Now is the Best Time! Our 2024 Florida Road Trip (complete)

[mickey916]

I love the beignets at FQ. I need to try the gumbo one of these trips!
We have had lack luster service and food at Kona so it is low on our list now.

Definitely try the gumbo! It is more spicy than the usual-Disney "spicy" but not crazy hot. We won't be making any ADRs at Kona any time soon either.

 

[mickey916]

4/14 1900 Park Fare Breakfast
​

A little backstory: One of the ADRs we had booked for our May 2020 trip was breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, mostly because I wanted to try the strawberry soup. Well, we all know how that turned out. Ever since then I’ve been waiting for 1900 PF to reopen. As our 60 day ADR date approached, rumors began to circulate that they may open soon. I said to DH, “you watch as soon as I book everything, they’ll open up 1900 Park Fare.” Sure enough the day after I booked all my ADRs news came out that it would open the week we were scheduled to be there. So, I shuffled things around and opened up a spot for dinner on 4/14. Mind you, the full menus were not released prior to the opening of ADRs. The day the ADRs opened up I got on my computer very early in the morning continually refreshing until I was able to book an ADR for dinner on 4/14. A few days later the menus were published and DH and I realized the breakfast menu had more things on it that suited our tastes. So, I set a search on the Stakeout app and eventually scored a breakfast ressie right at 8 am for 4/14 and canceled an ADR for Trattoria Al Forno breakfast as well as my 1900 PF dinner ADR. We were very excited to finally try the strawberry soup.

That morning, we drove to the Grand Floridian and were told by the guard that we had to park in the castmember parking lot across the street. Once we parked it was a bit confusing to even find the restaurant but we arrived in plenty of time. I can’t wait until they allow those with ADRs to park at the resort again.

As soon as the restaurant opened we were seated at a nice four top table. We both appreciated the new decor.

As a side note, before we arrived my DH kept saying “I can’t wait to meet Snow White” and I kept telling him “No. It’s Cinderella, Tiana, Mirabel and Aladdin.” Well, lo and behold, Aladdin wasn’t there that morning and who filled in? Snow White. Looks like DH was right after all, lol.

We headed up to the buffet to fill our plates before the characters stopped by.

On my first plate: Eggs Benedict, sausage, bacon, cheesy eggs, and beef hash.

Sadly even though we were the very first people at the buffet that morning everything was room temperature at best. It was pretty obvious the food had already been sitting out a long time before the restaurant opened. I couldn’t eat the cold eggs benedict but the rest of it was fine. The beef hash was actually delicious as well as the cheesy eggs, if only they were even a little bit warm.

My second plate: tots, bread pudding, cinnamon pull apart bread and breakfast pizza.

This plate fared a little better as the sweet items didn’t really need to be warm. The breakfast pizza was cold though. The cinnamon pull-apart bread was the best thing here.

My DH’s first plate: cheesy eggs, cinnamon pull-apart bread, bread pudding, beef hash and ham.

The ham was his favorite but his plate suffered from the same room temperature problem as mine did.

DH’s second plate: tots and breakfast pizza, his favorite items.

For dessert we each got a bowl of the long-awaited cold Strawberry Soup. This was already pre-proportioned in bowls but there were strawberries and whipped cream to add to the top, which we did.

Unfortunately the cold soup suffered the same fate as the rest of the food. It was room temperature. It tasted like warm strawberry yogurt. Very disappointing.

We also shared some pastries: guava danish, banana bread and vegan triple chocolate muffin (and DH got another slice of ham).

The guava danish was very crunchy but good. The banana bread was okay. The vegan triple chocolate muffin was absolutely delicious. It was fudgy and chocolatey. It was easily the very best thing we had all morning. DH actually went back for a second one and contemplated becoming vegan after that dessert…haha.

The Wish ceremony was cute. We wished for great weather for the remainder of our trip and amazingly our wish came true.

The character interaction was also very good. Mirabel was really fun as DH was wearing similar colored glasses to her so she commented on that. We got so caught up talking with her that we neglected to get a photo but told our server and she made sure to have her stop by again.

