Let the memories (of our May 2011 trip) begin! *UPDATED SEPT. 18th- LINK to NEW TR!*

[mousegear]

Despite the rain, it seems you had a blast looking at topiaries and different characters that goes with different countries. I seriously need to plan a trip around may to see all those flowers and topiaries, and those rare characters!!!

 

[butiflfeet]

Too bad the rain kept the characters away! I'm really enjoying your trip report !

 

[Queila]

Lol that under sea version of DeVine looks kind of freaky but cool at the same time!

The Race Around World Showcase challenge sounds like fun and maybe something Beatriz could do when she's older.

Yay on meeting all the characters! It's a shame you did not get to see Violet or Boo.

Oh no on all the rain and not being able to get into the speaker sessions

Love the poncho and topiary pics!

Am glad you guys managed to get some pics of Jessie before she disappeared. Aaw poor Beatriz wanting Rapunzel to come out - she's soo cute in that video. Have heard about The American Dream and can't wait to try one!

Thank you. The American Dream was a wonderful treat. Even though it was a rainy and miserable day it brought us a sunny day feeling, if you know what I mean.

I am very late to the party, but I am here and am enjoying everything so far! Can't wait for more.

Hello and So glad you could make it. Join away!

That was great you got to meet so many characters! I love the picture of your daughter with Mater, I love how there is a contrast in heights And that is so cool they had a living coral. I really want to go to the Pixar Weekend now Sorry it had to rain and you had to miss a few things, but you braved it and got some awesome pictures of the topiaries That's so cute your daughter was yelling out to Rapunzel, too bad a real Rapunzel wasn't nearby and you could've been telling the truth Can't wait to read more!

We ended up meeting Rapunzel later on the trip which was great but I felt bad that I could not come up with a better excuse for Rapunzel not being there at that moment.

Pixar Weekend was a lot of fun. I am sure it will get better and better as the years go by. They even had some extra Pixar topiaries this year just for the occasion.

Beatriz looks really tiny close to Mater, does not she? She is a delicate little girl.

wow, you met quite a few at pixar! How were the lines?

The rain put a little damper on our plans that day too. Luckily that was all tge rain that week!

I like your Jessie solution. Very creative!

I meant to try an American dream this trip. Looks so refreshing!

The crowds were not as bad at the World Showcase as they were at Future World but, again, WS is such a miserable place to be when it is raining hard.

The American dream was not only refreshing it was also delicious!

That picture of you girls and Frozon is the cutest picture I have ever seen, all in super hero stance!!! Rain, ugh, I'm preparing for it for our August trip, we have never gone during the rainy season, I will grin and bear it, what else can you do! Like you said, people leave most of the time during rain, so less crowds! Enjoyed the update!

Thank you.

I love that picture too. The pose was actually Frozon idea and it turns out to be a lot of fun.

I was determined to stay at Epcot and see as much as possible of the F&G festival, rain or not rain. I would have liked to see and do a lot more tha day but it is really one of those things that you really cannot control. Tried my best to make most of the day and keep a smile on my face.

Despite the rain, it seems you had a blast looking at topiaries and different characters that goes with different countries. I seriously need to plan a trip around may to see all those flowers and topiaries, and those rare characters!!!

The Flower and Garden Festival with its topiaries was on my Disney "bucket list" and I was so happy to be able to see it. Totally worth it.

Too bad the rain kept the characters away! I'm really enjoying your trip report !

Thank you. Hope you stick around.

I was really looking forward to seeing tons of characters that day but unfortunately the rain limited the amount of characters we were able to see. What can you do....

 

[natebenma]

I'm back from "The Trip Which Must Not be Named". I enjoyed catching up with your report.

Sorry about all the rain. The World Showcase is a tough place to be when it is raining.

How is it that I have never heard of an American Dream before??? Tell me more!

The topiaries are amazing and the pictures of Beatriz with the character are absolutely precious. Sorry, but I'm glad you did not meet Boo! The photo of that would surely be in the too painfully cute category.

Hope the weather improved for you!

 

[Queila]

I'm back from "The Trip Which Must Not be Named". I enjoyed catching up with your report.

Sorry about all the rain. The World Showcase is a tough place to be when it is raining.

How is it that I have never heard of an American Dream before??? Tell me more!

The topiaries are amazing and the pictures of Beatriz with the character are absolutely precious. Sorry, but I'm glad you did not meet Boo! The photo of that would surely be in the too painfully cute category.

Hope the weather improved for you!

Welcome back Dee! Already all signed up at your new TR.

You are so right. The World Showcase is a very miserable place to be when the heavy rain just does not want to let go. But I guess we are very hard headed and wanted to stick to "THE PLAN". I am somewhat regretful that I did not use that time at Inovations or something like that but I think we were hopeful that it was gonna stop eventually. It didn't.

I know. Boo and Beatriz in the same picture could have been too much cuteness for one to handle. Dangerously cute.

I found out about the American Dream shortly before my trip and it ended up being our family's favorite snack. It is a layer of blue raspberry slush, a layer of vanilla ice cream and a layer of strawberry slush. Amazing.

Have a great week!

Q

 

[Queila]

Day 3- May,14th 2011- Epcot- Chilling at the Mexican Pavilion.

So it is the end of the afternoon by now and I have this feeling that we have not accomplished much thanks to the rain. The World Showcase is one of the worst places to be when the rain just doesn't want to let go.

So I told Joey we should go back to the Future World and try to see the Captain EO movie before our super at San Angel Inn.

As we are making our way over there we stop in front of the Mexican pavillon to once again seek some shelter from the heavy rain when we realize: Hey! The Mexican pavillon is indoors and we can just hang out in here until our meal time.

The extra bonus is that we can also bring the stroller inside! I HATE having to leave the stroller out in the rain. Have you ever noticed how most of the parking lots for strollers are out in the opened?

So we went in and I took Beatriz to the restrooms to dry ourselves up a bit. I changed her white top that by then was not only wet but also filthy (the girl wanted to jump in all the puddles she found along the way).

So what shall we do?

Let's start by the Gran Fiesta Tour, of course! We have done this ride once in every trip so far and I always have to take a picture in front of the poster of my Brazilian friend, José Carioca.

Here is a brief recap:-

Feb.2009:

May 2010:

And the one from this year:

A family shot:

I know a lot of people have a problem with the addition of the Disney characters in this ride but I have to say, Beatriz LOVED (yes, loved in all capitals) this ride. It is her ultra, mega, uber all time favorite ride so far.

She was SHRIEKING (yes, shrieking in all capitals also) in excitement the whole time. At the end of the trip we bought the CD Four Parks, One World and we listen to it in the car all the time and she always asks me to put the "three caballeros song".

So as soon as we got out of the ride she asks us to go again.

We have nowhere else to go so we oblige.

She is excited:

We got out of it and she asks to go a third time. Why not??

So after three rounds of Gran Fiesta we decide we are hungry enough to check in at San Angel Inn.

Except by this time the line in front of the podium is huge and we have to wait quite a bit.

So we use this time to take some more pictures. I love it in there. So colourful!!

Beatriz decides to make some noise:

While we were in line we also started talking to a family from Florida. The lady's parents retired and got themselves a job at Animal Kingdom so they come often to visit.

Now THAT is an idea.



The lady also remarked how my top matches Beatriz' skirt and I assure her that it is no accident.

So it is our turn at the podium, they asked us if we were celebrating anything special and I say it is our 10th year anniversary. The anniversary is not until December but that place is so beautiful and so romantic that I felt an urge to start celebrating right there.



Next up:
San Angel Inn review
Evening at Epcot
​

 

[AlliGirl]

I love reading your trip report so much! Your family is so fun to follow around! I think your daughter has to be one of the cutest little girls on Earth!

