Day 5: Wednesday February 26, 2020
Despite the late night, I was awake pretty early. I read, watched the news, and had a breakfast bar for breakfast. My sister woke up earlier than I expected, but she’s all about looking cute, so it was a couple of hours before she was ready to go.
We were, somewhat surprisingly, in the car a few minutes before our intended time (10). This was a good thing. Traffic was a real treat around that “emergency roadwork” again today.
We got to Grammy and Grampa’s as the sky was darkening, just in time for lunch. We had sandwiches and visited with Grammy and Grampa. And it started to rain.
It rained pretty much all afternoon. We all visited. At various points T, Laura and Grammy all napped.
Around dinner time, the rain was lightening, but not really enough to drag Grammy out in it. We decided collectively that pizza sounded good, and after a few minutes decided the usual delivery chains wouldn’t meet everyone’s needs. So then we started googling, and ended up calling in an order for a large pepperoni pizza and a large meatball pizza to Flippers Pizza, which is just down the road in Spanish Springs.
Laura and I were the designated pizza pick up team. We were happy with our choice to go with Flippers as soon as we walked in. WOW did that place smell amazing!
The pizza was fantastic. My grandmother likes her food, but we ALL were surprised when she ate 3 full slices of pepperoni pizza. We promised (and probably forgot) to leave the phone number for Flippers when we left haha. There are Flippers pizzas down near Disney too; in fact there’s one very close to Silver Lake Resort. And they deliver. I’ll be remembering this next time I’m in Disney with Nick and he’s looking for a late night snack…
After dinner, Laura and I got on the road back to Orlando. We both were exhausted, so we just went back to the condo. The rain had mostly stopped, so the trip was uneventful. When we got back, I showered and went to bed. Laura opened the bottle of wine T had picked up for her, and had a glass of that while watching TV. I think she called it a relatively early night too.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
February 2020: An Exploded Family Trip to FL: Day 4
Day 4: Tuesday February 25, 2020
I actually slept until 7 this morning. Guess that 25,000 step day in Epcot was what I needed for good sleep!
Eventually I got up and moving, and headed out for breakfast. It’s Mardi Gras! Where does one go for breakfast on Fat Tuesday? Port Orleans French Quarter!!
They’ve changed things a bit since I was last here, but it was easy enough to find where they’re now selling the beignets. I got 3 beignets with strawberry dipping sauce. Delicious breakfast to put the Fat in Fat Tuesday!
After eating, I poked around for a bit, and then got on the road toward The Villages. Of course, from this end of Disney property, Google sent me I4, but, that turned out to be the least of my traffic issues today!
Shortly after getting on the FL turnpike I saw a sign about “emergency roadwork” and a lane closure 19 miles ahead. That absolutely would impact me. Sometime between Sunday morning and this Tuesday morning, they’d managed to put new lines down, and close the right lane. And because the FL Turnpike is truckers’ alley, the merge for the lane closure was a total cluster.
I finally got to Grammy and Grampa’s after 11. I pretty much got there and was seated for lunch. We had sandwiches and visited. And then T said it was time to go down to the square for the Mardi Gras celebration.
The Mardi Gras celebration didn’t officially start until 4. But retirementville likes to party. Like people line up at the drink stands in the town squares every night before happy hour even starts. There are 3 town squares in The Villages, but Mardi Gras was only being celebrated at the central one (Sumter Landing). So we knew it would be busy.
Sure enough, we got down to the Sumter Landing area and parking was hard to come by. But, I got a parking spot, and we were good to go. We just had to kill like 2 ½ hours.
We walked around a bit checking out the random vendors and also the decorations.
Then we headed for the outdoor bars. We ended up at RJ Gators. Mom and T took advantage of the BOGO specials; mom had a malibu bay breeze (x2..which is unheard of!) and T had a beer of some sort. I skipped the BOGO special in favor of the Mardi Gras special. $5 hurricane? Yes please!
We hung out at the bar for quite awhile, since Mom and T were both eligible for 2 drinks. The weather was a pretty pleasant temperature, but the clouds were building. There was a front forecast to come through that night, and I’m pretty sure everyone in The Villages was hoping that it would hold off long enough to get some partying in.
