So, this is where my notes stop. I planned to finish them on the train ride home but...
I apologize if my details are not the greatest for the remainder of my DR.
These next two days were the days I was looking forward to. F&W on our own. Movies and Homecoming in the evening. Eat to the Beat concerts. Sounds perfect. I didn't care if it rained. I mean, I did, but it wouldn't be so bad. Then all this hurricane nonsense messed us all up. I still had every intention of following through with our plan though. We would get up early and do what we could at F&W before retiring to an evening at Disney Springs.
We got to Epcot not long after park opening and it varied from a slight drizzle to nothing at all. Win! And all this hurricane talk kept people out of Epcot. Double win! So, we did Soarin' and Living with the Land and Nemo. Then as we were hanging around waiting for booths to open all music stopped. It was eerie. Then they came on over the PA system and announced that Epcot and all parks would be closing at 5pm today and all parks would be closed tomorrow.
What?!?!? Craziness. Well, this I did not anticipate. I checked the movie theater and found out that they, along with all of Disney Springs, would also be closing at 5pm. Well, poop. I guess we better get our time in now!
We went over to Norway to check on the wait for Frozen, which I had no FP for this trip and we still had yet to ride.
Rob was willing to wait the 45 minutes with me. Yay!
It was super cute and the wait only ended up being about 20 minutes. Awesome!
After we came out of the ride it was starting to rain a bit, so we put on our ponchos and stopped at China to have Sichuan Spicy Chicken and a Strawberry Plum Wine Cooler again.
Then we doubled back and went to New Zealand.
Rob had the Lamb Meatball with Spicy Tomato Chutney.
They have at this at previous festivals and it is always a favorite for us.
I got another one of my past festival favorites, the Steamed Green Lip Mussels with Garlic Butter and Toasted Breadcrumbs.
I love these! The flavor is incredible.
Then I went to Farm Fresh.
You can see they already started removing the signs from the booths and the large large free standing menus outside of each booth were gone. Storm prep in full swing!
Here I got the Loaded Mac 'n' Cheese.
Yum!!!!!!!!! I am picky about Mac n cheese and this lived up to my loft standards. The bacon was so crisp and smoky and and I loved the green onion.
I also got Two Henrys Elderberry Hard Cider.
This was so good! I just tried to get it where I live and they told me it was only available in Florida. Bummer. But this was delicious!
Then we went to Greenhouse Guru. This stand was a disappointment. The CMs were lazy/rude and barely acknowledged our presence and then to top it off, we didn't like the food.
I got the Chilled Tomato Gazpacho with Lump Crab Meat.
This was way too chunky for my taste and honestly, cold crab meat is slightly ick.
Rob got the Duck Confit with Creamy Polenta and Fire-Roasted Salsa.
He was not feeling this dish at all.
Then we stopped next door to the Chocolate Studio where Rob got the Ghirardelli Chocolate Raspberry Torte.
This was as decadent as it looked. He really enjoyed this dessert.
Next I stopped in Ireland because I had to have the Warm Chocolate Pudding one last time.
We really wanted to stick around since it was looking like, with the park closure the next day, it would be our last chance for F&W goodies, but we wanted to get some food for the next day and get back to the room.
I was totally not trusting our ability to be able to get food at the resort the next day and as I stalked Facebook it looked like food and movies at Disney Springs was not happening the next day. Look at this post.
So, I made Rob stop at the bakery in France to get a few treats for the next 36 hours. Then he wanted to go to the Boardwalk Bakery, so we went out the back exit and walked over to Boardwalk. This is where the stress starts.
Just as we are about to walk into the bakery my phone rings and I answer. It was an automated message from Amtrak telling me that our train on Saturday (today was Thursday) was cancelled. That was it. No other info. Needless to say, I panicked. I called Amtrak and found that they could switch us to a train leaving Monday. Oh good Lord. Two more days. Rob was out of vacation and I was nearly out. We had someone watching our dog. I had things to do at work. We had no hotel. So, me being me, I jumped into planner mode and started figuring some things out. Rebooked the train and the town car service. Called work and logged into systems from my phone to do a few important things. Called family. All while in line at the bakery and on the bus to Disney Springs.
We got to Disney Springs and I knew we did not have enough food, so we stopped at WPE for a few additional items. Pizza! Perfect to reheat or even eat cold if heaven forbid we lose power. And for once it was totally empty in here! And everyone was super nice and all abuzz from hurricane craziness. As we were waiting to order the skies opened up and it just POURED! Thankfully it was only drizzling by the time our food was done.
We made the short walk over to our room and dropped off the food, then we hopped on a bus to go over to the lobby to find out about booking a room for two more nights.
Everyone else had some type of issue as well, so it was a long wait and after about 45 minutes we were told to call the reservation line because they couldn't do anything for us. Seriously?! I was pretty annoyed if I'm being honest. I was well aware that EVERYONE had a story and an issue and I'm sure the CMs were being put through it today, but after that long wait we were brushed aside. So, I go sit on a bench and call the reservation line. No availability at SSR, but they could get us in at GF, CS or OKW. We opted for OKW in a studio. We at least got a pass holder rate, but there went a good $500+ we were not anticipating. Ugh.
Then we went to get alcohol, because, why the heck not?!
But the lobby was a madhouse. INSANITY! I was soooooo glad I had the foresight to get food elsewhere since everyone else waited until they got to their resort. The line looked at least 90 minutes long. No sir. So, we went back to our building and Rob walked back over to Disney Springs to get a bottle of wine from the store right across from WPE. And I raided the soda machine for a couple of sodas and bottle of water. And the soda machine ate $5. Salt in the wound. But I finally got my drinks.
Now we were in for the night. The first thing we ate later was a pizza from WPE. Just plain cheese and it was delicious.
And we had some wine.
And I ate my red velvet Sprinkles cupcake from the night before which was AMAZING!
I sat in the whirlpool tub for hours and talked to family and friends back at home to regale them with our stranded in Disney World stories from today. And we watched hurricane coverage because it was the only thing on tv. Then we went to bed praying for our safety and the safety of everyone else in Hurricane Matthew's path. We tried not to the let the other craziness drown out the seriousness of this situation.