Adult Spring Break: Flower & Garden (& Food.. & Drink) and Universal updated 4/19

[pepperandchips]

Hi friends! I'm editing this post as my pre-trip report morphs into a full fledged trip report. First up are some introductions:

(Me, my sister, and the Mouse himself - I'm on the right)

I'm Melinda and I'm trying my hand at a report for a longer Orlando trip. I reported a short jaunt to Universal over Martin Luther King day weekend, and you can check that out here if you're interested.

This time I went down to Orlando for 9 nights for "adult spring break". My partner, R, works in the academic realm and is thus beholden to the school calendar for travel availability. I try to get down to Orlando as much as possible, so his availability for a whole week was too much for me to pass up. We enjoyed the amenities and space of Wyndham Bonnet Creek Vacation Resort on for seven nights of Disney and Orlando goodness (starting April 1) before moving to Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando on April 8.

R and I love roller coasters and thrill rides just as much as we enjoy down time spent in Harambe watching Burudika band with a Safari Amber in hand. We're pretty laid back tourers, but I love to plan these trips (escapism at its best, amirite?) I discovered my love for Universal in January and R reconnected with his already established fondness for the Studios and Islands of Adventure on the same trip. We were most looking forward to express pass, the culinary delights of City Walk, the schtick of quotable lines in the Mummy, and the adrenaline of all Universal has to offer.

I'd be remiss not to wax poetic about my love for Disney, but you can probably tell from my signature line that I'm pretty well attached to the Mouse and my absolute favorite time to visit Walt Disney World is during Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot. Fortunately, I was able to visit Flower & Garden twice last year, once in March and once in May -- so I had really been looking forward to revisiting some old favorites and checking out all that's new and on offer this year.

R is less of a Disneyphile than I am, so his request for this trip was that we spend a little more time enjoying the resorts - WBC has a LOT of great pool areas - and take a day trip to one of Florida's gorgeous beaches. I know, I know, he made a lot of selfish, unreasonable demands... But we nevertheless took one day to drive a couple of hours to enjoy the sun and sand.

My mom and my sister came along with us as well - I'll call them D and L here.

I am going to edit some of the below posts, but just know this started out as a pre-trip report if you start noticing that some of the verb tenses get wonky. If you are following along, please say hi! It's so much more fun knowing who I'm talking to

 

[pepperandchips]

Adult Spring Break Trip Report: The Index

• Introductions and welcome
• A mini trip report and more of our pre-trip report plans
• More pre-trip report plans with some Universal and offsite food pics
• Day one: Arrival Day (4/1) with photo tour of our 2 Bedroom Deluxe unit at Wyndham Bonnet Creek
• Day two, part one: Epcot in the rain
• Day two, part two: a visit to the I Drive outlets, and Hash House a Go Go with pictures
• Day three: beach day and a beach dining experience
• Day four: part one - Magic Kingdom and Kona brunch
• Day four: part two - LOTS of Epcot photos!
• Ahead in day four: lots more photos, we finish up at Epcot, and go to two more Disney resorts in one day! (coming up next)

 

[pepperandchips]

A mini trip report from a last minute trip I took during the planning phase...

Well in the last week many more of our plans are taking shape. My sister and mom are definitely planning to come, we've lined up a dog sitter, and... Oh yeah... I took a 72 hour trip to Disney World this week!

I found myself with a couple days off when I accepted a new job, so I took a whirlwind tour of Flower & Garden Festival!

My sister was also able to join me, and we had a great time. We stayed at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista, located just next to Disney Springs across the elevated pedestrian bridge. I would absolutely stay there again - we got a great rate (about $100 per night, inclusive of all taxes, resort fee, and parking charges).

I had a solo day before picking up D (my sister) from the airport, so I spent that time checking out some of the Flower and Garden offerings and taking a lot of photos in Animal Kingdom! Here are some highlights from that trip before I go on with the plans for April.

We found the photo booth in the Figment exit and had fun with that. I'm a platinum passholder so my pass comes with unlimited photo downloads. I have been trying to take advantage of the photo pass photographers and noticed the photo booths I'd read about here on the dis.

We spent a lot of time snacking around Flower and Garden:

Pulled pork "slider" from the Smokehouse at Flower & Garden - this is pretty large and I would not call it a slider. Topped with coleslaw and fried onions, you can sauce it to your liking nearby.

Florida Larder Board from Farm Fresh Booth at Flower & Garden - local ricotta, country pate, pickled onions, crostini. This was good!

Field Greens salad from Cider House kiosk at Flower & Garden. This was ok - mine had been sitting too near a heat lamp or something so the cheese had melted.

