Whistle While You Work – 2 Weeks at Disney - A June 2022 Trip Report

[jrmint427]

Nomad Lounge​

We had about an hour after Flight of Passage before we needed to be at our dining reservation for Yak & Yeti (which was at 7pm). Our friends had a later reservation at Artist Point, so they were going to need to leave the park around the same time we were heading to dinner. At this point we had done all of the rides and shows we wanted to do, so we decided to see if we could get a table at Nomad Lounge to hang out for a bit. It was on my bucket list, and we had an hour to burn.



We were able to get on the wait list with only a 10-minute wait. The app wouldn’t let me request a table for 9 so we requested our 6 and 3 separately and asked at the hostess stand if we could sit near each other.



They said we could do a 7 and 2 split outside, with the 2 across the aisle from the 7, which sounded great. My parents offered to take the 2-person table so we could catch up with our friends before they left.



While they had a beautiful view of the water, they were also right in the sun, so they moved down a few tables when another one opened up. The rest of us sat on couches around a table.



My parents' server took their order quickly, and their drinks came out before we had even ordered I think. I’m not sure what my dad got, he said there was an advertisement for it on the table. It was pretty and came up with a light-up flower.



Our drinks seemed to be taking a long time. The picture above was taken at 6:23pm, so my parents had their drinks by then. I told our server when we ordered that we only had about 45-50 minutes before our dinner reservation across the park, and asked if he thought we would be able to get our order in time. He assured me we would, so we went ahead and ordered. Around 6:30 I had to flag him down to ask about our drinks. He said the bar was backed up but they would be out soon, and we could always just take them inside with us. I realized he thought we were eating at Tiffins. I told him we needed to leave in 20 minutes to walk to Yak & Yeti and he said he would have them out in a few. They came out at 6:34pm.

Pat and I both ordered the Lamu Libation. I tried to convince him to order something else so I could try it but this was what sounded best to both of us. It was Starr African Rum, Cruzan Banana Rum, and Guava Puree with Orange, Lime, and Pineapple juices topped with Gosling’s 151 rum. It was very good! In hindsight, it was probably a terrible idea to drink alcohol when I was dehydrated and not feeling well, but it went down easy, like juice.



I think my friend got the Annapurna Zing (Bombay Sapphire Gin, Passion Fruit Puree, Mint, Simple Syrup, and Lime Juice topped with Ginger Beer and a glowing lotus flower).



She was very kind and gave my girls the light-up lotus flower so they would each have one, since my dad had given them his too. I’m pretty sure her husband ordered the Night Monkey (plantation original dark rum, guava puree, coffee simple syrup, and lime juice with a hint of cilantro).



I think her daughter ordered the Zingiber Fizzie (passion fruit puree, mint, simple syrup, and lime juice topped with ginger beer). It was similar to the Annapurna Zing but without alcohol. She didn’t like it, but it was pretty.



It was really nice to sit in the shade and hang out with friends. I would love to visit the Nomad Lounge again on our next trip as an afternoon break, it would have been even nicer if we had been inside! And I would have liked to try some of the food, which I believe shares a menu with Tiffins.

It was so nice to catch up with my friend. I was sad our day was coming to an end but felt lucky we had been able to spend most of the day together.



I hadn’t finished my drink yet when it was time to leave, but our server offered to put it in a to-go cup to take with me, and that worked out great. I was even able to bring it into Yak & Yeti with me.

 

[jrmint427]

Yak & Yeti​

We arrived for our 7pm dinner reservation right on time, and they sat us almost immediately, next to this statue.




This was at least our 3rd meal at Yak & Yeti. It’s a consistent hit for us and I love that they’ll let me sub for tofu on several menu items. We started with drinks. I didn't really want another drink, but the Kiwi Coconut Rita sounded amazing, so Pat and I decided to share one. He drank most of it because I wasn’t feeling well, but I really liked it. My dad ordered one too.



I’m pretty sure my mom ordered a standard margarita.



The girls both ordered the mac and cheese, which came with a choice of 2 sides. DD7 ordered hers with rice and grapes, I think DD5 ordered hers with applesauce and go-gurt.



