And I am here for the Food...A Disney SOMETIME (AUG '20 mini trip) Report (9/10 update)

[luvpoohandcompany]

I’m loving reading about your trip and glad you have one family of neighbours you can chat to about it all
It’s amazing how empty the parks are. Do they lack atmosphere as well as crowds? I have wanted to try the cheese soup for the longest time but every time we are there it’s July and I’m too hot to order soup . I need a winter trip

 

[kittylady1972]

Oh my goodness I’m crossing my fingers for you that all ok with you both re covid-19. Definitely sure with you it would be less likely to have caught anything at Disney judging by how busy those boats were. Hopefully all will be grand.

So looks like DH will be required to test ASAP. Depending on his results, I'll take my own test. Fingers crossed for sure.

I’m loving reading about your trip and glad you have one family of neighbours you can chat to about it all
It’s amazing how empty the parks are. Do they lack atmosphere as well as crowds? I have wanted to try the cheese soup for the longest time but every time we are there it’s July and I’m too hot to order soup . I need a winter trip

I am so glad to be able to share with some real life in person people...and of course you lovely people here too! Here is my take on atmosphere...some of it is a bit sad with so many places boarded up and not open, not just the street carts but some of the shops and restaurants. We used to visit many many years ago during the "low crowd" times in January and Sept/Oct and it's a bit like that. I love the social distancing in all of the queues...it's done quite well. It's weird to have to find the entrance to some of the shops as they are marked exit only for some of the doors. Even at the very NOT busy shop at the WL, the CM at the counter would have to remind us to use the proper door to exit. Seemed a bit crazy but I get it. I do miss the shows and fireworks...that was just part of the magic...and I miss being able to hop to another park. An article I read this weekend said Universal is doing better than Disney because of just this...they aren't requiring the park reservations and are allowing hopping between both but honestly I have no problem with Disney limiting attendance especially if it keeps the crowds this low. Now I've also seen photos of the weekend crowds at Disney which are so much crazier than our weekday crowds were for sure. I will say walking through the parks it was pretty rare that we were ever in any kind of crowd situation.

As for the soup...it's okay but it's not the best soup ever...and I enjoy some soup. I will say we had a lobster bisque for lunch at the Wave on Thursday (review to come soon) and that soup was really really good...probably a bit salty (but I like salt) but also had the buttery consistency of lobster bisque and I'd take it over the cheese soup any day.

 

[kittylady1972]

One hour after "official" 8am park opening (almost 9am)


Castle hub around 11:20am


Main Street around 1:20pm

 

[KathyM2]

SO...it remains to be seen if DH will report to work tomorrow and be told he has to quarantine because of possible exposure...and where would that leave me as well since I've spent the last 3-4 days with him 24-7. If either of us finds out we have something I don't know that we could even begin to blame Florida at all...because I think that would be far less likely since we felt overly so safe there. I mean it was getting to the point that DH would hit pretty much EVERY SINGLE hand sanitizer station he could find, even if he had just sanitized. He was crazy about it.

Wow that's scary. I would be a bit conflicted too. Disney seems to be the safest place in the USA right now actually, but the travel part maybe not, but who knows...ugh I'm sorry. I hope that everything will work out ok for you and your hubby. I can't imagine how stressful.

That said, your trip looked amazing and I love how empty the parks look, that's kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity if you are able to take advantage of it.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

We then went inside the World Showcase Pavillion which was just lovely...and so many options.

We loved this area too.
Crossing my fingers that the 2 of you are ok!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Super Secret Squirrel Details: Day 3 (continued)

When we left off we were making our way into the World Showplace Pavillion. I had one thing on my mind here...this:

That's mine on the right...the Seafood Fisherman's Pie. I had heard good things about this item...and it lived up to the hype (though not for you @CruellaNY of course). It had some large chunks of seafood and it was delicious. In the top left is DH's choice, the Kielbasa and Potato Pierogi and since these usually have onion I skipped it...but tried a piece of kielbasa which was good.

DH also wanted to try this:

This was the Lobster Mac and Cheese topped with Herbed Panko. He seemed to enjoy it.

Then, though it was against my better judgement, I decided to give this a try:

This was the Liquid Nitro Chocolate Cake Pop with crushed M&Ms...and it was disappointing. The Liquid Nitro dessert at F&W in the past has always been such a great item...this just is mostly the cake pop and not enough of the Liquid Nitro Ice cream. I ate it anyway.

We were able to sit for a bit and enjoy our food, though the majority of the tables here are standup so as not to encourage you to stay too long. They had a lady playing piano when we first arrived...it was lovely.

