Food, Fun, Firsts, and Friends - An October 2016 TR - Updated 1/19: Day 2, Parts 1-3

[franandaj]

Fun update! Especially since I was there for part of it!

But to the somber part, the friend that I met, her DH passed away? That's awful, were there any preliminary signs or did it just come on out of the blue?

It was fun to meet up with you and your DH! Actually I got the shrimp and noodles in China, it was a huge portion and it was really spicy!

At the floats booth, I got the Hard Root beer float. Those margaritas from Italy were so good! It really was hot that day. I went back to the room and took some time at the pool after our meet.

 

[IowaTater]

Day 2, Part 3: The Big Blue World

We were able to board Living With The Land about halfway through our FP+ window. We have never done this attraction before and honestly could have done it without a FP+ but it worked out okay. It was kind of neat to see "Happy Anniversary" pop up on the screen when we scanned our MBs. This ride is cute & informative. I loved learning about all the food that is grown/cultivated within WDW. It may not be a ride we do every time but I'm glad we did it this time.

After we got done, we hit up a couple of the penny machines and then headed to our next FP+.



We love this ride and it did not disappoint, except for the guy who kept taking flash photography during the ride. Jerk.

After we got off the ride, I convinced DH to go through the aquariums with me. I know it's not really his thing so I tried to take in as much as quickly as I could. I loved looking at all the marine life and I was a little bummed that I missed a bunch of it.



I was starting to feel a little low so because our next and last FP+ was Soarin', I decided to grab a quick bite at Sunshine Seasons. This worked out well because there was a cupcake there calling my name. A couple of dishes looked really good but I ultimately chose the grilled salmon with green beans with a green apple cupcake. (I love the Halloween cups). DH got a piece of plain cheesecake.



DH loved his cheesecake, as usual (he's a cheesecake fiend). As for my meal, the salmon was really good but I didn't care for the tomato relish on top at all. The green beans were okay but they definitely needed more seasoning. The green apple cupcake is a seasonal option and I love fall flavors so I had to try it. It was basically a spiced cupcake with, I believe, a buttercream frosting covered in green sugar crystals and a pretzel "stem". The cupcake & frosting were delicious but the green sugar crystals were WAY too much. They made the frosting a little too sweet and the texture was super weird. We let our dinners digest a little and then made our way over to Soarin'.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from Soarin' but even with a FP+, we had to wait about 15-20 minutes before we could board, which was one of the longest FP+ wait we had the whole trip. This was the first time we had done Soarin' so I can't compare it to the old one but we absolutely loved this ride. I even got a little teary at the end. Usually these types of rides make me sick but I didn't have that trouble at all. The boarding process was a little stressful just because as a bigger person, I was afraid of crowding people but luckily I had DH on one side of me and a little girl on the other.

By this time, DH and I had about reached our limit so we decided to head back to our resort. EPCOT was going to be closing in a couple of hours anyway so we didn't feel like we were going to miss much. We did stop in to see what the wait times were for Baymax, Joy, and Sadness but they were both a little bit longer than what we wanted to wait. Plus thanks to the delayed delivery of our box, I didn't have my autograph book anyway. As we made our way out of the park, we did stop back at the Festival Welcome Center so I could pick up some new items for our kitchen (I'll show all of our purchases at the end of this TR). I also took one last pictures before we left.



We got to our bus stop and a bus came within 5-10 minutes and we were back to our resort by 9 pm. When we got back to the resort, we stopped at the food court so DH could get a beverage before we headed to our room. We got back to our room, opened our door, and TA-DA!!! There was our box! I was so relieved it had finally arrived so I set out to unpack it all while DH took his shower. Because of where our room was located, I didn't even bother decorating our window but it was nice to have all the rest of our supplies. With everything unpacked & put in its place, I took my shower, set the alarm on my cell phone as well as called for another wake up call, and drifted off to sleep to the sound of the TV.