Our First Visit - A February 2019 Trip Report with Disney After Hours & Festival of the Arts

Then back into the Festival of the Arts.

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This grabbed DS's attention because he's been on a huge Queen kick for the last 6 months or so. He even saw the movie. This size was like $1,300. I asked about the postcard sized versions but they'd sold out of that particular one.

Passing the Deconstructed Dish, I grabbed the Deconstructed Breakfast - Twinings® Spiced Apple Chai Tea Shake with Maple Bourbon Cream, a Waffle Crisp and Candied Bacon.
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The Deconstructed BLT sounded amazing but we'd just eaten.

It looks there like I was wearing my Toms, not my Keens. That's weird. They used to perform so much better. Bummer.
 
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On to England! Sadly it was too late in the day for the Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins meets.

We did spend quite a lot of time in these gift shops too. This was the only pavilion where I noticed that they carried anything that would sell, whether a Disney property or not.
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DH bought a Doctor Who shirt in this same shop.

I really loved these bags but even the smallest was like $215.
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I wouldn't carry one of these but they're pretty cute.
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Continuing the Doctor Who theme, DH bought these and some Jammy Dodgers.
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I was looking for Twinings specifically to find my mother this fancy tea timer that they'd had on our first Disney cruise. It is three egg timers in a stand. Each time has a different quantity of sand and in a different color, to represent black tea, green tea, and herbal. Because they all require different times. My mother drinks a lot of tea. There weren't any on the shelves but they found me one in the back. I still need to mail it to her...
 
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DS really enjoyed the band, The British Revolution. Not least when they broke into Bohemian Rhapsody.
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It's like a Truffula Tree! And the sun is setting.
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Things were roaring in the pub. We didn't go in but people were stumbling in and out shouting about Irish car bombs. I see a lot of complaints about "Epcot drunks" but that wasn't a noticeable thing for us. There was one bachelorette party wearing "She loves the D" shirts except for the bride's inevitable "I love the D" shirt and they were really whooping it up. (And I wondered whether they'd still find those outfits funny in 15 years...) And a group of women with different drink-themed shirts like Bibbity Bobbity Booze. But nothing pearl-clutchy.

Maybe if I'd had a few more, I'd have been willing to do the Birth of Venus photo opp. I'll probably regret chickening out on that one.
 
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We deliberately ended in Canada because we had dinner reservations at Le Cellier. There are quite a few popular steakhouses at WDW so I had DH review the menus and make the decision. He went with this one for the poutine.

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We also really like Canada. It's an easy visit for us. And my mother's actually a Canadian citizen. We had just enough time for their 360 film before our ADR. It wasn't as impressive as China's, not least because it was much more familiar, but Martin Short was entertaining.
 


We knew we'd be going above and beyond the meal plan here, and that was fine. Poutine!

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Beef Bourguignon Poutine - Fresh-cut French Fries, Gruyère, Beef Bourguignon Gravy, Garlic Aïoli, Truffle
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This was the second-tastiest poutine I've had. There's a butter chicken version at a sports bar in Winnipeg that's to die for.

I really think I ordered the Montreal 75, but this doesn't look like Dillon's Craft Gin #22 with Neige Sparkling Wine blended with Peach Purée and fresh Lime Juice. But it doesn't look like any of the other specialties either.
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The bread basket. Nice variety. And perfect for dunking in cheese soup, although we didn't get any.
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Salt and maple sugar on the butter.
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We were tucked into a nook so I have no idea how busy the place was.
 
We both ordered the Baked Mt. Tam Waldorf Salad - Frisée Lettuce, Arugula, Celery Root, Heirloom Apples, Grapes, Candied Walnuts, Apple Cider Dressing, Minus 8 Gastrique.

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It turns out that Mt. Tam is a lovely triple-soft cheese (like brie) from Cowgirl Creamery. And it's wrapped in puff pastry. The pearls are green apple. This was delicious! And more decadent than expected.
 
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For the entree, the porterhouse for two. I like steak but I'm more into the sides.

