Day 8: Wed 3/8 Our Final Day - Everything Pop, Epcot Electric Umbrella, Club Cool, and Starbucks
This was our final day and our plan was to do a 'half day' at Epcot before returning to Pop Century in the afternoon to catch the Magical Express shuttle for our evening flight home. After getting everything packed up, we checked a few suitcases at the airline check in station at Pop (love this service) and went around to the other side to leave our remaining carry on items with luggage/bell services (love this service too). At this point it was past 9am and we were running behind schedule. We rushed through breakfast in the food court, hence no pictures of our final Everything Pop meal
. We each had the Bounty breakfast platter which is a very good value for a quick service meal credit. We each had one quick service meal credit remaining which we would use for lunch at Epcot later.
Our itinerary included our preselected three fast passes for Test Track, Mission Space, and the Character Spot. By the time we finished up in the Character Spot, everyone was growing impatient with hunger and DH just wanted to eat somewhere that we could get through quick and easy since our time was limited on this day. So we settled on lunch at the Electric Umbrella since it was in the vicinity of the Character Spot. The Electric Umbrella is definitely your typical counter service place in terms of the menu; but there is ample seating in air conditioning which makes it a nice option otherwise. I read reviews for the Electric Umbrella prior to our trip and they supposedly have a really good flatbread and chicken salad; but we all just wanted burger meals. I had the Angus bacon cheeseburger meal
. It was our last day of vacation so I gave myself permission to indulge a little
.
After lunch, we decided to visit Club Cool. This is sort of food/drink related so I'll share this experience. We didn't make it to Club Cool on our last trip and hadn't been there since our 2011 trip. So DS8 and DD10 didn't have distinct memories of it and were super excited when I told them they would get to sample different flavors of soda from around the world for free. They didn't realize what they were in for when I told them they just had to try the Beverly first (I know, I'm no good). DD15 grinned and kept quiet. She clearly remembered this unforgettable beverage from our first trip when she was 9 years old
.
DD10 tried the Beverly first and she looked at me like I was the most rotten mother on the face of the Earth for plotting such a deceptive act
.
DS8 took a sip and his reaction was initially more startling than funny. His face scrunched up and he started gagging and coughing
. Brace yourself for this one
.
I had to apologize and hug my innocent unsuspecting kiddos
. But after a couple minutes they were fine and began sampling the other drinks
. It took awhile for them to get the Beverly taste out of their mouths though
. We look back on this and laugh about it now
.
After Club Cool, we walked over to Fountain View to use the last of our snack credits at Starbucks. This is my second favorite Starbucks at Disney. It definitely looks like it belongs in Epcot and fits in well with Future World. No snack credit was spared thanks to the presence of Starbucks at Disney
! We were able to pull additional fast passes for Figment and Nemo before saying farewell to Epcot and our Disney World dining adventures
.
Final thoughts:
Would we do the quick service dining plan again? Absolutely. Primarily counter service dining isn't for everyone; but for our family the flexibility overrides the nuances. I think we could have perhaps did one more table service meal if it was easier to get a same day ADR for seven people because we do enjoy table service dining. Like I said before, the high probability of having to cancel an ADR on the same day and having to incur $70 in penalty fees for not abiding by the 24 hours cancellation window makes having a daily ADR unpractical for my family of seven. So for our next WDW trip I think we will definitely stick to booking a few "must do" ADRs and *maybe* try for a same day ADR for a table service meal at a place that isn't too difficult to get my family of seven in for a same day meal (Trails End? Boma?) We'll see.
I think to get the most out of the quick service dining plan that staying somewhere with a good food court is paramount (Pop's food court is excellent); and also knowing that you are going to use all of those snack credits. Having two snack credits per person a day was wonderful for us and made it really feel like we were on vacation because the kids were able to get things that we would otherwise probably say no to. Being able to get whatever Starbucks drink I wanted (size, specialty, etc.) was truly divine for me
. I also think being able to use snack credits for the foods at the outdoor kitchens for the Flower and Garden Festival also made having the QSDP a good value (wish I would have been able to try more of the foods); and I would definitely try to have the dining plan again if we go back to Disney during Epcot's F&G or F&W festivals.
Looking back on the meal choices we made during this trip, I think that we tended to stick to our tried and true places out of convenience even though there were some other counter service places that I wanted to try on this trip (namely Wolfgang Puck Express in Disney Springs and Harambe Market at AK). There is plenty of variety to be had with counter service dining if you do your research. Overall, I don't think we did too bad though. I personally only had pizza once, a hot dog once, and burgers twice (which are the foods that typically come to mind when people think of quick service dining) over the course of our seven night trip. On that note, we were very pleased with our overall dining experiences. Our two pirates and three princesses ate well on this trip
. I definitely think the quality of counter service food at Disney has improved since our prior Disney trip though. There were a couple counter service places that we ate at on our last trip that were downright gross (namely Pizza Planet and Lotus Blossom Café); and we were pleasantly surprised by Lotus Blossom Café and other places we ate at on this trip. My personal favorites from this trip were Columbia Harbour House at MK, Flame Tree Barbecue at AK, and Everything Pop food court
.
Thank you again for reading along and for everyone's wonderful comments.
That's how I feel whenever I eat a Butterfinger!
I also don't quite finish my cinnamon roll there and neither do the boys, but we all eat enough of our own that sharing would simply be out of the question!
My oldest DS is 15 and to get him to want to take a picture with me is not easy. At least in Disney he gives in to me a bit more, but the older the boys get the fewer pics with their moms 