Of course, we had to stop along the way for drinks:

Avocado margarita from La Cava del Tequila "to go" - I normally love this drink but this specific one wasn't as good. I do love the Tajin seasoning rim.


We started the next day at Epcot before heading back to Animal Kingdom (can you guess what our favorite park is?)

Poulet au Pistou sandwich from Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie located in France in the World Showcase. This is my favorite breakfast in WDW - served hot and super tasty. This is LARGE so I shared this and the pastry below with my sister for breakfast and we were full.

Frangipane pastry, flaky pastry layers filled with an almond paste. Delicious!


The first night had ended at the Poly with drinks:

Lapu Lapu and Backscratcher from Tambu Lounge

Lapu Lapu "refill" - love the Tiki glass!

Dawa Bloody Mary from the Dawa Bar in Animal Kingdom (Africa). This was very good! I enjoyed this on my solo day.

Smokehouse booth at Flower & Garden offerings - Brisket Burnt Ends Hash, Chocolate Cake with Bourbon Caramel Sauce, and Beer Flight. The Hash is probably my top choice from the Flower & Garden booths but the cake was just okay. I expected it to be more rich and moist. The caramel on it was the highlight. The beer flight was good and I will definitely be getting another one of those in April.

Changing gears...

Back to the topic at hand... Our April plans! We are headed down mainly for:

Flower and Garden festival! In 2015, Flower and Garden easily unseated Food & Wine as my favorite time to visit. In addition to the great outdoor kitchens for unique food offerings you can't get at other times of the year, the topiary displays and flower quilts make the park simply gorgeous.

Here are our park plans:

Saturday, 4/2: Epcot in the morning, Animal Kingdom in the afternoon. Possibly with dinner at Sanaa?
Sunday, 4/3: going to the beach to meet up with R's family
Monday, 4/4: Magic Kingdom in the morning, Epcot in the afternoon
Tuesday, 4/5: Sleep in and pool day, perhaps heading to Magic Kingdom in the evening. Planning to take everyone to Miller's Ale House for dinner
Wednesday, 4/6: Animal Kingdom in the morning/early afternoon, perhaps a swim break and then Epcot in the late afternoon/evening
Thursday, 4/7: Hollywood Studios in the morning, Magic Kingdom at night. May hit Flower and Garden for the last time in between for lunch.

SWAP TO UNIVERSAL!

Friday, 4/8: Check out of Wyndham Bonnet Creek, check in to Royal Pacific Resort. Mom and Sis are staying at Cabana Bay, but we can check in there later. This evening is Grad Bash at Universal, so it will be a day we wind things up early. Thinking we may do Hash House a Go Go for dinner this evening and check out the pool after dinner.
Saturday, 4/9: Early entry for Wizarding World, early lunch at Leaky Cauldron, enjoy later park hours this evening
Sunday, 4/10: Enjoy last day at Universal Parks, lunch at NBC Sports Grill & Brew, drive home

 

[jamieann]

I'm in! Great photos! I'm a photographer in my non-Disney life but can never bring myself to lug around my DSLR at the parks. What do you shoot with?

 

[pepperandchips]

I'm in! Great photos! I'm a photographer in my non-Disney life but can never bring myself to lug around my DSLR at the parks. What do you shoot with?

Thank you! I am NOT a photographer basically anywhere except Disney... haha. I am trying to work on my skills and theme parks have been a fun place to practice so far. I shoot Nikon - I bought a used D90 body and I mainly shoot with a 35mm 1.8 prime, but I also have a used Nikon 18-300 mm that I took some of the photos in my posts above with. I don't love the zoom lens and am still having trouble with focus and sharpness on it, but I wanted to have a little more flexibility at the parks to go from the safari to food pictures and not have to carry multiple lenses. The jury is still out.

Incidentally, that sort of leads to another quandary that I hadn't thought to put in my trip report but still thinking about recently, and that's photography and Universal Parks. I had so much fun writing my Universal trip report for my January trip that I definitely want to do another one. I also had a great time carrying around my big ol' clunky DSLR on my little 72 hour mini trip, but at Disney there are plenty of rides you can bring your belongings on. Not so much at Universal - whether due to the motion of the ride or licensing concerns, the camera usually must go into a locker. I have a hedwig backpack (image below) that I carried last time at Universal and obviously the big DSLR will not fit inside poor Hedwig. So the question is... do I haul around my DSLR or just take iPhone pictures again? The only point & shoot I have is so old that the image quality is better on my phone, I think.

Fun problems to have!

 

[pepperandchips]

Hi everyone! 19 days for this happy DIS-er. Of course I have been doing a happy dance since Saturday when we reached the three week mark, and I've probably been driving poor R crazy with my constant "in 3 weeks we'll be doing..."