My mom ordered the coconut shrimp and said it was amazing.



I ordered the Sweet and Sour Tofu (they let me sub the chicken on the menu for tofu). It was really good but I couldn’t eat much of it. I packed it up to take home.



Pat ordered the chicken tikka masala, which he said was very good.



My dad ordered the Korean beef.



It was a fantastic meal all around, but similar to Satu’li Canteen, I was disappointed I wasn’t able to eat much. I was still feeling sick to my stomach and starting to feel even worse than earlier in the day. It was time to head out.

 

[jrmint427]

Good Night, Animal Kingdom​

The park closed at 8:00pm and Yak & Yeti had mostly cleared out by then. We wrapped up our meal and left at 8:06pm.



I love getting (mostly) empty park pictures.



There was a food stand handing out free boxes of popcorn as we passed so I picked up one for the girls.



Another family grabbed two boxes but asked if my daughters wanted a 2nd so they could each have their own, since the family wasn’t going to eat more than one. We said thank you, the girls loved having their own boxes.



I don’t really have a favorite park, but I usually say it’s Animal Kingdom because of how beautiful it is.



We were back at our van at 8:29pm. The walk to the parking lot was a struggle. I couldn’t tell you what time we got back to our resort. I didn’t even remember to put my food in the fridge, I went straight to lie in bed in my clothes and fell asleep within minutes. It wasn’t until the next day that I realized I had all the symptoms of heat exhaustion and spent much of the night waking up and feeling sick. I learned my lesson to drink even more water than I thought I would need, and we picked up some Gatorade the next day to help me recover.

A few stats to summarize our AK day:

• We walked 18,524 steps / 7.44 miles
• We went on 7 rides/shows (8 if you count the train to Planet Watch, 9 if you count Gorilla Falls)
• We used 1 ILL and 4 LLs
• TouringPlans predicted crowd level was going to be 4/10, actual was 7/10
• We spent about 45 minutes in lines; that’s an average wait time of 7.5 minutes per line
• I estimated we saved 130 minutes with Genie+
• For our family of 4, Genie+ cost $60, so that means we paid $0.46 per minute saved or $0.12 per person per minute saved
• We paid $0.19 per minute saved per person for the FOP ILL, so not quite as good value per minute as Genie+, but worth it to have saved 80 minutes waiting in line (especially when not everyone in our family was riding)

On average we paid $111.45 per ticket to AK this day. When divided by the 9 rides/attractions, we paid $12.38 per person per attraction. Similar to our MK day, this doesn’t take into account all the other perks of being at AK for the day, but I tracked how the math worked out for each park day.

I had read you don’t really need Genie+ for Animal Kingdom, and it certainly brought less value when compared to Magic Kingdom. We saved just over 2 hours vs. 5 hours and paid $0.12 per minute saved per person compared to the $0.05 per minute saved at Magic Kingdom. That said, it was worth it for us. We spent less than an hour waiting in lines this day, and that is worth a lot to me!

 

[jrmint427]

Quick Update

Our next trip is booked! You can follow along with my pre-trip report here. My goal is to finish this trip report before we leave for the next!

 

[jrmint427]

Monday, June 13, 2022​

Work Day #4​

This day was not very exciting, but I’m including it anyway.

Pat and I had to work a full day, and we were playing some catch up after taking the previous Thursday and Friday off. I also felt awful (was still feeling sick) but worked through it. I think my parents took the girls to the pool, I’m not sure what else they did but they were great about keeping the girls entertained the whole day.

I worked until 6:00pm and then took a nap. I was still feeling tired and sick to my stomach and was hoping I could rally for Hollywood Studios the next day. We had originally talked about doing a progressive meal at Disney Springs this evening, but I didn’t have the energy to go anywhere. My family agreed we should take a night to rest so we ordered Giordano’s pizza to be delivered to our resort. I woke up a little before 8:00pm to eat part of a slice, then went back to sleep. Pat was wonderful with the girls and even slept on the pull-out couch in the living room with them so I could have the bedroom to myself and sleep in peace. He is truly the best!