Once we couldn’t really justify sitting at the bar any longer, we did some more walking around, collecting Mardi Gras beads (surprisingly, despite the reputation of The Villages, this was done without any of the Bourbon Street antics), and taking pictures of the decorations, before finding seats to wait for the music to start. And yes, that is a (light up) plastic shot glass on beads. Because The Villages!
The music tonight was “Stu Okra and the Fixins”, followed by a 2nd line band. There also was a performance by The Villages hula group, because apparently hula goes with Mardi Gras? The music was amazing!
Unfortunately, it started raining around 5, and we knew it would only get worse. So we made the decision to find dinner. Finding dinner took us over to another town square: Spanish Springs. Here we ate at the outdoor bar at Amerikanos. Laura, Mom and I had lunch here last year and really enjoyed it. Nice variety on the menu, delicious food, and reasonable prices. Tonight I had the grilled chicken parm sandwich with their amazing seasoned fries (I think the seasoning involves feta). Mom and T took advantage of the daily special: 2 for 1 pitas. Mom got the chicken pita. T got the “gyro” pita, I think. Both were absolutely loaded with food. And the total for their 2 meals was $10.
Dinner was delicious. While at dinner, I was frequently monitoring my sister’s flight status, and texting with her. I was picking her up at MCO tonight, and it was getting close to go time.
After dinner we headed back to Grammy and Grampa’s, where Grampa was quick to put a plate of his freshly made lemon meringue pie in front of me, before shooing me out the door to go pick up Laura. His pie was delicious by the way.
It was raining pretty hard in The Villages, but just a few miles after getting onto the FL Turnpike, the rain mostly stopped, so the hour and 20 minute drive to MCO was uneventful, thankfully. I found a parking spot in the garage easily, and got a text from Laura that she had landed just as I made it to the 3rd floor of the airport. I sat down on a bench right outside security, and she emerged about 10 minutes after I got to that bench, looking ready for vacation.
Baggage claim was a much faster experience for her than it had been for me, so we were on the road to vacation shortly after 9:30. Our first vacation stop? Not our condo! A little more honoring Mardi Gras!
It was an uneventful ride over to Port Orleans French Quarter, and Laura and I found a table in Scat Cat’s Lounge, where there was live music playing. She got a raspberry mojito (oddly sour), and I got...a hurricane. We enjoyed the music, and she got into vacation mode. We both agreed this was a really great spot to spend some time.
After a bit of time here, we headed for the condo, where we agreed on a time to get rolling in the morning and quickly crashed for the night.
I actually slept until 7 this morning. Guess that 25,000 step day in Epcot was what I needed for good sleep!
Eventually I got up and moving, and headed out for breakfast. It’s Mardi Gras! Where does one go for breakfast on Fat Tuesday? Port Orleans French Quarter!!
They’ve changed things a bit since I was last here, but it was easy enough to find where they’re now selling the beignets. I got 3 beignets with strawberry dipping sauce. Delicious breakfast to put the Fat in Fat Tuesday!
After eating, I poked around for a bit, and then got on the road toward The Villages. Of course, from this end of Disney property, Google sent me I4, but, that turned out to be the least of my traffic issues today!
Shortly after getting on the FL turnpike I saw a sign about “emergency roadwork” and a lane closure 19 miles ahead. That absolutely would impact me. Sometime between Sunday morning and this Tuesday morning, they’d managed to put new lines down, and close the right lane. And because the FL Turnpike is truckers’ alley, the merge for the lane closure was a total cluster.
I finally got to Grammy and Grampa’s after 11. I pretty much got there and was seated for lunch. We had sandwiches and visited. And then T said it was time to go down to the square for the Mardi Gras celebration.
The Mardi Gras celebration didn’t officially start until 4. But retirementville likes to party. Like people line up at the drink stands in the town squares every night before happy hour even starts. There are 3 town squares in The Villages, but Mardi Gras was only being celebrated at the central one (Sumter Landing). So we knew it would be busy.
Sure enough, we got down to the Sumter Landing area and parking was hard to come by. But, I got a parking spot, and we were good to go. We just had to kill like 2 ½ hours.