However, my family has recently started showing the telltale signs of getting excited and geared up for our trip almost as much as I am. This, of course, warms any crazy Disney planner's heart. R asked this weekend if we were planning on driving through the night again - OF COURSE was my answer - who doesn't want to add an extra few hours of park time to the trip and avoid traffic? So we'll set out about 1:00 AM on April 2nd, headed for the happiest place on earth with lots of coffee on hand!

I am trying to firm up final plans without getting too carried away planning out every detail of the trip. My travel companions are all type-B while I'm an obsessive planner and worrier. Since I've had the pleasure and privilege of about 50 park days over the last 2 years, it's easier for me to let go and just enjoy the ambiance instead of running around to attractions. Or at least that's what I tell myself. Right now the only ADR I'm holding is for a Kona brunch - not sure whether that will be on Sunday or Monday. If R's mom is able to join us for a beach day, we'll be hitting an Atlantic beach on Monday. If she's not going to make it, we'll meet up with R's sister at a gulf beach on Sunday.

Tentative dining plans:

• Sanaa, probably the night we get in. We're going to be hitting Epcot first and doing some snacking around Flower & Garden before checking in and hoping for a rest midday. Then we'll move on to the Animal Kingdom and probably stay there until park close at 6, so Sanaa will likely be our next stop. The bar area is great at Sanaa, so I may not even make a reservation.
• Kona, Sunday or Monday (whichever does not end up being our beach day), for brunch. We'll rope drop Magic Kingdom, take a break for brunch and naps, and then move on to Epcot where we'll likely get dinner either via the Flower & Garden booths or maybe snag a last minute ADR at Tokyo Dining for sushi.
• Eating meals at the resort - we're staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek (the condos/timeshare) so we'll have a full kitchen. This will be great for breakfasts, snacks, and maybe even a lunch at the resort. I'm planning to make pasta salad and some dips for light lunch fare and we'll bring plenty of snacks and breakfast items.
• Miller's Ale House - Tuesday is our pool/resort day so I'm hoping to do lunch at the condo and a somewhat early (at least for us) dinner at Miller's Ale House before heading back to hit Magic Kingdom at night. I just love the neon of Tomorrowland after sundown.
• Mexican - I'm a Mexican food-a-holic, so I've solicited advice from friends on the Orlando Hotels & Attractions board for an offsite Mexican restaurant. We've done Hacienda de San Angel and it just doesn't appeal. So we're thinking Chuy's, Agave Azul, Border Grill, or Tijuana Flats, depending on how fancy we want to get and how authentic we're wanting to experience! This will likely be Thursday evening.
• Hash House a Go Go - this is one of my favorite restaurants - I think - I've been twice to the International Drive location. Friday is Grad Bash at Universal, so the parks are closing early to be overrun by teens. We'll probably hit Hash House and then spend an evening by the pool.
• Pistachio muffins from Croissant Moon in Islands of Adventure. Enough said. As many as I can handle.
• Cowfish/Vivo/NBC Sports Grill and Brew. I don't know how to fit these favorites in but I will get in as much Universal culinary goodness as I can!

Can you tell we like food? Eating on vacation is its own sort of fun. And with that I'll leave you with some food pics....

Portobello sandwich with side Caesar salad from Hash House a Go Go

Sage fried chicken salad from Hash House

the legendary croissant moon pistachio muffin - doesn't look like much but man is it good

another glamour shot of my beloved

delicious wings from NBC sports grill & brew

 

[jamieann]

Thank you! I am NOT a photographer basically anywhere except Disney... haha. I am trying to work on my skills and theme parks have been a fun place to practice so far. I shoot Nikon - I bought a used D90 body and I mainly shoot with a 35mm 1.8 prime, but I also have a used Nikon 18-300 mm that I took some of the photos in my posts above with. I don't love the zoom lens and am still having trouble with focus and sharpness on it, but I wanted to have a little more flexibility at the parks to go from the safari to food pictures and not have to carry multiple lenses. The jury is still out.

Incidentally, that sort of leads to another quandary that I hadn't thought to put in my trip report but still thinking about recently, and that's photography and Universal Parks. I had so much fun writing my Universal trip report for my January trip that I definitely want to do another one. I also had a great time carrying around my big ol' clunky DSLR on my little 72 hour mini trip, but at Disney there are plenty of rides you can bring your belongings on. Not so much at Universal - whether due to the motion of the ride or licensing concerns, the camera usually must go into a locker. I have a hedwig backpack (image below) that I carried last time at Universal and obviously the big DSLR will not fit inside poor Hedwig. So the question is... do I haul around my DSLR or just take iPhone pictures again? The only point & shoot I have is so old that the image quality is better on my phone, I think.

Fun problems to have!