The extra sleep (and liquids) paid off because I was able to pull myself together for our park day the next day.

 

[jrmint427]

Tuesday, June 14, 2022​

Hollywood Studios Morning​

I woke up at 6:50am so I could start getting ready and be on the app right at 7:00am to book our first LL. I was thankfully feeling much better than the day before. I snagged Slinky Dog Dash for 11:50am-12:50pm.

Hollywood Studios opened at 8:30am for offsite guests so we left at 8:05am. We parked by 8:19am and waited in a long line.



When the line finally started to move, I opened the app to figure out what we would do first. I was thinking we might start with a Star Wars ride or Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. MMRR and Rise of the Resistance were both temporarily closed. Every ride had such a long line already. Plan B was to start in Toy Story Land, so we headed in that direction.



We arrived at Alien Swirling Saucers at 8:45am. The posted time was 55 minutes but Touring Plans said 14 minutes, and Touring Plans tends to be more accurate. So I thought, the wait can’t be that bad! I was very wrong. It turned out one side was down the whole time we were in line, but we didn't realize that until we had already been in line for awhile. We also spent some time waiting in the sun which was miserable even before 9:00am. We tried to hide in corners of shade as much as possible.



I tried not to be too discouraged by the long wait or other wait times at HS, but I knew this day was going to feel different in terms of the lines we had to wait in, and I had to remind myself we were going to have a great time even if it was miserably hot and we wouldn’t be able to ride everything we wanted to. My dad doesn’t ride Aliens, so he was waiting nearby and I felt bad he had to wait so long, but there wasn’t much we could do. I placed a mobile order at Woody’s Lunch Box for breakfast when we got closer to the front of the line.



We ended up waiting a full hour for the ride! As we got to the front, we could see they were testing the other side and it looked to be working just fine, so I’m not sure what the issue was. But, I was glad we were able to ride. DD5 now claims Aliens as her favorite ride of the trip!



We were off the ride around 9:50am and went to pick up our breakfast at Woody’s lunch box. We ordered coffees and waters, 2 Pride lunch box tarts, 1 raspberry lunch box tart and a few mandarins.




The Pride pop tart was our favorite.

I checked the app again and all rides had ~1 hour long waits. I could not book another LL yet, so we decided to accept a super long wait for Toy Story Mania, which we would normally never do with the kids. We got in the stand-by line at 10:10am. The posted wait time was 80 minutes, Touring Plans said 61 minutes, and we ended up waiting 69 minutes.



I could have booked our next LL right at 10:30am, and had even set an alarm at 10:28am to be on top of it, but of course that was the moment DD5 started talking about needing to use the restroom and I got distracted in the middle of booking. I realized at 10:32 that I hadn't confirmed our LL for Smuggler’s Run, at which point our window jumped from 3:30pm to 5:00pm. I knew better, but let this be your warning of how important it is to book as soon as you are able to when your window opens!

DD5 decided she did not really have to go to the bathroom. I noticed on this trip that any time she got nervous about a ride, she would say she needed to go. At least the Toy Story Mania line has lots of entertainment while you wait.

 

[jrmint427]

More Toy Story Fun + Frozen​

We left off in a long line for Toy Story Mania. We finally hit the part of the line where you merge with the LL line at 11:13am and were on the ride at 11:19am. Pat rode with DD5, I rode with DD7 and my parents rode together.




I love this game and always wish I could play again right away! DD7 and I both improved just a little from our last trip.



We took a bathroom break and then it was almost time for us to use our Slinky Dog Dash LL. I had booked for our whole party since 4 of the 6 said they wanted to see the roller coaster before deciding if they would ride. My mom and DD5 ultimately decided to opt out, with my dad and DD7 deciding they would give it a try. We had to wait a few minutes until 11:45am, which was 5 minutes before our window opened and the time we could use the LL.



DD7 rode this on our last trip and enjoyed it, but she was very nervous this time.




