Once the bus finally showed up, we continued to have to wait awhile, albeit on a heavily air conditioned bus. It was driver switch time and the next driver showed up late.
Eventually we headed for Pop, which was to be a very quick stop. We both needed different shoes, as we had dressed for the apocalyptic rain forecast (which had turned out to be no big deal), which meant we were not wearing our most comfortable park shoes. I also needed my other fitbit, as this one wasn’t functioning well. And by the time we finally got there, some Powerade wasn’t a bad idea either.
We were at Pop for less than 40 minutes before we headed for Epcot. I think we may have basically walked straight on the Epcot bus. Well...limped actually. We both had some sizable blisters, thanks to the wicked humidity.
The trip over to Epcot was quick. The bus dropped us off by the charter buses, so we had a bit of a hike, but eventually we were headed into the park, and, more importantly, eating. That’s why people go to Disney right?
For those of us with allergies to flowers and the stinging insects they attract, the best part of the flower and garden festival is the food booths. Oh, who am I kidding? I like food...a lot. So does Nick. So...regardless of allergies, we really like the food booths.
We knew Nick’s parents were in Mexico checking out the Coco exhibit. But we made a food stop first, at the honey booth. Honey mascarpone cheesecakes for both of us, plus a kiddie version of the peach cobbler shake. The cheesecake was a total winner! The shake was good too, but not my favorite beverage of the festival.
From here, we decided it was probably time to find Kim and John. We caught up with them in Mexico, where they were debating whether or not to buy empanadas from the quick service Mexican restaurant. Kim had been talking about how she had loved the empanadas when she was there for Food and Wine Festival in 2016, and John took that as she had to have some empanadas. She actually just wanted to explore the festival booths.
We took off in the direction of more festival booths, and John disappeared into the quick service line. We kept walking. He can catch us later!
I think our first stop was Germany. Nick got a potato pancake with applesauce and the ham and cheese pretzel roll thing. I didn’t take pictures. Oops. I was pretty surprised when he started saying how good the pretzel roll thing was. I’d had one in February and found it dry and totally lacking in the cheese department. So I tried his. It WAS really good. Guess I just got a bad one in February!
After eating in Germany, it was on to Italy! Nick and his mom had thought they wanted the lobster ravioli at this food booth, but then they realized they didn’t recognize a bunch of ingredients, so they didn’t order it. Hmm. I wonder how cruise eating will go!
While they didn’t get the lobster ravioli, Nick and I did get a limoncello margarita to share (tequila and limoncello...can’t go wrong here!) and I also got the melon panna cotta, which was basically like cantaloupe in pudding form.
And then we walked toward the American Adventure, me enjoying listening to Lonestar perform.
We found a table over by the food booth in the American pavilion and Nick disappeared to get various sliders. Kim and I chatted and enjoyed the music.
Nick and Kim enjoyed their sliders, and eventually we saw John walking toward us. As we met up with him, he announced that he’d been surprised to realize that he recognized, and enjoyed several of the Lonestar songs, and Nick agreed. I laughed.
Since Lonestar had just ended their performance, we headed for Japan. It was time to introduce John and Kim to fruishi! I think Nick also got teriyaki salmon. Kim and John loved the fruishi. Nick liked the flavor of the salmon, but found it to be a bit overcooked. In an effort to not repeat the great cell phone screen crack incident of February that occurred at this food booth, I didn’t take any pictures of the food here.
Finished eating, we continued on, but not very far. In February, I had tried the chicken kebab at the Morocco food booth and loved it, so I needed to get that again, mostly so Nick could try it. That’s my story…
It was delicious again, and Nick and Kim both loved their portions of it. After we’d sufficiently enjoyed the chicken kebab, we continued on to France, purposely skipping the key lime tart at the FL Fresh booth, in favor of key lime pie in Key West in a couple days..
Originally, we were thinking there were several dishes we wanted to try at the France booth, but, pictures on the menu at the booth revealed a whole lot of MUSHROOMS. UGH! John, however, got a couple of the chocolate macaron lollipops for us all to try. They were VERY rich. Kim enjoyed it though!
Chocolate consumed, we continued onward. In the UK, John could hear music, so he headed deeper into the pavilion to listen to the set of whatever music group is performing there these days. I was fading, so Nick and I decided to head back to the hotel. We said good night to Kim, agreed to text tomorrow as the day wore on, since we were coming back to Epcot, and they were tackling Magic Kingdom (on a Monday...eek!), and parted ways.
We did make a couple more food stops on our way out of the park. The first was at the cider booth in the UK. Some tropical/pineapple cider for me, and the mimosa cider for Nick, I think. They both were good, and we each liked our own picks better than the other. We drank those as we walked towards Future World.
But first, one more stop! The Canada booth was calling Nick’s name. He got the grown up version of the maple shake and he also got the scallops. He enjoyed both.
From here, we really started making our way out of the park, taking just a couple pictures along the way.
It was a quiet walk to the bus stop. We both were wiped. And for those wondering, yes, we left before Illuminations. Park commando fail!
A bus appeared relatively soon, and Nick was able to spot some random open seats at the very back of the bus that no one wanted to climb the stairs for, so we were able to sit for the bus ride back.
After a quick bus ride, we headed straight to the room, showered, and crashed. Absolutely no difficulty falling asleep tonight!
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