At first they didn't want me to come, now they don't want me to leave! April 2021 F&G TR (Updated 9/6!)

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Day 2, Part 5: So Much Food!

After a fantastic break in the AC, I started to get ready to head out again a little after 5, and was out the door by 5:30. I was on my way back to Epcot to get some dinner at the F&G food booths!

I was surprised when I got into the park to see that it seemed even more crowded than the previous day, which was shocking being a Monday! It was very reminiscent of a Saturday afternoon during F&W fest with the crowds, not quite as packed as a Saturday evening, but still decently packed. There were also much longer lines at the food booths than the previous evening (although to be fair the previous evening there were no lines so any line would be much longer )

This I have to say is my least favorite thing about Covid Disney. Epcot seems like THE place to be in the evenings now, so while I’m used to going during weeknights and having low crowds, almost every evening now was super crowded. I’m especially worried for our September trip since I saw on some conference websites that are occurring in September that they are selling tickets to an Epcot Fireworks dessert party, so it sounds like Epcot fireworks will be back by then, which will just make it even more packed in the evenings. Hope they bring back fireworks in other parks too to at least distribute the crowds more evenly!

Anyways, moving on!

I took a bunch of pictures of the topiaries while on my way to the first food booth.









I love these, it’s so amazing how detailed they are!

The first booth I stopped at was Canada, this time for the steak.



This was delicious!

While eating I watched them testing the arms on the big ol barge. The more I look at these barges the uglier they get...



After wrapping up my steak, I made my way over to the Honey Bee-stro where I picked up the chicken flatbread and the Honey Peach Freeze with blueberry vodka.



The flatbread was amazing, such great flavors, and I love the goat cheese on it! So good! The Peach freeze was ok, they just pour the vodka on top of the freeze, so it’s not mixed in, and of course I didn’t think to get a spoon, so the first sip was very vodka-y!

Fortunately I got a table right next to the booth, so I quickly grabbed a spoon to mix and got back to enjoying my meal.

My next booth with the Flavor Full Kitchen. Here I picked up the Seared Salmon.




View from my table!

This was another great dish, the flavors were fantastic!

When I wrapped up there I was getting full, so decided to wander around taking pictures of the topiaries!









I absolutely love that they themed the topiaries in the construction zone to go along with the construction with all the tools and nails!

Up Next: Stop Touching Me!​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Agreed on EPCOT in the evenings. I think it's a combo of having a lot of great dinner options and also since it doesn't open until 11am, it's rarely the primary choice for a park pass... think people just figure they'll hop over. All your food looks delicious!

 

[VAtink]

Agreed on EPCOT in the evenings. I think it's a combo of having a lot of great dinner options and also since it doesn't open until 11am, it's rarely the primary choice for a park pass... think people just figure they'll hop over. All your food looks delicious!

Ohh, I didn't even think about the late opening time, but that makes sense! It's really unfortunate since we love Epcot in the evenings, but we don't love crowds!

The food was so good this year, I wish I were there a few more days to try more!

 

[suse66]

This I have to say is my least favorite thing about Covid Disney. Epcot seems like THE place to be in the evenings now, so while I’m used to going during weeknights and having low crowds, almost every evening now was super crowded. I’m especially worried for our September trip since I saw on some conference websites that are occurring in September that they are selling tickets to an Epcot Fireworks dessert party, so it sounds like Epcot fireworks will be back by then, which will just make it even more packed in the evenings. Hope they bring back fireworks in other parks too to at least distribute the crowds more evenly!

I agree that the later start to the day at Epcot makes it less desirable in the mornings. On the other hand it could be great when you want to sleep in after a busy night.

I love these, it’s so amazing how detailed they are!

These are fantastic!

I absolutely love that they themed the topiaries in the construction zone to go along with the construction with all the tools and nails!

Such perfect detail!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We did the bird show once with Dug and Russell in it. I have a little bit of a bird phobia so once was enough. It was cute!
Ugh to the people that are oblivious to important picture taking,
We also thought Epcot was busy in the evening, we will be back in 2 weeks and I’m sure it will be even more crowded now
Your pictures of all the topiary statues are wonderful
Andi also took a big gulp of vodka, yuck! I loved the honey wine
Congrats to walking 6 mile a day. I am trying to get back to my normal 4 and still haven’t got there yet. Our weather is psycho here, one day 82 and humid and the next day 42 and windy.

 

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Day 2, Part 6: Stop Touching Me!