We waited 9 minutes on the LL line while the posted wait time was 95 minutes, which made this a valuable LL. Unfortunately, DD7 did not love the ride this time and in the middle she shouted, “This is the worst!”

As we were leaving Toy Story Land, I spotted The Market with Jack Jack’s Num Num Cookies. We had never tried them before, so this was on my bucket list for the day, and I picked up a cookie for us all to share (even though we had just eaten breakfast). It was really good! But I still liked Gideon’s chocolate chip cookies better.



It was just after noon and we were in desperate need of some A/C. It was a great time to catch the Frozen Sing-along show. We were in line outside at 12:10pm and so thankful that the doors to the theater opened at 12:15pm. I used the downtime to order our lunch at ABC Commissary and got set up to book our next LL at 12:32pm, which unfortunately would be 2 minutes into the show starting, but I did not want to miss that window again. I was already working with a 2-minute disadvantage. I ended up booking MMRR for 7:35-8:35pm.

The show was great as always, this is one of my favorites. I think the historians are the true stars, but I’m sure the kids were most excited to see Anna and Elsa.



I love that they’re always mixing up the jokes, I was laughing so hard. One historian asked the other if they slept through Arendelle 101 and the response was, “I was virtually schooled so I turned off the camera and made chocolate chip cookies!”

They also got in an Encanto joke when Hans came on the screen and the female historian said it was someone tall, dark and dreamy, and the male asked, “Bruno?” “We don’t talk about Bruno!” The female historian definitely made a cougar joke. Always love the adult humor mixed in.

The snow at the end of this show is always so magical. It will never get old!




After the show it was time to go pick up our lunch at ABC Commissary.

 

[jrmint427]

Lunch + Characters​

We thankfully found a table quicky at ABC Commissary, and were really thankful for the A/C. It was around 1:20pm when we sat down with our food. I think this was the Mediterranean Salad with Chicken, Pat's order:



I ordered the Mediterranean Salad without chicken. It was really good, and filling.



As we were walking to our next activity we came across Chip and Dale having a picnic on the lawn.



They were cute and playful and put on a fun show, throwing an acorn around at one point.





We watched for a little bit before moving on to meet Fancy Nancy.



The girls enjoyed meeting Nancy.



Then we headed inside for the Disney Junior Dance Party. Anything for a little A/C this day! The girls had been to the dance party on a prior trip with their grandparents, but it was mine and Pat’s first time.



The girls got a lot of attention during this show with the host calling out Buzz and Jessie in the crowd. They both danced and jumped along. I took more video than pictures during this show. The show was probably geared more toward even younger kids, but it was fun to watch the girls dancing along.

At 2:32pm I was able to book our next LL. There wasn’t much left at this point, so I booked Toy Story Mania for 7:25pm – 8:25pm. This was overlapping with our MMRR from 7:35pm – 8:35pm, but I figured that would be fine since we should get on both rides quickly. I booked this on our way to the Muppet show.



The Muppets are one of my dad’s favorite shows and a must-do on every trip with him! It’s one I could probably skip, but I always end up enjoying it when we go.

After the Muppets we decided to split up. My mom and Pat are more into Star Wars than the rest of us, so we suggested they ride Star Tours (which made me motion sick last time I rode) while my dad and I took the girls to the Indiana Jones show.

 

[jrmint427]

Indiana Jones, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster & Galaxy Edge​

We made it to the Indiana Jones theater shortly before the show was scheduled to start, and it was difficult to find seats. My dad and I separated in hopes of finding single seats. I took DD7 and he took DD5. DD7 and I squeezed in on an end seat.



This show never gets old! I am always on the edge of my seat when the giant ball rolls out. The stunts make me nervous for the actors.



We were pretty sure there was a new Indiana Jones actor during Act 3 vs. the start of the show. I hoped the original actor was OK!

My mom and Pat met up with us after the show. Pat and I wanted to ride Tower of Terror, but we prioritized earlier LLs for rides our whole family could ride, and they sold out quickly. One side of the ride was down during this trip so the standby line remained at 2+ hours throughout the day. Tower of Terror is one of my favorite rides in all four parks, but we decided it was a loss cause for this trip.

