Epcot

The Land where the ride Soarin' is located

Sunshine Seasons in The Land...i love the balloons in the ceiling

Journey into Imagination...i like the Figment ride in here

Via Napoli in the Italy Pavilion...our lunch spot

Chicken Parmesan

Christy's Veal Parmesan

the dessert menu...yum!

Tiramisu...some of the best

Christy had these. They were like a little fritter of cream cheese batter. There was chocolate sauce and whipped cream also.

In the Italy Pavilion

Italy

We stopped for only a moment to watch some performers and somehow Christy got roped into the performance. She was a good sport about it!

The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival is taking place right now. The topiaries and gardens are gorgeous! This is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The Germany Pavilion

Our first cupcake for the cupcake crawl came from here.

The China Pavilion

Donald and Daisy

Mickey and Minnie

Me outside the The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

We went into a butterfly exhibit and found these Chrysalises in different stages of development

Blue Passion Flower Vine...gorgeous

Captain Hook, Peter Pan, and the Crocodile

Club Cool. Loved tasting all of the different Coke Products

Lady and the Tramp

Mater from Cars

The France Pavilion

Characters from Beauty and the Beast

Belle and the Beast

Kouzzina at the Boardwalk Resort...our dinner spot

Kouzzina means "kitchen" in Greek and that is why there is an open kitchen in this restaurant

they started us with bread, two different kinds of olive oils and olives

steak, potatoes and broccolini

Christy had a greek lasagna, lamb slider, and ?

Molten Chocolate Cake and Raspberry Sorbet..so delicious

Today was Epcot day! Epcot is divided into two different spaces. One side is the World Showcase and the other side is Future World. We started on the Future World side first with a "new for me" attraction called Soarin'. The line was too long (50 min) when we got there so we grabbed a Fast Pass to come back later and instead went to the Imagination Pavilion to ride Journey Into Imagination with Figment. It was just as I remembered it! Cute and silly! We then went to see Captain EO with Michael Jackson. So much of what I did the last time I was here has left me. I couldn't remember if we did this or not but it was really neat to see Michael from back in the 80's. It was time to use our Fast Pass so we went back to the Land Pavilion and experienced Soarin'. This is one of the coolest things I've done at Disney! You are strapped into a row of seats that take off and move forward so that your feet are hanging in the air. You then experience a ride like you are flying through the air in a variety of scenarios all on a screen before you. There is wind in your face and smells! It was awesome. We liked it so much, we got another Fast Pass and rode it again before we left the park tonight. We had lunch reservations at Via Napoli in Italy in the World Showcase so we walked over just in time for our table. Our food was delicious and the Tiramisu I had for dessert was outstanding. After lunch we stayed in the World Showcase looking for Hidden Mickeys and exploring some of the other countries. Our time was getting a little tight and we decided to go back to Future World to see some things we had missed. We went into the Land Pavilion for the Nemo ride and to look at the aquarium and the Manatees. We went into Club Cool to try all the really neat Coke Products from other countries. Christy introduced me to "pin trading" which involves purchasing pins to trade and something to wear them on and then looking for cast members to trade with. You have to trade Disney trademarked pins and apparently some people get rather obsessed about the whole thing. We were just doing it for fun. Christy was picking up pins that her children were collecting and things she liked and I was just picking things I liked until I settled on a theme. It's fun to collect a "group" of pins that were released together or just a theme like all Mickeys or Donalds. It was so fun and rather like a scavenger hunt. Once I had purchased my starter set of pins and something to put them on, we rode the boat across the lagoon to the World Showcase seeking out our first cupcake on our "cupcake crawl" across Disney. This one was in Germany at Karamell Kuche. It was yellow cake with buttercream frosting and real caramel drizzle. The caramel was good, but we weren't impressed with the cupcake. We split the cupcake and didn't even finish our halves. This cupcake was way too sweet and the frosting was grainy. We stayed in the World Showcase and saw the China film and did some window shopping in other countries before we took another boat over to the Boardwalk Resort for supper at Kouzzina, a Cat Cora restaurant. This one did not disappoint either. Our food was delicious and the molten chocolate cake we both had for dessert knocked our socks off. If we had been at home, we would have licked our plates! Before dinner, we did pick up our next two cupcakes from the Boardwalk Bakery, a Strawberry Shortcake and an Oreo Bon Bon. We chose to save them for later because we were full. It had started to rain right before dinner. We took the boat back to the World Showcase after dinner so we could go to France and watch the film there. After that we walked in the rain back to Future World to ride Soarin' on our last Fast Pass. It took awhile to get back to our room, but when we did we opened the bag and found our cupcakes to be quite a mess. We didn't know that it was a whipped cream frosting and it had slipped and slid everywhere! It didn't matter much as they were delicious and we decided these would be worth going back to get again. The Strawberry Shortcake was our favorite! I have heard that it is seasonal so we were glad that it was in season for us. Epcot was a really fun day. Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios....until then!

Coronado Springs Resort

these little guys stared outside the window all night

We stayed in the Coronado Springs Resort. This is a moderate resort and we loved it. It has Queen size beds which Christy tells me is not the norm at Disney. The sheets were crisp and clean, there was lots of hot water, and the air conditioner worked great! This is a large resort and we were located near  a bus stop, but not near the front of the hotel where the restaurants were. We weren't eating there, so it really didn't affect us other than we couldn't fill up our resort mugs because we were really too far away. I really liked this resort and would be happy to stay here again on a return trip.

Got My Disney Ears On!!

Les Chefs de France in the France Pavillion in Epcot

Fireworks outside the window

French Onion Soup

Short Ribs

Christy's Chocolate Mousse

My Profiteroles

Well I really don't have any Disney ears on, but I am currently on vacation here at "the happiest place on earth"! I am here at DisneyWorld with my sister in law, Christy, and before you ask... no we don't have any kids with us! It's just a grownup girls trip this time. I flew Southwest for the first time in a long time and wound up with a 1 and 1/2 hour delay. Christy arrived early and waited for me in the airport. We took the Disney express to our hotel straight from the airport. We checked into the hotel and went immediately to the shuttle bus for Epcot. We had reservations at Chefs de France in the France Pavillion and didnt want to miss it. We arrived only a few minutes late, but they seated us at a small table next to the window so we could watch the fireworks display on the lagoon. We are eating on the Disney Dining plan. I've never done this, but Christy has. The plan we chose includes a snack, a table service meal, and a counter service meal for each day you are here. This will enable us to eat at places we might not have tried because they were too expensive and still stay within our plan. Tonight, Christy and I each ate French Onion Soup and delicious Shortribs. Christy had chocolate mousse for dessert and I had profiteroles. All of this was part of our plan! Our food was delicious and there was so much, that we weren't even able to eat it all! Tomorrow we go to Epcot and start our Cupcake Crawl across Disney! Until tomorrow...