COMPLETE 9/29 -10th Anniversary at the Contemporary! - May 2024 TR

[Araminta18]

How to Stay Cool in Epcot - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 2)​

Epcot is so pretty from the monorail:


And Moana from the monorail!

When we got into the park, it was so hot I was like needing a visor or something cause I forgot my sunglasses (and I don't love sunglasses with my ears) so we stopped at that little shop there by Spaceship Earth and I got a wicker visor, cause I could wear it with my ears. Gotta hide from the sun in Florida!

Where to first? Moana! It sounded cool, so off we went.

We have way too much fun with the water features.

Seriously Te Fiti is so gorgeous. And I appreciate that they have a photographer there - you know we stopped.


The little coconut guys! It's a fun magic shot but it absolutely does kind of blend in there. Hmm.


Hidden little shell! I do love how Moana has all the characters and such in the carvings there. Fun things to look for.

Next we were heading to the Land pavilion, but we passed more topiaries on the way!


Lion King!

At Living with the Land, I wanted to see if they had any special decorations up for Flower and Garden - I was apparently not the only one!

It was posted at 30 minutes - I've never seen Living with the Land with a wait, much less 30 minutes! That's crazy. But we had no other plans so in we went. We ended up waiting about 18 minutes - they sent the group right in front of us on and then held us while the next boat pulled up, and we got the front row - woot!

Me with my fancy visor!

 

[Araminta18]

Living with the Land...and Butterflies - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 3)​

There were some really fun displays in the Land greenhouse, so I was glad we waited (the 18 minutes...such an ordeal. )


It's a whole Snow White setup! I love the little wishing well.

Look at the cute little gnome!!

and another! We absolutely started focusing on trying to find the little gnome dudes.

I loved this Alice in Wonderland tea party setup. They had the relevant book near every display, though it's hard to see in the picture.

It's the Cheshire Cat!

After Living with the Land, we had about 45 minutes til our lunch reservation, but we figured we should start heading that direction, and we ran into the butterfly pavilion.

I had a butterfly land on my finger! And of course it was the finger I was using to film so I didn't get it on camera, but it was neat. There were so many butterflies!

It was too hot in there to spend too much time though, so we left and started heading back to World Showcase. We found some more topiaries!

 

[Araminta18]

Pre-Lunch Lunch - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 4)​

I *LOVED* the sheep - Billy, Goat, and Gruff, right?

they're so fluffy!

I realize we were like 30 min out from lunch but we were passing booths, so of course we stopped.

From the Florida Fresh booth, we got the Cucumber - Watermelon slushie. This was super refreshing - more watermelon than cucumber, but you could still taste the cucumber a bit. And it was cool and refreshing and just really nice - the cucumber flavor was a bit tart, but mostly at the end. I really liked this for a hot day.

That same booth also had the strawberry shortcake, so of course we got that:

This was not nearly as light and refreshing as I thought or hoped it would be. The strawberries were candied in syrup, and so were really heavy - not light at all. Still good, but heavy for a hot day. And Trevor and I both would have preferred fresh strawberries vs the candied ones.
As we kept walking, we saw little fluffy ducklings!

We also saw a fluffy dog -

Goofy topiary!

We kept going to the Swirled Showcase, and stopped here cause we needed something cool after the somewhat disappointing strawberry shortcake. Trevor got the red cream soda float:

Trevor is a sucker for red cream soda.

It melted ALL over him and he got some on his pants and he was sad. But it was still yummy.

I got the Liquid Nitro Honey-Mascarpone Cheesecake with fresh honey, granulated honey, honey mead blueberry compote. I don't like cheesecake but I like liquid nitrogen stuff, so I got it.

This was pretty good, especially if you got a bite of it with the berry, cause the blueberry cut a lot of the richness. I didn't eat it all, but the bites I had were good. It was just a bit too rich for me. And at least it didn't melt all over me.

Ok, we had to stop pre-gaming our lunch, since we were literally heading there right now. But we saw the Bambi topiaries!


Adorable - I love Flower and Thumper.