My parents offered to take the girls so we could at least attempt RNR for a thrill ride instead of ToT. We got in the single rider line at 3:58pm and were in the pre-show by 4:16pm. I was glad we were able to ride this one quickly!




At 4:32 I was able to book our next LL, but there was nothing for us to book that we hadn’t already been on. The only options were Star Tours (once was enough for my mom and Pat) and shows. So, I didn’t book anything.

After we met back up with my parents, we headed to Galaxy’s Edge to use our LL for Smuggler’s Run. This was our first trip seeing Galaxy’s Edge. Even though I’m not a big Star Wars fan (I haven’t finished all the movies yet!), it was really neat to see.



We were at the pre-show for Smuggler’s Run by 5:20pm and boarded at 5:26pm.





This ended up not being a good ride for my dad or DD5. My dad gets motion sick pretty easily and while we thought he could handle this one, it turned out he could not. DD5 was pretty scared and screaming. My dad and DD5 were in the back row of our car, and the CMs actually paused our ride at one point to check on “the third row” and requested thumbs up from both before they would start the ride again (which was nice to know they were monitoring reactions like that and would have stopped if our party wanted). The rest of us enjoyed it! And DD5 said she would try this one again on our upcoming trip.

Up next was Rise of the Resistance. We weren't able to get an ILL but this was a must-do for us on this trip. I can’t remember for certain, but I think it was already sold out when the park opened, since on-site guests were able to book it earlier. I remember having issues with the app that morning at park opening, so I'm not sure if there were any left right at opening or not, but there was nothing available by the time the app started working again. The posted wait time was 80 minutes and we figured that was about as good as it was going to get. My dad and DD5 decided to sit this one out, especially after Smuggler’s Run. I think they went to Toy Story Land to ride TSM while the rest of us got in line.

We were at the pre-show at 6:59 so we ended up waiting 74 minutes, just under the posted 80 minutes.

The line stopped at one point for about 15 minutes. I knew this ride shuts down frequently and figured that’s what was happening. At around 6:15, about 30 minutes into our wait, DD7 really had to use the restroom. We saw a cast member and I asked her about options for a bathroom, if we would be able to get back in line. She told me her job was actually to take people like us to the restroom! She led us out a backdoor to a bathroom behind the line and when we finished, she took us right to where the rest of our party was waiting. That was such a relief!

The ride was amazing, of course. We were on the first part of the ride at 7:01pm and were standing close to the front. I hadn’t read much about the ride and went in not quite sure what to expect.



The next room is super cool to walk into.




The CMs who interacted with us offered DD7 a cookie if she would share information with them. She couldn’t be swayed!

There was so much to take in and I loved the actual ride part. It was so unexpected and amazing how real it all felt. I was a little surprised but very glad that DD7 was not scared and loved this ride too. We were off the ride at 7:20pm and went to meet up with my dad and DD5.

 

[jrmint427]

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway & Toy Story (again)​

We were off Rise of the Resistance at 7:20pm. We had LLs for TSM at 7:25 and MMRR for 7:35 remaining to use, and still needed to find dinner. We decided to use the LLs first since they should have been pretty quick. We were walking by TSM so we were going to use that one first, but the ride had broken down, so we decided to go to MMRR first and circle back.

We arrived at MMRR at 7:41pm. My parents decided to skip this one because they were worried it would make my dad motion sick.



This was our first time riding MMRR. We loved it! The ride broke down momentarily while we were in the dancing room, but we were only stuck for about a minute before we started moving again.



We then walked back to TSM for our final ride of the day. Thankfully, it was running again. We passed this sign on the way there which I now know was a preview for the new Rodeo Roundup restaurant! We are so excited to try it out on our next trip.



We were on TSM at 8:43pm, so the final two LLs took longer than we had planned.



I ordered dinner at Woody’s Lunch Box while we were in line for TSM since we were all very hungry at that point.



I always love the vegetarian totchos. Others ordered a turkey sandwich and I think someone ordered grilled cheese.