We walked around a bit checking out the random vendors and also the decorations.
Then we headed for the outdoor bars. We ended up at RJ Gators. Mom and T took advantage of the BOGO specials; mom had a malibu bay breeze (x2..which is unheard of!) and T had a beer of some sort. I skipped the BOGO special in favor of the Mardi Gras special. $5 hurricane? Yes please!
We hung out at the bar for quite awhile, since Mom and T were both eligible for 2 drinks. The weather was a pretty pleasant temperature, but the clouds were building. There was a front forecast to come through that night, and I’m pretty sure everyone in The Villages was hoping that it would hold off long enough to get some partying in.
Once we couldn’t really justify sitting at the bar any longer, we did some more walking around, collecting Mardi Gras beads (surprisingly, despite the reputation of The Villages, this was done without any of the Bourbon Street antics), and taking pictures of the decorations, before finding seats to wait for the music to start. And yes, that is a (light up) plastic shot glass on beads. Because The Villages!
The music tonight was “Stu Okra and the Fixins”, followed by a 2nd line band. There also was a performance by The Villages hula group, because apparently hula goes with Mardi Gras? The music was amazing!
Unfortunately, it started raining around 5, and we knew it would only get worse. So we made the decision to find dinner. Finding dinner took us over to another town square: Spanish Springs. Here we ate at the outdoor bar at Amerikanos. Laura, Mom and I had lunch here last year and really enjoyed it. Nice variety on the menu, delicious food, and reasonable prices. Tonight I had the grilled chicken parm sandwich with their amazing seasoned fries (I think the seasoning involves feta). Mom and T took advantage of the daily special: 2 for 1 pitas. Mom got the chicken pita. T got the “gyro” pita, I think. Both were absolutely loaded with food. And the total for their 2 meals was $10.
Dinner was delicious. While at dinner, I was frequently monitoring my sister’s flight status, and texting with her. I was picking her up at MCO tonight, and it was getting close to go time.
After dinner we headed back to Grammy and Grampa’s, where Grampa was quick to put a plate of his freshly made lemon meringue pie in front of me, before shooing me out the door to go pick up Laura. His pie was delicious by the way.
It was raining pretty hard in The Villages, but just a few miles after getting onto the FL Turnpike, the rain mostly stopped, so the hour and 20 minute drive to MCO was uneventful, thankfully. I found a parking spot in the garage easily, and got a text from Laura that she had landed just as I made it to the 3rd floor of the airport. I sat down on a bench right outside security, and she emerged about 10 minutes after I got to that bench, looking ready for vacation.
Baggage claim was a much faster experience for her than it had been for me, so we were on the road to vacation shortly after 9:30. Our first vacation stop? Not our condo! A little more honoring Mardi Gras!
It was an uneventful ride over to Port Orleans French Quarter, and Laura and I found a table in Scat Cat’s Lounge, where there was live music playing. She got a raspberry mojito (oddly sour), and I got...a hurricane. We enjoyed the music, and she got into vacation mode. We both agreed this was a really great spot to spend some time.
After a bit of time here, we headed for the condo, where we agreed on a time to get rolling in the morning and quickly crashed for the night.
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
February 2020: An Exploded Family Trip to FL: Day 3, Part 2
Day 3, Part 2
First stop on the tour of the visual arts? The topiary at the entrance to World Showcase, because need to prove I was at the festival!
Next up? The chalk art. Admittedly, I failed with this first one. This is apparently a chalk design that appears 3D if you’re standing in the right place. I was not. But it still is quite the impressive chalk art feat, I think.
Then I checked out the series of 2D chalk art. The artist shared that they have 3 hours to do these. 3. That’s insane.
It was a beautiful day in Epcot!
From here it was on to the guest participation part of the visual arts tour...the giant paint by number mural. The line was short, and hey, what the heck. I was handed a grayish paint (boring!) and directed to paint 6 squares anywhere with that number on the mural (there’s a lot of gray on there). I painted my 6 squares, and then moved along.
After painting, I worked my way over to near the temporary MouseGear. Here I spent some time watching the Living Statues. Wicked fun to watch their antics as people posed for pictures in front of them.
