The (Foodie)Force is Strong with Us...a Feb/Mar 2016 trip! THE END - NEW 9/13 Disneyland TR link!

[kadrachb]

We also got the house-made potato and cheddar cheese biscuit with smoked salmon tartare.

We tried it this when we were there, and I have to say, it was WAAAY too salty for my tastes. Glad you liked it though!

The men's is a light blue and it has a small design on the right chest front, and in the back has a larger graphic. I really liked the men's t-shirt and it suited DH perfectly as he's always trying to find ways to take care of our lawn!

I had to convince Kenny to get this t-shirt! He has one from last year with Mickey mowing the lawn (which is one of his favorite things to do...) and this one was so nice!

I haven't even seen this area of Epcot yet, as you never really notice it, but I realize that there were a bunch of characters there! I think this was one of the Character Training spots? So of course I ducked in and waited on line for each character!

We ran into a character training too! Right next to the American Pavilion though. It was really cool because we didn't get to meet Baloo or King Louie at AK the previous day, but saw them here.

 

[nenglim]

So after I got DH's text I walked over to Innoventions to meet Baymax too! The line was long, there was no getting around it but I really wanted to get a picture with Baymax. His line is at least indoors so it wasn't hot and it was a good rest from walking all that way!


DH didn't want to wait on line with me so he went to wait on line at the Disney Visa Character Spot. There wasn't much of a line which was nice!

Today it was Minnie and Pluto! Actually I find we get Minnie and Pluto a lot!
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We had the same idea when we were there last April. Across from Baymax was Joy and Sadness, my children DS 12 and 16 and DD5 wanted to hug Baymax and DD wanted also to meet joy and sadness. So whats a parent to do? Splitsville!! i lined up with Baymax and DH lined up with Joy and Sadness. Although the lines both started out kinda same distance, joy and sadness' line moved slower... I tried to talk DH to doing the same trick for Chewbacca and Kylo Ren but neither one of us(parents) wanted to miss meeting one of them!

I have never been to the Disney Visa Character Spot. I have the card, but my sister who is coming with us this July doesn't. Can I take her and her family with us inside? That will make us a party of 10. ​

 

[chunkymonkey]

We tried it this when we were there, and I have to say, it was WAAAY too salty for my tastes. Glad you liked it though!

Oh that's weird! Maybe it was an off day, like they accidentally double salted. Because it wasn't salty at all when we ate it!

I had to convince Kenny to get this t-shirt! He has one from last year with Mickey mowing the lawn (which is one of his favorite things to do...) and this one was so nice!

DH also has last year's t-shirt! They are both really cute! Last year DH found his on sale at Mousegears so he got about 10 bucks off! It was really weird because it wasn't on sale at other locations. But this year I guess it was so early into F and G that nothing was on sale!

We ran into a character training too! Right next to the American Pavilion though. It was really cool because we didn't get to meet Baloo or King Louie at AK the previous day, but saw them here.

It was so unexpected! I forgot Epcot has it's own version of Characterpalooza too.

We had the same idea when we were there last April. Across from Baymax was Joy and Sadness, my children DS 12 and 16 and DD5 wanted to hug Baymax and DD wanted also to meet joy and sadness. So whats a parent to do? Splitsville!! i lined up with Baymax and DH lined up with Joy and Sadness. Although the lines both started out kinda same distance, joy and sadness' line moved slower... I tried to talk DH to doing the same trick for Chewbacca and Kylo Ren but neither one of us(parents) wanted to miss meeting one of them!

That's a good idea, especially for those long character lines! DH sometimes helps me and my sister out by waiting on line while we are taking pictures with another character. He doesn't care much about being in every character picture but he knows it means more to us. He stands in line and plays games on his iphone and is content. LOL. Chewie and Kylo Ren's lines weren't terribly long when we were at Launch Bay. Oh and you can always do the special dark side Visa meet n greet - with us it was Kylo Ren too, and the line is usually very short or non existent for that. So if anything, get on line for Chewie first!

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I have never been to the Disney Visa Character Spot. I have the card, but my sister who is coming with us this July doesn't. Can I take her and her family with us inside? That will make us a party of 10.

From what I understand you can all go through together just as long as one person has the card. I don't think there is a number of people limit per card (but I never checked!) You will only be able to scan it to one magic band though, which is not a big deal as you can share the picture later anyways. This will be good to know for our big trip next year too! Only me and my sister has the card but no one else does!

 

[KathyM2]

Mmmm all your Epcot snacks are making me hungry...yum!!! I love your Baloo pic...and in one of your pics it looks like you are biting on a whisker??? So funny!! What a great day. And also great that it wasn't crazy hot. That can really have an effect on how long you can last in the parks.