That is a bit of a conundrum! I haven't spent much time at Universal but have read about the locker/belongings situation and think if/when we do take a trip I will try to improvise and go totally bag free. For Disney I LOVE my Kavu rope bag and it's actually big enough to hold my DSLR. I'm just scared to run the risk of taking my *best* DSLR into the parks. If anything happened to it I would be up a creek when time to shoot weddings rolls around! Like you said, fun problems to have

SO jealous that you're 19 days out! October is a loooong way away

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Hi, I'm going in April, too. Mostly WDW, but I'm doing the Universal luau on evening of April 9. I also like the Flower and Garden Festival more than the Food and Wine Festival.

 

[pepperandchips]

Hi, I'm going in April, too. Mostly WDW, but I'm doing the Universal luau on evening of April 9. I also like the Flower and Garden Festival more than the Food and Wine Festival.

yay! glad to have you here. Spring in Orlando is just gorgeous. I can't contain my excitement! We have not checked into the Luau since we're trying to squeeze so much into so little time but it sounds like it would be a really fun experience.

 

[tortilla24]

Fun! I appreciate all of your help on my PTR... excited to read yours!

 

[pepperandchips]

Well my signature may say 2 weeks and one day, but it's just two weeks until I get to take an evening "nap" and depart for Orlando!

I spoke to my mom this afternoon and since she and my sister are now definitely coming I went ahead and got her Universal Orlando ticket (from Undercover Tourist). She very generously bought me, R, and my sister each a Universal ticket for Christmas but had planned on sending the three of us without going herself. R and I converted our tickets to annual passes during our January trip, and I'm encouraging my mom and sister to do the same. The ticket I got for my mom is a 2 day park hopper plus an extra day free. It's the "promo" ticket that expires at the end of May, so I really hope we don't have any issues converting it to an annual pass. If they bridge it as usual after entry, her upgrade will cost nothing. My sister's upgrade should be about $32. I hope they don't raise annual pass prices between now and our trip!

We all have Disney annual passes so there will be no additional cost for the Disney admission beyond what we paid in October. I did upgrade my pass to a platinum pass so that I could get the unlimited photo downloads - the upgrade cost was less than memory maker and we've gotten some great photopass photos since then... not to mention the ride photos! Since the passes are already paid for, it makes more park days at Disney World more tempting.

I have been an avid follower of other trip reports and pre-trip reports here on the boards, and a certain fellow poster has made me really want to get over to Discovery Cove (one day, I will) and Aquatica (one day soon, I will)! And with aquatica tickets available for single day admission as low as $30ish, I'm really trying to figure out if there is a way to fit it in... Even though we have 9 days in Orlando, it already feels too short! Taking a day for a beach trip, at least one day for a low-key pool/resort day, and 3 days for Universal means I've only got 4 dedicated Disney days! You'd think after just arriving back home I'd be okay with adding only another 4 days in the Disney parks. It's so hard to make planning decisions because there are so many really great sounding attractions in Orlando. My sister (D) mentioned that she wanted to visit a water park in the future -- I was hoping this might be our opportunity but I don't really want to sacrifice a Disney or Universal day for a waterpark and I also don't want to exhaust our bunch by swapping one of the resort or beach days for more lines and adrenaline. What to do what to do?! Perhaps if we are Disneyed out by Thursday...

Another thing that's at a premium this trip beyond our time is money. Actually I believe that's at a premium for every trip for everyone... but I am looking into some additional ways to save. In the past, I churned target gift cards for Disney gift cards, but with Raise and Cardpool offers for discounted Target cards drying up, I didn't really put any effort into it for this trip and now I'm kicking myself a little for that. I am planning on a lunch at Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom, so I was thinking about buying discounted McCormick & Schmick gift cards (you can pick them up for 20% off) and using that in combination with our annual pass discount for a handy 30% savings, but I am afraid of buying the McCormick & Schmick gift cards and changing our plans for lunch that day and getting stuck with them. We're not likely to eat in other Landry's restaurants. I guess there is a really good chance that we'll be back in Orlando though, and I am fairly certain you can use these to pay for drinks at the bar at both Yak & Yeti table service as well as the Rainforest Cafe so maybe I will head on over to Cardpool after all.

There's not too much left to plan for - I'd like to drive my car down to Orlando instead of R's, but right now my car is full of all my office junk! I started my new job last Wednesday and have been driving around with my office decor and personal office supplies in my car since I left my last job. I'm in a temporary office at the new gig in anticipation of some office shuffling, so I haven't wanted to bring in my things only to have to move them again in a week. We should be doing the great office switcheroo next week so hopefully we can drive my car down after all.

