It’s Disney, Four Hours of Sleep is Normal! Mother Daughter 2018 F&W TR! (Updated 9/22!)

Wow, that is an awesome pic of you guys with all the GG characters! I've never seen that, VERY cool!!

Awesome that you continued with the character theme, cute pics!
 
How cool to be the first guests at Garden Grill and be able to get that special photo! Looks like your luck continued at the Character Spot also!

I want to try GG so badly, but I'm having trouble getting my family there because of the options in World Showcase. Breakfast will probably be the perfect time to give it a try. It looks just delicious!
 
Day 3, Part 2: Are Those Real Fish?

After wrapping up with the Characters, we made our way back to….the Land! Haha, yeah, we’re good at running back and forth.

This time we were off to ride Living with the Land!

We really love this ride, one of these days we want to take the behind the seeds tour too to get the full Land experience!

Not surprising, there was hardly anyone there at that time in the morning, so we only had to share a boat with one other family. We got sat in the front row, while they were put in the back. Love the CMs who like to spread us all out like that!





Our next stop after the Land was over to the Living Seas (yes, I still call it that…just like my mom still calls HS MGM). We decided to hop on the ride there since it’s cute, and well, we had time.

Towards the end of the ride where you actually look into real fish tanks rather than the animations, my mom goes all confused “wait, are those real fish?”

HAAAAAAA!!!! Oh mom, yes, yes they are.

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We love it in the Living Seas (still not changing it’s name). It’s so calm and we could probably spend hours there.

Side note – the day after visiting I got a survey from Disney about Epcot, and most of it was about the Living Seas and whether or not we thought it was worth the time. Ugh, this makes me SO worried they’re thinking of getting rid of it!

Anyways, back to the report! After the ride we went and watched the dolphins for a while. They are so awesome to watch. We did the Dolphins in Depth tour a few years ago and loved it, would love to do it again sometime! There was one dolphin this time who seemed trained to come over when waved at, every single time we waved at it, it would swim over to us!





After probably a bit too long watching the dolphins, we moved on to the other tanks and watched the rest of the marine life!



Soon we moved on and made our way over to the Festival Center! I had my eye on a mimosa!

I ended up picking out the Tropical Mimosa, which was SOOOOO good!



Also, seemed to have amazing timing for this one. When we arrived there was no one there. By the time they handed me the drink, there were a solid 20 people in line! Win for timing!

Next up we popped into the store where I picked up a F&W pin. Back in high school I collected SO many pins, and frankly, it’s sometimes hard to say no when I’m back there to some of the special event ones!

We also picked up another Hide and Squeak map for my mom. She decided she wanted a cup as well, plus we felt slightly guilty for getting a cup already without seeing a single rat!

We also checked out the chocolate sculptures this year, and once again they blew us away!





Next up: Will we Find all the Remy’s? (Plus more food)

 
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Wow, that is an awesome pic of you guys with all the GG characters! I've never seen that, VERY cool!!

Awesome that you continued with the character theme, cute pics!

Thanks! It was such a fun morning to focus on hanging out with the characters rather than running off to rides!
 


How cool to be the first guests at Garden Grill and be able to get that special photo! Looks like your luck continued at the Character Spot also!

I want to try GG so badly, but I'm having trouble getting my family there because of the options in World Showcase. Breakfast will probably be the perfect time to give it a try. It looks just delicious!

It was so awesome, perfect surprise to start the day!

Breakfast at GG was amazing, we loved it. Definitely recommend trying it out!
 
Also, seemed to have amazing timing for this one. When we arrived there was no one there. By the time they handed me the drink, there were a solid 20 people in line! Win for timing!

Timing win indeed! Isn't that fantastic, when you look behind you and realize there's a huge line that you completely missed out on? Makes the food/drink just that much better :)
 
Side note – the day after visiting I got a survey from Disney about Epcot, and most of it was about the Living Seas and whether or not we thought it was worth the time. Ugh, this makes me SO worried they’re thinking of getting rid of it!
Oh no I hope not we love that ride.
 


Timing win indeed! Isn't that fantastic, when you look behind you and realize there's a huge line that you completely missed out on? Makes the food/drink just that much better :)

Yes, it was so awesome! Especially since I usually have absolutely horrible timing. Still can't believe how quickly that line grew!
 
Oh no I hope not we love that ride.

I know, I love that place so much, I will be so upset if they get rid of it. I'm still not over Horizon's being gone...they can't get rid of another one of my favorites!
 
Please tell me they're not thinking of closing the Living Seas! I can think of a few other attractions that aren't worth the time, but that certainly is not one.

That dolphin was adorable! I could spend a lot of time watching something as cute as that.

I know what you mean about the pins. I collected them years ago. My OCD kicked in and I got rather obsessed with them. I had to go cold turkey and stop buying and trading them. It's made my trips more enjoyable.

I can't believe what they can do with chocolate!
 
Please tell me they're not thinking of closing the Living Seas! I can think of a few other attractions that aren't worth the time, but that certainly is not one.