Ok, where were we going for lunch? This is your only hint!

Non-Disney IP topiaries.

 

[Araminta18]

Best Lunch in Epcot! (don't worry, there's still a topiary pic in this post) - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 5)​

Did you guess?

Le Cellier! We had such a good meal here in January that we had to come back. Not gonna lie, one of the biggest draws (for me) was the raspberry lime mocktail - I love raspberries!

Anyways. We checked in and Trevor went immediately to the men's room, but like a minute after he left the CM was calling our name to seat us, and was initially gonna wait to seat me but then was like "meh whatever I'll seat you now". So we were seated within 3 minutes.

I got my raspberry mocktail:


And Trevor got his Apple Cranberry with light maple:

Both were just as delicious as we remembered.

Then they brought the bread: pretzel bread and multigrain sourdough, with whipped maple butter.

The bread was all warm and yummy - Trevor specifically wanted me to note for you that the bread was hot. The sourdough had a HARD crust - it didn't want to come apart. But the flavor was good. And of course the pretzel was delicious. Maple butter isn't my favorite (I prefer my butter unadulterated) but man you could smell the maple.

We decided to split an appetizer and an entree, so we went with Bison Tartare for the appetizer: Bison Tartare - Kibbeh Nayeh, Radish, Mint, Garlic Aeoli, Toasted Bread.

This was so interesting. All the flavors were so strong - the garlic, even the radish! I didn't know radish had a strong flavor but it did here. We could also taste a bit of the jalapeno - it almost felt spicy-hot, but not really hot? Just lots of good spice flavors. Trevor made interesting faces while eating it. Not our favorite dish but I was glad we got it - so interesting.

Then, entree! Of course we got the filet mignon.

SO good. The risotto was so creamy ("Mary mashed 'em..." any While You Were Sleeping fans? ), and the steak had such a good flavor, while being so tender it just melted in your mouth. I usually don't like filet mignon 'cause I feel like it doesn't have a good flavor but this filet was just *chef's kiss*. Highly recommend.

Another nice thing about lunch today was that everything was coming out of the kitchen super quick - they clearly wanted to turn the table but it worked for us. We eat fast. We also managed to get a boarding group for Guardians (we got group 101 and they were on 71-80, so not bad). Remy was also posting only 35 minutes - weirdly low!

We weren't gonna get dessert, but they saw we were celebrating our anniversary and look what they brought:

chocolate mousse moose! 1. adorable and 2. delicious. So cute. I loved it - mousse on top and then cake crumbs underneath. Brilliant. So nice to have that little pixie dust.

Splitting the appetizer and entree was the right way to go - just the right amount of food after all the snacks we'd had. We also asked for mocktails to go, cause of course we did.


The CM was awesome - brought us full-size drinks and even the cute little garnishes! So nice.

The plan from here was to go hang out in England in the shade until our boarding group was called - there's that little garden back there, so we were hoping to get a cool spot. We thought about the passholder lounge but Trevor was like "nah".

So back there we headed, passing fun topiaries on the way!

 

[Araminta18]

No Topiaries! (Just Kidding Its All Topiaries) - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 6)​

Well really this whole post is gonna be topiaries. Mostly.

I'd apologize but how can I - look at that adorably goofy crocodile!


I think these my be my favorites - Piglet is riding Eeyore! *dies*

We made it back into the little garden area, where there were benches in the shade but MORE importantly, more topiaries!


It's a little elephant!

We camped out on one of the benches there and just kind of vegged for a bit.

It's such a nice little area, though not quite as much of a breeze back there as I would have liked. But still nice.

We stayed back there for an hour or so, and then decided to make our way over to Guardians, by way of France and the friendship boats. Don't ask me why, its just where we went.

Had to stop and take photos on the bridge.

Cute little Orange Bird shot

And yes, I did have to take pictures of the France topiaries.


Ok I lied, this one is probably my favorite.