Still left to do are buying supplies and making some snacks to take down, painting my magic band (can't have a standard one, now can I?) and ordering a monorail cover for my new purple band, packing, and... waiting. Ugh. I'm ready to go... NOW!

 

[pepperandchips]

Fun! I appreciate all of your help on my PTR... excited to read yours!

Welcome tortilla! So glad to have you here reading along!

 

[pepperandchips]

Well the day has come that I can officially say I am SEVEN DAYS out from vacation! This time next week (if all goes as planned) I will be at Epcot enjoying Flower and Garden and the gorgeous Orlando sunshine

This means I am down to the real crunch time of the week before vacation!!! The most exciting stress there is. This weekend I will be making a first grocery run (gotta pick up groceries for my contribution to the Easter celebrations tomorrow) and I will plan a "final" grocery run on Wednesday. Thursday I have a work event in the evening and Friday after work we'll be trying to sleep for a couple of hours ahead of our drive down. Last night I went ahead and placed an order for a box from Amazon prime pantry - we've done this in the past when staying at a Disney resort and while we drive, it's nice to arrive to the resort without having had to tote down a whole trunk of supplies.

Having the extra space at Bonnet Creek means I am planning one lunch at the resort comprised of heavy snacks that we can munch on for the whole trip - a Mediterranean pasta salad with chicken and seven layer Mexican dip. From Amazon I ordered noodles for pasta salad, tortilla chips, beans and green chiles for the 7 layer dip, bottled water, la croix sparkling waters, Coke Zero, solo cups, larabars for R for breakfast, Rice Krispies treats, and some canned cheese dip (hey, it's vacation). The delivery should arrive at the resort on Thursday 3/31 ahead of our 4/2 arrival so I am pleased with my timing on that order.

Since my last update, I also ordered and received my magic band decals. I used My Fantasy Bands, which I discovered from Instagram. The owner of the store recommends that if you are leaving within 2 weeks, you should order priority processing/shipping, but since I was right at two weeks out I declined the priority option and figured I would roll the dice. I ordered my decals on March 19th and received them on March 23rd! Great turnaround time and the shipping was free.

I chose the monorail design for myself to apply to my new purple (!!!!) magic band. I've already applied that one, which was an easier task than I expected, and it looks great. I chose a combo of BB8 and R2D2 for R's band, a Cheshire Cat design for my sister, and a Flower and Garden design for my mom.

Off to do laundry and get out the suitcases this morning before heading to grocery shop.

Seven days!!!

 

[DisneyaHolic23]

Your trip sounds really fun!

You might try one of those discount gift card sites for a Landry gift card...

Also, I read that your partner enjoys the resorts - have you ever done a Monorail Drink-a-Thon/snack crawl? Super fun way to see the resorts. We even found some inexpensive Monorail Drink-a-Thon passports online.

I can't wait for your post-trip photos! Have a blast! Wish we had a Disney World trip coming up! We are doing the Disneyland Food & Wine for the first time next month.

 

[pepperandchips]

Does anyone else get a case of the "last minute"s? I did the last minute prime pantry order and then I decided subsequently that I needed to finalize the "maybe" plan I had to rent some camera gear. Which led to a last minute camera gear order...

I think I mentioned that I changed jobs recently and I've been driving around my office stuff in my car. Well, Friday the coworker occupying my "new" office moved some of his stuff to his new office, so IT came by and moved my computer and phone to my new office, but it was still full of my coworker's stuff! So we had a weird switcheroo day but they finally helped us move all of his stuff out and I was able to start bringing in the stuff from my car. I'll try to get a photo of my new view. Loving my new work digs, and happy to say I am loving the new job!

I also bit the bullet late last week and went ahead and used some of my vacation account funds to purchase a few Disney gift cards from target with my 5% red card discount. It was SO easy to change my red debit over to my Disney Chase account (where I direct deposit part of my paycheck each pay period so that I have a vacation savings fund). So I will at least have a small discount on some of our flower and garden snacks (the 5% target discount). I also went ahead and purchased the discount McCormick and Schmick gift cards. I figured we will easily spend $100 between the four of us for lunch so I might as well take advantage of the savings All of the gift cards have arrived in the mail, and so long as the McCormick and Schmick ones work, I'll be in good shape.

Above are my two newest magic bands - the purple one I covered with the monorail decal from My Fantasy Bands and I think it looks great. The only downside is that I have a lot of Magic Bandits that I love to express my "flair" and the monorail decal covers up the "extra" fastener holes so I can't jazz up the monorail band with all my Magic Bandits. So I figured I would settle for my passholder slider The other band started out as yellow, which you can see around the edges, but I painted it with sparkly coral nail polish. I couldn't possibly be seen in the parks with a STANDARD color band! Haha. It's jazzed up with my Minnie watch slider (so that my magic band will FINALLY tell time!), a splash mountain ride vehicle bandit, and Fozzie bear. Wocka wocka!

