Figaro's Flower Festival part 8

[dlpmikki]

Sunday 4th May
We go to Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival.

We go to ride Mission Space. Ellen and Ben choose “green team”, while we pick “orange”. As we see the line stretching out of the building, we soon realise “orange team” are going to have rather more “pre-flight preparation” than the tip board suggested. We wait in the shop. Ben enjoys both the ride and the game afterwards.

In “Mouse Gear”, Ellen kindly buys us a new Tinker Bell antenna topper.

We have lunch in “The Land”. We enjoy the food but the rather nice pork chop could have used real cutlery rather than plastic.

We ride, “Living with the Land”. The line is short and our boat far from full. Ellen asks for the front seat for ease of access and we are all invited to squeeze in there although row 2 is empty. There really wasn’t room for us all, I couldn’t even get out of my carriage. Andrew complained to a suit afterwards.

Ben wanted to go visit Japan so my humans decided to take a slow stroll back to the Beach Club to have a rest while they waited for Ellen and Ben. Then we all went back to Mystic Dunes for a rest.

Sunday evening we met up with Jeanne and Jim for dinner at Kona. Some aspects of our server were excellent but she strangely ignored Andrew and did wrong orders, took no notice etc. Andrew may be legally blind in the UK but he didn’t think he was invisible too! After dinner we went down to the beach to watch Wishes. Mikki had met some folks from TGM last October and quite a few of them were there that evening so Mikki renewed some friendships. The music was not piped through to the beach anymore but it was still an amazing sight – you got far more of an idea of the sheer size of some of the fireworks from this distance. By now it was 10.30pm and time to say our goodbyes and return to Mystic Dunes for a good night’s sleep.

Monday 5th May
Our first visit is to Panera on Vineland Road. Apart from a good breakfast, Ellen needs to find an internet hot spot before she goes home today (sob). Breakfast is great but connecting to the internet means we are here longer than expected. In the end she actually picks up the network from the smoothie café next door.

Next, it’s into the Studios. Maybe the medical parking is full but Mikki suspects the CM on the parking lot is just not watching when he directs us into the main lot. Her suspicions grow when the tram takes us past the medical parking and she sees empty spaces. Let’s hope this isn’t going to be a bad day.

We start off in Sid’s but the only Charlie and the Chocolate factory item is rather more expensive than desirable. Then we go check out whether Toy Story is doing a soft opening but no joy. We have an enjoyable visit to One Man’s Dream instead and then Ben goes to ride Star Tours using some fast passes we got earlier.

We have lunch at the Studio Catering. The pulled pork sandwiches are still good. Lunch at studio catering was a new experience for Ben and Ellen but a positive one.

Sadly it is now time to return to the room for Ben and Ellen to finish packing. Coming out, the trams stops right next to the row our car is at the end of. The CM this morning is forgiven (almost).

Mikki takes Ellen and Ben to the airport and then we set off to Epcot for dinner at Le Cellier with Linda and Donald who we met last year at a TGM meet. We have an excellent meal and chat about all sorts of things. Between them, they have lots of DVC points at various locations. Living on the west coast, they are keen to add Disneyland and also tell us about new things at that park.

[MauiMouse]

Another couple fun days. We ate at Studio Catering as well last month, Jim had the pull pork, I had the Chicken Ceasar wrap, which was okay. Too bad that Ellen & Ben had to go home, but yummy about dinner at LeCellier.

[Bethis26fan]

Sounds like fun. Thanks for sharing.

[pogo]

Once again.... another fun day. I wish I could spend a day at WDW with you, Andrew, Mikki, Ellen and Ben. Wait, we can.... in December ! :D

[DizNee143]

another great two days..thanx for sharing! :mickey:

[wdwgrl377]

Another great day! I am enjoying reading your trip report, Figaro with you and your humans! can't wait to read more! :mickey:

[ChipnDaleGal]

No doubt you were all sad to have Ellen and Ben head home, but it sounds like you had a lot of fun together their last two days. Thanks for reporting. :mickey:

[ElenitaB]

Sunday morning I pulled a switcheroo which Mikki kindly omitted. Our plans originally had us going to DHS on Sunday and then Epcot on Monday. But I really wanted to make sure that we got some time over at the Flower and Garden show. I had seen some pictures of the arrangements they had in the UK pavillion of large tea cups containing the plants used in different types of tea, and I wanted to take pictures to frame and put in our soon-to-be dining area (which I'm reclaiming from being my home office). We arrived bright and early and I was able to snap pictures to my heart's content without a lot of people around. Thanks so much, Mikki and Andrew, for humoring me. (I took some pictures for you too, Donna, thinking that you'd like to see the way they did their plantings.)