 

[mousegear]

Beatriz looks so cute!!

 

[PlutosRHM55]

Oh, I love the Gran Fiesta Tour! I never got to go on before they added in the Three Caballeros, but I liked it nonetheless. It is just a nice ride, with a lot of action going on and who doesn't love Donald Duck? I'm also totally jealous of your "Four Parks, One World" CD right now. Another thing to buy at Disney Love your little tradition of a picture in front of Jose Carioca Can't wait to read your review of the San Angel Inn!

 

[Trinity524]

Thank you for sharing your memories with me! We'll be making our own soon.

DS is 3 and this will be his 4th time there.

Talk about spoiled!

 

[lbuzz52]

Mexico is such a fun pavillion. We never leave without some sort of little noisemakers. I can wait to hear what you think about the restaurant. It's on my next time list.

 

[natebenma]

Welcome back Dee! Already all signed up at your new TR.

I found out about the American Dream shortly before my trip and it ended up being our family's favorite snack. It is a layer of blue raspberry slush, a layer of vanilla ice cream and a layer of strawberry slush. Amazing.

Q

I'm so glad you stopped by there! Just wait until you read what my family can do with 12 1/2 hours at the Magic Kingdom!

Thanks for the information about the American Dream. The boys would love this.

 

[natebenma]

What a great time you all had in(side) in Mexico! I love the traditional picture spots your family has. These will be such amazing keepsakes of your family as the years go on.

I love the Mexico ride, especially since you rarely have to wait in line to ride it. But I am one who misses the original, duck-free version. It was such a peaceful, romantic ride!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your dinner at San Angel. The atmosphere in the restaurant is amazing!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Lol I know what you mean about having to leave the stroller outside to get wet! We had to do the same when my little sister used to be in one.

Love the pics by the Gran Fiesta Tour. The Mexico Pavillion looks so nice and colourful - I have not seen many pics of it so thanks for sharing.

Yay on Beatriz enjoying Gran Fiesta Tour and wanting to go on it again and again!

 

[disneynova]

Hi!
Nice trip-report! I love the family picture!! Please, What model camera did you use? and Can you also tell me a review about your black-red disney crocs?
Thank you so much!

 

[Queila]

Please, What model camera did you use?

It is a Nikon Coolpix-S3000.
Joey adjusted the settings of the camera but if I remember correctly the Photopass guy put the camera on his tripod to get the right effect.

Hope this helps.

 

[Queila]

First of all, I am sorry for being MIA here at my TR.

I had to work some extra days these last couple of weeks plus my father and his wife were visiting us from Brazil and that kept us extra busy.

To top it all I caught one of those 24 hour bugs and had to spend some extra quality time with my toilet bowl. NOT FUN.

So let's try to catch up, shall we?​

I love reading your trip report so much! Your family is so fun to follow around! I think your daughter has to be one of the cutest little girls on Earth!

Thank you! I usually think she is the cuttest girl in the world too but you know my opinion can be very biased.

Beatriz looks so cute!!

Thanks. She makes her mommy proud.

Oh, I love the Gran Fiesta Tour! I never got to go on before they added in the Three Caballeros, but I liked it nonetheless. It is just a nice ride, with a lot of action going on and who doesn't love Donald Duck? I'm also totally jealous of your "Four Parks, One World" CD right now. Another thing to buy at Disney Love your little tradition of a picture in front of Jose Carioca Can't wait to read your review of the San Angel Inn!

Gran Fiesta has always been fun for us but it became a family favorite after this trip. It was so great to see Beatriz enjoying herself the way she did. We said next time we go to WDW we should try to stay at the Coronado Springs Resort just so we could have that "feeling" all throughout the trip.

