Flower and Garden Day Trip - March 2020

Lizgistix · Apr 5, 2020

Hello hello once again. I have another trip report to write up here. Mom and I did a day trip in March for Flower and Garden Festival. This trip happened shortly after the festival began and right before the parks officially closed. This was also during the time that hand washing stations were placed prominently around the park. Also, if you're wondering, it's been over 2 weeks since we were there and neither of us are showing symptoms of covid.

So let's get started! We live over on the west coast of Florida, so going to Disney is an hour and a half drive. If we're unable to book a 2-night stay, we can always do a day trip, like this one. This trip, however, since our family has been a little iffy about watching our dogs, I booked them a night at Best Friends Pet Resort. I didn't feel comfortable doing Doggy Day Care because someone (not naming names but he knows who he is) isn't that great around other dogs. So I booked them a room for one night but told the staff we would be back after park closing to get them, so they wouldn't actually be spending the night. We still provided food for one meal and they got their potty walks, so they're good for the day. After dropping the puppers off, we drove over to Epcot.

Part 1: Scatterbrained first post of pics (continues below)
Part 2: Lunch, Dinner, Food booths (and DIS celebrity meeting!)
Part 3: Pins and whatever else I forgot

We're here!

...it's bigger in person.
Being ~~passholes~~ passholders and attending an Epcot festival, you probably know what we're here for:

Yup! We still haven't received our standard Mickey Passholder magnet (been holders since November), but we do have a magnet from Food and Wine, Festival of the Holidays, and now Flower and Garden. I display mine on a little hanging metal board from Michael's in my bedroom, but I digress. After acquiring our one freebee (see what I did there? because Spike the...okay you got it) we headed onto Spaceship Earth and right at the top the ride stopped.

Yeah, right at this part before we rotated backwards. Soooo....guess we'll just wait here until it starts moving again.
Being and Flower and Garden can only mean ~~one~~ two things. Flowers! Gardens! Thing is, I'm not really into flowers or gardens. Mom is, I'm not, and this trip was really more for her than me. So if you're looking for all the topiaries, they're on her phone. I just took photos like this:

I also took one flower pic because mom couldn't get a good zoom in on it with her phone so she asked if I could.

If you're curious, this was in the UK pavilion over by the tea garden.
One thing I noticed with F&G, there were a lot of people taking pictures. Not the standard tourist taking pictures, but people with really nice cameras walking around snapping pictures. With, like, their big lenses and stuff. Professionals, if you will. I just had my phone.
I did snap a few of the topiaries on our way out of the park at night because mom's camera isn't the best in low lights, so here's a few tope..topy...decorative shrubs.

Okay, this one was a little all over the place and I think I'm reaching the picture limit so I'm going to stop here and continue with food pics on the next one.

Lizgistix · Apr 5, 2020

Part 2: Lunch, Dinner, Food booths, DIS celebrity meeting!

Hello, we're back! Hi.

Okay, so we're here at Epcot and since Electric Umbrella was closed for the big remodel, I wasn't sure where to have lunch. Since Regal Eagle recently opened, I decided it was better than nothing. I mean, barbecue is pretty easy to find in the US. Good barbecue is also really easy to find in the US. But I'm also with someone who isn't exactly an adventurous eater (I wanted to eat in Morocco). So I got the big 3-meat platter.

Okay, so. I have opinions. Everything on this metal tray was just average. The pulled pork was probably my favorite of the three. The smoked sausage was okay. The Texas beef brisket I was offended they would dare put a sauce on. Everyone knows Texas barbecue is about the meat, not the sauce. The coleslaw was....kind of salty? That was odd. I love me some coleslaw but this didn't win me over. The decor of the space was neat, it was a little loud, the smoker outside was impressive, but overall I felt the food was just average. Maybe this is for the foreign tourists to try something American. I'd rather go to Sonny's and get about the same quality for half the price.

Let's move on to things that did blow me away. Food booths!
Y'all, I've been hearing about Frushi for a while now. People been telling me "Liz, you gotta try the Frushi. It's so good!" So here we go: FRUSHI!