We picked and chose what rides we wanted to go on, and besides the crowded seating at Living with the Land (my fault :blush:), we had a nice time. As Mikki said, Ben and I rode M:S sans spin and enjoyed our ride-mate, a man experiencing the attraction for the first time. It was great to experience the ride through his first-timer's eyes. We finally met the Dream Team while waiting for Crush... but we didn't get anything because we were waiting on the disabled queue. At least we saw that they (like our very own Sandy) do exist. Lunch was nice, but I couldn't believe that Sunshine Seasons could actually run out of mashed potatoes... and wouldn't have them again for "at least another hour"! What's up with that? :confused:

Ben headed over to Japan on the Friendships (they wouldn't let me embark with the ECV), and I scooted over there to meet him, giving him enough time to browse to his heart's content. Alas, they didn't have Bakugan. Going back to the Beach Club to meet Mikki and Andrew was quite the (long) adventure. Rather than further aggravate my leg (which was beginning to swell), we decided that we'd take the boat back. Well, we waited quite a while for one to come. When it came, we waited quite a while for it to leave. And then when we arrived, we realized that the walk from the dock to the lobby was probably as long as the walk from the International Gateway to the lobby. Thank goodness for friends with the patience of Job! :hug:

Dinner that night was at Kona. The potstickers were awesome but I was a bit disappointed with my entree: the pomegranate bbq'ed pork chop. I asked to sub mashed potatoes for the rice (I apparently still hadn't gotten over not having them at lunch at Sunshine Seasons) and honestly, they tasted like boxed mashed potatoes (and not even semi-decent ones). No joke. And I was two-thirds of the way through the meat when I realized that the meat was pink, almost red... like a rare steak. Which is nice in a steak but NOT in a piece of pork! However, the company was awesome and I totally enjoyed watching Wishes from the Poly's poolside. They're HUGE! We parted company with Jeanne and Jym, and I packed some :( and then settled in for our last night in Orlando for this trip.

I tried to get up early, early the next morning to finish up as much packing as possible, made a bit more difficult by the fact that the zipper had broken on our carry-on. I did the best I could and ended up using duct tape that Jeanne had generously brought us the evening before to seal up the suitcase (which I decided would only house our toiletries and dirty clothes just in case someone decided to get curious). I wanted to check my e-mail as my doctor had said she was going to send me my new treatment plan. We went to Panera (yum) and I had the hardest time connecting to their WiFi and got little help from their "Help" Desk (with people shuffling me back and forth between two sets of desks). I finally connected to the shop next door's WiFi connection, checked my e-mail and off we went. We arrived on the late side to DHS, and once I rented my scooter, I headed over to Sid's to see if I could buy some nice Willy Wonka-related memorabilia as a thank you gift for the drama club teachers (Ben was in his school's production of Willie Wonka Jr. the weekend prior to our trip). Unfortunately, they only had one very nice piece (signed by Gene Wilder) but at $300 or $400, it was well out of my budget. (I think the teachers will just be getting iTune gift cards at the end of the year.)

We didn't do too much at DHS... Ben rode Star Tours and made his semi-annual deposit at Tatoiine Traders. As Mikki tells above, we ate at the Studio Catering Co. (a departure from our normal chicken strips at the Backlot Express... but with no chicken strips to be had, we wanted to try someplace else). Ben, like Mikki and Andrew, had the pulled pork sandwich. I snitched some of his and it's really good! I had the chicken, rice and beans (pure comfort food). After lunch it was time to go back to Mystic Dunes for a much needed afternoon rest and then Mikki generously drove us out to the airport.

We arrived super early at Delta's terminal (unlike May '06, there was no wheelchair drama this time, thank you very much — it was there and much needed). It was interesting that they changed the gate on our flight but never announced it at the old gate. It wasn't until I heard our name being called out on a microphone at a another gate at the opposite end of the hall, that we realized that we apparently were sitting in the wrong place. The gate agent thoughtfully had put us in the bulkhead row on a FULL flight (we had full flights either direction), but that wasn't going to work for us. He got rather snippy (sorry, we do appreciate the effort but it wasn't going to be of help if I was going to be in pain for the entire flight), and I also overheard another passenger saying that he was rude to her. We were able to board early and I hung behind for some reason. When I did board, there was Ben making friends with the captain and the flight attendants (but not a close enough bond to get us bumped up to First). I was always a loyal Delta customer but I really did miss JetBlue this trip. We just may fly Delta enough to use up our miles (and will probably fly them to Central America to visit Ben's sisters and other family there, and his dad's grave), but that just may be it. It took FOREVER (seriously, like 45 minutes) for the luggage to come out, we called for the bus to the long-term parking lot which came rather quickly. I fully expected my car to be waiting for us when we arrived at the lot, but they misplaced my car (not something you really want to hear at 11:30 at night). They finally found it and soon we were on our way back to reality!

Ben and I both agreed that the trip felt much longer than the four days we were actually in Orlando, due to the fun we managed to pack in, the new experiences and the wonderful company. :cloud9:

Thanks, Figaro, Mikki and Andrew, for allowing us to tag along!

Of course, the only known cure for post-trip melancholy is to start planning for your next trip, and soon our attention will turn to planning for December!

[faline]

Figaro and Ellen - thanks for updating us on your activities in Florida! Very fun to read!

We've had the same experience of the folks at the Land needlessly squishing people into one row of the ride while other rows sit empty. What's up with that?!

[offwego]

Ellen do you suppose they had to finish growing the potatoes? (Sorry couldn't resist)

Thanks so much for the report seeing both Ellen's and Figaro's views on similiar events is so much fun!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the report! :smickey: