adamreisinger
15+ Year Castmember
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2013
Chapter Nine: Day 3 - Flowers & Gardens & Cupcakes & Shopping
First, sorry for the delay in continuing my trip report. Blame the NBA, which had its conference finals both go to seven games for the first time since 1979, which kept me incredibly busy with work for the past few days.
Now, back to Disney! (Figuratively, not literally -- my literal return to Disney won't happen until September... unless we end up taking another impromptu trip like this one.)
Originally, Sunday -- our departure day -- was going to be spent at Hollywood Studios. But because we'd spent so little time at Epcot on our previous trip and because we didn't get over there on Saturday, we decided to completely revise our plans, ditching all of our DHS FastPass+ selections and our Sci-Fi Dine-In lunch reservation, and replacing them with FPs for some of our favorite Epcot attractions.
After packing and waving goodbye to our cozy cabin, we went over to Epcot, where the overcast skies and threat of rain seemed to be keeping people away early in the day. When we entered the park, the wait time shown on the app for Frozen Ever After was just 20 minutes. I considered making us go straight there, but we've both done that ride plenty of times (which, technically is true about nearly every ride at WDW), so we stuck to our revised plan and started our day at The Land (well, after a brief duck into Art of Disney, where I managed to restrain myself from buying more artwork that I don't have the wallspace to hang). This was the first time I'd been in the building since Circle of Life was closed, and it was kind of sad walking by that abandoned waiting area, but we proceeded down to Living With the Land, which is one of my girlfriend's favorite rides -- though neither of us is really ever willing to wait more than 10 minutes for it. I feel like I spot something I hadn't seen before every time I ride it. This time it was this cute little seating area. I'd imagine it'd be fun to chill there for a while and wave to the boats that go by.
We decided to have an early lunch at Sunshine Seasons, mostly because I really wanted to try the new specialty cupcakes. I was torn between the Rose Gold cupcake and the Belle cupcake -- not as much for eating as for Instagramming -- so my girlfriend decided to get one, so I could get the other one. They were both pretty good, and the Belle cupcake actually exceeded my expectations. I was worried that the frosting would be overwhelming and the edible dress would be, well, gross, but neither turned out to be true.
With lunch complete -- I feel like I should mention I did have a Caesar salad, so it's not like my lunch was just cupcakes -- it was over to Soarin'. Even with FastPasses, it feels like it takes forever to get on the ride, mostly because the walk is so long, and then once you're past the second tap point, things move slowly. Still it wasn't that long before we were in our seats. We ended up all the way to the right, where the distortion on the screen is SUPER noticeable. Still, I enjoyed the ride as I always do, and it was nice being able to fit into the seat without any extra effort or contortions to get the seat belt buckled -- something that wasn't true when I was there a year ago.
Our next FastPass+ selection wasn't for another hour, so we spent some time relaxing in the DVC Member Lounge, which my girlfriend had never seen before. I know the lounge is only temporary (though they keep extending its availability past each planned close date), but I hope they not only keep it, but find a way to add similar spaces to the other three parks.
Spaceship Earth was up next, because it really doesn't feel like a WDW trip unless you do Spaceship Earth. We got stalled in ancient Egypt for a while, and I briefly thought I might get to check off another item on my Disney bucket list: get evacuated from a ride. Sadly, it was not meant to be, as the ride eventually started moving again (then got stuck for a much shorter period of time at what I call the weird "Matrix" like area).
At this point I could've tried grabbing a fourth FastPass, but there wasn't a whole lot more at Epcot we wanted to do (sorry Figment), and I wasn't sure if we wanted to park hop over to DHS on our departure day, especially since I knew we did want to get over to Disney Springs at some point. So, to make time for shopping, we... went shopping. Specifically, we ducked into MouseGear to see what caught our eye -- and so my girlfriend could pick up some souvenirs for her family. She does that because she's awesome. I do not buy souvenirs for my family on my Disney trips, because my Disney gift to them is use of my admission privileges and dining discounts when I join them on vacation. They can buy their own pins and T-shirts and magnets and mugs -- oh, man, mugs. Both of us acknowledge that we already own too many mugs individually, a problem that's only going to get worse when we cohabitate. So of course we stopped and looked at all the amazing mugs available in every store. We were good, in that we didn't buy any, but bad in that we probably just delayed our purchases until our next trip, when we'll have more luggage space to pack them for the return trip (I honestly put like 4 mugs in my Shop Disney app cart the other day, before stopping myself again).
We were about to head out when my girlfriend asked if we wanted to do Gran Fiesta Tour one time before leaving. At first I said, "let's just head to Disney Springs," but I realized that since we'd exited MouseGear on the far side (closest to Test Track), we were so close to the Mexico pavilion that it'd be silly not to do the ride, especially since we wouldn't be back until September (again, until we totally book a random trip down on a weekend in July or something). After spending some time with Donald, José and Panchito, it was time to drive over to Disney Springs.