I continued to wander around what’s left of Futureworld, and found myself outside of the temporary Mouse Gears, so of course I had to go in. There’s always time for retail therapy!

I was thrilled when I found the lounge pants I’ve had my eye on for months!


So cute!

I also picked up a baby yoda plush for Dug, a pack of Disney Dog socks, and the dog picture frame, and the cat picture frame. It was a fun shopping trip, but having to lug that bag around the rest of the evening made me seriously miss being able to ship purchases back to the resort! (and remember back in the day when they would ship directly to your room, even if you weren’t club level??? Those were the days!)

Once I wrapped up with the shopping I checked MDE to see what the wait times looked like, and saw the SE wait had dropped from 30 minutes to 15, so made my way over there.

There was a pretty decent line when I arrived, and shortly after getting in line they bumped the wait back up to 30 minutes (guess everyone saw the 15 minute wait and headed that way ).

This is where I had my worst experience with another guest in line. A family got in line behind me, and while the mother and child were fine, the father was frankly a massive jerk. From the moment they got in line he kept pushing up against me, like literally touching me, and not just an arm but like almost a full body leaning against me (ewwwwww). And he kept making comments about what he would do to anyone who tried to tell him to wear a mask, and how people who were following the distancing markers were stupid, so it really seemed to me he was invading my personal space on purpose.

Now Covid aside, I don’t want any strange man (really any stranger) leaning against me in line, that is just gross. So after the third time he did I turned around and told him to back the *Not DIS approved language* off. I think it surprised him to actually have someone challenge him, especially a female, but he made a comment that he didn’t realize he was doing it (riiiiight), and from then on stood at least a foot behind me. Not ideal, but at least he wasn’t touching me anymore!

The wait time ended up actually only being 15 minutes, so that was good!



It was a great ride as always, but I did see during the scene where the cars turn to the side and you look over Earth, that the guy from that family had completely taken off his mask. I really wish Disney would do a better job enforcing their own rules, like they have cameras in there, they could see this guy took off his mask the second he got on the ride, they should really meet those people at the end of the ride and escort them out of the park. Why have rules if you’re not going to enforce them??

Anyways, that guy just really pissed me off if you can’t tell! Glad that was the only really bad experience I had this trip with other guests, although that would have infuriated me even pre-covid, who wants random sweaty strangers touching them?

Once off the ride I decided to finally go check out the new front of the park! I was so excited to see the changes!

Next up: That’s a Great Picture of the Monorail Beam! ​

 

[VAtink]

I agree that the later start to the day at Epcot makes it less desirable in the mornings. On the other hand it could be great when you want to sleep in after a busy night.

Yeah, the sleeping in does sound nice! I do hope they start opening earlier though, anything to help pull the crowds away in the evening, I miss my light crowds on weeknights!

These are fantastic!

Aren't they amazing? They do such a great job with all the topiaries!

Such perfect detail!

Yes! I loved that they did that, what a perfect fit for that area of the park!

 

[VAtink]

We did the bird show once with Dug and Russell in it. I have a little bit of a bird phobia so once was enough. It was cute!

Ohhh, I never saw that version of it, but I would have loved to see Dug! Can't imagine seeing it though with a bird phobia, if it were a spider show I would have totally passed out from fear....although I guess that is a bit more than a bit of a phobia, that is a full on I'm terrified of spiders!

Ugh to the people that are oblivious to important picture taking,

I know, so annoying! And somehow completely oblivious to the people who were trying to take pictures around them!

We also thought Epcot was busy in the evening, we will be back in 2 weeks and I’m sure it will be even more crowded now

Ok, first of all, super jealous you're going back in two weeks! Hope you have an amazing trip! Fingers crossed it doesn't feel too much more crowded! Epcot definitely did feel more crowded than usual in the evenings this past trip, and it probably didn't help that I was hangry when I got there so it just annoyed me even more!

Your pictures of all the topiary statues are wonderful

Thank you! They do such an amazing job with them, it blows my mind what they can do with plants!

Andi also took a big gulp of vodka, yuck! I loved the honey wine

Haha, oh no! That certainly is a shock, but it was a lot better once it was mixed in!

Congrats to walking 6 mile a day. I am trying to get back to my normal 4 and still haven’t got there yet. Our weather is psycho here, one day 82 and humid and the next day 42 and windy.

Thanks! It helps that I don't have a car anymore so I walk to work, plus I walk over my lunch break. Although, that first day was a killer. When I got home that day I dropped my stuff, and myself, on the floor and just lay there not moving for 1.5 hours! Getting better, but we're having the same crazy weather, yesterday it was 94, today it was 61 so it's been rough being outside (why can't it just be 75 and sunny???).

 

[2xcited2sleep]

OMG that guy sounds awful in every way imaginable! So sorry you had to deal with that. All your purchases sound so cute. Gosh do I miss the ability to send purchases back to the resort. That has seriously cut down on my shopping, TBH, because I really don't want the hassle of carrying stuff around. Hopefully that service comes back soon.

 

[VAtink]

OMG that guy sounds awful in every way imaginable! So sorry you had to deal with that. All your purchases sound so cute. Gosh do I miss the ability to send purchases back to the resort. That has seriously cut down on my shopping, TBH, because I really don't want the hassle of carrying stuff around. Hopefully that service comes back soon.

He was so awful! Normally I'm of the mind that I can't control others behaviors, only my own, so for the most part just brush off what others do, but not when that person is touching me! I'm just glad he didn't get angry, I was really worried he would by the way he was talking, but I just couldn't take the leaning on me anymore so I had to say something.

And yes, I hardly bought anything this trip since I didn't want to carry bags around with me! I hope they realize that they are losing out on our $$ by not providing this and bring it back quickly!

 

[missangelalexis]

Ugh that guy sounds like a total jerk!! I'm sorry you had to deal with that

 

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Ugh that guy sounds like a total jerk!! I'm sorry you had to deal with that

Yeah, he was really obnoxious, I just don't get some people! Glad it was a short wait though and I didn't have to get stuck next to him for long!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Ewwwww to the gross guy behind you, in normal times that would be extremely yucky. We ended up telling a few groups to go in front of us because they were so annoying. I’m glad you said something to him.
I love SE another ride that just makes me feel so happy to be at Disney.
The dog pants look really comfy.

 

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Day 2, Part 7: That’s a Great Picture of the Monorail Beam!

We last left off with me checking out the new front of the park!











I love the way it looks now, and it feels so much more spacious!

The funniest thing happened while I was exploring the new area. I was using my new gopro which I haven’t really used before, and it was acting up, so I pulled over to the side of the area to mess around with it and try to get it to work properly again. Well, in my messing around with it, I kept pointing it up to take a picture to see if I fixed the problem. Well I guess people saw me standing there taking pictures of SOMETHING repeatedly, so they decided they needed a picture of whatever I was taking too! HAAAAA! OMG, within about 5 minutes a line had formed behind me to take a picture of nothing.

When I realized what had happened I couldn’t stop laughing, I was laughing so hard I was crying. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the queueing instinct is real folks! Hope those people enjoyed their pictures of the bottom of the monorail beam!

After getting my pictures at the front of the park I made my way back in and over towards the land. On the way I passed a PP photographer with only one group ahead of me so decided to stop.

This ended up being a much longer stop than originally planned, he spent about 15 minutes photographing the group ahead of me, and then when it got to my turn he spent about 10 minutes with me! He mentioned that they are only allowed to do 2 magic shots, but he thought that was ridiculous and if people wanted more he would give them more! I loved that! Of course I told him I wanted more than two!





Such a nice guy!

After my mini photoshoot, I made my way over to the Living Seas (I will never stop calling it that). The posted wait for the Nemo ride was 15 minutes, but it was walk-on, although it probably did take a solid 8 minutes just to walk the length of the queue!

Right as I got on the ride, I get a phone call from a 703 phone number, which is my home area code. Now the only people who would be calling me from that number would be my dogs boarding place, so I of course started to get really worried. So I ended up being super distracted on the ride and didn’t really take it in. I decided when I got off to head upstairs in the aquarium and find a seat in the viewing area to listen to my VM.

Unfortunately I didn’t realize they have all the seats roped off up there now! This is a bummer, one of my favorite activities is to take a mid afternoon break there and just sit and watch the fish, it’s always so relaxing! Now they just have you walk through and ask you to keep moving, so not the relaxing experience I wanted! So I quickly walked through and made my way out of the pavilion so I could finally check my VM. Not ideal, I was too worried about my dog to really enjoy any of it. Whomp whomp.

Once outside I found a bench and checked my voicemail. It was my dogs boarding place, but fortunately it wasn’t anything super serious. He was just having issues with his arthritis so they wanted to try a new painkiller for him. Phew! Not the worst case call I was worried about!