Next up we headed over to France to check things out there. Nothing in France for us to eat/drink but we snapped a photo with this guy:


We made one more stop at Brazil where they had a Crispy Pork Belly, one of DHs favorites, so he grabbed that and we sat as he finished it.
He enjoyed it but as we sat we realized...it was just HOT HOT HOT. We had been lucky the previous day with mostly overcast and not too bad but the Florida sun was coming out and we decided why not go relax by the pool for a bit and maybe come back later. We hopped the boat back across:


And then we noticed this:


The dark clouds were rolling in but still we thought just MAYBE we could get a ride in on the now open Test Track before leaving.

We ended up nixing that idea and instead heading back to the room where we both caught a little bit of a nap. DH apparently snapped this lovely photo of me on the balcony:


We probably hung out for about an hour or so, where I discovered this cool feature to do some internet browsing on my tablet:



and then changed into some non-sweaty clothes and headed back out to EPCOT. I don't know that we had any real plan, but as we rolled up we thought let's try this again:


We probably waited about 15 minutes or so, listening again to announcements about impending weather, and sure enough...they shut down the ride. We bailed...we would just have to skip it this time.

It was now around 6pm and we had already decided to ditch Beaches and Cream earlier in the day. With the rain we thought it was a good time to find a place for dinner. I can't recall the options but we landed on Coral Reef based on the menu. We killed some time by riding again with Nemo and friends for a little bit before heading over to the restaurant in the same building.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

This was the Liquid Nitro Chocolate Cake Pop with crushed M&Ms...and it was disappointing. The Liquid Nitro dessert at F&W in the past has always been such a great item...this just is mostly the cake pop and not enough of the Liquid Nitro Ice cream. I ate it anyway.

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy this. Joe thought it was great!

 

[kittylady1972]

Super Secret Squirrel Details: Day 3 (continued)

So it had been a few years since we'd eaten at Coral Reef, we were seated right near the bottom and DH loves the fish...he's been diving in this tank several times on previous visits.



So the bread service was good...and we both ordered the lobster bisque. This was outstanding...probably a bit salty but had the buttery flavor it should so we both could have licked the bowls.



DH ordered some kind of fish and I got the shrimp and grits based on the server's recommendation...and I love Shrimp and Grits but I make the best by far. This one was good though:



Now there was a succotash component to it but I requested it be on the side because LIMA BEANS are the DEVIL and that was fine because the grits were delicious and cheesy and the shrimp was also good. I'd return for this.


There was still a light rain and I'm always cold...but we still headed to see our friend Figment:


Then it was a trip over to Norway where there was a line out the door but estimated 20 minutes for this:


Now I had originally had dinner plans for this day also at La Hacienda de San Angel...so we headed inside the Mexico pavillion, took a quick ride with the 3 Caballeros


and then tried to check in at the restaurant there...where we learned...wrong place! This was the Cantina...we needed La Hacienda right outside.

Ooooh...we've never been there before...and I honestly only made this reservation for dessert. We headed inside where we were one of the few people eating there:



So while I was all about dessert, DH loves savory foods and decided to order Dinner Two...and also in honor of his mom...he had this as well:


DH and his mom had a tradition whenever we visited EPCOT to do Tequila flights. He did this in honor of her. I ended up with this:


It was good...would have been better with ice cream but I survived.

DH ended up with the shrimp tacos...(continued)

 

[kittylady1972]

Oh, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy this. Joe thought it was great!

It was okay...but it was very very sweet...which sounds funny coming from me as I love sweets. It was just too rich for me...I'm more of an ice cream person and I miss the liquid nitro dessert they have had in the past.

 

[kittylady1972]

Super Secret Squirrel Details: Day 3 (continued)

Back to Dinner two, here is the meal DH ordered:



I had a bit of the tacos and they were actually pretty good. I prefer grilled shrimp but these were not over done. We had no room for all of this food...I barely had room for my dessert. So we do plan to return and we will probably have to share this.

On our way out, as it was approaching 9pm, we swung by Test Track...and the line was out the door...so we for sure decided to skip it. We drove back to our resort instead and got cleaned up and ready for bed. We packed up most of our stuff as we would be checking out the next day.

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Sorry TT was a miss for you this trip but other than that you certainly had a great foodie day I love that your husband got a tequila flight in honour of his mum Can't believe your trip is almost over!

 

[parasail_of_congress]

I just wanted to say that this is a great trip report. We were supposed to be there around this time but had to cancel. The update is so thorough I almost feel like I'm there!

 

[kittylady1972]

Sorry TT was a miss for you this trip but other than that you certainly had a great foodie day I love that your husband got a tequila flight in honour of his mum Can't believe your trip is almost over!

Yes it was nice for him to be able to do that also. We usually do this at La Cava but since we weren't sure we'd get there...this was just as easy.

