Eat and drink around the World and a dinner with a view!
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We were up early and had some in room breakfast. Tom had some bread,
ham and Boursin, while I had a little of the Chocolate Peanut Butter
Cake, we had bought the day before. Tom had made some coffee, so we
were ready to head out within an hour. |
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We wanted to go to Disney Hollywood Studios and needless to say we
hit the “let’s start a new row” madness. We didn’t want to hike the
parking lot and just left, drove around and got in line again, this
time we were halfway down the parking lot and that’s okay with me in
the morning. We made it into the park rather quickly and set out to
pick up a Fast Pass for Toy Story Mania. |
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Once we made it there we were surprised with a line that started at
the One Man’s Dream attraction! We got in the line which moved
quickly and enjoyed the “green soldier” entertainment that was
provided. Once we made it to the Fast Pass machines we were
surprised by a Cast Member who handed out the Fast Passes. Now that
was super lucky since it meant that we would be able to pick up
another Fast Pass as well. |
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We walked over to the New York and San Francisco sets, walked past
Sci-Fi Dine In and over to Tower of Terror. We picked up a Fast Pass
and tried to get in the Standby line, but it was too long so we went
over to Rock’n’Roller Coaster to have a look if there was a shorter
line – it was 45 minutes as well, so we went back and got in line
for the Great Movie Ride. We still had about an hour an a half to
kill until our first Fast Pass so we decided to leave the park and
take a boat over to Epcot. |
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When
we walked out of the park we saw the boat leaving, so we were in no
hurry, but within a few minutes another boat came and we were
allowed to board. Since it was nice and sunny we just sat at the
back of the ship, on the outside, enjoying the sun. The boatride
itself was relaxing and fun and we arrived at the International
Gateway in about 25 minutes. We went through the Security Check and
the turnstiles and were inside an empty park. |
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World Showcase was not open by then and we walked towards England,
which was nice to see, without all the people which usually walk
around there. After taking some photos and checking out some of the
buildings we noticed a little coffee stand right between England and
Canada. Since we both just had had a tiny breakfast we decided on
getting some hot drinks to get us going. Tom got a
Double Espresso, while I
had some Hot Chocolate.
We walked over to the “Off Kilter” stage and sat and enjoyed our
drinks. |
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Since it was way before 11am we went into Future World and checked
the tip board behind Spaceship Earth for wait times. They were all
long, so we went to check out Mouse Gear before we headed towards
Mexico at 11am. We checked out the Mexican Pavillion in search of La
Cave de Tequila, the new Tequila bar. It was not open yet, so we
looked at all the shop, and the bar was still not open, so we
decided to do the little boatride in the pavilion to kill some time. |
When we got off, the bar was still not open. We decided to check
back later in the day and went on our quest around the world. We
didn’t feel like a sandwich in Norway and we had had some mediocre
food in China. No, we do not eat in Germany and were not happy they
had now “borrowed” one of our Austrian trains for their train
garden, but there was the Liberty Inn, the American Pavilion’s
restaurant. We had never been in there before to eat, just once at
Christmas we had gone inside to take a look at their gingerbread
house. Now we checked the menu, found it appetizing and went inside
to order. We decided to share an entrée and try something else along
the way too. So we ordered the
Barbecue Pork Sandwich,
which was served with coleslaw, we ordered a side of
Chili, that came with
Crackers and the
Rocky Road Chocolate Brownie
Mousse. |
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There were lots of tables inside the restaurant and we found one by
a window, set up camp and had the first of our lunches. While we
were there we decided that it would be more fun to just keep eating
around the world than go back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the
Grand Floridian for afternoon tea. We wanted to stay at Epcot and
have fun in World Showcase. After we had finished our meal we went
over to the Japan Pavillion. |
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We strolled around their store and went over to Yakitori House for
another shared lunch. There was no line and there was one open table
so we got a Spicy Tuna Roll
- tuna mixed with chili pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil and reverse
rolled in sushi rice and seaweed and a bottle of water. We sat for a
while and enjoyed our snack before we gave up our table as there
were some people coming in and looking for a place to eat. We then
walked over to the huge store and watched the Candy Lady making some
candy for kids in the crowd that had gathered all around her. After
a while we walked on, but only to stop at Morocco for yet another
snack at the Tangerine Café. Once inside we looked at the food on
display and discussed for quite some time what we wanted to try. In
the end we decided to just get the
Mediteranean Sliders Combo
- three pita pockets - lamb, chicken and falafel with lettuce,
tomatoes, onions, cucumber and Tahini sauce served with Lentils,
Hummus and Tabouleh. |
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We were soon to find out that it was not a good decision. The bread
was very dry and the meats and falafel cold and rather tasteless. It
was good we weren’t all that hungry after all, as this seemed to be
our least favourite meal. We still had one more chore to do before
we were to head back to Future World. There was still the
reservation at the Garden View Tea room and I wanted to make sure it
got cancelled in time. |
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So we left Epcot through the International Gateway and just went up
to the Guest Relations Window outside the park and cancelled it.
