Sufficiently cooled off, I headed deeper into World Showcase in search of more cheese. But, first I had to go see a pair of sisters who were out greeting guests.
Can I just say that I really like this socially distant style of character appearances. You just kind of happen upon them, take your pictures, interact if you like, and leave when you’re ready. No standing in hour+ lines for awkward interactions. Win.
Then it was off to Germany. The something with a big name, essentially mac and cheese with ham and onion in it was part of the cheese challenge. And apple strudel is always a good idea so I got both. The strudel was very good. The predominant flavor in the pasta was onion, so we know how I felt about that one.
I then walked a little farther and found that the Mariachi Cobre was just starting a performance at the America Gardens Theater and would be followed almost immediately by the Voices of Liberty, so I grabbed a seat and parked myself to listen to some good music. I’m so glad that Disney found a way to still offer some of the entertainment. Both groups were great, and both performances were too short!
After listening to music, I made a quick bathroom stop in America, because they’ve got some of the best (biggest and cleanest) bathrooms in the whole park (although I haven’t visited the new bathrooms in France yet, so I suppose this rank could change?). Now...this shouldn’t have been trip report worthy. But...humans. So as I finished washing my hands (because I do actually believe in some level of hygiene) and turned to leave, a woman exited one of the stalls, with a champagne flute that still had beverage in it, and left the bathrooms, without washing her hands, drinking her beverage as she went. WTAF!
Sufficiently grossed out, I didn’t let it stop me from continuing to food and wine. It had been a few minutes since my last snack, you know. So I stopped in Japan, where I got the chicken teriyaki bun and the lemon drop drink. I decided to head for the benches under the roof line of the store for some shade. This turned out to be a great idea. It started raining FL style just as I reached cover. For once I could ride out a downpour with a snack and drink in hand, and miraculously not wishing there was a covered path to a bathroom. Cheers!
The chicken teriyaki bun was really good, but sweeter than I expected, and honestly too much. The lemon drop? Well, I finished it, but it wasn’t nearly as good as that El Tigre Margarita. That should just be a year-round offering in Mexico. Or maybe I need to learn to make it at home. Where does one buy prickly pear juice?
The rain ended about the same time that snack time did, so it was on to more cheese! For those keeping tabs (I know someone is…), I had one cheese dish left to earn my prize! Wow, that went fast! Thankfully Greece was basically next to Japan. Clearly whoever set up Food and Wine this year failed geography. So did the person who laid out World Showcase…
Greece was home to Griddled Cheese. This was sweet, it was savory, it was amazing. It also was too much for one person to eat, because it was so rich.
Once I’d eaten enough of the griddled cheese, I started making my way back towards the front of World Showcase. It was time for my cheese prize, and also time for some AC. But first! Photopass pictures in France! The photographer was looking bored. He needed to take some pictures.
Pictures taken, I wandered into the little store along the English Channel for some AC, and to scope out the Festival souvenirs. Then I continued to the Shimmering Sips booth, where I redeemed my cheese stamps for this beauty, a strawberry cheesecake ice cream dessert! It was delicious!
I had no problem finishing my prize and I had packed some Ziploc baggies in my park bag for things like snacks or dirty masks, so I had a home for the souvenir cup. Phew!
Time to begin the Future World air conditioning tour! But first, it’s another distanced character! Pooh wasn’t having much luck catching butterflies, but he looked cute trying.
Then I rode Imagination. Posted as a 15 minute wait, it was less than 10. The air conditioning here wasn’t as intense as I’d hoped, but it was good enough.
After escaping the open house, it was on to Living with the Land, to NOT pick the vegetables from the greenhouse. Google Living with the Land cucumber incident or something like that if you don’t know what I’m talking about. The ride was basically a walk on, and uneventful.
Next up was the Seas. Also a walk-on. Also uneventful. This, like Mexico, is a good spot to rest your eyes…
From here I headed for Spaceship Earth. It was posted as a 20 minute wait, but didn’t really look like one. Even with a 5 minute stoppage, it was less than a 20 minute wait. I’m really loving this no Fastpass disrupting the queue movement thing. While waiting for SSE, it became clear it was going to storm. The breeze felt great, and I knew the ride is long and I could probably hang out in that virtual activity area at the end of the ride if it was raining, so I felt pretty good about my timing.
It didn’t actually start raining while I was on SSE, but it was clearly imminent, so I booked it over to Mousegear, which thankfully has expanded within its alternative location since I was here in February 2020. It DID start to pour while I was here, but I really didn’t even have to waste any time, because it was a relatively quick storm, and there was plenty to see in the store. I even got some Christmas shopping accomplished. Go me!
Shopping and storm finished, it was time to eat a little bit more before going back to the hotel to crash for the night. I decided to stick pretty close to Future World. First stop was the Earth Eats booth for the Impossible chilli and the apple chai (iced) tea. Both were actually excellent, and I’m neither vegan nor a tea drinker.
The final stop of the night was for dessert. I went back to the Shimmering Sips booth for a mimosa flight and the banana bread with berry compote. The banana bread was just ok. It also was vegan. The flavor was fine, but the texture was really weird. The mimosa flight though… this was a blood orange mimosa, a key lime mimosa, and a tropical fruit (aka POG juice) mimosa. The POG naturally was my favorite. The key lime was pretty good. The blood orange just didn’t do it for me.
I finished my POG mimosa as I walked back through the park. No surprise, it was a long hike to the All Star Movies bus stop, but a bus appeared within 10 minutes of me getting there. When I got back to the resort, I hopped into the rental car and drove over to the parking lot outside my building, number 7 in the Love Bug section. I found my room 7854, on the second floor easily enough. I took some time to Clorox wipe door handles and things, and took some pictures of the room.
I settled in, showered, and listened to Disney music on the parks info channel on repeat for quite some time, before crashing shortly after 8.
And in case anyone was wondering, it was an 18,000 step day!
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