I just wanted to say that this is a great trip report. We were supposed to be there around this time but had to cancel. The update is so thorough I almost feel like I'm there!

Thanks so much for reading and responding and so sorry you had to cancel your trip. This was such a last minute trip for us that I'm just happy it all worked out as well as it did.

 

[kittylady1972]

So hopefully I'll get to my last Disney day very soon and finish this off and maybe close this TR for now.

I have to say I'm a little concerned about the upcoming potential Oct/Nov trip we are talking about. I'm so worried that things w/r to COVID are going downhill again and that may affect our decision to fly. I'm also not thrilled that Disney is cutting the park hours even more. Our trip MK would close at, EPCOT and HS at 7pm and AK at 5pm...almost like it was back in the day for AK. However DH really wants to make sure we do AK this next trip...and at least it's open at 9am.

I've looked at flights and have some thoughts about where to stay for that trip, but nothing will be booked for a little while longer. I expect we'll pull the trigger by the end of September, since we have a deadline at that time to use our Spirit points. Now I'm not totally thrilled about flying Spirit over SWA in the current environment, but we have several hundred dollars that need to be used and it just makes sense.

In the meantime, still haven't told anybody else really about this trip. Also DH had a C-19 test on Monday, supposed to be 3-5 days for the results so we'll see. In the meantime, since he was exposed at work, when he and DD17 tried to visit the eye doctor on Monday for scheduled appointments they were rejected...based on answers to the pre-screening. DD was quite upset, since she really needed to get a new prescription for her contacts and she's been out of contacts for a little while and mostly wearing glasses. So I was able to at least order another 90 day supply (that was the minimum) of contacts for her for now and reschedule their appointments for September. I mean even without the travel to FLA (which DH also answered to and they apparently really chastized him at the eye doctor for that...which I think is uncalled for) he would have failed the pre-screen based on his known exposure, so either way it wasn't happening. Just to be safe, I moved a dental appointment for my older son also, because I know they also have a questionaiire to fill out there and there's a good chance he would fail that one too...might as well play it safe.

So tomorrow my oldest son starts school...virtually...as a junior at a new college. Hopefully that all goes well for him. The younger two start in two weeks for junior and senior year of HS...also all virtual at least until February. Crazy.

 

[MonorailPrincess]

Biergarten!

 

[CruellaNY]

I had heard good things about this item...and it lived up to the hype (though not for you @CruellaNY of course

Ha ha you are 100% correct! However DH would probably enjoy it.

I have to say I'm a little concerned about the upcoming potential Oct/Nov trip we are talking about. I'm so worried that things w/r to COVID are going downhill again and that may affect our decision to fly.

Are things getting worse in Maryland again? I will admit I don't follow the numbers anywhere that close anymore because honestly I'm just done, although I watch the county Ricky is in now for college which is doing great and we've had our first days with no deaths in our county and surrounding counties in the last week. We are going next month and also have an early November trip planned and unless something happens with my mom being able to watch Chris, we're there!
I know the shorter hours stink. They'll be shorter when we go in a few weeks than they were in July but most nights we were at dinner by 7-7:30 and not done before 9:30-10 and we're doing the same this time, but are also not planning to hit the parks as early in most cases unless reports from the first couple weeks of the shorter hours show that it is again the best thing to do. What are your possible dates for Oct/Nov?

So tomorrow my oldest son starts school...virtually...as a junior at a new college.

Ugh that stinks being virtual but I think I knew that for him. Hopefully next semester (if not before) will be in person! Quinnipaic released their first COVID test report on Tuesday and they had 0 positive cases but most of those days were still move in days so not all kids were there (although all were tested prior to coming). Yesterday started the next round of testing so we'll see early next week what their #'s look lilke and my biggest hope is that they get to stay on campus. As it stands one of Ricky's classes starts in person on Tuesday and the rest which started online this week will go in person on Labor Day.

 

[kittylady1972]

Biergarten!

Ummm....okay?

Ha ha you are 100% correct! However DH would probably enjoy it.

Are things getting worse in Maryland again? I will admit I don't follow the numbers anywhere that close anymore because honestly I'm just done, although I watch the county Ricky is in now for college which is doing great and we've had our first days with no deaths in our county and surrounding counties in the last week. We are going next month and also have an early November trip planned and unless something happens with my mom being able to watch Chris, we're there!
I know the shorter hours stink. They'll be shorter when we go in a few weeks than they were in July but most nights we were at dinner by 7-7:30 and not done before 9:30-10 and we're doing the same this time, but are also not planning to hit the parks as early in most cases unless reports from the first couple weeks of the shorter hours show that it is again the best thing to do. What are your possible dates for Oct/Nov?