Overall the character interaction was great, food selection was great, and service was great. But, unfortunately the food suffered as the hot items weren’t hot and cold items weren’t cold. It boggles my mind that they didn’t have the foods at proper temperatures. Everything was just sitting in trays on counters with no warming or cooling elements. We’ve eaten at Boma countless times and never encountered this issue so Disney knows how to do this right. They just need to work on serving food at the right temperature and it will be a wonderful experience.

After our somewhat disappointing 1900 Park Fare meal, we headed to Disney Springs, walked around for a bit and then took the boat to Old Key West for a pineapple coconut slushy from Goods to Go.

This is our favorite pineapple-coconut slushy on property. I’m not sure why but it is better than the one from the Market at Hollywood Studios. This is so refreshing with lots of pineapple and coconut flavor.

Up next…heading to Magic Kingdom for dinner.

 

[disneyAndi14]

We did dinner at 1900 PF in April and had a really good meal. Food was at the right temperature and the strawberry soup was really good and chilled.
Bummer your food was not at the right temperature.
One of the reasons I am not a huge buffet fan!
We liked the characters but our service was lacking.
I will have to try the pineapple coconut slushie on my next trip.

 

[mickey916]

We did dinner at 1900 PF in April and had a really good meal. Food was at the right temperature and the strawberry soup was really good and chilled.
Bummer your food was not at the right temperature.
One of the reasons I am not a huge buffet fan!
We liked the characters but our service was lacking.
I will have to try the pineapple coconut slushie on my next trip.

That's good to hear that you had a much better experience in April than we did! Our service was almost too attentive. The server just kept coming by to check on us repeatedly.

 

[mickey916]

4/14 Magic Kingdom & Tony's Town Square
​

Our original lunch plan for this day was to stop by Captain Cooks for one of our new favorite meals: Thai coconut meatballs and pulled pork nachos. However, after eating all week and our big breakfast, we knew we just wouldn’t have room for lunch and our dinner plans. I suggested to DH that instead of forcing food on full bellies, we could stop back at Captain Cooks later on in our trip as we drove from Cocoa Beach to Bradenton. So, we went ahead with that plan B.

For our dinner plans, we had such a great meal at Tony’s Town Square in December that we decided to substitute an ADR there once we canceled the original 1900 Park Fare dinner reservation.

We headed into Magic Kingdom early just as the parade was reaching the end of its route near City Hall. We usually don’t stop to watch the parade but this time we really had no choice as we were trapped over by the spot where the floats all go backstage. It was a hot, beautiful day so we just enjoyed the parade.

Look at that beautiful sky! We spent some time walking around the park, stopping at Photopass spots, and checking on the progress at Tiana’s.

Finally it was time for our ADR so we checked in at the desk and requested a table on the porch. It was so beautiful sitting there in December and watching the MVMCP attendees coming in. What we didn’t factor in was that it was still sunny at dinnertime in April and really warm. It was pretty hot sitting out there. Luckily our server noticed we were in a spot of direct sunshine and offered to move us to a shadier spot.

We started with the garlic bread for the table with parmesan cream sauce.

We ration the sauce by pouring some on each individual layer to make sure the bottom layer gets enough of the cheesy goodness. Here’s the first pour:

This garlic bread is so delicious that it has officially ruined all other house garlic bread for us. The perfectly toasted bread is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, buttery and full of garlic. The cheesy sauce simply takes it over the top. It is worth an ADR at Tony’s just for this appetizer.

We decided to share two entrees again, one a repeat and one a newer item.

First, the chicken parmesan with fettuccine alfredo subbed in for the spaghetti.

This chicken parm is excellent. The chicken is moist with a nice crispy coating and lots of melty cheese. The fettuccine alfredo tastes fresh with a homemade sauce. We love this dish!

Our second entree to share was the new to us Tortellini al Forno: Calabrian Chili and Cheese Tortellini baked Italian Sausage, Onions, Peppers, and Mozzarella in a Creamy Tomato Sauce

This was very tasty as well. It tasted like sausage pizza in a bowl. It had plenty of cheese and tortellini and the sauce was flavorful. Another great dish!

Tony’s Town Square was again one of the best meals of our trip. We had avoided this restaurant so often due to bad reviews but they’ve definitely turned things around. It was easily one of the best Italian restaurants on our entire trip (although there’s another great one coming up eventually).

After our meal we made our way back to the hotel for an exciting evening of laundry. Sadly, this was our last night at the Residence Inn Flamingo Crossings.

Coming up our "last" park day...or was it?

Total steps: 20,591

 

[disneyAndi14]

I agree Tony’s has redeemed itself! I love the garlic bread with the parmigiana fondue! I love it and sitting on the patio is such a nice experience.

 

[mickey916]

4/15 Last Day in Orlando in Epcot
​

We checked out of the Residence Inn and headed to Epcot for our “last day” in Orlando. We actually purchased Genie+ since we had not ridden Frozen yet on this trip and didn’t want to wait in a long line. We booked Frozen right at 7:00 am, receiving an 11:00 return time and headed to the park at 8:35 for the 9:00 opening. At rope drop, we headed to the Land so I could ride Soarin’ and DH could ride Living with the Land. After that we rode Nemo and Figment.

The weather was so much better than our previous visit so we took a lot more photos of the topiaries.

Just spectacular!

We also took the opportunity to try a few more Flower & Garden treats. First, we purchased the Toasted Pretzel Bread topped with Black Forest Ham and Melted Cheese from Bauernmarkt in Germany.

This was good but not great. It seemed like it had sat out for a little bit so wasn’t as fresh as it could have been.

We also picked up the Warm Cheese Strudel with Berry Compote, also from Bauernmrkt.

This was very good! We really liked the berry compote. It was small but delicious.

Since we were in Germany we also picked up a couple snacks from Karamel Kuche. First, the Werther’s Salted Caramel Cupcake.

This was a pretty standard chocolate cupcake with lots of buttercream. We would’ve liked more caramel flavor.

We also bought a “fresh” bag of caramel popcorn.

We’ve had the pre-packaged version before but we were really looking forward to the freshly bagged version. Unfortunately this bag had apparently been filled for a while, as the popcorn was stale and chewy. It had nice flavor but the popcorn was soggy. Definitely a miss for us.

We used our LL for Frozen and I once again bought an ILL for Guardians. I’m pretty sure this time the song was “One Way or Another”. I was on the ride with a man who hadn’t ridden before and had no idea what the ride was like. It’s always fun to see people’s reaction the first time.

Up next…a few more rides and more treats.

 

[mickey916]

4/15 Finishing Up Our Last Day in Epcot
​

After taking more topiary pictures, we headed to Living with the Land and spotted one of our favorite Hidden Mickeys.

We stopped by the Trowell & Trellis for another Flower & Garden snack: Soy-glazed Sticky Ribs with Green Onions and Peanuts.

These were just okay. My DH’s one had very little meat on it. The soy glaze had nice flavor though. This is definitely lower on our list of F&G foods.

We also stopped by the Joffrey’s near the American Adventure for a Tropical Frosted Iced Tea: A refreshing blend of Frozen Minute Maid Lemonade, Iced Tea, and Hawaiian Island Syrup garnished with a Glazed Orange Peel.

This wasn’t great either. The cast members that made it were a little crabby and distracted. It appeared they were arguing with another guest before we arrived. We don’t think they actually put in the Hawaiian syrup and we didn’t get a glazed orange peel. It was basically frozen lemonade with iced tea.

After our drink, we rode Spaceship Earth & walked through the Journey of Water with Moana.

This area is so beautiful and fun for kids with all the water features.

For dinner we had an ADR at currently our second favorite Epcot restaurant, Via Napoli. We started with the Homemade Focaccia with sides of marinara and Italian extra virgin olive oil and herbs.

The focaccia was a very soft, light, and airy bread with nice dipping sauces. This was very good but not as good as Tony’s garlic bread. We preferred the marinara over the olive oil.