 

[Dugette]

Love all the F&G fun. Day drinking and bacon...sounds like a good day at Epcot.

Love all the character meets too. Sounds like the character training locations vary?

 

[bcwife76]

Your dh hugging Donald is just the cutest thing ever!

Yay for impromptu character meets!

I love Baymax, totally worth waiting in a long line!! You know I love Big Hero 6 and I think it's always underappreciated and underrated. Maybe because it's a bit 'darker' than most of their animated films? It's so well done though!

 

[Elevationist]

I ate most of it and DH had a few bites bit he agreed it was good. He is the sort of person who is OK with not having breakfast though, and I tend to get cranky unless I am distracted, so it was mostly mine!

Girl, me too. I need to start and end my day with FOOD!

Here's me very happy with my bacon-lard-roll breakfast!

"Bacon Lard Roll" sounds both wonderful and awful. Now I want one! (Also, you're adorable!)

It wasn't noon yet but it was 5'oclock somewhere and I was so tempted by the pretty pink slushie so I got one...a La Vie en Rose! It was so good! Like a slightly fruitier Grey Goose slushy! We also tried one of their signature items, a Cassoulet au Confit de Canard...pulled duck confit with braised flageolet beans. It was good, and there was definitely bacon in it too. Yum yum!

Oh MAN! Both of these look SO SO SO GOOD!!!

We ended up getting the Beef Teriyaki Udon noodles and the Frushi! The noodles were really good, and the frushi was light and fruity! It was the perfect meal! DH is not as enamored with frushi as I am so I got to eat two pieces, hehe.

I love frushi! I love teriyaki beef! I love udon noodles! Man, what I wouldn't give to be eating all of this right now!

Such a beautiful Epcot day! I wish it could be like this all the time!

Wow, that really is a gorgeous day! So nice!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Mmmm all your Epcot snacks are making me hungry...yum!!! I love your Baloo pic...and in one of your pics it looks like you are biting on a whisker??? So funny!! What a great day. And also great that it wasn't crazy hot. That can really have an effect on how long you can last in the parks.

Yes it was a great day, great weather, and an exciting and satisfying start to the F and G festival!
That Goofy and his whiskers! It does look like I'm biting on it!

Love all the F&G fun. Day drinking and bacon...sounds like a good day at Epcot.

It was a GREAT day at Epcot!

Love all the character meets too. Sounds like the character training locations vary?

I have no idea! I can't exactly remember where I saw them but I want to say it was around the UK Pavilion.

Your dh hugging Donald is just the cutest thing ever!

Thanks! It was really cute! I'm trying to get him to embrace his inner character lover!

Yay for impromptu character meets!

I know!! Super Yay!

I love Baymax, totally worth waiting in a long line!! You know I love Big Hero 6 and I think it's always underappreciated and underrated. Maybe because it's a bit 'darker' than most of their animated films? It's so well done though!

I'm not sure, but it is such an awesome film! I guess it does have a sad beginning but then again, so did UP! I really love the story and the characters. One of Disney's best films that doesn't have a princess!

Girl, me too. I need to start and end my day with FOOD!

Word.

"Bacon Lard Roll" sounds both wonderful and awful. Now I want one! (Also, you're adorable!)

Aww thanks, I sure was happy after my bacon lard roll...

Oh MAN! Both of these look SO SO SO GOOD!!!

They WERE so so so good! Delicious flavors and I love duck!

I love frushi! I love teriyaki beef! I love udon noodles! Man, what I wouldn't give to be eating all of this right now!

It was one of our favorites! The noodles were so yummy and to end with frushi....just the cherry on top!

Wow, that really is a gorgeous day! So nice!

Thanks! It was a gorgeous day! We were very lucky!

 

[kastoney]

We continued walking through the World Showcase and we hit Mexico, and Donald was there! So we got on line to meet him. He's the coolest duck on the planet. Although don't tell him we had duck confit in France!

Good idea, don't want him getting a complex or anything!

I can't seem to find the t-shirts in our closet to take a picture of at the moment (typical) but here's a picture of the women's t-shirt I found online (care of Disney Fashionista)

Love this one, not sure how I missed this one. I ended up getting the figment made from flowers shirt.

As I was walking around, I coincidentally saw a mini crowd outside an area which is usually closed off. I haven't even seen this area of Epcot yet, as you never really notice it, but I realize that there were a bunch of characters there! I think this was one of the Character Training spots? So of course I ducked in and waited on line for each character!

What luck and of course you had to channel your inner chunkysis. We ran into a few of these last year, but they were always face characters. Didn't even know they did all the characters this way.

Finally it was my turn with my personal healthcare companion!