Ugh that stinks being virtual but I think I knew that for him. Hopefully next semester (if not before) will be in person! Quinnipaic released their first COVID test report on Tuesday and they had 0 positive cases but most of those days were still move in days so not all kids were there (although all were tested prior to coming). Yesterday started the next round of testing so we'll see early next week what their #'s look lilke and my biggest hope is that they get to stay on campus. As it stands one of Ricky's classes starts in person on Tuesday and the rest which started online this week will go in person on Labor Day.

Actually they are doing pretty well in Maryland so far. In fact, the governor announced yesterday he would like all of the school systems to reconsider opening up for some kind of in person instruction. Now our county had already announced all virtual until February, but it appears they are now saying that they will re-evaluate at the end of the quarter to see if any kind of partial instruction in person, or even hybrid, is possible. I'm sure my daughter is thrilled about that possibility...my son not so much.

I heard you on the plans to keep your WDW trips. We honestly were done early most of our days as well with current crowd limits, so if those are the same we would be good also. Right now we are considering the last weekend of October/first few days of November as a possible trip.

Good to see Quinnipiac is doing well so far and fingers crossed it stays that way.

 

[kittylady1972]

Super Secret Squirrel Details: Final Day

So we were down to our final day...the saddest day for all WDW visitors.

We decided to order breakfast from Roaring Forks since we wanted to arrive at MK close to opening. DH got standard eggs and something...and I ended up with this:



Plus I had some leftover pancakes from GFC on Wednesday. I also got us some drinks for the day. This would be my second time using the mobile order at Roaring Forks...it was so quick and easy. I did, however, notice that not all of the drinks they had were available on mobile order. I wasn't sure I could even walk into RF and get anything there, but I did and picked up a tea and an energy drink...options not available on mobile order...then picked up my mobile order. Can I also say how much I love the new plasticware dispensers they have...makes it easy to only take ONE at a time!

I thought it would be nice to just take the boat over to the MK that morning, so we walked around the grounds first and took a few photos:







We arrived at the boat launch only to learn the boat wasn't running yet. Ooops...another transportation fail for us. And so we were about to do what he hadn't wanted to do...and take the BUS.

I must say I liked the way they loaded the bus and appreciated the barriers



Of course it was a quick ride and soon we were at MK...where DH couldn't wait to greet his favorite new Disney CM:


And soon we were walking through a nearly empty park:




And then of course our first sight of the newly painted castle:

 

[kittylady1972]

Super Secret Squirrel Details: Final Day (continued)

Of course you don't pass up a chance for more castle photos when it's this empty:









And so we walked through the castle and into...a nearly empty Fantasyland:




LOOK at all of those strollers!

And so it was time for our first MK ride....


If you look closely you will see a 5 minute wait...have you EVER seen that? We pretty much walked onto it.




Where to next? Peter Pan...also we pretty much walked onto this one...and it was now almost 9am...official park opening time. We then made our way around riding Haunted Mansion:

One day we'll remember they take a photo here now.

We then headed over to ride Splash....probably our longest wait...maybe 15 minutes?

 

[kittylady1972]

Super Secret Squirrel Details: Final Day (continued)

So before riding Splash I told DH I had read that it was "less splashy". I swear I read that here on the DIS...somewhere...but he didn't believe me and of course...we still got wet thought not soaked. Also while on the drop...DH lost his favorite Disney hat:

RIP Disney hat...I'm pretty sure DH is giving me a dirty look here...when he should have been holding onto his hat. At the bottom of the drop the people in the boat with us said they TRIED to catch it...with no such luck. That's okay...they happen to still be selling this one in the store...and so we left Splash and rode this which was a walk-on:


Then into the nearest store for the replacement hat. Next over to ride Pirates (walk-on) and then Jungle Cruise:

This was where the line was for JC...it showed 30 minutes but it was about 20 minutes because about 20 minutes later we had this photo:


What was impressive was really, again, how well they even did the lines winding inside this ride:


Also they were constantly cleaning the boats here...which was reassuring.

After this I was in need of a snack...and that meant Dole Whip time. Well actually we used mobile ordering and selected this instead:

I believe it was Raspberry Pineapple swirl ice cream float in pineapple juice. Delicious and refreshing!

It was now just after 11am, and time to head over to Tomorrowland...after some more photos of course:




We decided to be Space Rangers first, also maybe a 10 minute wait:


We followed this with Space Mountain...pretty much walking onto that one. Now we had a few more rides we wanted to do...and for some reason we made the decision to ride this next:



It was so cool to see this while riding around the track...can't wait:




We had now been at the park almost 4 hours and had accomplished all that we wanted to ride.