"could I have another glow cube?" - spring 2017 DR - COMPLETE 8/17 Homecoming

[Redwitch]

Bring on the boozy reviews! I'm way old enough to know better (as in I could be your Mom!) - but Adult Disney Drinking is a theme on our trips as well!

 

[pepperandchips]

Bring on the boozy reviews! I'm way old enough to know better (as in I could be your Mom!) - but Adult Disney Drinking is a theme on our trips as well!

Well age is just a state of mind, right? (or some other hippy dippy thing) I hope I never outgrow boozy vacations. Glad you are here!!

 

[pepperandchips]

3/3/17: Part Two! Epcot and Fireworks and Glow Cubes

We last left our brave heroes... wait, wrong story. The two disney nuts were back in their disney resort taking a disney rest.

This is a worse quality picture but a better zoomed in look at our partial view of Space Mountain:

During our rest, I think KJ got a shower and I took a very short nap before we got ready for the balance of our day. Freshly primped and rested up, it was time to embark on our next adventure: festival food! We walked over to the TTC and caught an Epcot monorail. It's always fun taking that lap around Epcot to see what the crowds are like before heading in.

Things didn't look too bad!

First up we did one of my favorite attractions via FP+, which I hadn't hit in a couple of visits

The photos were back to working again so I appreciated that. We did a mini-photoshoot with the famous pink wall upon exit (you've already seen mine, but here's KJ looking cute)

Our second fastpass was for Soarin around the World - we got assigned the right side and didn't bother asking to wait for the middle. We were even in the last two seats of that section closest to the middle section and still noticed the distortion.

Finally we made our way closer to World Showcase where the main event was happening!

The first order of business for me in WS is usually a beer from the Canada beer and popcorn cart. This time I was able to try three Canadian beers: Unibroue Maudite Amber Ale, Unibroue À Tout Le Monde Saison, Unibroue Éphémère White Ale (Beer Flight – $11.00). These came from the Northern Bloom kiosk. $11 is about the price of my usual La Fin du Monde at the beer cart and these three little beers probably ran a bit short of the normal full pour. However, I got to try three! And that's the fun of the festival. I love Unibroue and these did not disappoint

KJ just got the Maudite Amber and it ended up being my favorite too. If memory serves, this was actually the same beer that R had during our December trip when we had lunch at Le Cellier. So this isn't a wildly different option than what you can usually find at Epcot, but who gets a Le Cellier reservation just to order a beer? I am glad to see Disney branching out and offering some different beers at the various festivals.

I bet you can't guess what these are! We hit up Fleur de Lys for two cocktails: "La Vie en Rose Frozen Slush: Grey Goose Vodka Orange, St. Germain Liquor, White and Red Cranberry Juice – $9.95". These were deeeeeelicious. The best deal in Epcot at the time, probably. I wish this slush flavor was offered year round as I like it better than the permanent options - the cranberry juice keeps it tart and I basically lose my mind any time I see or read "St. Germain" so this is my ideal festival beverage. I did not detect as much delicious elderflower St. Germain tastiness as I might like, but let's not split hairs over a good thing

KJ also got a Macaron Chocolat Framboise: Large Raspberry Macaron with Chocolate Fudge and Raspberry Jam (GF) – $4.75. I had this last year and it was fine, but not worth $4.75 to me and so I let KJ enjoy all of this on her own. She looooooves Macarons and liked this one too!

Not to be left behind in the snacking endeavor, I ordered the Tarte à l’Onion Alsacienne: Alsatian Onion Tart with Sautéed Onions, Fresh Thyme and Rosemary on a Flaky Puff Pastry Crust (V) – $4.75. I had this last year also and loved it so I wanted a do-over. It was tasty this year too - hard to go wrong with puff pastry and herby cheesy goodness. Probably not a great value but it was tasty!

Belle and the Beast looking good in the made-over state.

We putzed around in the shops in France - KJ had left her phone in the room by accident but we sniffed a lot of perfumes in the France perfumery and she made me take pictures of the ones she liked so that's how I know what we were doing at this time

The next stop was Florida Fresh, where my pictures are crap because pre-Daylight savings time it got dark very early.