You totally look like you're considering popping him!!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 5 Part 4: Behind the Seeds Tour at Living with The Land

We arrived at The Land and checked in with the front desk for our Behind the Seeds tour at 3pm. The tour lasted about an hour and after that we would be right on time for our FP+ at Test Track! They asked us to wait in the seating area that used to house the paper FP for Soarin', it was empty there because Soarin' was closed. Soon we were called and on our way into The Land! There were only 2 other people on our tour, just two guys so we had a very small group which was nice.

Our host was Ky and he was really nice and quite knowledgeable even though he said he was still a graduate student in horticulture or biology (I can't remember). Our first stop...Biological Control. Which to someone with an irrational fear of bugs, did not sit well with me.

Ky explained how they used the bugs as natural pesticides which makes sense but now I'm like, oh great, bugs...at Disney! Needless to say, I was happy to be out of the bug section of the tour!

We moved on and went outside which was "behind the scenes" of Living With The Land. Pretty neat.

We got more in-depth explanations of what goes on in the labs that you see on the tour. This is Ky, our host!

We then went to one of our favorite areas, which is the hydroponics! It's always really cool to see. DH had a lot of questions about growing stuff hydroponically as he's trying to do it at home, but he doesn't have a lot of the equipment that he needs.

DH was really taken with this Hydroponic Gro Tank, which is basically a souped up fish tank.

Ky even passed out instructions on how to make one! DH is thinking about doing this once he gets all the materials!

Ky gave us samples of cucumbers which were grown at The Land via hydroponics. Since it was only the four of us, each party got a large bag of sliced cucumbers. They were cold and refreshing.

We didn't get the cool Mickey Ear cucumbers you see here though.

We continued on, stopping to look at different plants that caught our interest.

Good to see Minnie represented here!

We went into the fish and reptile area. It's kinda neat to be on the other side of "the boat ride" hehe.

We got some fish food to feed the fishes at the end. I think they were tilapia?

They went nuts when we threw in the food!

We exited the fishy area and went to more exotic locales.

This tour is BANANAS!

Avocado:

Miracle fruit: guess what? The miracle of this fruit is that it changes the way your tastebuds perceive sour or bitter things, so it will taste sweet! I will have to try this some day. They said if you take some Miracle fruit before you eat lemons it will be super sweet! They sell them in tablet form on Amazon so it might make for a fun couple of hours taste-testing stuff that normally have strong flavors.

Miracle Fruit

It looks like we're in the jungle!

We came upon the Spice Garden section and there was the giant Mickey head.

There was a large chest full of different dried spices in containers. They were only labeled with numbers. We picked numbers and got that jar and had to guess what was in it.

I got lavender...it was easy to tell and DH got flax seeds. I was the only one that knew what it was!

We continued walking around while Ky noted all the unique things about LWTL. The cooling system for the space is interesting, wet wavy cardboard-like panels line the walls while giant fans blow on them, pushing cool air through. It's a very green form air conditioning. You can see some of the panels to the left of DH below:

We walked back to our starting point and that was the end of the tour! It was a pretty cool view behind the scenes, literally, of LWTL.

We made out in good time and went over to TT to use our FP+. Here's our ride pic:

Then we used our FP+ for Mission Space. We didn't really need FP+ for this because it was practically a walk-on for the green side. We even got our own space capsule. When we came out we got this PP pic. I think this is our first PP pic in front of Mission Space! I didn't even notice PP photographers here in the past.

We had some time before we had to leave for MK. My friend, Topdog had texting saying he was going to be at MK that night too so we were going to meet up after dinner.

In the meantime, DH and I went to this exhibit at Innventions, Colortopia. It was an interesting interactive exhibit where you use a magic paintbrush to color in a townscape on a large screen.

The technology is pretty cool, although the other smaller interactive stuff like "Try to match the color on the lightbulb" wasn't working well and no matter what you did, you could not match the color 100%. I think I prefer the Great Piggy Bank thing they had last time. Just because I loved carrying that little piggy bank around. I kinda like these things where they give you something to carry around and do things, feels like you are really involved! I remember a few years ago Innoventions had that trash/recycling thing where you pushed around a little sanitation truck? That was so cute.

One last PP pic before we left Epcot for the day! It was now on to MK!

Stay tuned for our dinner at Skipper Canteen!​

 

[bcwife76]

Wow, that's a really interesting tour! I love that your dh is into all the technical gardening, I hope he's able to do a hydroponic garden down the road, that would be super cool!

mmmmm.....refreshing cucumber (there's no cool eating emoji on here!) too bad it wasn't mickey shaped There, I got an emoji in ;-) Well you certainly did a LOT at Epcot!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Good idea, don't want him getting a complex or anything!

