Honeymoon Recap: Friday

Friday - Day Five

Epcot! My second favorite Disney park! I was super excited to spend the day here. I can take or leave the "Future World" part of the park - it has it's positives...but it also has an agenda. World Showcase, however - I never get tired of it. Absolutely love it.

We scheduled a character breakfast for our Epcot day as well - partially to get early entry, partially because it's a breakfast dedicated entirely to the princesses. Sounds like a win-win to me. Plus, it starts much later than the Crystal Palace breakfast, so even "early entry" is still 10 am.

The breakfast is held in Norway at the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. I'm pretty sure we need a banquet hall. It just seems to suit The Boy well. See?

The best part of the breakfast? The portraits are with BELLE! Eee! She's the best. Don't even try and argue. Aren't we cute?

Then, of course, the rest of the princesses are there, too - Cindy, Ariel, Aurora, & Snow. Snow won my heart by being the only one to request a photo with "my handsome Prince."

We also really enjoyed the breakfast. It was much more satisfying than the one in Magic Kingdom. They bring a plate to your table piled high with bacon, sausage, eggs, and potatoes, and you also have access to a full European-style breakfast buffet - cheeses, yogurt, granola, fresh fruit, smoked fish, croissants, and a few other pastries. We were stuffed by the time we left.

After breakfast, we headed back towards Mexico. The countries open at 11 and we wanted to get an early start. See...we had this plan: Drink Around the World. It's a common practice - one drink in every country at the showcase. Sounds simple enough. Thing is, you have to get a fairly early start to make it all the way around without killing yourself. So, we needed to be in Mexico when it opened.

We were there for the opening (got to do the cute little cheer with the Cast Members and everything), and headed straight in only to find out that La Cava del Tequila didn't open til noon. Hmm...well...that makes this tricky. We decided to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour while we plotted our next steps (that ride never changes and I LOVE it).

My brilliant husband, knowing that the one ride I wanted to do in Future World was Soarin', suggested that we use our access to the new FastPass+ system to rearrange our schedule a bit. We'd schedule a FastPass to Soarin' for right then, ride it without waiting in line, then be back to World Showcase in time for tequila. Love that boy.

So, that's what we did. I'd never ridden Soarin', but I'd heard good things. Now that we've done it, I won't be skipping it the next time we're there. You load up into these rows of bucket seats and buckle up. Then, the ENTIRE room rotates upward (imagine being on a gigantic ferris wheel). The idea is to suspend you over a concave screen so that it feels like you're hang-gliding through the landscape. And, if that wasn't enough, they add additional sensory effects - sounds, breeze in your face, even SCENT (orange as we flew over California groves, pine as we passed over the Pacific Northwest, even a little bit of salt air over San Francisco). I was amazed. Brilliant ride, Disney. Brilliant.

After our flight, we resumed our World Showcase trip. Mexico, round two. This time, La Cava del Tequila was open for business - hooray! That led us to drink one - an Avocado Margarita.

If you click on the photo, you can read what's in it. It was interesting, nothing like I've ever had before. I'd order it again, but The Boy wasn't a fan. 

Up next was Norway. If you'd asked me before the trip what drink Norway was known for...I'd likely have stared at you blankly. Luckily, there are other bloggers who have gone before us who DO know, so we didn't walk in totally blind. Those other bloggers were also smart enough to suggest that if you're going to do the whole drinking-around-the-world thing, you should probably combine it with some sort of snacking-around-the-world initiative...just in case.

We weren't super hungry yet (remember that breakfast), but we walked into the little bakery in Norway and it was hard to say no. I mean, look at some of these things:

And yes, they're as yummy as they look. We went with School Bread because of its cult following in the Disney world - fluffy pastry, pastry cream, and toasted coconut. Not hard to see why folks love it. 

We also split a Carlsberg, the local favorite beer. It ended up being Paul's favorite for the day. 

While in Norway, we rode Maelstrom (one of those boat-scenario rides). Of all the rides we went on in that category, Maelstrom was my favorite (spoiler: there are trolls and it spins backwards!). We also met some friends - aren't they fun?

Up next, China. We could have gone safe in China and split a Tsing Tao, but instead, we went out on a limb and ordered drinks from the Joy of Tea kiosk just outside the country. I got a Canto Loopy and The Boy had a Peach Snap! (their exclamation point, not mine.)

They were SUPER yummy. While we sipped, we wandered through a few of the exhibits then found a cute little bench and people watched for a while.

Next, we made our way to Germany. We split a beer...a pilsner of some sort. I didn't order it, and The Boy doesn't file away details for blogs like I do, so it got lost somewhere in the process. We DID get a souvenir mug out of it, though. So yay!

We considered snacking in Germany, too, because they have an ENTIRE shop dedicated to caramel. But then we saw prices...and we decided to admire the $5 pieces of caramel from afar.

On to Italy and the Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar. Cute little area, adorable building, cozy little nooks with couches just big enough for two - no complaints here. Plus, the wine flight I ordered was delightful (as was The Boy's martini).