 

[dizneedoll]

I love Le Cellier but haven’t eaten there in years because there is nothing on the menu my DS will eat Years ago, they used to have a burger on the menu that would have worked for him but its been gone for awhile. I go solo too but have not worked up the courage to dine solo yet.
I think my fave topiary is Pooh.

 

[summerlvr]

A little late to the party, but all caught up now. I love your trip reports! Thought it was interesting that you said you got a discounted king room at POFQ, but it looks like they put you in a 2Q room. Wonder if they gave your room away since you didn't get there until late evening. Did they say anything to you about it? Anyway, looking forward to reading more!

 

[Araminta18]

I love Le Cellier but haven’t eaten there in years because there is nothing on the menu my DS will eat Years ago, they used to have a burger on the menu that would have worked for him but its been gone for awhile. I go solo too but have not worked up the courage to dine solo yet.
I think my fave topiary is Pooh.

Aw, bummer that they took away the burger! Hopefully you get the chance to go back, or decide to try it solo. When I dine solo I usually just have a book on my phone and read while I eat - most people are more interested in themselves than anything else going on.

Pooh is adorable!!

A little late to the party, but all caught up now. I love your trip reports! Thought it was interesting that you said you got a discounted king room at POFQ, but it looks like they put you in a 2Q room. Wonder if they gave your room away since you didn't get there until late evening. Did they say anything to you about it? Anyway, looking forward to reading more!

Ooh good catch! I definitely mis-typed - I booked a king room at first, then got it with a discount, and then a week or so later checked back and they had a standard view room for about $100 cheaper, so I booked that. So all on me, not them. Thanks for reading!

 

[nascargirl]

Wow what an incredible trip report. I just got caught up and anxiously waiting for the next installment.

 

[Araminta18]

Wow what an incredible trip report. I just got caught up and anxiously waiting for the next installment.

thank you for reading, and your nice words!

 

[Araminta18]

Topiaries, Slushies, and Pictures! - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 7)​

So, we were just done with France and heading towards the friendship boat stop in Morocco, but that meant we passed another booth: La Isla Fresca! And they had a non-alcholic slushie: Tropical Breeze: Lemonade, grapefruit juice, and simple syrup. We of course stopped and got it, cause it was hot out.

This was SUPER sour. Like, almost undrinkable sour. Do not recommend. I guess if you like really soury stuff? But we didn't like it.

The boat came right away (which was nice), and 5 min later we were on the other side of the lagoon, where we ran into a photographer with some fun magic shots!

Butterflies!

The dandelion we're holding was a real prop but the dandelion border was magic. And do you see the little hidden mickey in the dandelions? I do really appreciate all the fun shots at the festivals.

We were also by other booths, so we stopped and got the frozen violet lemonade, hopefully to erase the super sour taste of the other slushie!

This was delicious! A much better balance of the sour and sweet - still strong lemonade flavor but not overpoweringly sour. Yum.

We walked over to Guardians, and yes - more topiaries!

Encanto!

Chip and Dale and Mickey and Minnie and Pluto!

We got to Guardians at about 4:10, and waited about 25 minutes to get to the first pre-show room. We waited for row 9, so it ended up being about 50 minutes total wait.

And then, we got Everybody Wants to Rule the World - our favorite song!

Woot!

I love this little ending tag with Drax making a funny comment.

From here we started heading out of the park - it was a little after 5, and tonight was Epcot After Hours. We were on the fence about buying tickets to this one, as the last Epcot After Hours we did was fun but as all we wanted to do was loop Guardians, the line was consistently longer than we wanted (back in August). So as we headed out, we stopped by Guest Services and asked if the event was sold out (or how sold it was), as we figured maybe if it wasn't very sold the lines would be shorter. They said it was about 75% sold, and having just come off a great ride on Guardians, we decided to but tickets and hope for the best. This may or may not have been us being overpowered by the lure of Disney in the moment, but ... it was done. The event started at 10, so we headed back to the room to rest for a bit.

But did I see the Epcot tiny world shot and did we stop?

Absolutely we did! There was no line, so it was only a short detour.