I really really hope they're not considering it. Just got worried when I got the survey about it!

That dolphin was adorable! I could spend a lot of time watching something as cute as that.

I know! It looks like it's smiling at us! So stinking cute!

I know what you mean about the pins. I collected them years ago. My OCD kicked in and I got rather obsessed with them. I had to go cold turkey and stop buying and trading them. It's made my trips more enjoyable.

Haha, yeah, I was really bad back in high school, I would spend my entire vacation fund on nothing but pins! I'm better now, but there are a few I just can't pass on!

I can't believe what they can do with chocolate!

Oh my goodness, isn't it amazing? I would love if they had a demonstration of the chefs creating them!
 
Day 3, Part 3: Will We Find all the Remy’s? (Plus more food!)

After checking out the rest of the Festival center, we made our way out to find us some Remy’s! Plus we were starting to get hungry again, so some food booths were in order!

First stop, Taste Track. I’m sorry to say, we did not try anything here. It just wasn’t for us at all, we’re really not into the sweets, however we did find the Remy!

After applying the sticker to our hide and squeak map, we made our way across the park to find some more Remy’s. We of course had to stop at the PP photographers along the way!


The elusive "We're the only ones in the park" picture!






I wish the PP photographer explained what she was trying to do here, we thought she was just making us awkwardly dance! If we had known we were framing out SE, we would have stood further apart!

Our next stop was over at the eats area where we found another Remy!


My mom had to document every minute detail of the trip...including me applying the sticker.

Next up we made our way to Islands of the Caribbean where I got the Empanada. Oh my goodness, this was amazing! I was so surprised at how good this was! It was perfectly flakey, and had such an amazing flavor. Joins the Salmon dish as one of our favorites this year!




My mom's photo theme of this trip ended up being pictures of me seconds after taking a bite of food...yet another winner from her collection...

We then moved on to Greece where I got the red blend. It was really good, and surprisingly not too heavy on such a hot day!



Our next stop was Mexico where I got the Mariachi Loco, which was surprisingly spicy, but really good! At this point my mom was itching for an adult beverage as well, and since we were in Mexico, we popped over to the margarita stand! We got her the cucumber lime margarita, and then went over to the small “rock” area which was slightly in the shade. It was SO hot this day, well every day this week, much worse than we've seen in past Septembers. Finding shade was a must this week!



Here is where we ran into some of the standard Disney Rude people. So my mom and I are sitting in the little rock area near the exit of the margarita stand, which was really small. Well, this group comes over and sees the partial shade there, and decides to crowd around us and “share” the rock table. Didn’t even bother asking if they could share the table with us. Now, normally we’d be happy to share, but there were 8 of them, and they literally surrounded us and pushed up into us making it ridiculously uncomfortable and frankly ridiculously hot (well, hotter)! Plus they kept glaring at us like we were the ones in the wrong for actually getting there first!

Soooooo rude! I get it, there was a bit of shade there which seems to be missing from a lot of WS, but seriously, find your own table people!

Can you imagine 10 people trying to share this little table?!? It was only about 18" across, and you could only use one side of it since the other side was up against the landscaping. It ended up being 2-3 people deep, which in the heat that day was killer.


Sadly, I suspect these people did that just to get us to move sooner because they wanted to poach our spot, which worked. When my mom is not around I am a more confrontational, but with my mom there, I didn’t want to make a scene, so I let these horrible people have the spot and we moved on.

We quickly regained our good spirits however (I’m sure the tequila helped) and made our way around the park finding the rest of the Remy’s. Happy to say, we found them all, and it only took about an hour!

Since we found them all before we left, we decided to swing by the store at the IG to pick up the cup for mom, who also decided to get the Figment one!

Next up: Pre-MNSSHP!!

 
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Next up we made our way to Islands of the Caribbean where I got the Empanada. Oh my goodness, this was amazing! I was so surprised at how good this was! It was perfectly flakey, and had such an amazing flavor. Joins the Salmon dish as one of our favorites this year!
Definitely agree-the empanada was awesome. I loved it :)

Also aren't the Remys cute? I really enjoyed looking for them.
 
I keep forgetting to tell you that your hair looks really cute. It's a bit shorter than previous trips, right?

Good grief, people are so rude! I teach high schoolers and am always amazed how rude they can be. Then I meet their parents and it explains a lot.

That empanada looks delish! I really missed Food & Wine this year, but it turned into a Christmas trip instead of Fall for us this year.

Your mom is too cute taking photos of you.
 
I keep forgetting to tell you that your hair looks really cute. It's a bit shorter than previous trips, right?

Aw, thank you so much! It is shorter than past trips, was hoping less hair would keep me cooler this trip!

Good grief, people are so rude! I teach high schoolers and am always amazed how rude they can be. Then I meet their parents and it explains a lot.

Oh man, I know, it's so frustrating to run into them at the parks! It's funny, my mom also teaches high school and says the exact same thing!

That empanada looks delish! I really missed Food & Wine this year, but it turned into a Christmas trip instead of Fall for us this year.

