Thursday, March 16th: An Adventure in Parkhopping Part Two
Hello Everyone! Where we last left off, we had started out at EPCOT for EMH and we had ridden a couple rides, and of course we had already sampled several food items.
We were in the World Showcase and we decided to use our Fastpass for Frozen Ever After at around 11:55. My thoughts are still basically the same on this ride. I love the animatronics and the scenes that are there, but I think the landscapes etc could have been better developed.
Though, we did find something cool in the queue on this go around! I love when there are references to past attractions!
MAELSTROM!!!
Also, now that the outdoor queue for FEA is pretty lengthy, many of you may have seen the Vikings that entertain the guests waiting outside. Well, one of the Vikings may look familiar to you if you ever watched Mulch, Sweat, & Shears at Hollywood Studios.
He was the front man for the band, which we used to love watching and I miss having that live music around the Studios! I wish we could get the 5 & Dime band from California Adventure!
Afterwards we headed to try out another drink that Scott’s sister had mentioned trying a few months prior: the Tipsy Ducks in Love from the Joy of Tea in China. The drink is Bourbon Whisky, coffee, black tea, cream, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream on top. It was $8.95. If you like iced coffee type drinks, I think you would enjoy this!
VERY chocolatey. The chocolate syrup is very prevalent. The other flavors are there, but the choco syrup is the star. Super tasty beverage.
Afterwards, we headed inside to check out the Shanghai Disney Exhibit, which is really cool!
At this point we had an upcoming reservation that we would need to leave the park for, but we had just one more thing we wanted to try before we left EPCOT for the last time this trip. So yes, even with a dining reservation looming, we went to try the potato pancakes from Bauernmarkt, and obviously we needed to try both the savory and the sweet options!
The Potato Pancakes with House-Made Apple Sauce ($3.75) were my favorite, but I just love the combination of those two foods in general! The other option was the Potato Pancake with Carmelized Ham, Onions, and Herb Sour Cream ($4.25). This was Scott’s favorite and it was delicious! I recommend picking these up as they’re both tasty and inexpensive!
The applesauce pancake may not look appetizing, but it was pretty good. The savory option was far superior, but I know Alli loves her potato pancakes and applesauce.
After that is was about 1:30 and we walked out of the park, to the Monorail, and headed on to our next destination!
We had a reservation for Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian’s Garden View Lounge at 1:45. I have been to tea at the Grand Floridian three times now, and I really enjoy it! It’s a really special and relaxing time to share with people you love! Though, it’s probably most enjoyed by people who love tea.
Tea at the Grand Floridian is truly an experience, with a lot of attention to detail! It’s a little pricy, depending on which package you choose, but you get your own pot of tea and lots of different foods to try. Plus, the view out of the windows is incredible!
After you choose which tea package you want, you choose your type of tea, which we should’ve made a note of, but we didn’t. We chose the Bedfordshire Tea, for $35 apiece. Since we had already had a few things to eat that day, we didn’t feel like we needed the extra courses and we had plans following tea that meant that we didn’t need the extra glasses of champagne at that time!
Our first course were finger sandwiches, which included a variety of things to try.
We each got a plate like the one in the picture. Then, they brought us a tower with our second and third courses. The second course was a scone and a jam tart with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, and jelly (I don’t remember what type). Delicious!
For dessert, you have a choice of house made pastries, strawberries and cream, or English trifle. Scott chose the pastries and I chose the strawberries and cream, which I had gotten on my prior two visits but it was the wrong choice today!
Just like in the Frushi, the strawberries were very unripe and devoid of flavor! Scott made the right choice! He got two macarons, a chocolate covered strawberry, and a swan puff pastry. My advice is to go with the pastries, even through the strawberries are really pretty, love that stenciling! It does seem like the menu has changed somewhat since we ate there, based on the menu I looked up to write this, so the food may be served a bit differently.
The macarons were perfection. One was mocha and the other, I believe, was lemon. The chocolate covered strawberry was, once again, very unripe. Curse all of these unripe berries. But I have to talk about this swan...
It was filled with an EXTREMELY minty cream. It was the 2nd most refreshing thing I've ever had in my mouth. 1st is toothpaste. It was like all the refreshing properties of toothpaste, but delicious and edible. I felt like I could breathe ice. The girl at the table next to us took one bite of hers, said "WOAH. That is quite minty...", and then put it down.
Afterwards, we spent some time walking around and just enjoying being at the Grand Floridian. I spent awhile looking around in Basin and I considered buying one of their solid perfumes, because I never have perfume to travel with but I didn’t end up getting one.
We got back on the Monorail and headed to the Polynesian, which we were really excited for because we hadn’t been there since the reimagining of the lobby.
I think the changes at the Poly were definitely for the better and brought it more up to date. Thank goodness those mirror walls in the lobby are gone!
I totally agree. I love the new lobby. I know there were practically riots about the update, but it's so open and airy now! And it doesn't smell like a musty waterfall.
I’m sure you can guess why we were at the Poly, we had to hit up Trader Sam’s!
We’ve been to the Trader Sam’s in
Disneyland a couple times, and we’ve always enjoyed their food and drinks, so we knew this would be a good spot to hang out. Based on concept art, I thought that Grog’s Grotto would be a larger space than its Disneyland predecessor, but it is not. Luckily we were able to get spots at the bar. Also, this place is hidden behind a very non-descript door, which is pretty fun! Though, we got worried and were sure it was closed before we read the hours and stepped inside.
Usually, I prefer to be at a table and not sit at the bar at most places, but sitting at the bar here was really fun! It gives you a good view for a couple of the special effects that go along with drink orders. Scott chose the Polynesian Pearl (RumChata Cream Liqueur, Grand Marnier, and Cinnamon with Tropical Juices $17).
If you get this drink, you have to purchase the cup as well, but not all of the drinks in souvenir glasses require you to purchase the class. I got the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum (Pyrat XO Reserve Rum, Cream of Coconut, and pineapple and orange juices dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg $12). The drinks here are always delicious! They can be strong though, be warned!
We decided to go ahead and order the Headhunter Sushi Roll ($14.99) as well. I can’t find a description online, but I loved this and I thought it was very unique and delicious! Scott didn’t care for it as much, but I liked the combination of the traditional sushi roll flavors with the twist of the pomegranate soy sauce and flavored rice. Yum! I want one right now! The fish on top was great quality as well.
After Trader Sam’s, we were walking through the hallway looking around when we noticed this framed album cover. Does the location of this photo look familiar to you? It is located somewhere in the parks! If you guess correctly, we’ll let you know!
We walked outside of the Polynesian to head to another location, our fourth of the day! We decided to take a bus from the Poly, which always seems to take a little while. I’ll wait until our next post to tell you what we did, but we were able to find a very secluded area of a park that made for an awesome photoshoot with a park icon and no one else in our pictures! We also picked up a super clutch Fastpass that made our trip!
Thanks for joining us and I hope our words and pictures brought you some Disney Magic, wherever you’re reading from!
CLICK HERE to finish reading about our park hopping day.