We got to the monorail station right as the monorail was pulling in, which was awesome timing, but then we had to wait a bit at the TTC which was less awesome timing. We made it back to the Contemporary a few minutes before 6 pm, and headed back to the room to rest up.

The next picture I have is at the monorail station inside the Contemporary, right before 8 pm

Off we go!

 

[Araminta18]

Food Booths and Guardians (no topiaries!) - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 8)​

At the TTC we saw a monorail and ran for it 'cause we thought it was ours, but then it wasn't ours (which was good cause we would have missed it, despite the run). Phew! But then, our monorail showed up like 20 seconds later, so good timing.

By 8:20 we were pulling in to Epcot.

So pretty!

The plan was to eat at a bunch of the food booths that we hadn't yet gotten to for dinner, and then try again to loop Guardians. Would it go as hoped/planned?! We'll see...

First off, Brunchcot!

This was the Avocado Toast with marinated tomatoes and plant-based cheese crumbles on toasted ciabatta. It was fresh, but needed more avocado in my opinion - definitely tasted more of tomatoes than avocado. Also, we both thought we'd be more hungry now (we thought about getting the biscuits and gravy with IMPOSSIBLE chicken fried steak and IMPOSSIBLE sausage gravy, cause of the good reviews), but it was just too hot out.

We also had to get the Froot Loops Shake:

This was good and cold - and tasted like froot loops? Which I guess is the point but still you know a bit weird.

We only got one other dish - the street corn dish from Farmers Feast. "Grilled Street Corn on the Cob with savory garlic spread and plant-based cheese". We had to wait for them to cook it:

So when it came to us, it was piping hot!

This was good - tastes like corn. I actually would have preferred it just plain, without the spread, even though I love garlic. I think I just like my corn plain and unadulterated.

We finished the corn a few minutes before 9, and with the park closing at 9, we decided to head over to Guardians and see if maybe they'd let us in before 10. When we got there we found a bit of a crowd, but at least nothing like a huge lightning lane line like there was at the last After Hours event we did!

We were all just hanging out, facing the ride, waiting for them to let us in. And at 9:05, they did let us in and we all bum rushed it. But in a safe way. By 9:17 we were past the funnel but it almost looked like the ride was down! The lights were up, and the sound effects weren't running. But then 5 minutes later they loaded us up and off we went!

So, even with that 5 minute stop, it was only 22 minutes, which is still faster than any ride we did at the After Hours last August. So definitely off to a better start!

We got September for our song.

Once off, we turned right back around and got in line. 12 (TWELVE!) minutes later, we were on the ride.


12 minutes! It's like the fastest you could ever do. We got Disco Inferno, which is absolutely not my favorite but I'll take it.

And that's the picture limit! What to do next?

 

[Araminta18]

Round and Round and Round We Go! - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 9)​

That's a joke, of course we looped Guardians. This one was a bit longer - 19 minutes. Sadly people pushed through the pre-show doors (the one with the cosmic generator) so that was kind of lame.

We waited one extra cycle for row 9, cause we love it.

But we got Everybody Wants to Rule the World so that was super excited.

We looped again - 22 minutes this time. The times were slowly creeping up! But no one pushed through the doors this time, and we got row 9 without even having to wait!


The song this time was I Ran - we were doing really good with the songs not duplicating! September, Disco Inferno, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, I Ran...would our luck continue?

This time though we spent a lot of time in the unload area. Something must have happened, as normally my picture timestamps are about 4/5 min apart from the ride pic to the picture I take walking into the entrance, but this time it was 10 minutes apart. This time it was about 31 minutes - when we came out of the last pre-show room, it was backed up all the ramp to the top of the funnel.

I realize you're shocked but we got row 9!

We also got I Ran again. Oh well! Still fun.

At this point, we figured the next ride would be even a longer wait and since we were already waiting about 31 minutes, we decided to take a pause. We'd gotten 5 rides in, not too bad! And we were noticing that we were waiting a bit more each time after getting loaded on, and a few extra minutes to unload. Just was running a bit slower.

So when we got out this time, we didn't loop - we went over to try and get some treats, but stopped for pictures on the way.

Little Groot!

Slightly bigger Groot. I like Trevor's dance moves there.

They had a treat cart right near there, so we got an ice cream, a water, sprite, and popcorn.

Mickey ice cream!

But then, guess who we saw dancing?

Dale!

There was a whole Chip and Dale dance party happening, so we decided to join in.

We did the macarena but the DJ mashed it up with the Tiki Room song, which I'd never heard before but was entertaining. It was really fun, just to jump in and dance and not care what anyone was thinking (though watching back that video now of the song right before the macarena wow I'm awkward. But that's the nice part of Disney right - no one cares! )

 

[Araminta18]

Meeting the Two Biggest Disney Celebs - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 10)​

After the dance party, we decided to head to Moana and do it at night, since it was still hot and Moana is pretty awesome at night anyways. But that meant passing through the hub, and we got distracted. Pictures!

I wish the lighting were a bit better on Figment there in the back but otherwise, fun shot!


It's the Figment magic paintbrush from Festival of the Arts! But I'll take it.

Then we noticed that they had Mickey out for a meet and greet, and the line was pretty short, as lines for Mickey go (about 5 minutes). But really what sealed the deal was that they had him meeting up at the Walt statue! So of course we had to get in line and get a picture with both Walt and Mickey.

It was a great meet - Mickey was pumped and super energetic and super silly, so it was really fun.

We could even hear the music from the dance party over by Guardians/Connections Cafe so we were dancing to that a little bit with Mickey too. So fun!

We did then make it over to Moana, and had a nice time playing around there. There were hardly any people around!

See, gorgeous



Always gotta high five the ocean.

Coconut guys!

That was a fun way to cool off, and right at the exit they had a treat cart so we got more treats - 2 more waters and a Mickey premium bar and a Mickey ice cream sandwich. And then since we were right there, we went to Soarin!

Soarin was posting 15 minutes, but we only waited about 5 minutes. We got C1, since we didn't want to wait 5 min for the next round.

And since we were on the right end of C, it wasn't too bendy.

Once off of Soarin', it was about 12:25 am, and 35 minutes until the event ended. What to do?

 

[Araminta18]

Good Night to Epcot! - Thursday May 9th 2024 (part 11)​

Back over to Guardians, of course! We figured if we were lucky we could maybe do it twice, but that would depend. So we started heading over there:

Had to take a picture of the Figment topiary - hopefully a bit easier to see than in the previous photopass shots!

We made it over to Guardians at 12:40 am, and the line was backed up a little bit before the first preshow room:

By the time we finished the pre-shows (and people again pushed through the doors - boo) it was clear we wouldn't finish before 1 am (aka, wouldn't be able to hop back on for one last ride ) so we decided to wait for row 9. It usually only adds a minute or two so always worth it - row 9 is definitely the best row!

And in a fitting cap, guess what song we got?

Everybody Wants to Rule the World! Yay!

It was definitely a nice cap off to the night. Row 9, Guardians, Everybody wants to rule the world - doesn't get much better than that!

We got off at 1:11, and the event was officially over, so we made our way to the front of the park.

One last topiary - the Wish star is all lit up!

We were hoping to take the monorail back to the Contemporary, but it was closed.

We didn't know how much of a bummer that would be though til later....

Anyways, we headed to the buses. There was a bus waiting for us (yay!) but then they had to load two scooters which took a surprisingly long time (like 10 minutes). At 1:30 we left Epcot. Guess what time we got back to the Contemporary?
2:20 am. 50 minutes later. FIVE ZERO.

Apparently the direct road back to the resort was closed, and the bus driver was very flummoxed. We did a couple loops in a parking lot, and then finally did a weird detour around the back of Magic Kingdom on not-normal roads until we finally made it back to the Contemporary.

That was not a great end to the night - everyone was tired and just wanted to be back at the hotel, and a 15 minutes drive took triple the time. Blargh. BUT we did eventually make it back to the room, where we immediately got ready for bed and passed out.