We shared a large pizza, half Quattro Formaggi and half Meat Lover.

This was our first time getting the Meat Lover, as our go-to Piccante pizza is no longer on the menu. The pizza had plentiful toppings and a well cooked crust. We enjoyed both halves of the pizza very much and we were happy that our undercooked pizza from December didn’t repeat itself.

For dessert, we headed to L’Artisan des Glaces. The Croque Glace has been elusive on our previous visits due to very long lines. This time we lucked out however and placed our order for one Croque Glace to share. For our ice cream we chose “candied peanuts with chocolate peanut butter fudge” and we chose the chocolate sauce.

Another hidden Mickey:

Here is the work in progress:

Final Product:

The view from inside:

Sadly, this was a disappointment but has great potential. Ours seemed to have less ice cream than others we saw. We couldn’t taste the sauce and the peanut butter chocolate fudge ice cream was basically vanilla ice cream with a couple candied peanuts, we didn’t taste any peanut butter and very little fudge. We may try this again sometime but will choose our ice cream differently.

After our dessert, we made our way back to our car to make the drive to our next location, Cocoa Beach. I was feeling a little sad as we were leaving since I realized it would probably be another year before we were in the parks again. However I was looking forward to our next five nights in Cocoa Beach and knew we were going to get a little more Disney as we drove back through later to stop by Captain Cooks on our way to Bradenton. Little did I know, there was no need for the Disney Blues, as there was much more Disney to come.

Total steps: 27,771

Up next…our first full day in Cocoa Beach.

​

 

[DJFan88]

I also had waited due to lines for that brioche ice cream thing and finally tried it last trip. I got a caramel type of ice cream thing, and i also was not a fan. Its a one and done on that for me. Maybe it was the bread to me? Cant really say. No problem though, since there are so many other things to try.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I wish Epcot food booths would be more consistent! We loved our dinner at Via Napoli this past April!
I love all the pictures of the topiaries! Such a beautiful time to visit Epcot!
Thanks for sharing and I am interested in what happens with more Disney coming up!

 

[mickey916]

I also had waited due to lines for that brioche ice cream thing and finally tried it last trip. I got a caramel type of ice cream thing, and i also was not a fan. Its a one and done on that for me. Maybe it was the bread to me? Cant really say. No problem though, since there are so many other things to try.

We felt the bread to ice cream ratio was off. It was also really challenging to share. We went to Les Halles to get a knife to cut it. It may have been better eating it whole. I agree there's a lot more things we'll try before getting it again.

 

[mickey916]

I wish Epcot food booths would be more consistent! We loved our dinner at Via Napoli this past April!
I love all the pictures of the topiaries! Such a beautiful time to visit Epcot!
Thanks for sharing and I am interested in what happens with more Disney coming up!

I agree about the inconsistency. Our first time trying the food booths was in 2022 for the Festival of the Holidays. Almost everything we tried seemed like it was sitting out too long. We were so surprised when we tried things at the 2023 Festival of the Holidays at how good everything was! This time for 2024 Flower & Garden stuff was mostly good. Does seem to be hit or miss though.

You'll have to wait a while for the full Disney reveal but it's worth the wait!

 

[rdkeim]

Enjoying following along! More Disney - anxious to read about it!

 

[mickey916]

4/16 A Cocoa Beach Day
​

I had booked a VRBO in Cocoa Beach for the next five nights. This one was in a beachfront condo that seemed like it used to be a motel.

Here’s a look inside:

The rental was very clean and quiet. It was also extremely well-stocked. Of the three VRBOs we booked for this trip, this one was definitely the best one. The door lock also worked way better than the one in Ormond Beach. No complaints at all.

The beach was a short walk down a path with great views of one of the launching pads.

We spent most of the day relaxing on the beach.

It was a much needed respite from the busyness of the Disney parks.

When it was time for lunch we decided to walk down to the Cocoa Beach Pier to check out our options. Our VRBO host had left a list of suggested walkable restaurants.

We decided to give the Cocoa Beach Fish Camp Grill a try.

This place is huge and has fun decor inside.