I had the beer flight, which was $9.50 here. It included the Quat Seasonal Fruit Ale, Tampa Bay Brewing Company, Tampa, FL; the Mirth and Merriment Golden Ale, Barley Mow Brewing Company, Largo FL; and the Feast of Flowers Farmhouse Ale, Florida Beer Company, Cape Canaveral, FL. I only liked one of these but can't for the life of me remember which one. I think it was the Mirth & Merriment but I wouldn't swear to it. Guess I will have to try them again in a few weeks so I can report back! hahaha

KJ isn't over the festival prices like I am, so she sprung for the Watermelon Cucumber Slush with Tamiami Florida Gin – $11.75. All I can say is that for $11.75 that drink should have been a cup full of gin. I tasted this and it was lightly flavored and fairly sweet. I steer clear of cucumber flavored things as the artificial taste can be off-putting but this was pretty good. If you like tiny overpriced cocktails I recommend it

To accompany our drinks, we had the Shrimp and Stone-ground Grits with Andouille Sausage, Sweet Corn , Tomatoes and Cilantro (GF) – $6.50. This is another returning favorite, and ours was freshly made and had great flavor. I don't know how you can beat shrimp and grits for $6.50! We loved the flavor of the sauce and the light spice to the shrimp. The grits were rich and hearty. I will definitely be getting this again!

And Florida Fresh also has my new favorite festival item: Carne Asada with Black Bean Cake and Cilantro Lime Sour Cream – $6.50. This is so tasty! I love latin flavors and this dish was fresh meets spice meets flavorful beefy goodness. I can't wait to have this again as well! I also think this was a relatively good value for festival food as it was a decent portion and pretty rich.

We took our time across the back side of world showcase, stopping in Italy to sniff more perfumes. Which I know, because again KJ made me photograph the ones she liked. We also made a few friends in the other Italy shops (please tell me they have a glass shop there because I hadn't had THAT much to drink at this point). This nice gentleman came upon us talking with his wife and said "oh if you like her, please take her!" Our stranger magnets were on in full force.

Never one to stop drinking early, after two beer flights and a cocktail I thought KJ's suggestion of the Germany weinkeller was a perfectly logical choice. We sauntered up to the counter there and ordered a wine flight each.

I have no idea how much these cost - touring plans says $10.00 and if that's still the case, this is a pretty good value considering the pours were fairly decent sized (photo taken after I had already enjoyed quite a bit of mine, you can see an almost full one in the back corner). These whites were a bit sweet for my taste but we weren't having a nice reserved vintner's tasting, we were in friggin Epcot. We downed our wines, KJ flirted with the adorable germans, and I did who knows what. Chugged tiny wines apparently. From photo time stamps I think we were at the Germany pavilion for like 30 minutes. Oh wait, now I recall KJ trying on jackets and trying to speak german to basically every CM in the pavilion.... Gern geschehen, Deutsche.

Lest you think we were done with food and drink OR harrassing germans, we weren't. Also the below pictures were taken with flash, which I hate, but otherwise you would not have been able to see what we ate. It was full dark.

This is the Warm Cheese Strudel with Mixed Berries – $4.00. This is maaaaybe the best $4 you can spend in Epcot. Holy cow this was so good! I really have never met a cheese strudel I didn't love, but this one is tender and flaky and cheesy sweet goodness. Gosh, I am hungry now.

Because I TOTALLY needed it at this point, I also got the beer flight in Germany. ($9.50) Paulaner Original Munich Lager, Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen, and Köstritzer Schwarzbier Black Lager. The black lager was my favorite, but the schofferhofer hefeweizen was also good. The other lager just tasted like beer as I recall. I think KJ got the brut with elderflower, but I did not take a photo. I wouldn't get this flight again.

HOLY YUM. I present to you people the glorious Potato Pancake with Caramelized Ham, Onions and Herb Sour Cream – $4.25. This was sooooo good. Salty, hammy, oniony, carbs topped with sour cream (my favorite condiment)? Be still, my heart. KJ got her own of this (whereas we shared most of the other stuff) and we both snarfed these down in their entirety and I really wish I had one right now. So worth the paltry $4.25!!