We finished dinner at 9:16pm and saw some fireworks while we were eating our dinner, which is always the best way to end a day.




It’s always sad to leave a Disney park, but we had a great day.



We left at 9:36pm and there were still a lot of cars in the parking lot. We saw more fireworks at a distance as we were driving “home” and arrived back at our resort at 9:45pm.

A few stats to summarize our HS day:

• We walked 17,057 steps / 6.88 miles
• We went on 13 rides/shows
• We used 0 ILL and 4 LLs
• TouringPlans predicted crowd level was going to be 5/10, actual was 7/10
• We spent 296 minutes (4.9 hours) in lines; that’s an average wait time of 22.8 minutes per attraction – the longest of any of our park days
• I estimated we saved 185 minutes (about 3 hours) with Genie+
• For our family of 4, Genie+ cost $60, so that means we paid $0.32 per minute saved or $0.08 per person per minute saved; even though we “only” used it for 4 rides, the value per time saved was better than Animal Kingdom, but not as good as Magic Kingdom

On average we paid $111.45 per ticket to HS this day. When divided by the 13 rides/shows, we paid $8.57 per person per ride or show. As mentioned before, I recognize this is not a fair way to look at the ticket price (because it does not include overall experience), but I am continuing to compare it by park.

I felt a little disappointed that we only got to use Genie+ for 4 rides this day, but when I look at the total time saved (over 3 hours), it still felt very worth it at this park.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Breaking down the park day by cost and ride is interesting. It isn't just that, like you said but it is intresting to see.

I can't believe the stopped the ride for you to check on the 3rd row. Intersting. Good to know! Wonder if it was DD screaming or your dad turning green that prompted it more.

 

[jrmint427]

Breaking down the park day by cost and ride is interesting. It isn't just that, like you said but it is intresting to see.

I can't believe the stopped the ride for you to check on the 3rd row. Intersting. Good to know! Wonder if it was DD screaming or your dad turning green that prompted it more.

I was surprised they stopped the ride! I knew DD5 was scared but didn't realize how bad it must have been for them to actually stop everything.

 

[jrmint427]

Wednesday, June 15, 2022​

Work Day​

This was another work day for me and Pat. It helped to have breaks between our park days, but it would have been better if these were true rest days. I ended up working from 8am until 7pm.

I had leftover vegetarian Totchos from Woody’s Lunch Box for my lunch, which helped make the day better. We had leftovers for dinner too, which made for an easy day.

The girls got to go swimming with their grandparents and had a fun day. My parents were great about getting them out of the resort at times so we could take work calls in peace and without having to keep the girls quiet in their room.

I think I mentioned before, we had a small mis-communication or mis-understanding on dates and at some point prior to this trip realized that we were going to be checking out of our current resort the same day we were going to Epcot (and not the day after, as I had thought). This meant booking a last-minute hotel so we’d have a place to stay the night we went to Epcot. We were originally planning to drive home on Friday & Saturday to have a day to rest before going back to work, but realized we could stay an extra night and drive home Saturday & Sunday so we could enjoy our newly booked hotel.

This meant we were going to be staying at the Dolphin the following night (which was nostalgic for my husband and put us close to Epcot for our park day there). So, we spent this evening packing up our resort because we were going to have an early morning to move out of one place and drop our things at the Dolphin before going to Epcot the next day. We were woken up by fireworks a little before midnight. I couldn’t see where they were coming from, but they were close enough to wake us up!

 

[jrmint427]

Thursday, June 16, 2022​

Resort Transfer & Epcot – Remy’s, Les Halles​

We had to move from our off-site resort to the Dolphin this day, and since we were planning to spend the full day at Epcot, that meant we needed to be all packed to drop our luggage at the Dolphin before going to the park for the day.

Since we were now considered resort guests, we were planning to be at the park for early entry at 8:00am. We were up at 6:00am and planned to leave by 6:50am, but it was 7:06am before we were out the door. I booked our 7:00am LL for Frozen Ever After at 1:05pm. I also booked an ILL for Guardians of the Galaxy at 1:10pm, another perk of becoming a resort guest this day.