It was just before noon on a Tuesday so we had the place practically to ourselves.

Our server informed us it was half-price jambalaya day so we decided to share an order of jambalaya.

This was fantastic! It was spicy but not overly so. Unlike the one from Sassagoula, it didn’t have a tomato-based sauce and definitely had more heat. The shrimp was perfectly seasoned and fresh. My DH isn’t a fan of most seafood and doesn’t usually eat shrimp but even he loved the shrimp in this dish. We were very glad we made this choice!

We also opted to share the Chicken Cobb Salad, figuring it might be a decent idea to get some vegetables in our diet.

This too was excellent. The chicken was perfectly grilled and not dried out at all. The veggies were fresh and there was a lot of bacon and blue cheese crumbles.

Overall we highly recommend the Cocoa Beach Fish Camp and will definitely come here again the next time we’re in Cocoa Beach.

After our meal we walked back along the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. Having eaten such a huge lunch we didn’t eat dinner and had an early night in.

Up next after our day of rest, an exciting day at the Kennedy Space Center.

Total steps: 15,206

 

[mickey916]

Enjoying following along! More Disney - anxious to read about it!

Thanks for following along! Definitely lots more Disney to come.

 

[mickey916]

4/17 Kennedy Space Center​

As I was planning this trip, I scheduled for us to visit the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, April 17. As we got closer to the date, we realized there was a SpaceX launch scheduled for 5:25 pm that day and found out that KSC was going to extend its operating hours to allow people to view the launch from their viewing area for no additional cost. Pretty awesome!

It had been 14 years since our last visit and we knew that there had been a lot of attractions added since then so we arrived early to take full advantage of the day. I didn’t take a lot of pictures but we really enjoyed all the exhibits.We started by walking through the Rocket Garden. We took the bus tour out to the Vehicle Assembly Building and saw launch pad 39B.

For lunch, we opted to try Space Bowls from the Space Bowl Bistro. We each ordered our own bowls. This is a counter service place where you order a protein and then a variety of toppings with a sauce to make a bowl. My DH ordered Korean BBQ beef, jasmine rice, corn, pico de gallo, and guacamole with chipotle ranch sauce.

For my bowl, I similarly ordered Korean BBQ beef, corn, jasmine rice, guacamole, diced tomatoes and cheese. I chose ponzu sauce for my sauce.

We enjoyed our bowls very much. They were a good unique alternative to the burgers, nuggets, and other standard fare being sold at the other restaurants. The flavors all mixed well together and everything tasted fresh. This is a great lunch option if you’re at KSC.

For dessert, we each ordered a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of cookies & cream ice cream from Milky Way Ice Cream.

The ice cream was pretty good. Nothing special.

It was interesting to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the building. It was still operational last time we came to the KSC.

It was also really interesting to see all the dates and information on each of the space shuttles. It was all so cutting edge at the time. It’s hard to believe it was so long ago.

There was also a tribute room to the astronauts lost on Columbia and Challenger. It was very sad but interesting to learn a little more about each of them.

There is a lot more to see and do at KSC than 14 years ago. We explored all the displays and then eventually made our way to wait in line for the launch observation area to open. It is an area with bleachers right near the museum, not out at the Vehicle Assembly Building where the bus tour goes.

We got a great seat in the shade on the top row of one set of bleachers.

There was an emcee giving facts and reminding us that if the launch was delayed past 6:00 they would have to close and send us all home.

They also had the launch pad footage streamed on a large screen.

Luckily the launch happened right on time. Here it is just breaking the tree line.

Such a cool opportunity to be there for a launch!

Overall it was a great day at the Kennedy Space Center. Definitely worth a road trip on a rest day from Disney, especially if there’s a launch scheduled.

Up next…dinner in Cocoa Beach.

 

[mickey916]

4/17 Dinner at Tiny Turtle & Dessert at Fat Donkey
​

After our exciting day at KSC, we headed to dinner at the Tiny Turtle in Cocoa Beach. We were seated promptly at an outside table.