Fortunately (or unfortunately?) for me, there's a camera and lens rental shop that does business out of Atlanta within a reasonable drive from my office, so last night I caved and succumbed to something I've been longing to do over the last two years... I rented a wide(r)-angle lens I've been coveting and a higher quality point and shoot than my old Nikon coolpix. I haven't used my point and shoot at all in years since I bought my DSLR since I use my iPhone in place of a point and shoot. But I wanted something smaller than my DSLR and better than my iPhone for Universal. So enter the rental. Total price for the lens and the camera with insurance was only about $150 for the 10 day rental so I think it will be well worth it. I just hope I don't decide I need to purchase one of those two items after the "test drive"...

Tonight after work I got serious about my packing so I have a lot of things picked out and ready for final packing. Of course I can't pack toiletries, shoes I will need later this week, etc. so I am a long way from ready to go but I am starting to corral things into the same room. Just a few days now until Friday night!

 

[pepperandchips]

Your trip sounds really fun!

You might try one of those discount gift card sites for a Landry gift card...

Also, I read that your partner enjoys the resorts - have you ever done a Monorail Drink-a-Thon/snack crawl? Super fun way to see the resorts. We even found some inexpensive Monorail Drink-a-Thon passports online.

I can't wait for your post-trip photos! Have a blast! Wish we had a Disney World trip coming up! We are doing the Disneyland Food & Wine for the first time next month.

So glad to have you here!!!

We have not done a true monorail crawl but we have done a few stops here and there! We ate a late dinner at the Wave bar in the contemporary and then had a nightcap of delicious chocolate martinis at Mizner's in the Grand Flo back during our December pre-Christmas trip. R was trying to be manly and had ordered something different to start with at Mizner's but after one sip of my chocolate martini he knew he would be having one of those for round two We really enjoyed Mizner's more than I thought we would. We had weird service at the Wave... Not bad, just weird, and I was afraid it was going to send that night sideways but we had a wonderful server at the Grand Flo and it really turned our night around. Pixie Dust in a less sugary sweet way (though with some sugary sweet drinks).

This time I will be looking for a way to squeeze in Trader Sam's again so that my mom can enjoy the antics. She is a big fan of the tiki room so I think she will love the vibe. We like Trader Sam's but I actually prefer the Tambu Lounge (I can't be the only one that wishes a backscratcher was available in Trader Sam's right?) so it's probably a one drink only location.

I am so jealous of your Disneyland F&W trip! Ironically when I really got sucked into Disney big time I was wanting to plan a F&W trip out at Disneyland and I believe that was the year they announced the hiatus due to California Adventure construction (2013 or 2014?), so we "settled" for Disney World instead. Next year I turn 30 so I am hoping to do a Disneyland/Hawaii trip to celebrate! I hope you will do a write up of your trip and culinary adventures!!

 

[pepperandchips]

Well, with just a day and a half before departure, I have officially lost my mind!

Long story short, I've got ANOTHER Disney trip planned for less than 3 weeks after we return from this trip. You see I have this very lovely friend who owns DVC and she had some points expiring so she offered them to me... so we are booked for a two night jaunt down to see Rivers of Light just a week after it premieres. We will be spending Friday through Sunday at the Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani. We will have a one bedroom standard unit and I am so excited! I have been wanting to stay at Kidani and am looking forward to Rivers of Light. Animal Kingdom is my favorite Disney Park so this is going to be exciting.

The other thing I am most excited about for our upcoming trip (leaving tomorrow night! AAAH!) is showing my mom and my sister this little beauty...

And this gorgeously themed park...

I know they are going to love Universal. I am going to love returning!

We are trying to decide whether to leave tomorrow evening around 7:00 pm (after Atlanta traffic dies down) or take a long nap after work and leave between 1-2:00 AM. I think I would sleep better if we arrive at the hotel around 1-2:00 AM and take our long nap there rather than at home, because I usually have a hard time sleeping since I'm so excited to leave. My only reservation leaving at 7:00 is that I think there will be fewer units available for us to choose between if we arrive at the resort at 1:30 in the morning than if we check in at 1:30 in the afternoon. I know that's a roll of the dice though, so we haven't decided yet.

The only other thing in our plans that's really changed is that the camera rental company I used called me earlier this week and let me know the point and shoot I rented isn't available... so they are upgrading me to a better model for free!

Just another day and a half of work before our trip!

Can't wait for more of these views.

 

[danesporty]

Looking forward to your report! Loved the last one!

 

[pepperandchips]

Day One: Travel Day (4/1)

Apologies in advance: my imgur is doing something squirrelly with the size of photos I usually like to post. I will try to get the kinks worked out before the next update!