We knew our room wouldn’t be ready yet but confirmed with the hotel that we could store our luggage. We took care of that and were on the boat to go to Epcot by 7:36am.




Our boat stopped at the Yacht Club and Boardwalk, but no one got on at the Yacht Club. We were at the Epcot dock by 7:49am and in the park at 7:56am, 4 minutes before early entry began for resort guests.



We entered the park through the International Gateway at the back of the park. Our goal was to ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure before the park opened to non-resort guests. My parents skipped this ride because my dad was worried about motion sickness but said he might try it on our next trip.



We were in line at 8:02 and Standby was listed as 40 minutes. We only waited 23 minutes and were on the ride at 8:25am. This was our first time on Remy’s and we loved it! As we got off the ride, DD5 announced, “I survived!”



Our next stop was also going to be a first for our family, Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie. It didn’t open until 9am, so my parents went to get in line while we rode Remy’s. We met back up with my parents just after 8:30am and the restaurant was fairly empty, with the food area closed up.




I think it was around 8:45am that more people started to come into the café. At some point we realized we should get “in line” considering my parents had been the very first ones to arrive and had waited almost 45 minutes at that point (first waiting outside before the shop area even opened, then sitting at the table closest to the closed up area). We weren’t exactly sure where the line would start but people were milling around so we just guessed where to stand, and others got in line behind us. We were the very first in line when the garage area opened at 8:50am (10 minutes early).




The food was excellent! We loaded up on pastries, sandwiches, yogurt and macarons to share.



We were thankful that we were there early because the tables filled up quickly and a lot of people were standing and waiting for a place to sit. I’ll share more pictures and food details in the next post!

 

[jrmint427]

Les Halles and Flower & Garden Festival​

We ordered a lot of food to split many ways! I think this first one was the Croissant Sale (egg, cheese & bacon)



I was most excited for the Brie au Pommes (brie, apples and cranberries in multi grain bread) which was huge.



I don’t remember exactly what else we ordered but I think we had a regular croissant, a chocolate croissant, I think a beignet, and the Macarons collection.





We split each of the macarons 6 ways so we could all try all 6 flavors. This was a lot of work and led to just a small taste of each, but it was perfect for our family. We enjoyed breakfast this way. Les Halles was cute and the food was excellent.



We finished breakfast by 9:25am and since there were quite a few families standing at the railings and waiting for a table, we cleared out quickly so someone else could have our table.

This was also our first time being at Epcot during the Flower & Garden Festival, so we had fun admiring the topiaries around the park.






Our next stop was the Flower & Garden butterfly garden.

 

[jrmint427]

Butterfly Garden & Living with the Land​

We stopped for a lot of pictures on our way to the butterfly garden.




We were at the butterfly garden tent at 9:45am. We had a butterfly garden in our neighborhood where we lived at this time (we’ve since moved), but always liked going to see the butterflies so we were excited for this exhibit.





I had less of a plan that I normally would for this day. Using Genie+ made it harder to predict where we would be in this large park, and to minimize overall walking. I checked the Touring Plans app and saw Living with the Land had a predicted 12-minute wait (posted 25-minute wait) and said to “ride now” so we walked there next. We were in line at 9:54am and waited 16 minutes.

Living with the Land is one of our favorite Epcot rides. When the girls are a little older, we’d like to do the Behind the Seeds tour.







Disney always seems to be growing different plants each time we go, so it's never the exact same ride. The holiday and festival overlays are fun too.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

You confirmed it for me... DEF need to do breakfast at in France!

 

[jrmint427]

You confirmed it for me... DEF need to do breakfast at in France!

I'm so glad! We really enjoyed the food there and would go back. I tried to fit it into our next trip but then we'd be going to Remy's, Frozen, and back to France - it would just be too much walking. We might grab a snack there later in the day, though!