The one thing I wish we'd done while at Epcot is spent more time experiencing all that Flower & Garden had to offer, whether it was the topiaries (like my buddy Stitch, below) or the food or (my favorite thing at Epcot) the adult beverages. But I spent plenty of time at F&G last year, and we'll be doing Food & Wine in September, and we'll plan for multiple Epcot days on that trip, including possibly another Drink Around the World attempt, since I've now gone three Disney trips without doing it.
I had three main goals at Disney Springs -- well, four, with the fourth one being "don't spend all the money":
- Check out "Trophy Room", the boutique sneaker store owned by Marcus Jordan, the son of Michael Jordan (though I had no plans to buy anything there, since I'm trying to downsize my sneaker collection)
- Visit the new DisneyStyle store
- Check out the Danielle Nicole "Tangled" bags in person
The latter was my primary reason for wanting to go to Disney Springs, since I'd really wanted to see the Rapunzel die-cut crossbody bag, to see how much could fit in it. The answer? Not much. The listed dimensions for the bag included the hair/handle portion, which isn't part of the inner storage space. The wallet I'd bought the day before wouldn't come close to fitting in it. It did come close to fitting inside the Lantern bag, but not close enough to justify purchasing it. Since those bags wouldn't fit my stuff, I gave serious consideration to buying the Dooney & Bourke Cinderella tote, but I decided to play the long game with that, hoping that it ends up at Cast Connection by September (so no one buy any of them between now and then, okay?).
I also didn't buy anything at the DisneyStyle store, though not for lack of effort. They had a bunch of stuff I wanted, including, yes, more mugs, but nothing I felt like I had to have -- though I did agonize over the beautiful but wildly impractical Danielle Nicole Cinderella's carriage bag. But what caught my eye the most was this incredible image of Cinderella's Castle, that cycled through different times of day/background colors. Sadly, it was not for sale.
That said, I wasn't going to leave Disney Springs empty-handed -- well, aside from the pins I bought at Pin Traders, because I totally don't have an addiction and I can stop buying pins whenever I want, okay?!
The first store we stopped in was actually the World of Disney overflow store (the one they have set up while World of Disney itself is being renovated) right by the Lime Garage entrance, and one of the things they had there was a plush Dug in the cone of shame. We'd actually seen this plush at Animal Kingdom on Friday, and I decided not to get it then, nor did I get it when we first went into the store, but after making the rounds at Disney Springs and eating dinner (which I'll get to in a second), I decided I had to bring Dug home, where he now sits atop the loveseat in my Disney room between Easter Stitch and one of the sweater-wearing kittens from Olaf's Frozen Adventure (I leave the Porg on the other side, because then it looks like it's wearing the crown like in this Pocket Princesses comic).
Before we'd done that last bit of shopping, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at The Edison. At first, we weren't sure if they were even open for dinner, since it was only about 4:30 when we got there, and the menu out front said they closed for lunch at 4 and re-opened for dinner at 5. But it turned out they were open, and we got seated right away, which was great, because The Edison had been near the top of our list of the new places at Disney Springs that we wanted to check out. The theming in the restaurant was incredible and there are all sorts of different styles of seating areas, which give it a much different feel than a typical Disney restaurant.
My girlfriend ordered the Organic Tomato Soup and Gooey Grilled Cheese, the latter of which was a much larger sandwich than either of us expected. I had The Edison Burger, with nothing on it but cheese, bacon and sauce, and I was very impressed with how the bacon taste stood out from the burger taste. Often times, bacon cheeseburgers end up with bacon that is added just for texture, but this one really had a noticeable taste to it too, which in my opinion was a good thing (your opinion might vary on that). For drinks, she got The Edison (woodford reserve bourbon, pear brandy, lemon, honey) and I went with the Samantha Sterling (grey goose vodka, lillet rose, watermelon, lime, cinnamon cordial). I was a bit worried that the cinnamon would be overwhelming, but it wasn't at all, and both drinks ended up being really great (she let me try hers -- along with giving me a bite of her giant grilled cheese sandwich, because she's pretty awesome).
For dessert, we got the Lollipop Tree, an assortment of cake pops served with a bubble gum frosting dip. The bubble gum flavor in the frosting was INCREDIBLY overwhelming, and yet I couldn't stop myself from dipping the cake pops in it. The dessert is designed to be shared between multiple people, and I'd recommend it if you're there with a group -- or even just one other person. It might be too much for one person, though I'd guess if you're just getting that and a drink, it'd probably be doable.
We still have a bunch of other places we want to try, but we'd definitely go back to The Edison at some point, even if just for drinks as part of a Disney Springs bar hop -- which might have to become part of our plans for our next trip.
We both definitely wanted to stay longer, and in retrospect we probably could've snuck some extra time in -- I really wanted to pay one last visit to the Castle -- but as any experienced WDW traveler knows, the MCO security line can be an adventure. This was my first time going through with TSA PreCheck, and it was a blessing, as I was in and out of the security line in about 3 minutes. Amazingly, my girlfriend -- who went through the normal line on the opposite side of the terminal, since we were once again taking separate flights -- got through almost as quickly. Sure, it stunk having more than two hours to kill at the airport, but that's better than the alternative of arriving too late and not making it through security in time.
Next Up: What's Left For Our Next Trip