Yeah, he's such an angry bird already! Don't want to have to make him go to therapy! Or anger management!

Love this one, not sure how I missed this one. I ended up getting the figment made from flowers shirt.

That was a cute shirt too! It was funny how different places sold different things. Mousegears didn't have this shirt but the festival center and some of the kiosks did.

What luck and of course you had to channel your inner chunkysis. We ran into a few of these last year, but they were always face characters. Didn't even know they did all the characters this way.

Exactly! Chunkysis was proud. She's like, that's what I would have done! But she would have staked out the spot first and I just happened to run into them. I had heard rumors of this happening at Epcot but I hadn't done the research enough so didn't know where and when, guess I was just lucky!

You totally look like you're considering popping him!!!

I was going to squeeze him so hard that he would pop!! But it's hard to get a good grip around him when he's so wide, LOL!

Wow, that's a really interesting tour! I love that your dh is into all the technical gardening, I hope he's able to do a hydroponic garden down the road, that would be super cool!

He's going to attempt that! He actually is almost finish building the tiered strawberry planter he saw on one of the outdoor gardens. It's really cool looking. I'll show pics when he's done!

mmmmm.....refreshing cucumber (there's no cool eating emoji on here!) too bad it wasn't mickey shaped There, I got an emoji in ;-) Well you certainly did a LOT at Epcot!!

Yup, I wasn't expecting a sample of anything so that was a nice surprise. And too bad no mickey shape! I'm sure that would've taken a lot of effort from them. on the emoji!!

 

[natebenma]

In any case...we DO have another Disney vacation planned...to DISNEYLAND RESORT!

That is awesome news! I was so excited to see your ticker. We had our first DL visit in July 2014, on our way to Hawaii. We loved it. We stayed at the Grand Californian as well. Great location.

I haven't read over others tips to you. Mine is "Single Rider Line". Ben rode Radiator Springs Racers 6 times in one day between standby, FP and Single Rider. I believe he rode 3 times in a row while the rest of us were on Tower of Terror.

We found the food to be pretty pricey, we didn't go to counter service as much as we should have. Meals at Blue Bayou, Carthay Circle (World of Color Package). We did love the quick serve options by Paradise Pier.

 

[cajunfan]

I LOVE the Behind the seed tour! I did it a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. But then I could ride LWTL a couple of times in a row just to look at the greenhouses! I can't wait to hear about Skipper Canteen.

 

[natebenma]

​

Finally caught up on Day 2. Sheesh!

I'm glad they had Jasmine covered up in a coat to keep warm. Otherwise you picture may not have been suitable for a family website.

Super cute picture of you enjoying Big Thunder Mountain- my favorite Disney ride.

I have not tried the Nutella waffle but it looks really good.

You got a great picture of the ghost at HM.

Lovely pictures around the Hub while you were solo. It is nice to have a little time alone to do what you want without inconveniencing your travel partners.

It has been awhile since I have gone to Monsters Inc or the Speedway. And I'm not sure I have ever (or ever will) do the tea cups.

So glad you FINALLY were able to ride the Mine Train.

Your dinner at Be Our Guest looks awesome. I have only been there once for lunch and Mark and I have a reservation for lunch there on our anniversary trip. The birthday card was such a nice touch- Belle & Beast's signatures are great!

Ending the night at EPCOT with Illuminations is a perfect finale to the day.

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This is an awesome picture!!!

I love this!

 

[natebenma]

Duplicate Post​

 

[BlvInMagic]

The behind the seeds tour looked like a lot of fun! Interactive and educational I never realized they had that available until we saw some folks touring on a recent Living with the Land ride. Is the tour something you have to pay extra for?

 

[Saphire5742]

Finally all caught up!
I admit that Star Wars has ZERO appeal to me, but I'm happy for you that you had such an awesome time in Hollywood Studios.
Was interesting to read about your V&A experience. All the dishes look fabulous! And I was surprised at how brightly lit the QV room is as opposed to the Main room. I chose 5 of the chocolates but after 3 I could not finish so they boxed the remaining 2 which was nice. If I'd had known that from the get go I would have asked them to box all my selections.
Wasn't F&G wonderful? Although I wish the heat didn't prevent me from trying a lot more from the outdoor kitchens. I actually did the Gardens of the World tour.
Behind the Seeds looks neat. I loved the ride so maybe I'll try it next time.
Interested to read your Skipper review.

 

[DVCAshleyJ]

I used the panorama setting on my phone to get the entire dragon in the picture!

This is so cool! I bet this took some time to compleat ​

 

[KathyM2]

That behind the seeds tour looked like a lot of fun...really educational too!