attack due to all the FP disappearing in the app and a free breakfast it was off to collect our friends!

It was a beautiful sunny day and the forecast had changed and now no rain planned for the day which was great!

Whilst waiting in the queue it was time again for selfies

And Jez wearing my ears - he pretends to hate it but I know secretly inside he loves it!

We had FP for sorin which meant we needed to hot foot it over to test track - you can only select one premier FP at Epcot similar to the other parks. We needn't have worried today as the queues were very light again and it was pretty much 10 mins and we were racing around the tracks!

Back over to Sorin at a little after 9am and it was a straight walk on, the new film is good but I miss the smell of the orange groves and pine trees! We spotted the hot air ballon hidden Mickey!

Even though the world showcase doesn't open until 11am we wanted to get over in good time to ride Frozen

We made it over by 10.30am and surprisingly it was already open! It said 20 mins wait but in reality it was only about 10 mins

We decided to ride it again thinking it would be a lot busier later (in fact the queue never got above 30 mins looking at the app throughout the day!)

Next up we headed over to the Coke store, our friends had never experienced the delights of Beverley and after nearly a year of waiting we got them good! Each taking a big old gulp of the stuff before uttering words I cannot repeat on here LOL

The Disney app seemed to have recovered so after some shuffling we ended up on Nemo next

I have those gulls in my head right now saying Mine Mine Mine...

As we were sitting in the sun I was waiting for the perfect Monorail / Train photo... which I think I nailed!

We had booked in ‘The Garden Grill' at 4.20pm (probably our favorite onsite dining) so didn't want to eat too much knowing what was in store later! So water and some crisps to fill a gap was all that was needed

Next FP was the short film festival (in the old honey I shrunk the kids / MJ tribute) - we had seen this before, well at least the first 2 films but I think the 3rd one was new... it's a nice attraction to get out of the sun and rest your feet for 20 mins

This Mickey is awesome

Next up was the big ball earth thingy - I can't remember the official name but I'm sure you know which one I mean!

From here our friends decided to go back to the hotel, we had a dining reservation so we slowly walked back and went on Living with the land

This was pretty much a walk on and we like to look for all the hidden Mickeys

And another one!

We had an hour to kill so went back on Sorin - the queue was 15 mins! I don't think I've ever seen it so quiet and also test track was only 20 mins!

It was now time for dinner and we were booked in ‘The Garden Grill' it's a family style rotating restaurant where the characters come to the table.
It is probably our favorite and the food is unbelievable - you can ask for as much as you want! If you had a spare meal I would highly recommend

We started with fresh salad from the greenhouse downstairs with hot rolls

Dinner was served on a huge skillet - turkey, pork, pot roast with mash, mac n cheese and fries! All with green beans, corn and stuffing!

And finally we had mixed berry warm cake with vanilla cream!

From the characters we had Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale - here are a few of my favorite ones!
I also got the Epcot Starbucks mug but it's still in my bag and I can't turn the light on yet as someone is still snoring!
We are off to Hollywood today... catch up later! Debs xxx

[app]

New Photo Added by debidee - 26 Sep 18 10:47 AM.

[LunaNyteskye]

Loving you reports! That is a brilliantly timed photo of the monorail, well done.

Am I the only person who likes the Beverley?

[mick]

Another great day

Joan

[Cinderella]

Love Jez's ears 😉

[Floridaagogo]

Garden grille food always looks lovely !

[Jake71]

What brilliant day with not too bad wait times at all.

[beegnjasmum]

Your photos are great, love all the angles you've taken.
Amazing wait times! I would love those when we get there next week!
Is that a sneaky wee hidden Mickey on the photo with the salad 😂
Sounds like another great day with loads accomplished. We had a lovely breakfast at garden grill last time, loved the characters and the whole set up of the restaurant.
Enjoy! 😀

[Fuellady]

Can't believe how quiet it is, seems like a great time to visit. Food at Garden Grille looks fab

[eleele]

Really enjoying your trip report!

I have a perfect monorail/ball thingy shot as well - I'm so proud of it!