Once I’d watched the Living Statues for a bit, I explored the temporary MouseGear. It’s so little! I’m not going to lie, the merchandise this trip was pretty boring.
After shopping without buying anything, I watched the Living Statues for a bit longer. Then it was back to World Showcase. I decided to go clockwise around World Showcase for a change. When I reached Norway, I discovered that they were starting to place topiaries for the Flower and Garden Festival. Sweet! Two festivals in one (sorta)!
When I reached China, I stopped for another snack. I got the pork bun. This was surprisingly light. It really was delicious.
I kept walking around the World, and hopefully walking off some of the calories. When I reached America, I realized I had timed things wrong, so I kept walking, but didn’t have to go far. The drummers were out in Japan. I watched them for a few minutes.
Eventually it was late enough to head back to America. It was time to see the Voices of Liberty! They were awesome as usual, and, as usual, the set was too short!
After listening to the Voices of Liberty, I walked further around World Showcase, checking out the topiaries in the UK.
From here, I decided it was time to get one more snack, and then mix things up a bit. From the Masterpiece Kitchen, I got the white chocolate and rose water panna cotta. This was the most disappointing food of the day. Why? Well, usually panna cotta is like a cross between Jello and pudding. This was frozen. And it tasted like soap.
Time for a brief break from the park. Mostly because I don’t like it when T tries Disney things before I do, and he and mom will be in Disney in July for a week. So I went for a spin on the skyliner. It was a pleasant enough ride, but because most of them have those awful character wraps on them (there had to have been another way to characterize them!), the views are not clear enough to take pictures.
I took the Skyliner over to Riviera Resort. What a beautiful resort. The murals, especially, are amazing! But it might be slightly too nice.
After exploring for a few minutes, I returned to the Skyliner station. I had thought I would have to take the Skyliner to Caribbean Beach and transfer there to go back to Epcot, but I didn’t have to do that. I just had to go to the opposite side of the station from where I had arrived at Riviera.
When I got back to Epcot, I started working my way back to Future World. I had a mid afternoon fastpass for Soarin, and decided to use it. But first, a snack! I stopped at the Deconstructed Dish booth, where I got the Deconstructed cheesecake and the (non-alcoholic) Deconstructed Breakfast shake. Both were delicious!!
As I worked my way toward Soarin, I couldn’t help but notice that they’re not even trying anymore to conceal the fact that Starbucks has taken over the parks. But I also noticed (again) that it was a beautiful day in Epcot!
Once I reached Soarin, I didn’t have to wait long to ride. After Soarin, I found a table in the Land to plot my next few hours. I’m not used to spending a full 12 hour day in one single park, let alone one that is so under construction. This led to looking at wait times, and fastpasses. In the end I ended up with an immediate fastpass for Nemo, because everything had a stupid wait (45 minutes for Imagination?!), and there weren’t any interesting fastpasses. So, I killed some time with Nemo, which, with a fastpass, was a walk on (standby was 30 minutes). And then I took some pictures of this beautiful day, and of how weird things look with parts of buildings missing.
After picture taking, I worked my way back to World Showcase. First stop? Canada, where I watched the new Canada movie. This new movie is reasonably well done, but honestly? I preferred Martin Short’s corny humor.
From Canada, it was time to start dinner with a little French food. Namely, a frozen French martini and the brie in a bread bowl. Both were excellent!
From France, I started walking, and discovered that people were already lined up for the 2nd Disney on Broadway concert of the night, which is the one I wanted to go to. For a frame of reference, they hadn’t actually started the first concert of the night yet. That’s right...people were lined up over an hour before the concert. I quickly hit the restroom, and then finished dinner with the “stuffed” chicken drumstick from Italy. Quotes around stuffed, because it wasn’t. The ricotta was on the side. That being said, this was a delicious dish.
Then I hopped in line, still a little unsure of why the line started so early. Turns out, 4 performers in 1 night isn’t a common thing for these concerts. Plus it was the final night. So I waited in line for about 45 minutes, enjoying the early show from line, before the line was let into the American Gardens theater.