We watched the first half of Illuminations and then decided we wanted to try to beat the crowds out of the park, so we literally danced our way out of the park - leaping, sashaying, twirling. I'm surprised, actually, that we were coordinated enough to attempt this feat, but we were feeling mighty princessy and having a mighty fine time.

Of course, we couldn't just go back to the room and sleep like normal human beings. Nooooo. We had PLANS! You see, this night was the night of the DVC Moonlight Magic event and we had special fireworks that we wanted to see! But, as you can probably surmise through simple math, it wasn't midnight yet and we had some time to kill. Melinda wanted a Tambu Lounge backscratcher, KJ wanted to go visit her favorite cast member/bartender of all time, so we did both. We got a very potent libation at our resort before we had to make a stop to go see George at the Wave.

Below is a recycled photo of the amazingness that is THE BACKSCRATCHAAAAAA:

Backscratcher - Bacardi Superior Rum, MYERS'S Original dark rum, and Passion fruit juice topped with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey and a bamboo backscratcher ($10). We, of course, proceeded to use said bamboo backscratchers like fairy godmother wands and bestowed all kinds of pixie dust (at least in our heads). Let me be real: I forgot we even got these drinks until I saw the backscratcher in a later video. My hotel charges confirm we did get these in this order on this night.

So anyway after I had indoctrinated KJ into the cult of my people (the Tambu people) and she had experienced the wonder that is the rite of the backscratcher, we monorailed over to the Contemporary.

When in Rome, order a drink... amirite? I had an old fashioned, which wasn't really made properly as you can tell from the color, but I was in no position to complain. I've never had a properly made Old Fashioned at the Wave and yet I continue to order them. Isn't that the definition of insanity?

After my stupid drink was already made, George talked KJ into this monstrosity:

"The Seven Seas Lagoon”, a 24 oz shareable drink containing the following ingredients:

Skyy Vodka
Parrot Bay Coconut Rum
Soda Water
Agave
Lime
Pineapple
Strawberry Apple Boboa
Swedish Fish
Life Preserver Candies
A Glow Cube" ($22)

Note that the above list says "a" glow cube. Well it was KJ's (not real) birthday and goshdarnit she was NOT going to settle for ONE glow cube. Hence this report's title, when KJ sweetly asked her very favorite bartender (and possibly her favorite person in the world) "Could I have another glow cube?" and what was poor George to do but bestow this gift upon Birthday Princess KJ.

I think George felt bad because KJ was SO excited to see him and told him about how she comes to visit him on every trip and he honestly seemed to have NO recollection of this. Then she whips out her phone and shows him a selfie of the two of them basically every 6 months for like the last 4 years.... (yeahhhh, you wrong George)

So she got this birthday treat in addition to extra glow cubes:

We all sang and it was amazing and fun.

There was no way we were finishing the sickenly sweet blue drink of death, so fortunately we were provided plastic cups, which we transported to Bay Lake Tower and visited the Top of The World Lounge, where we watched the special fireworks from the viewing deck. All the other DVC members awake at this hour were probably actually inside the Magic Kingdom, so we basically had the whole giant viewing deck to ourselves. They didn't pipe in the music (which we were told prior to our elevator ride, so we were prepared) and the pyro just didn't have the same pizazz accompanied by the Contemporary's smooth jazz background music. Still, we enjoyed our second fireworks show of the evening before we boarded the resort monorail and snoozed out back at the Poly.

Up next: how will we top a visit to George and two sets of fireworks? Maybe with a couple bloody marys and a brand new nighttime show

 

[happy2012]

Loving the DR!! Looks like a ton of fun!!!

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm going to have to live my drinking of the FLower and Garden Festival through you! Since when we are going to the festival, it will be the day before the half marathon so I'll be limited to 1 drink. That onion tart was my favorite too! Mmmmm.....

I NEED that bowl of alcohol in my life. Like NEEDNEEDNEED! Blue alcohol makes everything better!

 

[toomuchtv]

I'm mostly going to comment about food, because, well, I like food and don't drink much (unless it's an occasional fruity drink).