To start we ordered the Sofrito Nachos topped with roasted island pork: White corn tortilla chips smothered with creamy white Queso Caribe and topped with black beans, sour cream, guacamole, House Salsa, shredded romaine, shredded cheese, Roasted Tomatillo sauce and Creme Caribe.

We thought these were very good but just didn’t have enough “stuff”. We prefer the flavors of Captain Cooks and Yak N Yeti nachos but these were fresh with tasty toppings.

We also shared the PB&J Pork Sliders: Two pork sliders with a Peanut Butter and Sweet Thai Jelly BBQ sauce with Beach Slaw and pickles on a warm Puerto Rican Sobao bread with potato sticks and Maduros (sweet plantains).

These were good but like the nachos suffered a little in execution. There were great components but just not enough of them. We really couldn’t taste the sauce much. The ideas and descriptions are great at Tiny Turtle but the reality just doesn’t quite live up to the potential.

For dessert, we headed next door to the Fat Donkey for ice cream #2 this day.

Here’s a look at all the interesting flavors:

I ordered one scoop of Butterscotch Bomb and one scoop of Calypso Crunch.

My DH ordered one scoop of Malt Ball Fudge and one scoop of Calypso Crunch. I didn’t take a picture of his dish since the Calypso Crunch was on the top of both of ours.

This was excellent ice cream. It was high quality with lots of fun ingredients mixed in. It was the best dish of ice cream we had on the entire trip, just edging out Sally’s ice cream from Flagler Beach. We will definitely return to Fat Donkey on a future visit.

Overall it was an awesome day.

Total steps: 13,420

Up next...another rest day and another rocket launch

 

[mickey916]

4/18 Rest Day & Rocket Launch #5​

This update will be a brief one. After our fun the previous day at KSC, we decided to take it easy for the day. We walked out to the beach in front of the condo, enjoyed the beach and read our books. Then, I picked up lunch at Jersey Mikes and also some salads from Publix for dinner. I didn’t take pictures but Jersey Mike’s subs are always fresh and delicious. We also found the pre-made salads from Publix to be quite good.

There was due to be another SpaceX launch this day as well around 6:30 pm. After an early dinner of Publix salads, we drove to Playalinda beach as we thought we could get a good view from there. We paid a $25 entrance fee to get into the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. We figured it was the cost for the entertainment.

We waited on the beach and the rocket launched right on schedule.

This was launch #5 we witnessed so far this vacation. It passed directly over our heads on its trajectory. Just an incredible sight to see!

Total Steps: 15,330

Up next, our last full day in Cocoa Beach.

 

[DVCjj]

Absolutely LOVED your entire trip. That would be my dream to follow your personalized map. DH does enjoy driving and I'm a nervous drive so we fly everywhere. Your trip was amazing and because I snowbird at Cocoa Beach for the past 4 years, I have been to several of the places to mentioned within about 2 hours of Cocoa Beach. Including the restaurants and ice cream.

We are big seafood lovers and constantly go to Jazzy's Lobster on Atlantic Ave (A1A as you know). I think each trip we spend about 4 times there and 4 times at 4th street Fillin' Station for my all time favorite pulled pork. Totally different than what we're used to and I dream about it when back home.
And of course many day trips (and overnights) to Disney.

Many years we stayed on the Gulf side (pre-snowbirding) and have wonderful memories but honestly love the 'Old Florida' Flavor of Cocoa Beach. And, of course, the launches, Love, love, love. We go right down to the beach but because we literally have a balcony (rented condo) overlooking the Ocean/launches. It never gets old. Never in our lifetime have been to a Waffle House and yet we go constantly to Cocoa Beach's and laugh ourselves silly over
the ambience and screaming-to-each-other servers and dripping waffle batter. It's so cool.

And of course several 1 hr 15 min trips to Buc-Cees. My DD/SIL's fave place in the world. We knew nothing about it and loved it.

Sorry I hijacked your thread. Needless to say I loved your report. Thank you so much.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

I laughed when you said which ice cream flavors you ordered from The Fat Donkey—I would have picked the same two! Your rocket launch pictures are really cool