Epcot Flower and Garden Festival - Disney Castle Dreaming Travel

EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival Starts Today

The 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival starts today, March 1,2023. This year’s festival will run through July 5, 2023. This year’s Festival features new topiaries, great music and tons of great food.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Three Caballeros Topiaries — Photo: Disney Parks

The 2023 International Flower & Garden Festival features more than 15 outdoor kitchens. There are returning popular favorites like the Honey-Mascarpone Cheesecake from the Honey Bee-stro hosted by the National Honey Board and the Boneless IMPOSSIBLE Korean Short Rib at Trowel & Trellis hosted by IMPOSSIBLE.

There are nearly 50 brand new dishes blossoming for the first time at this year’s festival. Lots of great dishes that guests will be eager to try, like the Citrus Baked Brie from the Citrus Blossom and the Muffuletta Panini from Magnolia Terrace. For guests that are lucky enough to visit the Festival more than once during it’s 4 month run, be sure to check out the EPCOT Farmer’s Feast. The EPCOT Farmer’s Feast is featuring a seasonal menu that will change as the Festival progresses. How fun is that?

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival — Springtime flowers and fairies at Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival

Extra Fun for Foodies

A fun activity for foodies attending the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival is the Garden Graze. The Garden Graze is a kind of scavenger hunt based on food items at various outdoor kitchens around the Festival. There are 11 different tasty treats featured in the Garden Graze. After you purchase on of the treats, you’ll get a stamp in your Garden Graze passport. Once you’ve collected five stamps in your passport, you’ll receive an exclusive treat from the Pineapple Promenade. I love a scavenger hunt, and one based on food, likely with a food treat as a reward? Sign me up!

Foodie Guide for the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival

EPCOT Farmers Feast

Food Items:

Early Bloom Menu (Available March 1 through April 8)

- - Chilled Potato and Leek Soup “Vichyssoise” with bacon lardons, potato croutons, chive oil, and crispy leeks (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly)
  - Char-grilled Bison Ribeye with creamy leek fondue, red wine butter sauce, and whipped red wine goat cheese
  - Spice Cake with cream cheese icing and candied pecans and parsnip (New)
  - Hibiscus Lemonade Cocktail featuring Islamorada Brewery & Distillery Hibiscus Gin

Springtime Menu (Available April 9 through May 20)

- - Grilled Vegetable Bruschetta with marinated peppers, zucchini, squash, artichokes, goat cheese, and balsamic glaze on grilled ciabatta
  - Grilled Swordfish with crushed fingerling potatoes, pea and mint purée, grilled asparagus, and lemon beurre Blanc (New)
  - Strawberry Rhubarb Upside-down Cake with crème fraîche whipped cream

Summer Solstice Menu (Available May 20 through July 5)

- - Tomato and Red Onion Panzanella with avocado, burrata cheese, and fresh basil
  - Barbecued Seared Pork Tenderloin with summer succotash, herb butter, and grapefruit vinaigrette (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly)
  - Sweet Corn Crème Brûlée with corn biscotti (New)

Beverages (Available throughout entire festival):

- - Collective Arts Brewing Blueberry & Elderberry Sparkling Hard Tea (New)
  - Ghost Mary: Translucent Bloody Mary with Boyd & Blair Cucumber Vodka, tomato water, horseradish, celery salt, and a hint of pepper (New)

BRUNCHCOT (Near Test Track presented by Chevrolet)

Food Items:

- - Avocado Toast with marinated toybox tomatoes on toasted ciabatta (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - Shrimp and Grits: Blackened shrimp and cheddar cheese grits with brown gravy and sweet corn salsa
  - Lox Benedict on Everything Focaccia with everything-spiced cream cheese, shallots, crispy capers, and hollandaise (New)
  - Fried Cinnamon Roll Bites with cream cheese frosting and candied bacon

Beverages:

- - Froot Loops Shake (Non-alcoholic)
  - Peach Bellini (New)
  - Joffrey’s Coffee Cold Brew Cocktail with milk, Kahlúa Rum and Coffee Liqueur, and vanilla vodka

The Citrus Blossom (The Odyssey)

Food Items:

- - Orange Sesame Tempura Shrimp with orange chile sauce (New)
  - Citrus Baked Brie with preserved lemon marmalade, limoncello-macerated blueberries, and spiced marcona almonds (New)
  - Lemon Meringue Pie: Lemon curd, lemon mousse, and toasted meringue (New)

Beverages:

- - Orange-Lemon Smoothie in a Souvenir Orange Bird Sipper Cup (Non-alcoholic)
  - UFO Beer Co. Citrus Hazy Wheat Beer
  - 81Bay Brewing Co. Citrus Honey Cream Ale
  - Parish Brewing Co. Drive Thru: Orange Octane Imperial Sour
  - Bella Strada Spritz (New)
  - Orange Sunshine Wine Slushy
  - Beer Flight

Novelty:

- - Orange Bird Bundle featuring The Orange Bird Little Golden Book and souvenir Orange Bird Sipper Cup

Florida Fresh (Near Disney Traders)

Food Items:

- - Grilled Street Corn on the Cob with savory garlic spread and spicy corn chips (New) (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - Grilled Street Corn on the Cob with savory garlic spread and plant-based cotija cheese (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - Blackened Fish Slider with roasted tomatoes, watercress, and citrus remoulade on brioche (New)
  - Watermelon Salad with blueberries, pickled red onions, balsamic, and feta
  - Florida Strawberry Shortcake (New)

Beverages:

- - Cucumber Watermelon Slushy (Non-alcoholic)
  - Cucumber Watermelon Slushy with gin