KJ also got a Macaron Chocolat Framboise: Large Raspberry Macaron with Chocolate Fudge and Raspberry Jam (GF) – $4.75. I had this last year and it was fine, but not worth $4.75 to me and so I let KJ enjoy all of this on her own. She looooooves Macarons and liked this one too!

I looooooooove macarons, too! This is easily what I'm most excited to get at the Festival. With my luck, they'll be out. (When we hit Food & Wine Festival a couple of years ago, it was the last weekend, and while not out of food, they were out of a good half of the drinks I wanted to try.)

To accompany our drinks, we had the Shrimp and Stone-ground Grits with Andouille Sausage, Sweet Corn , Tomatoes and Cilantro (GF) – $6.50. This is another returning favorite, and ours was freshly made and had great flavor. I don't know how you can beat shrimp and grits for $6.50! We loved the flavor of the sauce and the light spice to the shrimp. The grits were rich and hearty. I will definitely be getting this again!

My mom might have to get this one. She loves her some shrimp & grits! I've actually never had grits, and as long as I can eat around the sausage, I might have to try it too!

And Florida Fresh also has my new favorite festival item: Carne Asada with Black Bean Cake and Cilantro Lime Sour Cream – $6.50. This is so tasty! I love latin flavors and this dish was fresh meets spice meets flavorful beefy goodness. I can't wait to have this again as well! I also think this was a relatively good value for festival food as it was a decent portion and pretty rich.

How spicy would you say this is? It sounds good, but I don't like much spice, and my husband has stomach issues and flat-out can't handle spicy stuff anymore.

This is the Warm Cheese Strudel with Mixed Berries – $4.00. This is maaaaybe the best $4 you can spend in Epcot. Holy cow this was so good! I really have never met a cheese strudel I didn't love, but this one is tender and flaky and cheesy sweet goodness. Gosh, I am hungry now.

This looks AMAZING! Gah. Why am I in Ohio right now, eating boring animal crackers?

HOLY YUM. I present to you people the glorious Potato Pancake with Caramelized Ham, Onions and Herb Sour Cream – $4.25. This was sooooo good. Salty, hammy, oniony, carbs topped with sour cream (my favorite condiment)? Be still, my heart. KJ got her own of this (whereas we shared most of the other stuff) and we both snarfed these down in their entirety and I really wish I had one right now. So worth the paltry $4.25!!

I was wondering about this one. That is one heck of a review!

I think George felt bad because KJ was SO excited to see him and told him about how she comes to visit him on every trip and he honestly seemed to have NO recollection of this. Then she whips out her phone and shows him a selfie of the two of them basically every 6 months for like the last 4 years.... (yeahhhh, you wrong George)

This cracked me up! Poor George...

Looking forward to more!

 

[Neverland_Girl]

I bet you can't guess what these are! We hit up Fleur de Lys for two cocktails: "La Vie en Rose Frozen Slush: Grey Goose Vodka Orange, St. Germain Liquor, White and Red Cranberry Juice – $9.95". These were deeeeeelicious. The best deal in Epcot at the time, probably. I wish this slush flavor was offered year round as I like it better than the permanent options - the cranberry juice keeps it tart and I basically lose my mind any time I see or read "St. Germain" so this is my ideal festival beverage. I did not detect as much delicious elderflower St. Germain tastiness as I might like, but let's not split hairs over a good thing

Loved this! If it had alcohol and cranberry juice I'm in.

And Florida Fresh also has my new favorite festival item: Carne Asada with Black Bean Cake and Cilantro Lime Sour Cream – $6.50.

This is the one thing I wish I would have tried. It looks so good.

This is the Warm Cheese Strudel with Mixed Berries – $4.00.

One of my favorites! So much cream cheesy goodness!

 

[dizzy daisy]

"...sickenly sweet blue drink of death..." LOL, summed up perfectly!

The fried green tomato sandwich looks delicious. I've made a note of it in my book of things to eat

I'm happy to be following along with your fun report!

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

OK, you girls know how to drink your way around Disney. My heroes!