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 22869 steps (9.4 miles)
Ride count: 11 (Moana x2, Living with the Land, Guardians x7, Soarin)
Savings due to AP discount: $42.85 (should have looked at receipts earlier! I forgot I bought and shipped my mom a DisneyWorld sweatshirt for her birthday, and bought me a Mary Poppins cardigan at the UK pavilion)
Refillable Mug Tally: 1 fill today (13 total)

 

[Araminta18]

Stalled Tower - Friday May 10, 2024 (part 1)​

Our last full day! Sadness. We definitely slept in after our very very late night. Oh I forgot!

Yesterday's sunset/fireworks timelapse. Trevor likes his timelapses with his camera.

Anyways, I went downstairs at about 10:30 to fill up the cup (#14!) and see if I could get the cookie croissant, but the CM said that the cookie croissant wouldn't come out until lunch time at 11. So we got all ready to go and headed out just at 11.

Hi Trevor!

We went back to Contempo Cafe to get the cookie croissant and womp womp, no cookie croissant today. Well we had one more day to try!

We got on the bus to Hollywood Studios at 11:09 and were walking in by 11:30 am. We had to drop off some stuff in a locker (when I went to the outlets on Wednesday, I bought Trevor the Marvel leather jacket he'd had his eye on, but then when he tried it on it was the wrong size, and so we had to swing by the outlet today to take it back), and then the plan was to head to Tower of Terror!

Heading down Sunset Boulevard, there was a photopass photographer out and so of course we stopped. I was so glad we did - he did a bunch of fun magic shots with us!




Literally all the magic shots.

Now Tower of Terror!

Standby was 30 minutes but we had a lightning lane. So we were in the lobby 5 minutes later -

I never noticed this little Hollywood Tower Hotel monogram/seal thing on the lamp before!

We were in the elevator 8 minutes later - woohoo! Off we went. But right as we were about to go into the drop shaft, the car stopped, and the lights came on. Uh oh!

Apparently the ride had gone down? There were a couple "remain calm" announcements, but mostly I was enjoying 1. sitting down 2. in the air conditioning 3. while looking around.


We ended up just sitting there for about 10 minutes, with everyone in pretty good spirits, and then we went slowly into the shaft, with the light still on... What was going to happen?!

 

[Araminta18]

Lunch and Lightning Lane Drama - Friday May 10, 2024 (part 2)​

Nothing super exciting happened - we just slowly descended to the unload area.

Though it was kind of fun to see it all lit up and have a bit more time to pay attention down there.

Anyways, once unloaded they offered us either a lightning lane to come back later, or they could take us back upstairs, put us on the elevator in the shaft that was still working, and we could ride right then. To no one's surprise, we all elected to ride right now. Sorry if you were in line and about to get on the elevator when they brought all of us up and put us on the ride instead!

...maybe don't trust that sign?

We made it! It was a nice fun little detour, getting to see a bit behind the scenes, and getting to have a 15 min sit down.

It was about 12:15 by the time we got off, and we were hungry - time for lunch! Where were we heading? Woody's Lunchbox, of course. As we walked in to Toy Story Land, we saw Woody and Jesse heading backstage!

Hi there!

I'd done a mobile order for Woody's, and it was about ready right when we got up there, which was nice timing. Trevor got us a seat while I picked up the food, and then it was time to dig in! We got the grilled cheese kid's meal (with milk )

Delicious as always.

Then the Totchos:

We hadn't had the lunch totchos with chili for a while, and these were also really good. Good portion size, and good chili flavor even though the chili had beans and I don't like beans.

Then finally, the lemon blueberry pixar tart:

I wasn't gonna get this because I feel like I always get the tart and it's usually super dry and so not great, but this was actually not dry at all. Moist, soft (but not toooo soft where it falls apart). It helps that I broke it in half and started eating from the middle, but still, even at the ends it wasn't dry. And the flavor was nice and light - really good! Actually, I started by pulling off the "ball" to eat but it was hollow inside and like melted/squished as I grabbed it. Oops. Still good though!