Then we went right back to the park. We stopped for a few minutes to
watch Mary Ellen’s “boys” – Off Kilter. |
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We were stunned to find out that her favourite, Jamie, wasn’t
performing! After a few minutes we walked on, but not far, just up
to the pop-corn cart in Canada and got a
Moose Head Beer for
Tom.After that we thought that we would try if there was anything to
ride and yes, the line for Mission Space was “short” enough for us
to get in. Within 20 minutes we were in our capsule with two
complete newbies, who forgot to push any buttons. No wonder we crash
landed! |
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After that we walked over to Mission Space and were pleasantly
surprised to see even more topiaries being put up! We had seen
plants being planted during our stay and there were already some
really neat things to look at even before the official start of
Flower and Garden, and since the line for Spaceship Earth was rather
short we just got on that as well. There was just one thing left we
had wanted to do and try at World Showcase, La Cava del Tequila.
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So after a quick visit to Mouse Gear we gave the Mexican Pavilion
one more chance and to our utter surprise there was a table for two!
So we headed there and made ourselves at home, looking over the
menu. Soon after the server arrived and we both ordered Diet Cokes
and Tom chose the Margarita
Flight, Prickly Pear, Cucumber, Avocado, Wild Passion Fruit and
Jalapeno. I had no idea what to try but in the end settled for the
Blood Orange Margarita.
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Needless to say you can’t have a Margarita and not have something to
snack on. So we ordered
Tostadas de Jaiba, seasoned blue crab meat tostadas, white
chipotle mayo and Valentina Sauce and an order of
Guacamole, with a side of
fried flour chicharrons, drizzled with Valentina Sauce. Both were
very tasty and I really enjoyed the Guacamole. My drink was huge and
we sat for a while until we had finished both, the drinks and the
food. |
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Once we were done we very slowly walked back to the International
Gateway and caught another Friendship back to Hollywood Studios. We
were able to get another seat on the outside to enjoy the
sunshine. We thought about re-entering the Studios, but there were
far too many people so we decided that it was time for us to have
some downtime, so we went back to our resort and crashed on our
beds. |
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We had quite some time left before our reservation at the California
Grill, so we rested a little, then walked to the store in El Centro
and picked up a few more goodies before we headed back to our room
again to get ready for our reservation. So by 7pm we drove over to
the Contemporary, parked the car and went upstairs to check out the
shop. Then we walked over to the Magic Kingdom. |
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Wishes was at 8pm and we wanted to watch it
from Main Street before our dinner reservation. After going through
the turnstiles there was still some time left to walk through the
shops before we hit Main Street about 5 minutes before Wishes
started. We enjoyed Wishes, then left the Magic Kingdom and
leisurely strolled back to the Contemporary with time to take
another look at the stores before we headed downstairs to check in
for the California Grill. We were handed a buzzer and were taken up
to the restaurant where we walked outside on the observation deck
for a while, then went to find a seat inside. After about 20 minutes
we were taken to our table in the Wine Room, right on time to watch
a good portion of the Epcot fireworks from our table. |
Our server brought out some water and two Diet Cokes for both of us
to make sure we had enough to drink, some
Sourdough bread and
Butter with Rock Salt and
then took our order for our starter. We decided to share a
flatbread, the Tamarind
Braised Beef with Thai Coconut Curry, Mango Pickles, Bok Choy,
Sesame and Triple Cheese Flatbread. It was really nice. For our
main courses Tom had chosen the
Pan Roasted Striped Wild Bass
Fillet with Stir Fry Vegetables, Sticky Rice and Ginger Soy
Hijiki Broth. I ordered the
Pan Seared Loch Duart Salmon with Citrus Couscous, Marcona
Almonds, Sundried Tomatoes and Citrus Nage. Both did not only look
wonderful, but they tasted good as well. We decided on skipping
dessert, but since it was noted on the reservation that this was
Tom’s birthday trip, the waiter insisted on Tom having a piece of
the California Grill’s
special chocolate birthday cake. After we had done our best to
finish off the cake we settled our bill and went down to our car. It
was a nice drive back to the resort, where we enjoyed some time in
front of the TV and started to do some packing. Only one full day
left before we had to go home again. |