I also may have just added a couple of things to my "need to try" list, and none were food. Seriously, what a fun trip! Looking forward to the rest

 

[Raeven]

I bet you can't guess what these are! We hit up Fleur de Lys for two cocktails: "La Vie en Rose Frozen Slush: Grey Goose Vodka Orange, St. Germain Liquor, White and Red Cranberry Juice – $9.95". These were deeeeeelicious. The best deal in Epcot at the time, probably. I wish this slush flavor was offered year round as I like it better than the permanent options - the cranberry juice keeps it tart and I basically lose my mind any time I see or read "St. Germain" so this is my ideal festival beverage. I did not detect as much delicious elderflower St. Germain tastiness as I might like, but let's not split hairs over a good thing

Can't wait to try this! I honestly think the flavors sound better than the regular too.

Not to be left behind in the snacking endeavor, I ordered the Tarte à l’Onion Alsacienne: Alsatian Onion Tart with Sautéed Onions, Fresh Thyme and Rosemary on a Flaky Puff Pastry Crust (V) – $4.75. I had this last year also and loved it so I wanted a do-over. It was tasty this year too - hard to go wrong with puff pastry and herby cheesy goodness. Probably not a great value but it was tasty!

This looks good, but I've heard the taste is very onion-y so I'm not sure if I'll get it.

And Florida Fresh also has my new favorite festival item: Carne Asada with Black Bean Cake and Cilantro Lime Sour Cream – $6.50. This is so tasty! I love latin flavors and this dish was fresh meets spice meets flavorful beefy goodness. I can't wait to have this again as well! I also think this was a relatively good value for festival food as it was a decent portion and pretty rich.

Yum!

This is the Warm Cheese Strudel with Mixed Berries – $4.00. This is maaaaybe the best $4 you can spend in Epcot. Holy cow this was so good! I really have never met a cheese strudel I didn't love, but this one is tender and flaky and cheesy sweet goodness. Gosh, I am hungry now.

Yum again!

After my stupid drink was already made, George talked KJ into this monstrosity:

"The Seven Seas Lagoon”, a 24 oz shareable drink containing the following ingredients:

Skyy Vodka
Parrot Bay Coconut Rum
Soda Water
Agave
Lime
Pineapple
Strawberry Apple Boboa
Swedish Fish
Life Preserver Candies
A Glow Cube" ($22)

I want to try one of those someday!

I think George felt bad because KJ was SO excited to see him and told him about how she comes to visit him on every trip and he honestly seemed to have NO recollection of this. Then she whips out her phone and shows him a selfie of the two of them basically every 6 months for like the last 4 years.... (yeahhhh, you wrong George)

 

[nco91590]

HAhahah! I am dying about George and how they have selfies together. Her love burns for George like mine for Pepe.

I bet you can't guess what these are! We hit up Fleur de Lys for two cocktails: "La Vie en Rose Frozen Slush: Grey Goose Vodka Orange, St. Germain Liquor, White and Red Cranberry Juice – $9.95". These were deeeeeelicious. The best deal in Epcot at the time, probably. I wish this slush flavor was offered year round as I like it better than the permanent options - the cranberry juice keeps it tart and I basically lose my mind any time I see or read "St. Germain" so this is my ideal festival beverage. I did not detect as much delicious elderflower St. Germain tastiness as I might like, but let's not split hairs over a good thing

Also, I am SO FREAKING JEALOUS that you got to have one of these. France was a mad house both times we were in WS. A complete zoo. The lines for the slushes was jamming up the entire area. Ughhhhhhhhh.............

Scott loves an Old Fashioned with southern comfort and he's had really good ones at Boathouse and recently at Homecoming. Here's the color of the one from Boathouse

 

[Texans_loyal]

Bring on the Food! I'm in, great start!

 

[Dopey Devon]

Following along! Heading out in 4 weeks time and taking note of all your drinks at the festival! Quick Question - where did you get those minnie ears from? the ones made from wire and flowers? Absolutely love them!

 

[ariane37]

I give you many, many props for your drinking this day KJ with George is hysterical!
I pretty much quoted everything you ate because they're all things I want to try this weekend and I'm so happy almost all of them sound delicious!