It was amazing! Hope to get it again next year! A Christmas trip sounds awesome, one of these years I'd love to go down around the holidays. Hope you have a great trip!

Your mom is too cute taking photos of you.

Haha, yeah, she really likes to document everything. Got some real special pictures on her camera!
 
Day 3, Part 4: Pre-MNSSHP

We rested a bit when we got back to the room, then started getting ready for the Halloween Party!

We got into our costumes, and were out the door a little before 2:00 to get our Minnie Van. The car showed up quickly, and we had the best driver! We had such a great conversation with him, and in no time we arrived at the MK! I love how they drop you off at the closest bus stop they can, so convenient!

My mom and I quickly made our way through security, there wasn’t a huge line at this point in the afternoon, then over to the normal entrance (well, non-party entrance that is) since we had park hoppers and were there way early!

First stop - Pictures at the front of the park!





We had a FP+ for Splash at 2:25, and it was still about 15 minutes early so we made our way slowly up Main Street, getting PP pictures.





We also hit up some PP photographers in Frontierland.





We finally arrived at Splash at 2:20, 5 minutes before our FP+ time, but we scanned anyways and once again it turned green! We quickly made our way through the queue, and saw that we did not even need the FP+, the standby line was practically empty!

This was exciting to see, in past years we had not gotten and FP+ for rides before the party, and the lines were always still pretty long in the 30-40 minute range. So to see no wait on Splash before the party we took it as a good sign that the night would be low crowds! Well, we’ll see about that!

We lucked out and got the first row for our ride….and we got drenched!



After Splash we strolled over to Thunder and were happy to see there was no wait there either, so of course we went for a ride! It was our first time riding it since they added the padding to the seats, and oh my goodness it’s so nice now! Great addition….now if only they’ll add a camera!

Once we wrapped up on Thunder we decided to slowly start making our way around the park to our dinner destination. On the way we passed HM and saw it too had no wait, so of course we had to ride!

This was amazing, in less than one hour we had gotten on three rides (two rather long ones), and gotten PP pictures at various locations. This was SO much better than previous years parties where we just waited in one long line after another up until the party! The crowds were so light that afternoon, it was fantastic!

After riding HM, we continued on our way around the back of the park and finally made it to our destination, BOG! It was only about 3:30 at this point, but they were checking people in for dinner, so we checked in and gave them my phone number. They told us to wait on the bridge, but we had to use the facilities, so wandered over to the bathrooms by Gaston’s first.

There really wasn’t anything else we wanted to do at that point, so we decided to go wait on the bridge with the growing crowd. It was pretty miserable out there, the sun was just beating down on us, and it was SO hot, and somehow those umbrellas on the bridge didn't provide any shade! I did manage to get this pretty picture though…



At around 3:45 I got the text saying our table was ready, so we joined the next crowd in the courtyard in front of BOG. There was a sliver of shade here at least, so a group of us all huddled there, waiting for the CMs to come out and call our names. Finally at 3:55 our name was called!

We were led inside, and wow, that AC felt amazing!

Next up: Dinner at BOG!

 
Day 3, Part 5: Dinner at BOG!

The CM led us into BOG and over to our table. We were sat in the main dinning room again up against the front wall and had a great view of the room.



Now we had ate at BOG pre-party two years ago, and while it was good, we were not overly impressed. Back then the tables were all squished together, service was super slow, and it felt and sounded like a school cafeteria. We had not planned on doing dinner here again, but when we heard they were changing it to a signature and prix fixe meal, we had to check it out one more time.

Well, good news is, it was much better this time around! There was much more room between the tables, and the service was great! It still got really loud at one point, especially when this one family came in with a child who decided to turn his dinner plate into a drum set which was painfully loud. His parents did finally realize that all the tables around them were shooting them angry looks and they took the silverware away from the kid, but my goodness, that was nails on a chalkboard kind of painful noise before they did!

Dinner ended up being fantastic, we loved the new menu! For starters I got the French onion soup while my mom got the escargot.





The soup was delicious, and soooooo cheesy! I’m obsessed! Although, I must admit, very messy to eat! Ended up with cheese hanging out of my mouth for a good portion of that meal!

My mom really liked the escargot, I tried one and it was ok, but I much preferred my soup!

Next up we both got the steak, which was amazing! So good! Oh, we also got a bottle of wine to split!



It was a delicious dinner, but we made sure to save some room for the dessert!



Oh my goodness, this dessert was so yummy! The Chip cup was super rich, so rich I couldn’t finish it. My mom loves white chocolate, so gladly finished it for me!

The chocolate at the end was my favorite, I was so full by that point but I just had to finish it, it was so good!

While we were eating, they made the announcement that the Beast was about the arrive, and soon he was strolling through the dining room to his meet and greet.

Small tip, we noticed when he came out, a large number of tables got up to go wait in line to meet him, so the line was pretty long at first, but a good 20 minutes later after that initial crush there was no line at all, so if you can wait, wait!



After meeting the master himself, it was time to PARTY!!!!

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Next up: MNSSHP, Part 1

 
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