If we were to do it again, I'd have stopped for lunch here. No, we weren't starving yet, but the next few countries offered fewer options when it came to food worth paying for. Live and learn, I guess.

Ah, America. Let's be honest, guys...our country kinda gets the short straw in World Showcase. There's a big ol' Colonial building that plays a movie, and there's a cute little drum corps that marches around...but that's kinda it. We decided to eat here (mostly out of need for a quick service meal), and ended up with a beer (Sweetwater IPA) for drink six.

Next stop: Japan. Just the few moments we spent here made me miss it. Other than Germany, Japan was the most crowded country we'd stopped in yet...which, honestly, felt pretty expected.

We split a glass of nigori (which I like better than traditional sake), and sat on the steps of the temple to people watch for a while. There's a gallery in Japan, and a gift shop, but as for activities, that's about it.

After Japan, we stopped in Morocco. I'd also have been tempted to snack here if we weren't still full from lunch...and lots of liquid. But really, they have like four flavors of baklava!

Anyway, Morocco was a really neat stop. They've designed it like a traditional Moroccan market - maze-like streets lined with little shops and kiosks full of all sorts of pretty things. Plus, the buildings were gorgeous.

We stopped in the Tangerine Cafe to grab a drink - beer for The Boy, Hazelnut Moroccan coffee for me. Not sure if it was the ears, the magic buttons, or my adventure curls, but I somehow accidentally charmed the Cast Member into giving me a bonus shot of espresso. Not that I'm complaining...

The sun started to set as we made our way to France - which made for a rather picturesque visit (see bottom center photo below). We stood in line at a kiosk for a bit and met this adorable little family on their first trip to Disney. They commented on the ears and asked us when our big day was, then, then daughter saw my hand an cooed "Ohhh, Mom, look at her ring!!!" (Yeah, it's pretty much the best ring ever. I know.)

We split France's signature drink, a Grey Goose Citron lemonade slush (served in a martini glass, naturally). It was my favorite of the tour - sweet, tart, light, and refreshing all at the same time. Not too overpowering or cloying. Nice job, France.

We loved wandering the streets in this area - the cute little shops and restaurants are all fun to peek into - plus, there's a restaurant named after The Boy!

As part of our tour, we made a much anticipated stop at Les Halles Boulangerie and Pastisserie, the local pastry shop. As delicious as all the snacks looked in Norway, these blew them away. Just look!

We ended up walking away with a lemon tart, a creme brulee, and a box of those gorgeous macarons. No regrets.

As we left France, a family stopped us and asked it they could take our photo - just because they thought we were cute. We ended up posing for a round of several (and a few extra people got in on the paparazzi fun). How sweet is that?!?

Up next was the United Kingdom. Another wave of nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks when we walked in. They have a Twinnings tea shop, a sportsmans' shop (that carries Doctor Who paraphernalia!), buildings dressed up like my Cambridge dorm, and a cute little pub on the corner that just looked so cozy. I'd have happily spent more time there if we didn't have reservations to make. We've already agreed that the next time we do Epcot, we're starting on the opposite side (to make sure we see everything in the daylight).

We did stop in the pub - the Rose & Crown (named such because those two words appear most often in pub names around the UK) - for a quick drink. Our waiter, too cheeky for his own good, scoffed at my initial choice in drink, pretty much refusing to make it. We ended up letting him just pick us something, which he called a "Golden" (research shows that to be a 1/2 Harp, 1/2 Ball Ale). Whatever it was, it was good.

We wandered and sipped, taking in the live music (a band covering The Who songs) and enjoying the atmosphere. Due to time constraints, we drank half our drink in the UK, then crossed the border into Canada to finish the other half. We didn't have time to stop in Canada "officially," but I'm calling it okay. We'll stop there first next time.

We then made our way back to Future World for our dinner reservations at The Garden Grill - a spinning restaurant in the Living with the Land area. It doesn't spin quickly like a carousel or anything, it's more of a barely noticeable rotation. You just look up every now and then and the scenery has changed.

The food is served family style, i.e. all on one plate, and you can order as much of anything as you want. We had bread with maple butter, salad, steak, turkey, fish, mashed potatoes, green beans, other veggies, and a savory bread pudding. All of the food is sustainably sourced and some of it is grown right there in the exhibit - pretty neat. Dessert was a mixed berry skillet cake (i.e. cobbler), AND slice of chocolate Celebration cake (Honeymoon perk!). Needless to say, we were quite full when we left.

In addition to the yummy food, characters roam the restaurant at dinner. We got to chat with Micky and Pluto primarily, but also caught glimpses of Chip & Dale as they bounced past. They all made a nice to-do over the hats and buttons, which never got old.

We were pretty exhausted by the end of the day, so we skipped the fireworks and just headed home ahead of the crowds. It was a great day, and sampling drinks everywhere was fun, but we ended up almost uncomfortably full by the end. When we come back, we'll likely focus our efforts on our favorites (France & Norway) rather than attempt the full circuit again.

Thanks for reading - check back tomorrow for our last day: Downtown Disney. Til then!