"La Vie en Rose Frozen Slush: Grey Goose Vodka Orange, St. Germain Liquor, White and Red Cranberry Juice

I'm going to have to see if this really beats my grey goose slush......might have to double fist one of each to really get a feel for it

KJ also got a Macaron Chocolat Framboise: Large Raspberry Macaron with Chocolate Fudge and Raspberry Jam (GF) – $4.75. I had this last year and it was fine, but not worth $4.75 to me and so I let KJ enjoy all of this on her own.

I wanted this when we were there in 2015 and have been craving it ever since! I had about 100 macarons from Toothsome in Feb. and they were absolutely decadent, so we'll see how this compares.

Tarte à l’Onion Alsacienne: Alsatian Onion Tart with Sautéed Onions, Fresh Thyme and Rosemary on a Flaky Puff Pastry Crust

Can't wait!

Carne Asada with Black Bean Cake and Cilantro Lime Sour Cream

I think this sounds so good but, I hate cilantro Was the taste fairly strong?

This is the Warm Cheese Strudel with Mixed Berries – $4.00. This is maaaaybe the best $4 you can spend in Epcot. Holy cow this was so good

I present to you people the glorious Potato Pancake with Caramelized Ham, Onions and Herb Sour Cream – $4.25. This was sooooo good.

This one sounds much better than the other one - with applesauce or something?

So glad you got some of your F&G reviews up before I left Sat.!! Keep them coming!

 

[cinderellashosh]

Okay, I'm drooling now. I'm not usually a frozen drink kinda gal but that Fleur de Lys looks amazing!

 

[amberpi]

Enjoying your report. The Old Fashioneds and Manhattans at Bluezoo are top notch. Just to help you on your next trip, not to convert others to the awesomeness of this restaurant and lounge

 

[pepperandchips]

Loving the DR!! Looks like a ton of fun!!!

Thank you! We did have a ton of fun. And basically every day since we've gotten back we've asked each other if we could go back yet.

I'm going to have to live my drinking of the FLower and Garden Festival through you! Since when we are going to the festival, it will be the day before the half marathon so I'll be limited to 1 drink. That onion tart was my favorite too! Mmmmm.....

I NEED that bowl of alcohol in my life. Like NEEDNEEDNEED! Blue alcohol makes everything better!

I have to say... it was not a very good drink It was just SO sweet. I wonder if they would give you the huge cup and a glow cube and you could just order three whiskey drinks to pour in it yourself haha! It was a fun experience though so I am glad we did it!

I'm mostly going to comment about food, because, well, I like food and don't drink much (unless it's an occasional fruity drink).

Hey, everyone is welcome here!

How spicy would you say this is? It sounds good, but I don't like much spice, and my husband has stomach issues and flat-out can't handle spicy stuff anymore.

I didn't find it to be hot-spicy at all, just flavorful-spicy. I definitely think it would be worth a try. If it's not too busy at the booth you could also check with the chefs preparing the dishes there and just make sure there's nothing spicy (they can usually leave any spicy stuff off for you!)

I was wondering about this one. That is one heck of a review!

Well I am a fan of anything salty and herby and topped off with sour cream this was my ideal food.

Loved this! If it had alcohol and cranberry juice I'm in.


This is the one thing I wish I would have tried. It looks so good.


One of my favorites! So much cream cheesy goodness!

Glad to see you have such good taste that carne asada and black bean thing was so good, I hope they bring it back in the future!

"...sickenly sweet blue drink of death..." LOL, summed up perfectly!

The fried green tomato sandwich looks delicious. I've made a note of it in my book of things to eat

I'm happy to be following along with your fun report!

I'm happy to have you here to participate in the fun! The Plaza always surprises me with how great it turns out.

OK, you girls know how to drink your way around Disney. My heroes!

I also may have just added a couple of things to my "need to try" list, and none were food. Seriously, what a fun trip! Looking forward to the rest

I don't really know the state of our livers after the trip. I don't even want to think about how many we had but I haven't even gotten to our marathon drinking day... We did absolutely have SO MUCH FUN though.

This looks good, but I've heard the taste is very onion-y so I'm not sure if I'll get it.