Next up, we had a fastpass for Toy Story Mania, and we were gearing up for a battle! We'd looked up all the tips and tricks and were trying to get high scores.

I think we did ok - 213,400 for me! 144,000 for Trevor! Not too shabby. Especially cause I ended up getting Best in Vehicle!

Woot! I'll take that win.

At this point it was like 1:05, and I was on a mission. We didn't get a Slinky fastpass this morning, but Disney occasionally does drops throughout the day and online I was seeing that the drop would happen at 1:17. I'd gotten us a fastpass for Alien Swirling Saucers at 1:20, and so I was like great, we'll take advantage of the 5 minute early grace period, tap in at 1:15 and then I'll be able to book a new fastpass at the drop at 1:17. BUT when we tapped in, they were using the second tap point! Nooo! you have to clear both touch points in order to book a new fastpass, and they stopped us with one party between us and the second tap point. And we would have had to wait another 3/4 min for the cycle to finish before we could tap at that second touch point. BUT the couple in front of us just tapped in, and so I was like "oh hey good idea, can we tap too?" and so we just quickly tapped at like 1:16 and 30 seconds, and I was good to go to book a new fastpass 30 seconds later. PHEW! I got us a slinky fastpass for 1:30 pm. yay! But way more stressful than I thought it was going to be! LOL

Anyways, Aliens!

We haven't ridden Aliens in a while, so it was good to ride it again. Its a fun little ride, just loads so slowly that we don't normally ride it. But who doesn't love being whipped around?

 

[Araminta18]

Rides, Photos, and Snacks: A Quintessential Disney post! - Friday May 10, 2024 (part 3)​

After Aliens, it was time for Slinky.

I can't remember if we got lucky and got the last row or if we asked for it, but either way, pro tip - always ask for the last row if you can, cause it's worth it!


From here we were planning to head into Galaxy's Edge, to ride the Falcon, but we got delayed/waylaid by photographers.

They don't always have a photographer by the sign between Toy Story and Galaxy's Edge, but I like to stop when they do.

Parachuting Toy Soldier!

Once in Galaxy's Edge, they had a photographer out by the lightspeeders, which I don't remember seeing very often, so of course we stopped.

We were heading to the Milk Stand to get the blue milk with the jelly and the nerds, but there was a photographer out there as well, and he was great. He did so many fun shots with us! And way less crowded than it was on May the 4th.




Hi Mando!

Super fun - I realize the photographers aren't everyone's cup of tea, but since we have Memory Maker I figure we should use it, and it's definitely a numbers game - the more pictures you take the better chance you get one you like. And you never know what fun effects they have. I love the one with Mando as a hologram! The puck he comes out of is an actual prop, which is always fun.

Then, finally, Blue Milk!

So good.

 

[Araminta18]

Star Wars and a New Disney Springs Restaurant - Friday May 10, 2024 (part 4)​

We also got to see the stormtroopers out patrolling while we drank our blue milk.

So fun!

Refreshed by our blue milk, we headed over towards the Falcon, and saw a photographer, so of course we stopped.

But the real reason we stopped is because on May the 4th I saw photographers with Sabacc cards and while we weren't able to get that shot then, I saw that this photographer had them! So that's why.

I don't know what face I'm making but still a fun photo.

Then, finally, the Falcon! We used our lightning land and were in the lounge area pretty quickly (which was good cause someone in line near us was coughing non-stop....gross!). I took my usual photo:

My favorite Easter Egg!

Trevor and I got to be pilots!

I let him be the pilot who pulls the lever to go to lightspeed, cause I'm a delightful wife.

We didn't do great, but I blame Hondo:

We didn't pay for Rise today, and the line was too long, so we skipped it and went over to Star Tours.

I love the little tree houses outside.

We were on the ride within 5 minutes - woohoo! Neither of us was the rebel spy, but at least we didn't get Naboo either. We actually got the same as before - podracing, Mando/Grogu, then Ahsoka and the space whales.

The part with Mando and Grogu is my favorite, cause Grogu eats the frog.