The CD is really good and we listen to it all the time. It has the songs from the attractions of all four parks. "Soarin'" is one of our favorites. It feels like we are riding it all over again. Next time we are there we are going to look for other CD's. Maybe one with the music of the night shows. I wonder if that exists...

Thank you for sharing your memories with me! We'll be making our own soon.

DS is 3 and this will be his 4th time there.

Talk about spoiled!

I know!!! I hate to play this card but sometimes I feel like telling the little one: Do you know how fortunate you are? I had to wait until I was 15 years old to go to Disney for the first time!

Mexico is such a fun pavillion. We never leave without some sort of little noisemakers. I can wait to hear what you think about the restaurant. It's on my next time list.

Mexico is my all time favorite pavillon. The second one is Morocco and the third one is England.

Review of San Angel Inn coming soon. can let you know right now: it was our favorite dinning experience of the trip.

What a great time you all had in(side) in Mexico! I love the traditional picture spots your family has. These will be such amazing keepsakes of your family as the years go on.

I love the Mexico ride, especially since you rarely have to wait in line to ride it. But I am one who misses the original, duck-free version. It was such a peaceful, romantic ride!

I'm looking forward to hearing about your dinner at San Angel. The atmosphere in the restaurant is amazing!

Thanks Dee. There is just something about the Mexican pavillons that sets it apart from the other ones. Maybe it is the fact that it is indoors and it is always dusk... I wonder how the CM's that work in there feel about it though... never get to see the sun light. Oh wel... I guess t is just like being in montreal in November.

I understand why some people would have a problem with the new version of the Grand Fiesta.I have to admit Donald Duck and relaxing do not go together in the same sentence but the ride was very appealing to my little one and I can give all the credit to Donald.

Lol I know what you mean about having to leave the stroller outside to get wet! We had to do the same when my little sister used to be in one.

Love the pics by the Gran Fiesta Tour. The Mexico Pavillion looks so nice and colourful - I have not seen many pics of it so thanks for sharing.

Yay on Beatriz enjoying Gran Fiesta Tour and wanting to go on it again and again!

I had never even noticed the stroller parking until I had my own child but I wish they would provide more indoor parking for them. In 2010 we had reservations to eat at Akershus and we could tell it was going to rain. There was nowhere to leave the stroller but outside so we closed it and litterally fit it on a crack on the wall on the Chinese pavillon.

The Mexican pavillon is worth exploring... There is a lot of beautiful stuff at the souvenir shops too... They had this beautiful white lace top that I envisioned wearing with jeans. It is on my list of things I regret NOT buying. Maybe next time...

Hi!
Can you also tell me a review about your black-red disney crocs?
Thank you so much!

I bought the red and black Disney crocs at Animal Kingdom park in 2009. I love it... very confortable and you cannot beat the Mickey heads. However, I later found out they have them in a little more feminine style called Mary Janes. If I had to do it again, I would buy those instead.

Hope that helps!


Q

 

[Queila]

Day 3- Saturday, May 14th 2011- Epcot- San Angel Inn

So even though I look Latin American, I sound Latin American and, heck, I am Latin American, I do not speak Spanish.

This may surprise some people but the fact is we do NOT speak Spanish in Brazil. My mother language is Portuguese and even though I was able to communicate very well in Spanish at one point in my life I "lost" a lot of it once I moved to Quebec and had to learn French.

Joey on the other hand has what I call a "worldly face". When we went to Cuba people thought he was Cuban. In Brazil, people mistaken him for a Brazilian. He already got mistaken by Greek and even north-African. It must be his sexy olive skin...

Anyways, whenever we are at Disney I get spoken to in Spanish multiple times during the day. I guess the CM's are trying to make me feel at home or something and I usually do my best to answer back in Spanish but this sometimes causes confusion.

The waitress at San Angel Inn started serving me in Spanish and even though I could understand her I was answering back in mix of Spanish, French and English. She then tried to talk to Joey in Spanish bur he answered her back with his broken Portuguese. You should have seen her puzzled expression. It was Babel out there and the waitress probably thought we were drunk or something.