Yeah, I am not one to be able to judge if it would be suitable for a non-onion person as I am an admitted onion lover

I want to try one of those someday!

PROCEED WITH CAUTION! haha. Maybe bring a friend or 5.

HAhahah! I am dying about George and how they have selfies together. Her love burns for George like mine for Pepe.

Oh and we totally met a new bartender love he's coming up on the following day...

Also, I am SO FREAKING JEALOUS that you got to have one of these. France was a mad house both times we were in WS. A complete zoo. The lines for the slushes was jamming up the entire area. Ughhhhhhhhh.............

Which is incredible to me as we seriously did not wait at any of the booths except Mexico. There was no one at all in front of us in line for the France kiosk. Crazy!

Scott loves an Old Fashioned with southern comfort and he's had really good ones at Boathouse and recently at Homecoming. Here's the color of the one from Boathouse

Now that is a beee-eautiful Old Fashioned! That is the color cocktail I wanted. Also Scott is a man of refined and distinguished taste I will have to give Homecoming's version a shot. I always get beer or that Basil Smash which is so good... dang it, now I am hungry again.

Bring on the Food! I'm in, great start!

Woo hoo! Glad to have you here!

Following along! Heading out in 4 weeks time and taking note of all your drinks at the festival! Quick Question - where did you get those minnie ears from? the ones made from wire and flowers? Absolutely love them!

THANK YOU I made them. I have an Etsy shop but due to some changes at work I have not had it open for a while since I haven't had time to make them for sale. Give Etsy a quick search though, there are some beautiful options!

I give you many, many props for your drinking this day KJ with George is hysterical!
I pretty much quoted everything you ate because they're all things I want to try this weekend and I'm so happy almost all of them sound delicious!

I expect nothing less from you, lady! I hope you are having an absolute ball this weekend.

I'm going to have to see if this really beats my grey goose slush......might have to double fist one of each to really get a feel for it

I hope that is what you are doing at this very present moment! Maybe I will go check facebook here in a minute to see what you're up to.

I think this sounds so good but, I hate cilantro Was the taste fairly strong?

No, but again I will say I am not the best judge of this since I love cilantro and can just pile it on any given dish. I didn't even know the sour cream was supposed to be cilantro flavored.

Guess I'll have to get it again to really find out!

This one sounds much better than the other one - with applesauce or something?

So glad you got some of your F&G reviews up before I left Sat.!! Keep them coming!

Will do! Hope they helped a smidge before your trip. Will be looking forward to seeing what you ate as well!

Okay, I'm drooling now. I'm not usually a frozen drink kinda gal but that Fleur de Lys looks amazing!

I'm not either, but I'm an equal opportunity drinker at WDW and the La Vie en Rose has to be my favorite drink in Epcot! Wish it was there year round.

Enjoying your report. The Old Fashioneds and Manhattans at Bluezoo are top notch. Just to help you on your next trip, not to convert others to the awesomeness of this restaurant and lounge

Thank you for the pro tip! I am not sure why we STILL have not been over to Bluezoo as it looks right up our alley. I have no excuse for myself! Gotta put that on my list...

 

[pepperandchips]

March 4, part one:

The next morning was our planned early morning at Hollywood Studios. Some of us were feeling more chipper than others (no comment).

We hit up Captain Cook's this morning but due to our fun the night before I neglected to photograph my breakfast. It was actually even less appetizing than the below stolen photo...

I ordered mine with no egg, since I usually can't eat this early anyway and I definitely couldn't risk fake eggs after the glow cube evening we'd had. My "sandwich" was a cold, not very fresh croissant topped with a cold slice of cheese and a couple scraggly pieces of bacon. ($6.49) So disappointing. I also had some less-than-stellar breakfast potatoes. KJ had a bagel and was also disappointed.

We were a little later than we'd planned to get to DHS, but we still made it there around 10:00. Once again, we'd planned to save our FP+ for later in the day, so we'd be doing a combo of standby and SDFP here too.

Fortunately, the crowds weren't bad yet.

We wanted to do the Great Movie Ride but the standby line was snaking around outside so that got a hard nope.