I woke up on our departure day to a dreary grey dawn. My office observes "casual Friday" so of course I had to show some Disney flair in anticipation of my trip so I wore a Minnie top I picked up at the Disney Character Warehouse outlet on my last trip.

Fridays we have department meetings, and shortly thereafter I'd planned to drop by Aperturent in Atlanta to pick up some photography supplies I'd rented for the trip. Well of course, things never go as planned on vacation departure days so one of my supervisors asked to take a few of us to lunch. So much for my lunch errand! Fortunately the office was quiet and a lot of folks were out, so at the urging of my coworkers, I left around 2:00 to grab the camera stuff before heading home.

We had originally planned to sleep after work and leave around 1:00 AM, but since the office was so quiet and I could sneak out early, we decided to leave as soon as I got home and we could throw everything into the car. I think we probably got on the road around 3:00 that afternoon. Of course, everyone else in Atlanta was already on the road around 3:00 that afternoon, so traffic heading south on I-75 was AWFUL! (This is why we usually drive through the night). We ended up using google maps and taking some odd detours but we only added about an hour to our usual total drive time despite the traffic, so we were okay with the detours.

Check in area

Looking away from check in desk - I must have been tired - these pictures are all tilted!


We passed the sights of I-drive in Orlando just after 10:00 pm and arrived at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek around 10:25. We had a very enthusiastic gentleman assist us at the check-in counter, who was oddly adamant about not giving us the room the system had assigned us (a first floor parking lot view in Building 1). The assigned room would have been fine with us, especially given the late hour, and we liked the convenience of a first floor room during our last visit. I did ask for Tower 5 again, but nothing was open. However, a lake view room in Tower 4 was available on the 7th floor. We were in 769 and really enjoyed this room and the view. I snapped a few pictures before we junked up the room, but they are a bit dim since it was pretty late. As an aside, we skipped the "parking pass" desk entirely (this is the timeshare sales desk, which we have no interest in) and had no problems at all during the week without the parking pass.

Kitchen area

Living room

Master bed (king)

Master bath

Shower room - master bath

Tub area - master bath

Second bedroom - two full beds

Second bedroom from another angle

Second bath - tub/shower combo

Night view looking toward tower 2 & 3

Night view looking toward main building

We got into the room and I then sent poor R on a goose chase to locate a shipment I'd ordered to be delivered to the resort - we have used Prime Pantry (from Amazon) several times in the past but this was our first experience trying to ship anything to Wyndham Bonnet Creek. The first person assisting us overlooked the box, so the subsequent luggage services personnel checked high and low (for about an hour) before finding our package right where it was supposed to be.

We got water, sparkling water, coke zero, larabars, tortilla chips, some dip supplies (refried beans and green chiles), cheese dip, solo cups, rice krispies treats, and pasta. This filled our flat-rate box 100% but it was convenient not to lug everything down to Orlando (or get it from the overpriced Gooding's) so I felt it was worth the $5.95 shipping cost. The cost for these supplies was about $40.00. The prices were comparable with my local Kroger and Publix stores.

The Prime Pantry shipment - one bag of chips was oddly unsealed... the chips were not stale and were still fresh as one certain member of our party was not afraid to test the open bag...

My mom (L) and sister (D) were supposed to be getting on the road after my sister concluded her work shift on Friday night, so we were expecting them in the wee hours of the morning - about 5:00 AM or so. We added their names to the reservation with the front desk and expected to see them in the morning after they took a nap. We finally got to bed a little after midnight.

Up next: Epcot rope drop! Where are my mom and sister?

Just a little teaser of the view in the day time:

 

[pepperandchips]

Day 2 – April 2 – Saturday

We awoke in sunny, tropical Florida to a grey, sullen sky. Womp womp. And still no sign of the rest of our travel compadres! It turns out my sister had fallen asleep for a bit after her shift, and she and my mom left a little later than they’d planned. We agreed that they’d just join us at Epcot later in the morning once they’d had a chance to grab keys at the resort and drop off their bags.

R and I were up and at ‘em as early as we could manage after our late bedtime, and we were inside Epcot by 8:55. We had a fairly close parking spot although we did see that they had reserved the best spaces for "preferred parking". I can't believe Disney is doing that... what next, Fastpasses for the tram? Anyway, back on topic...

We knew we wanted to beeline straight to Test Track since we did not have Fastpasses at Epcot that day – we knew we’d wait at least a few minutes since we were too late for “rope drop” near Electric Umbrella as we had waited there in the past at Epcot’s opening hour. The line was pretty backed up as it appeared the cast members had just opened the queue. We ended up waiting about 30 minutes total but it didn’t seem long.