I had said in my PTR that I wanted to eat at San Angel Inn for the same reason we ate at Coral Reef in 2010: the ambiance!

So we got seated on a table right in the middle of the main hall and I have to say the ambiance was everything I was expecting AND MORE. That place is really special and we enjoyed it immensely. You cannot beat eating under the stars even when it is a rainy day outside.

Beatriz was behaving like an angel and that is when we made the connection between erratic behaviour and seating on booths. She is a lot easier to restrain if she can be contained in one chair. I guess the fact that there was a girl behaving well on the table next to us helped too. There was a good behaviour competition going on and we are guilty of encouraging it.

Time to order our drinks. I knew I wanted a margarita and I had read good things about the mango one but I wasn't sure I was going to like it so I made Joey order it:

I am glad I didn't order it cause the mango taste was a little too strong for me. A good thing he loved it.

As for me I stuck to the traditional lime flavour and was very happy with it:

Orange juice for Beatriz:

Joey and I ordered the same entree: the Sirloin con Chile Relleno-Grilled beef sirloin with chile ancho sauce, served with a beans and cheese stuffed pepper, poblano rice, and fried plantains.

The food was fine. Not outstanding but satisfying. The meat was very well cooked and we had no complaints. We have a very good Mexican restaurant near our house that we visit it often and I would say San Angel's food was just as good.

Beatriz always eats a great variety of food at home and she is NOT a picky eater but I guess she was in love with Disney pasta and she wanted the spaghetti again. They didn't have that so we talked her into getting the chicken quesadillas (sorry but no pictures) which she only ate 1\4 of before moving on to Joey's steak. He gave her plenty of it in exchange for the rest of her quesadilla.

Joey and I also ordered the same dessert: capirotada de chocolate blanco. My friend A. had recommended this dessert and we went for it.

When the waiters served us our dessert they also serenaded us in honor of our anniversary which was unexpected but very nice.

The dessert was DELICIOUS and we had it with some coffee which totally hit the spot!

Now the real kicker was Beatriz' dessert: churros!!!

I churros so when she announced she did not want any and I made the sacrifice and finished it off.

I have to say that Disney should raise the age for the Dining Plan from 3 to at least 4 years old. All plates from the kid's menu are huge and, if it was not for Joey, there would have been a lot of waste.

Which 3 year old can eat that amount of food??

Anyways, I had planned to surprise Joey and order an anniversary cake for this meal but I was happy I changed my mind last minute. We were so satisfied afterwards that I have no idea of how we would have managed with an entire cake for both of us on top of that awesome meal.

Time for a family picture:

Overall our meal experience at San Angel Inn was EXCELLENT and it ranked number 1 in our trip. The combination of the ambiance, good food, great service, a relaxed family and even a bit of romance made this our favorite sit down of the entire trip.

I am not sure if it is because Joey grew up in an Italian house or if it is a bit of the savoir vivre from Quebec that has rubbed on us but we are the type of people that like to sit down and take our time at the table and we thought San Angel Inn allowed us to do that so we fell in love with it.

We even forgot for a minute that we were at WDW and there were rides waiting for us outside.

Or rain, for that matter.

​

 

[natebenma]

Yummy update!!! Sounds like you had a great experience at San Angel.

San Angel was one of the first restaurants at EPCOT that Mark and I dined at. You are right, the atmosphere can't be beat!!!

Your plate looks super! So do the dessert and the churros!

So nice that Beatriz behaved for you, but that pout at the end... Priceless!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I have been subscribed, but just now finally read it all! Loving your report! Your daughter is adorable! And your trials with the potty made me just make a plan with my DH on potty breaks...so THANK YOU!

We are also eating at San Angel, and due to the mixed reviews, I'm a bit nervous about it....but like you, we booked it for the ambiance! I'm getting more excited about it now after your review.