 

[jrmint427]

Spaceship Earth, Nemo, Soarin’, Guardians, Flower & Garden Food​

I didn’t take great notes this day, but based on our pictures I’m pretty sure I must have booked our next LL for Spaceship Earth because it looks like that is the line we waited on. The posted wait time was 35 minutes (Touring Plans expected was 29 minutes). We were in line at 10:40am and on the ride at 10:59am, so we waited 19 minutes.



I love that this ride has the interactive screens, which helps to entertain the kids. I rode with DD5 who was a little nervous because of how dark the ride was, but she had fun picking her choices in the interactive game.

We finally got a picture on this wall after the ride.



And we admired more topiaries. We love Toy Story!



We decided to ride Nemo next. We usually wait about 5 minutes to get on this ride and did not have an LL but didn’t think it would be too bad. We got in line at 11:26am and the standby line time said “—” which should have been a signal this was not the best time to ride. We ended up waiting 48 minutes! For Nemo! Which is way too long for this ride. It’s cute and fun for the girls, but not worth waiting almost an hour in line. We were at least out of the sun and indoors for the second half of the line, which helped.




Around 12:30pm, Test Track was already out of Genie+. Because I didn’t take great notes and there is a gap in my photos, I don’t remember exact timing, but I did note we used our Soarin’ LL at 12:31pm. My dad likely took the girls to something else, likely Turtle Talk with Crush? We couldn’t have waited more than 10 minutes or so for Soarin’ because I texted my dad we were off the ride at 1:01pm and asked my dad to meet my mom at the Land Pavilion, where I got a LL for my parents and the girls to ride Living with the Land again while Pat and I went to use our Guardians ILL.

Our window for Guardians opened at 1:10pm and I see we were at the entrance at 1:14pm. The pre-show and second line took a long time. We were off the ride at 1:43pm. We loved this new coaster! It was unique and fun, and I haven't seen the movie (yet?) but loved the ride. I'm only now realizing the other couple in our car had Guardians shirts!



Our Frozen window was only good until 2:05pm (I believe there is a short grace period but didn’t want to rely on it), so I asked my parents to pick up the stroller and meet us in Norway. However, they couldn’t find the stroller (CMs sometimes move them), so we met them back near the Land Pavilion to help find it before heading to Norway together. We were rushing to get to the ride in time and made it at 2:03pm, just two minutes before our window expired. The standby wait at the time was 75 minutes. We only waited 8 minutes. I love this ride, but it makes DD5 nervous because of the drop at the end.



After the ride we decided to check out some of the Flower & Garden festival booths. This is what we had planned to do for lunch and we were all getting hungry. We started at the Jardin de Fiestas booth. Pat ordered a Craft Mexican Lager and the Enchilada de Mole Negro (Chipotle chicken in a corn tortilla with mole negro, avocado mousse, crema Mexicana and queso fresco). I ordered the Tostada de Chorizo (plant-based chorizo and black beans on a crispy corn tortilla with avocado mousse and queso fresco).





All were really good!

 

[jrmint427]

Flower & Garden Food, continued​

I had my eye on the Frozen Desert Violet Lemonade at the Pineapple Promenade. We also got dole whips for the girls.


Don't mind my chipped nail... this was the end of the trip!

We also picked up a Pineapple Beer flight at this stop.




One of the beers was from Wicked Weed in Asheville, NC where we had taken a beer tour previously, so it was neat to see that featured.

We continued our walk around the countries, and the girls collected stamps this time.




Our next stop was La Isla Fresca where I wanted to try the Arepa with melted queso fresco. I think Pat got the Arepa with shrimp, crushed avocado aiji and tomato sauce.



These were just okay, the cheese arepas were a little heavy, and if I recall, no one else really wanted to share them with me.

Our next stop was in Japan for a treat I thought the girls would like – Frushi! It was really cute and they especially loved the whipped cream.



I don’t think DD5 cared for it much, but DD7 enjoyed it. It was so hot, we stopped in the store in Japan just for some A/C. DD5 fell in love with this squishy and was so cute we almost bought it or her. But she has so many squishies! Instead, we picked up some Pocky.



We found a PhotoPass photographer outside in Japan.