It was just R and me that morning and we got assigned to spot 7 or something like that in the line to go in to design your vehicle – but since no one was assigned to the spots behind us, we separated and each made our own test cars on the empty screens.

My tiny car did pretty well! But R's did even better and strangely enough we had both made teeny tiny eco-cars. I guess we are truly birds of a feather.

It was a good thing we had decided to wait for Test Track first thing, as once we finished the ride it began lightly raining (and test track tends to go down during rain). We decided to try to wait out the weather (and stay near the front of the park, should the rest of my family arrive) by boarding our time machines and taking a trip through the history of human communication aboard Spaceship Earth.

We waited about 10 minutes which was fine since the queue was under the shelter of my favorite geodesic sphere. We chose the “health” option on the descent which I had never done for some reason. R made a delightful face for the photo so I was nearly in tears laughing at our version of the future that Judi Dench “just happ’m’ed to know about”.

We headed toward Journey into Imagination with Figment and R took his first tour through the creative process. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t forced him to ride it with me before – this ride needs some major love but I enjoyed it anyway. The disappearing butterfly always blows my mind and I took the opportunity to snap a few photos.

I don’t know why I love this little purple dragon so much, but I do.

R liked seeing Robin Williams in the queue

We seized the opportunity to document our day by visiting the photopass photobooth at the Figment exit. Ironically we chose a pirates border, so here you have me in my Animal Kingdom ears in Epcot with a MK themed photo. Oh well.

R suggested we go check out the butterfly house, as we’d both enjoyed it last year, but mostly we just got rained on and were absolutely dumbfounded by a child (who was old enough to know better) trying to touch as many of the butterflies as she could. As in tromping through the flower plantings in order to put her ruthless little paws all over the butterflies.

Butterfly Chrysalis’ hatching

As we exited the butterfly house, I received word that my mom and sister had arrived and were working toward us from the park entrance. It was still drizzling but we wanted to have snacks from the Flower & Garden Festival Booths so we did our best to put on smiles and get excited about the food offerings. For contrast to the weather we had later in the trip, I present this adorable topiary duo:

We stopped first at Pineapple Promenade, because I’m not officially on a Disney vacation until I get a dole whip. Better even if it has rum.

“Pineapple Soft Serve” aka Dole Whip with Parrot Bay rum aka “Adult Whip” $10 – not a good value but totally worth it

We then visited the Urban Farm Eats booth where we sampled the “Watermelon Salad with Pickled Onions, B&W Gourmet Farms Baby Arugula, Feta and Balsamic Reduction” ($3.75), the “Vegetable and White Bean ‘Naanwich’ with Arugula Pesto and Oven-dried Tomatoes featuring Seeds of Change® Quinoa, Brown & Red Rice” ($4.75), and the “Seared Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Ragoût, Spring Vegetables and Marble Potatoes” ($6.00). Sorry I don’t have photos – it was raining pretty heavily by this point and it was all I could do to hold my pineapple soft serve, keep the naanwich from getting rained on, and find a place to eat. Everything was pretty good – I loved the watermelon salad last year and just thought it was good (not great) this year. The naanwich was good but I think it should have also been $3.75. I did not try the pork but my mom enjoyed it.

The Canada beer cart wasn’t open (bummer) so we headed back to France to try to find some booze to alleviate the rainy day blues. I was also looking forward to the food at the France festival booth since I had not had a chance to try it this year. Again, sorry I did not grab any pictures. We tried the duck ($5.75), the onion tart ($4.50), and the slushy (but of course) - $9.95. I thought the duck and the tart were worth their price and Disney booze is just always ridiculously overpriced but I’m willing to pay it anyway. We enjoyed our snacks inside the France Pavilion at Les Halles since it wasn’t busy and we needed a roof. It was a needed rest and shortly we were on the move again…

stolen from a different day’s photo stash… spoiler alert! We’ll have these again

We continued our adventure toward the back of World Showcase, but not before noticing that the France kiosk and several others along the way were closed. We overheard a CM telling would-be customers that they were temporarily shuttered due to lightning. This added further to our mounting grumpiness as we had been looking forward to the Florida Fresh booth, but we settled for grapefruit beers in Germany to ease our pain. My sister opted for a boozy slush from Morocco. We grabbed some caramel popcorn from Karamel Kuche before finally deciding to throw in the towel. The rain finally won, since we knew we’d be back and there were plenty of things on our “want to do” list that did not require us to stand around in the rain miserable and wet. I knew that my mom would be very tired from driving through the night and we’d all benefit from a rest and not overdoing our first park day. So with that, we cut our losses and left Epcot.

Stay tuned for the rest of our day… including a really delicious dinner at Hash House a Go Go!