I ended up with a terrific seat for this show. For those who haven’t experienced the Festival of the Arts, the Disney on Broadway concerts are where they bring in key performers from Disney Broadway shows, and they do a concert of Broadway music. Usually, there are 2 performers per night. But since it was the end of this set of concerts, there were 4 performers tonight: Michael James Scott (who was actually the same Genie that Nick and I saw in Aladdin in Boston), Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins), Josh Stickland (a little of everything), and Syndee Winters (Nala in the Lion King). The show lasts for half an hour, and does not cost extra (unless you do a dining package to get seating, of course).
All I can say is WOW! That half hour alone was worth the cost of admission into Epcot. It was amazing!
The concert ended about 7:15, so it was about time to start strategizing for watching Epcot Forever. The wind that had been ever present since my arrival in FL was still strong, so this evening required some major strategizing.
In the end, I chose a spot near Mexico, and grabbed a spot to sit and wait around 8, since people were already parked along many of the rails. I chatted with the people around me and the time passed pretty quickly.
It’s no secret that I loved Illuminations. I was pretty bummed when it ended. I also thought it was pretty weird that Disney put a temporary show in place. Why not just run Illuminations an extra 6 months?
Now all that being said, I kind of liked Epcot Forever. Can it compete with Illuminations? Uh no. Did it capture a bit of my heart with the music from my childhood Epcot? Yes. For a temporary show, it’s pretty darn good. I’m now anxiously awaiting the new real nighttime show.
Once Epcot Forever ended, I exited the park. There was a moment of concern when it seemed like there was no possible way my could be parked THAT far down the row, but, I found the rental car, and about 15 minutes after leaving my parking space, I was back at the resort, where I showered the Disney germs off of me, and finally crashed around 11.
First stop on the tour of the visual arts? The topiary at the entrance to World Showcase, because need to prove I was at the festival!
Next up? The chalk art. Admittedly, I failed with this first one. This is apparently a chalk design that appears 3D if you’re standing in the right place. I was not. But it still is quite the impressive chalk art feat, I think.
Then I checked out the series of 2D chalk art. The artist shared that they have 3 hours to do these. 3. That’s insane.
It was a beautiful day in Epcot!
From here it was on to the guest participation part of the visual arts tour...the giant paint by number mural. The line was short, and hey, what the heck. I was handed a grayish paint (boring!) and directed to paint 6 squares anywhere with that number on the mural (there’s a lot of gray on there). I painted my 6 squares, and then moved along.
After painting, I worked my way over to near the temporary MouseGear. Here I spent some time watching the Living Statues. Wicked fun to watch their antics as people posed for pictures in front of them.
Once I’d watched the Living Statues for a bit, I explored the temporary MouseGear. It’s so little! I’m not going to lie, the merchandise this trip was pretty boring.
After shopping without buying anything, I watched the Living Statues for a bit longer. Then it was back to World Showcase. I decided to go clockwise around World Showcase for a change. When I reached Norway, I discovered that they were starting to place topiaries for the Flower and Garden Festival. Sweet! Two festivals in one (sorta)!
When I reached China, I stopped for another snack. I got the pork bun. This was surprisingly light. It really was delicious.
I kept walking around the World, and hopefully walking off some of the calories. When I reached America, I realized I had timed things wrong, so I kept walking, but didn’t have to go far. The drummers were out in Japan. I watched them for a few minutes.
Eventually it was late enough to head back to America. It was time to see the Voices of Liberty! They were awesome as usual, and, as usual, the set was too short!
After listening to the Voices of Liberty, I walked further around World Showcase, checking out the topiaries in the UK.
From here, I decided it was time to get one more snack, and then mix things up a bit. From the Masterpiece Kitchen, I got the white chocolate and rose water panna cotta. This was the most disappointing food of the day. Why? Well, usually panna cotta is like a cross between Jello and pudding. This was frozen. And it tasted like soap.
Time for a brief break from the park. Mostly because I don’t like it when T tries Disney things before I do, and he and mom will be in Disney in July for a week. So I went for a spin on the skyliner. It was a pleasant enough ride, but because most of them have those awful character wraps on them (there had to have been another way to characterize them!), the views are not clear enough to take pictures.
I took the Skyliner over to Riviera Resort. What a beautiful resort. The murals, especially, are amazing! But it might be slightly too nice.