...it's bigger in person. Seriously, like, grab a knife and fork! Or a spoon to dabble that whipped cream and drizzle on it. This was SO GOOD! I would seriously buy this at a store if they had it. Heck, I would buy this the next time I see it at Epcot. It was just fresh and light and so different but really good. I offered one to mom but she turned her nose up at it. 10/10, would order again.

Next two, I don't have pics of the drinks but I have pics of what the drink normally comes in (hint hint)

ORANGE CREAM SHAKE!

We got the drink on the side because I'm not a fan of washing dishes in a theme park bathroom. This shake is like an orange dreamsicle, so if you're a fan, definitely give it a try. You can even get the shake without the sipper if you want, but I wanted Orange Bird.

HONEY-PEACH FREEZE!

Again, available without the sipper. While this was also really good, we didn't taste much peach. Honey, yes. Vanilla, yes. Peach, no. It was still good though regardless.

I'm still kicking myself for not trying the grilled oysters. Mom did try the potato pancakes with apple sauce (she loves potato pancakes) but wasn't very impressed by it. I think she said they were too thick.

Later on in the evening, some time after the honey-peach freeze, we headed over to Coral Reef for our dinner reservation. We were seated on the top row and I think our view was pretty nifty:

Love the concept of dining with big windows looking into the aquarium. We saw divers! That was neat. We also saw a bunch of sea life swimming by. Manta rays, sharks, fishes, it was really quite enjoyable! Loved the atmosphere, and our server was great.
Mom wasn't very hungry, so she had two appetizers. Meanwhile, I was not about to pass up an opportunity to have shrimp and grits again.

...it's yummier in person. This is tied, in my opinion, with the shrimp and grits at Grand Floridian Cafe The succotash in the center of this one was odd, yet I was really into it. It varied the food textures, and was a bit different, so maybe that's why. I enjoyed it but I think the one at GFC was a bit better.

This was just shrimp cocktail. Good size shrimp. Peculiar presentation.
Not pictures was the lobster bisque that we both had which was SO GOOD! It was down right heavenly. Creamy with chunks of lobster. It was really really good.

DESSERT!

Key Lime Tart. That green thing is white chocolate. It was okay. It's tourist key lime. Not too tart, so more people can enjoy it.

I forgot what this was! But I was expecting it to be on the heavy side because it looked like it would be cream cheese but it was light! It was nice.

Overall, dinner was decent. Atmosphere and view were great. Lobster bisque was a major hit. Shrimp and grits were pretty good. The re-instated bread service was average, the desserts were average. I think the view from inside the restaurant would be why we return in the future. One of the remaining reminders that this was originally The Living Seas. RIP Seabase Alpha, gone but not forgotten.

Some time after dinner and before Epcot Forever, we were walking towards Mexico when we were passed by a DIS celebrity.
It was Morgan from the DIS Unplugged Disneyland show! (and some of the other DIS Unplugged shows as well). She's super nice and really pretty and very bubbly personality. It was great meeting her and talking to her. :lovestruc

It seems we have reached the picture limit, so I shall show off the 2 pins and any other pics I forgot to include in the next one.

Lizgistix · Apr 5, 2020

Part 3: Pins and whatever else I forgot

Okay, pins! I only wanted 2 pins from Flower and Garden. A Flower and Garden pin (obviously) and a Passholder F&G pin. I don't know why I didn't buy a passholder pin at Food and Wine or Festival of the Holidays.
Anyway, pins!

And then I traded for this pin on a pin board near the front of the park:

Yes, the background is my bedspread at home. Don't be jealous. :teeth:

Here's a few more F&G pics that weren't good enough to make the cut into the trip report, so consider these the outtakes I guess.

Because of that bare spot at the bottom. Maybe that's an access panel for the watering system. Ugh, just one or two steps forward and this would have been a better picture.

Well, at least I got another pic as the monorail was approaching. I was hoping to have the front of the monorail towards the edge of the picture but I wasn't so lucky. Not a bad picture, but not the composition I wanted.