At this point it was about 3 pm, and we still needed to run to the outlets and then to our early dinner reservation at Disney Springs. So we decided to head out and catch an uber over. We had good uber luck and were there by 3:30, but unfortunately there was a little bit of a line. It wasn't too bad though and we were able to run in, do some shopping, and get the jacked all returned, and then hop in an uber back to Disney Springs by 4:20, and we were dropped off at 4:35. Woot! Our reservation was at 4:45, so just enough time to walk over there.

Where were we going? You'll be forgiven for thinking it was going to be Wine Bar George, but nope! We were trying the new restaurant: Summer House on the Lake! We'd heard good things, and they have a cookie bar, so obviously we had to try it.

We got seated almost immediately in this little quiet, nice, porch area - super quiet, but still enclosed so there was a/c.

I really liked the decor and the vibe.

We started with our drinks: I got the "Strawberry Fields": strawberry, sage, and lavendar.

I liked this - a little bit of a kick but mostly strawberry. Trevor made a face when he tried it - he was not used to/expecting the sage!

Trevor got the Wait List: sparkling rose lemonade, elderflower, and lemon.

This was good too - you could taste all the flavors, including the rose, so it was nice and interesting.

To start, we ordered the cheesy dreampuffs with rosemary and pepper:

These were very good - very like the cheese bread at Skipper Canteen, but a bit more crispy on the outside and definitely more herbs. Cheesy and delicious. I really liked how light they were. Yum.

See? just nice and quiet vibe:

It made it a bit quieter and apparently I'm an old lady now and like the quiet.

 

[Araminta18]

Summer House on the Lake - Friday May 10, 2024 (part 5)​

The other appetizer we got was the potato salad deviled eggs:

I really like deviled eggs, and while I wasn't sure what potato salad deviled eggs were, I figured we couldn't go too wrong! And I was right - these were delicious. They had a good zing, and there was a sauce underneath that made them a bit messy but at least not dry at all. The filling is potato salad instead of just straight deviled egg feeling, and it was yum.


I forgot I took this pic of the inside of the cheesy dreampuff, just to show how cheesy it was! So delish. Actually both of these appetizers were really light, refreshing options - like, the bread we had at Le Cellier for lunch the other day was yummy but heavier, whereas these were both light, which was nice with the heat.

Then, entrees! I got the Turkey Stack:

Havarti, lettuce, tomato, mayo, grain mustard, bacon, 9 grain bread, and a side salad. This was HUGE! Way bigger than I realized. My side salad was delicious - not sure what was on it (some weird seeds) but it was really good. But despite the sandwich being huge, it was light and had good flavor, except for some parts which had WAY too much mustard. I was scraping it off. But aside from that, it was good.

Trevor got the Dungeness Crab BLT:

Also huge!! Trevor was like "I'm gonna die - it's gonna kill me". But he liked it - the bacon was kind of falling out but it was crispy and good flavor he said. I wasn't about to take a bite - too much crab/fishy stuff for me.

We took our time eating, and then it was time for dessert! We decided to get a bunch of their cookies and take them back to the room to try there. So enjoy all these pictures of their various cookies!

We got one of the fudge swirls there, and one of the crispy rice krispie chocolate chip (right next to it).

I don't think we got the Cinnamon Roll Swirl, but we did get the sea salt chocolate chip.

Lemon, Apple Oatmeal, and Creamsicle (I think we got the lemon but not the others).

Pink and Oatmeal Scotchie (definitely got the pink one. )

The double chocolate cloud, birthday cake, and M&M cookie - we got the double chocolate cloud which was the one I was most excited for.


Chocolate walnut, peanut butter, and chocolate chip.

An overwhelming amount of choice! So many cookies that all look delicious! We definitely got too many.

Overall it was a good meal at Summer House. Our server kind of stopped paying attention near the end of our meal so that we were waiting and trying to catch his attention several times at the end, and so that took a bit longer than we would have liked (like an extra 30 minutes, no lie).

But by 6:30 we were at the bus stop to head back to the Contemporary, and a bus pulled up right away (yay!) and so back home we went.