I decided after that to do something I don’t believe I’ve ever done before. Ride Journey Into imagination! Now, there is a solid chance I have been on this before, if you had asked me before last week if I’d ever played mini golf at Fantasia Gardens I would have told you no, but then I found that TR from 2000 AND pictures showing that I had in fact played mini golf there, so yeah, apparently certain things have faded from memory!

Anyways. I was heading over towards the ride when a MASSIVE group started heading in, like there had to be at least 75 people in this group, and since I was getting tired and didn’t feel like waiting for whatever wait time they would bump it up to, I noped it out of there.

After that I was pretty much done with the day, so made my way slowly out of the park, taking some more pictures on the way.





On the way back to the YC, I swung by the BC marketplace to grab some powerade, milk, and a bottle of wine so I could enjoy a nightcap while writing my trip notes that evening. It was a pretty early evening, but I was tired and my body was getting exhausted from all the walking! While I usually walk ~4k steps a day at home these days, I was doing 25k+ at Disney! My body was in shock!

Next up: The Most Productive Morning! Part 1​

 

[suse66]

I love the way it looks now, and it feels so much more spacious!

I love the new entrance! Also those ostrich topiaries are the cutest ever!

When I realized what had happened I couldn’t stop laughing, I was laughing so hard I was crying. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, the queueing instinct is real folks! Hope those people enjoyed their pictures of the bottom of the monorail beam!

I am laughing reading about it!

On the way back to the YC, I swung by the BC marketplace to grab some powerade, milk, and a bottle of wine so I could enjoy a nightcap while writing my trip notes that evening. It was a pretty early evening, but I was tired and my body was getting exhausted from all the walking! While I usually walk ~4k steps a day at home these days, I was doing 25k+ at Disney! My body was in shock!

I know....I am trying to work up to 10,000 steps a day. I am currently only at about 6500 so definitely need to step up my game before August!

 

[VAtink]

Ewwwww to the gross guy behind you, in normal times that would be extremely yucky. We ended up telling a few groups to go in front of us because they were so annoying. I’m glad you said something to him.

Yeah, he was super obnoxious. Usually I hate saying anything, but I reaaallly don't like random strangers touching me!

I love SE another ride that just makes me feel so happy to be at Disney.

Yes! I love it so much, I hope when they do the refurb they don't change it too much!

The dog pants look really comfy.

They are super comfy, I love them!

 

[VAtink]

I love the new entrance! Also those ostrich topiaries are the cutest ever!

Isn't it great now? Finally a change I'm 100% on board with! And yeah, the topiaries up there were super cute, I still am blown away how detailed they make them!

I am laughing reading about it!

It was so ridiculously funny! At first I thought maybe I had accidentally gotten into a line, I was so confused! I'm sure they were all pretty confused as well once they tried to figure out what I was taking pictures of!

I know....I am trying to work up to 10,000 steps a day. I am currently only at about 6500 so definitely need to step up my game before August!

Yeah, it has been hard during this past year. I finally started going back to the office last week, so my step count has gone way up (I walk to work), but it was hard to get motivated to just go walk before when I didn't have anywhere to go! That's great that you're getting ready, still have plenty of time before August to ramp up the steps!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I never made it to the front of EPCOT (thanks to the International Gateway). I totally missed those ostrich topiaries. So cute! Too funny on the photos. The queuing instinct is definitely real. So relieved there wasn't a serious issue with your dog!!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

From the moment they got in line he kept pushing up against me, like literally touching me, and not just an arm but like almost a full body leaning against me (ewwwwww). And he kept making comments about what he would do to anyone who tried to tell him to wear a mask, and how people who were following the distancing markers were stupid, so it really seemed to me he was invading my personal space on purpose.

Gross!!! What is wrong with people. And good for you to tell him to step back..

I love these! I don't know if I have seen them before.

Hope those people enjoyed their pictures of the bottom of the monorail beam!

Hilarious! And so true!

4k steps a day at home these days, I was doing 25k+ at Disney! My body was in shock!

I think this will be all of us when we go back again!

 

[VAtink]

I never made it to the front of EPCOT (thanks to the International Gateway). I totally missed those ostrich topiaries.

Haha, if it weren't for SE, there is no way I would have made it up there either. With all the construction going on up there it is a pain to walk over that way when entering from the IG!

Too funny on the photos. The queuing instinct is definitely real.

It was hilarious, although the poor people behind me must have been super confused about what I was taking a picture of!

So relieved there wasn't a serious issue with your dog!!

Thanks! I was a nervous wreck for a few minutes there, so glad it wasn't anything serious!