Day 5-Thurs, Oct 29th-French Lunch, Around the World, Food & Wine dinner, ice cream at Ample Hills, Hollywood Studios evening
But first, my apologies!
My apologies for the delay in posting our Day 5 plans. I haven't been as active on the boards in the last few weeks. Work has been a little difficult lately, and I've been extra tired for some reason at home. I survived the first round of furloughs at my work a couple of weeks ago, and my hope is there won't be any more.
Now, on to the plans!
We plan on a slow morning at the lodge. I think we'll probably do an in room breakfast of cereal, donuts, or pastries. Even though we will have the kitchen where we could cook breakfast, I don't think we'll probably do much cooking. We will have all of these snack credits and table service meals to use.
Plan is to head out to Epcot and arrive around 1030 or so, then ride Soarin (Serah's favorite WDW ride), then head over to the France pavillion for a Chefs de France 12pm ADR.
This was a very difficult decision. My vote was to go to Teppan Edo. I live in a semi-democracy in our house, and I was out voted 4-1, so Chefs de France will be our lunch. I'm not sad or anything. In general I like French food. I love the language and culture. I took French class every year from 7th grade through my Senior year in high school. I used to be able to read French novels written in French. I could have conversations with others in French. That was a long time ago. Now, I am lucky if I can say more than just basic greetings, and ask how some one is doing in French. Oh well, perhaps one day I will pick up the language again. I have my eye on the filet here. It was mentioned a few times in a
thread on the Dining section of the DIS a one of the best 1 TS steaks.
I don't think I mentioned this in a previous post, but I have an unusual food allergy. I am allergic to poultry. So no chicken and no turkey. I've never actually tried other birds, but I assume I would probably be allergic to them as well? The lighter the meat, the worse the allergic reaction is. This means I end up eating a lot of beef and pork. I developed this allergy as a child around 7 or 8 I think. At first my parents thought I was being difficult, so once they tricked me into eating chicken parm when they told me it was veal parm. Well after that dinner, that was the last time they ever tried that. I was able to get my allergy confirmed by a allergist when I was a teenager. I guess one advantage as far as Disney is concerned is that I am more likely to get my value from the
DDP!
After lunch, our plan is to explore France more, ride Ratatouille with a 1pm FP if possible (my perfect trip plan is that Disney changes the FP tier system in Epcot, where Soarin is tier 2 and Ratatouille is tier 1), and also see the France film if possible.
We'll head left after France to prevent extra backtracking and walking. I am looking forward to exploring Morocco. In our past trips, I think we had past the pavilion up due to no attractions, but since our last trip, I've learned that there are a lot of details in this pavilion and I'm looking forward to checking it out.
Then to Japan. Serah is looking forward to buying a few fun things from the Mitsukoshi department store. I don't think of the daughters have mentioned anything in particular yet about Japan, but
if you have some ideas, feel free to share them! I thought possibly Zoey would like to do the pearl experience, though I'm not sure how expensive that gets if you want it made into a necklace.
As of now, we plan to check out The American Adventure show. We've never done the show before, and I've heard it is pretty good.
I do want to try the American Dream slush.
The description kind of reminds me of a gelati at Rita's Italian Ice. I'm not sure how many of you have a Rita's around you, but I really do miss getting a gelati from them. Basically a gelati is Italian ice on bottom, a layer of frozen custard (I prefer vanilla), then more italian ice, then more custard on top. We don't have a Rita's in the STL area, but when we visit Serah's mom in Nashville, we always try to make a stop there.
I haven't mentioned anything about Food and Wine snacks yet! I honestly don't know what will be offered. F & W is probably my biggest deficiency in my Disney knowledge. This gives me something to research the next few months before making FP's in late August.
Let me know some of your favorite F & W dishes! I'm the only one allergic poultry, so feel free to reply with any suggestions, even if they include poultry and I'll add them to our watch-list for our trip! Our plan is to kind of do a F & W food graze for dinner using snack credits.
For Italy, just looking forward to exploring the pavilion in general. Hopefully Sergio will be there for some fun entertainment.
I'll probably be get hungry again at this point, especially if I smell Italian food. We are blessed here in STL with Italian food. We have a very vibrant, historic, strong Italian neighborhood called The Hill, and I've been on some culinary journeys with Italian food that I will never forget. If you are ever in STL or driving through, please make a stop and partake in some delicious cuisine on The Hill. A non-profit group recently installed a new
Italian piazza (4 to 5 minute video in link) at the Hill, and the fountain and marble was imported from Italy. I've been to the new piazza once and it was very relaxing and beautiful.
On to Germany. Two things stick out for us on past trips. 1) There was a particular beer that Serah had that we've never seen anywhere else before and she loved it. She wants to get a big one of those if they still have it. We can't remember the name and I haven't taken the time to research it yet. 2) Karamell Kuche! Not sure what delights I will purchase here, but I am looking forward to stopping here. I love me some caramel treats!
For China, I know my two little ones are looking forward to meeting the hero of China, Mulan! We may check out the film here depending on how time is going. If Zoey hasn't had the chance to get her super fancy cotton candy yet, then we'll make sure she gets one this time. I don't think we explored the China pavilion much the last trip, so hopefully we will explore it more this time around.
In Norway, we'll check out the wait times for FEA, and the gift shop as well, though I'm not sure how much else there is to see here?
In Mexico, we'll probably spend a decent amount of time exploring here, ride Grand Fiesta Tour of course! I've heard there are some pretty good chips and queso here? I don't remember where exactly, but it was quick service or a booth of some kind?
Next we'll make the trek across to Canada. Not sure how energy levels will be, but we don't plan on doing this world tour commando style, so it will be more of a see how things go tour. I'd like to see the new Canada film, and get some of that famous Le Cellier cheese soup at Refreshment Port if it is available.
In the UK pavilion, other than general exploring, I'm not sure what else we will do here. I haven't looked into this very much and I can't recall anything in particular other than you can get a decent fish and chips here. I hope they don't scrap the future Mary Poppins attraction here. Mary Poppins is probably my favorite Disney film. I'm thinking of going as Bert to
MNSSHP.
We made it around the world. I'm tired of just typing all of these plans. I have no idea what time it will most likely be after doing all of this. Hopefully we will of had some good F & W dishes by the time we get to the end.
Depending on time and stomachs, we plan to take a boat or walk (feet will be tired by now) from the IG to Boardwalk for some Ample Hills ice cream. I've had this on my to do list for a long time, ever since I saw they have Ooey Gooey Butter Cake ice cream. This butter cake is a STL original, so I think it is pretty neat that they use this in one of their ice creams.
After Ample Hills, we plan on taking the boat back to Epcot, getting to van, driving over to HS so we can see GE at night, maybe ride a few things depending on time, and see the Star Wars Spectacular show. Hopefully the show will still be a thing by the time we go!
After the show, get in van, most likely exhausted, and drive back to WL and crash for the night.
I will say that these plans aren't as solid as some of my other days, so please feel free to tell me I'm being too ambitious or delusional.
Up next, Animal Kingdom, a Yak and Yeti lunch, and Star Wars VOID at Disney Springs!
Thank you for reading! See ya real soon!