After exploring for a few minutes, I returned to the Skyliner station. I had thought I would have to take the Skyliner to Caribbean Beach and transfer there to go back to Epcot, but I didn’t have to do that. I just had to go to the opposite side of the station from where I had arrived at Riviera.
When I got back to Epcot, I started working my way back to Future World. I had a mid afternoon fastpass for Soarin, and decided to use it. But first, a snack! I stopped at the Deconstructed Dish booth, where I got the Deconstructed cheesecake and the (non-alcoholic) Deconstructed Breakfast shake. Both were delicious!!
As I worked my way toward Soarin, I couldn’t help but notice that they’re not even trying anymore to conceal the fact that Starbucks has taken over the parks. But I also noticed (again) that it was a beautiful day in Epcot!
Once I reached Soarin, I didn’t have to wait long to ride. After Soarin, I found a table in the Land to plot my next few hours. I’m not used to spending a full 12 hour day in one single park, let alone one that is so under construction. This led to looking at wait times, and fastpasses. In the end I ended up with an immediate fastpass for Nemo, because everything had a stupid wait (45 minutes for Imagination?!), and there weren’t any interesting fastpasses. So, I killed some time with Nemo, which, with a fastpass, was a walk on (standby was 30 minutes). And then I took some pictures of this beautiful day, and of how weird things look with parts of buildings missing.
After picture taking, I worked my way back to World Showcase. First stop? Canada, where I watched the new Canada movie. This new movie is reasonably well done, but honestly? I preferred Martin Short’s corny humor.
From Canada, it was time to start dinner with a little French food. Namely, a frozen French martini and the brie in a bread bowl. Both were excellent!
From France, I started walking, and discovered that people were already lined up for the 2nd Disney on Broadway concert of the night, which is the one I wanted to go to. For a frame of reference, they hadn’t actually started the first concert of the night yet. That’s right...people were lined up over an hour before the concert. I quickly hit the restroom, and then finished dinner with the “stuffed” chicken drumstick from Italy. Quotes around stuffed, because it wasn’t. The ricotta was on the side. That being said, this was a delicious dish.
Then I hopped in line, still a little unsure of why the line started so early. Turns out, 4 performers in 1 night isn’t a common thing for these concerts. Plus it was the final night. So I waited in line for about 45 minutes, enjoying the early show from line, before the line was let into the American Gardens theater.
I ended up with a terrific seat for this show. For those who haven’t experienced the Festival of the Arts, the Disney on Broadway concerts are where they bring in key performers from Disney Broadway shows, and they do a concert of Broadway music. Usually, there are 2 performers per night. But since it was the end of this set of concerts, there were 4 performers tonight: Michael James Scott (who was actually the same Genie that Nick and I saw in Aladdin in Boston), Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins), Josh Stickland (a little of everything), and Syndee Winters (Nala in the Lion King). The show lasts for half an hour, and does not cost extra (unless you do a dining package to get seating, of course).
All I can say is WOW! That half hour alone was worth the cost of admission into Epcot. It was amazing!
The concert ended about 7:15, so it was about time to start strategizing for watching Epcot Forever. The wind that had been ever present since my arrival in FL was still strong, so this evening required some major strategizing.
In the end, I chose a spot near Mexico, and grabbed a spot to sit and wait around 8, since people were already parked along many of the rails. I chatted with the people around me and the time passed pretty quickly.
It’s no secret that I loved Illuminations. I was pretty bummed when it ended. I also thought it was pretty weird that Disney put a temporary show in place. Why not just run Illuminations an extra 6 months?
Now all that being said, I kind of liked Epcot Forever. Can it compete with Illuminations? Uh no. Did it capture a bit of my heart with the music from my childhood Epcot? Yes. For a temporary show, it’s pretty darn good. I’m now anxiously awaiting the new real nighttime show.
Once Epcot Forever ended, I exited the park. There was a moment of concern when it seemed like there was no possible way my could be parked THAT far down the row, but, I found the rental car, and about 15 minutes after leaving my parking space, I was back at the resort, where I showered the Disney germs off of me, and finally crashed around 11.
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