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I was thinking we paid for the enhancements but it looks like the ones we wanted happened to come with the steak. Although I'm looking at a random old menu because the one on the website has changed. Crispy Onions, Loaded Boursin Mashed Potatoes, Maple-glazed Brussels Sprouts, Béarnaise Sauce, Au Poivre.

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I am not a Brussels sprout person but these were amazing. They look burnt, and were crispy, but they tasted great. Like kettle corn, frankly, because of all the maple.

Boursin mashed potatoes are always good. I toss steamed baby potatoes in Boursin to go with steak at home. But the loaded part was really unnecessary. Those are potato skins piled on top. And they did taste burnt.

The inside of the steak:
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We were happy with it. Not blown away, but happy. It's not a cut that's supposed to be fork tender or anything. I like more substance. We did take about half of it back to the room, including the sides. The one time we had leftovers.

We also decided towards the end of the meal to cancel the next day's 9:00am reservation at Raglan Road. No way we would be ready for another big meal that early. Now what I should have done is looked up Sanaa's lunch times immediately, while I was logged into the app and making that cancellation. But I didn't think of it.
 


I cannot remember what DS ordered, but this was his dessert.
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DH ordered the maple creme brulee.
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I didn't get a photo, but I ordered the butter tart to go, to have with my coffee the next morning. You don't get the ice cream when it's to go, but that was fine. Butter tarts are a super common dessert in Canada. My mother always makes them at holidays.
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And that was the end of our second Epcot day! We took the boat to ... somewhere that let us transfer to a bus. It did start drizzling while we were at the bus stop but there was shelter.
 
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The next day was constant rain. We were leaving but I felt bad for the people who had this as one of their main days. Especially if they had small children.

The weather brought out a lot of new animals.

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Leftover steak! Grr!
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Fun curtain detail. Along with regular animals, Timon there if you squint.
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We'd bought very little, so after dropping off our bags for the Magical Express, we checked out the resort gift shop.

I like the subtlety of these.
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These bubble wands were popular.
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Increasing variety of hands.
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Fun theming on the Battleship.
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In the end, I bought a pair of socks. I was really happy to find these because I'd seen (and loved) this pattern on various things in the online store but didn't care for any of the items. But these are perfect. I wear a lot of crazy socks at work. We're a semi-formal office in that we still can't wear jeans.
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Not my photo, but in the end this was all DS wanted. He liked the idea of something he could use at school to show his friends. Many of them have already been.
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I'm really enjoying your report! I think our families have a lot of similar tastes. And you're right, fezes are cool!
 
Looks like you got to hit so many WS highlights. I love all of the photo op pictures.

I have found other family-oriented tour companies that do the same itinerary but for less than half the price, and after watching the movie, DH was sold.

Hubby and I did China in 2012 as a last big hurrah before we started trying to have a baby (you know, back when we thought we were normal people who had our kids one at a time). It was 14 days with China Spree and it was absolutely incredible. I think the two of us together paid closer to 6k, which included all food and airfare from San Fran to Beijing and back. I would highly recommend looking at that tour company as we had were very pleased with their services. They said they were putting us in 4 star hotels, too, which we thought would be extravagant. However, it's much more common there to have only single beds, shared bathrooms, etc, so "4 star" really meant having amenities which are pretty much standard in the US.

If you do go, major sure your trip includes the Terra Cotta warriors. We knew the great wall would be awe inspiring, and it obviously was, but the warriors were lower on our radar and absolutely blew us away.

cannot remember what DS ordered, but this was his dessert.
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That's all the kids really care about anyway, right?
 
It was much more relaxed than I'd expected our first character meal to be. The overall atmosphere of the room. It was much quieter than I expected too!




We managed to hit all our highest priorities but I could see it taking two more full days to finally see it all.




Thanks! We are starting to think hard about the whole Disney adult thing since DS turns 8 this month. Not a lot of time left.




If we're there during a non-festival time next time, which is likely, it's definitely still at the top of the list.
Great idea to see the fireworks!
 
I’ve spent the evening reading your trip report. I’ve enjoyed it so much, I’m moving on to your cruise reports! Thank you for sharing.
 

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