We made our way over to Star Tours instead, which I wanted to ride since I had applied a motion sickness patch for our windowless air transport a few days prior. The standby line was posted at 20 minutes but it was more like a 40 minute wait when all was said and done.

Normally I can't do simulators so it's a treat to get to ride Star Tours, which I did last time wearing a patch with no problems.

I believe the scenes we got for our tour were the podracing and the Coruscant battle, and the scene going through Coruscant really did a number on me despite the patch.

Thus, a bread-y snack was necessary! I got this outside of Toy Story Midway Mania and snacked on half of that before we used a same day fastpass to play some carnival games!

We were both in need of hair of the dog, so we went to go visit Ron at the outdoor Brown Derby bar.

We each had a Tito's vodka bloody mary ($11.25 before tip and TIW) and these were absolutely perfect. I love this bar because as far as I know it's the only standalone drink location like this that honors Tables in Wonderland, so we usually hit it up when at DHS. Ron is ALWAYS the bartender there when I go and he makes fabulous cocktails, so it's a win-win.

We checked into and then rapidly out of the Hollywood Tower Hotel and then gave our full attention to the next important matter: what would we eat for lunch? After bandying a few options about, we decided to dine back at our resort and snagged a lunch reservation for Kona Cafe on the app.

We decided more bloody marys were in order, and our server asked if we wanted them spicy. Sure, we agreed.

MISTAKE! Doesn't this beautiful bloody mary look absolutely amazing? Well our server didn't mention that the "spicy" bloody mary was a WASABI bloody mary, so these had an overwhelming unpleasant horseradish flavor. We didn't realize until we got the check that these were wasabi flavored, we just thought the mix was gross. I'm sure you'll be shocked to know that we choked these down anyway. We did NOT get a second round.

I wanted a couple of the appetizers but had hit the portion of the trip where my body says "veggies, woman, PLEASE" so I also ordered a salad. This salad is so good! Much better than I was expecting. The Kona Salad is Seasonal Greens, Blue Cheese, fresh Fruit, Red Onions, and Candied Nuts with Citrus Vinaigrette ($9.00) This was super tasty, light, and fresh.

KJ went your typical entree route and had some noodles - the Pan-Asian noodles, to be precise. Yakisoba Noodles, Wok-seared with Vegetables and your choice of Chicken or Tofu in a Ginger-Garlic Sauce ($19). She really enjoyed this dish and ate all of it. I've had this before and found it good then.

I had the sticky wings "Glazed Chicken Wings with tangy Mustard Drizzle and Toasted Sesame Seeds" ($10) and the Steamed Pork Buns with Cider-braised Pork, spicy Hoisin Sauce, and Granny Apple Slaw with Roasted Brown Rice Vinaigrette ($8)

While the buns are certainly more photogenic, they were kinda disappointing. I wanted to like them so much more than I actually did! The bun itself was obviously not just fresh made - steamed buns have a unique texture and they need to be perfectly fresh to be at their best, which these weren't. The filling was just okay.

Lots of people complain about the service at Kona. We had a server that I've had before in the past and I found the service perfectly fine - we had what we needed at all times, offers of additional drinks, and the pacing was fine. I can't remember our server's name (and I don't have the receipt with me right now) but she was great, if not super memorable. She even brought this for KJ:

It was a delicious meal overall that helped revive us. Because, you know, we needed to start drinking again.

I can't remember what the Barefoot Pool bar calls this - at the Trader Sam's Tiki Terrace they call this a Spikey Pineapple - outside I think it was called a Frosty Pineapple? I can't remember but it is a dole whip blended with rum. No problems polishing off this puppy on the walk back to our room for a rest!

Up next: Animal spotting, a new nighttime show, and more delicious drinks!

 

[TeresaNJ]

Enjoying your report! Looks like you're having a great time! 38 days until our Girls' Trip with my sister & bff! I'm taking notes of what to try! That Rose Frozen Slush sounds amazing, and I love macarons!!! Getting excited!

 

[klacey1]

So subscribing! Staying at the Poly in June and have made a mental note not to get a spicy Bloody Mary at Kona! I love your reviews!