Refreshment Outpost

Food Items:

- - Pineapple Skewer with Tajin seasoning (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly) (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - Tangerine Soft-serve
  - Ice Cream Float: Tangerine soft-serve and cream soda

Beverages:

- - Lavender Martini: Boyd & Blair Potato Vodka with Lavender and Lemon
  - Lexington Brewing Tangerine Cream Ale
  - Blake’s Hard Cider Co. Grand Cherry Hard Cider (New)
  - Southern Tier Brewing Co. Juice Jolt IPA (New)

BAUERNMARKT: FARMER’S MARKET (Germany)

Food Items:

- - Potato Pancakes with house-made apple sauce (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly) (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - Potato Pancake with caramelized ham, onions, and herb sour cream (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly)
  - Toasted Pretzel Bread topped with black forest ham and melted gruyère cheese
  - Warm Cheese Strudel with mixed berries

Beverages:

- - Bitburger Premium Pils
  - Stiegl Brewery Radler Raspberry
  - Flensburger Dunkel
  - Apfelschaumwein: Sparkling wine and apple liqueur
  - Beer Flight

Flower & Garden Festival starts today — Photo: Disney Parks

Magnolia Terrace (The American Adventure)

Food Items:

- - Muffuletta Panini with ham, salami, mortadella, provolone, and Swiss with olive salad (New)
  - Spicy Chicken Gumbo with Andouille sausage and BEN’S ORIGINAL Long Grain & Wild Rice
  - Crawfish Pie (New)
  - Bananas Foster Bread Pudding (New)

Beverages:

- - Bayou Cocktail: Bayou Spiced Rum, coconut rum, fruit punch, and orange juice
  - Central 28 Beer Co. Pretty Things Ale (New)
  - Wicked Weed Brewing Day Light American Light Ale
  - Parish Brewing Co. Ghost in the Machine Double IPA
  - Beer Flight

Tangierine Café: Flavors of the Medina (Morocco)

Food Items:

- - Hummus Trio: Traditional hummus, red beet and black garlic hummus, and avocado-herb hummus with Moroccan bread and crispy papadam (New) (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - Orange Blossom-Saffron Cake (New)

Beverages:

- - Pomegranate Mimosa
  - Keel Farms Strawberry Elderflower Hard Cider
  - Bold Rock Tangerine Hard Cider
  - 3 Daughters Brewing Pomegranate Hard Cider
  - Cider Flight

La Isla Fresca (Between Morocco and France)

Food Items:

- - Braised Oxtail with pigeon pea rice (New)
  - Sugar Cane Shrimp Skewer with BEN’S ORIGINAL Long Grain White Rice, mango salsa, and coconut-lime sauce
  - Coconut Tres Leches: Vanilla cake soaked in oat milk, almond milk, and coconut milk with toasted coconut (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)

Beverages:

- - Tropical Breeze: Minute Maid Lemonade, grapefruit, and simple syrup (Non-alcoholic)
  - Islamorada Beer Company Coconut Key Lime Ale
  - Florida Orange Groves Winery Tropical Perception White Sangria
  - Tropical Breeze with Don Q Límon Rum

Northern Bloom (Canada)

Food Items:

- - Seared Scallops with French green beans, butter potatoes, brown butter vinaigrette, and Nueske’s Applewood-smoked Bacon (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly)
  - Beef Tenderloin Tips, mushroom bordelaise sauce, and whipped potatoes with garden vegetables
  - Chocolate Maple Whisky Cake (New)

Beverages:

- - Maple Popcorn Shake (Non-alcoholic)
  - Collective Arts Brewing Honey Lager
  - Glutenberg Blonde Ale, Montreal
  - 81Bay Brewing Co. Apricot with Maple Syrup
  - Maple Popcorn Shake with Tap 357 Maple Rye Whisky
  - Beer Flight

Refreshment Port (Near Canada)

Food Items:

- - Shrimp Scampi Poutine with cheese curds, lemon-garlic cheese fondue, spinach, and artichokes (New)
  - Soft-serve Waffle Cone: Peanut butter, jelly, or swirl

Beverages:

- - Mighty Swell Purple Magic Spiked Seltzer (New)
  - Villa Maria Earth Garden Sauvignon Blanc (New)
  - Frozen Mojito with Boyd & Blair Rum (New)

Trowel & Trellis Hosted by IMPOSSIBLE (Near Port of Entry)

Food Items:

- - Boneless IMPOSSIBLE Korean Short Rib with cilantro-lime rice, Danmuji slaw, and kimchee mayonnaise (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - IMPOSSIBLE Lumpia with Thai sweet chili sauce (New) (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)
  - Chocolate Cake with black currant ganache, mixed berry compote, and chocolate ice cream (New) (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)

Beverages:

- - Twinings Iced Green Tea with Cranberry and Lime (Non-alcoholic)
  - Parish Brewing Co. Bloom Hazy IPA
  - Lohr Wildflower Valdiguié
  - Twinings Iced Green Tea with cranberry and lime with Hangar 1 Makrut Vodka served in a mason jar

The Honey Bee-stro Hosted by National Honey Board (Near Port of Entry)

Food Items:

- - Chicken and Waffles: Crispy honey-brined chicken and honey sweet corn bread waffle with whipped honey butter and spicy honey (New)
  - Pollinator Flatbread with honey whipped mascarpone, honey caramelized onions, blueberry gastrique, prosciutto, honey whipped goat cheese, arugula, honey vinaigrette, and bee pollen (New)
  - Honey-Mascarpone Cheesecake with honey whipped cream, whipped honey, crystalized honey, honeycomb, dehydrated honey, and fennel pollen meringue kisses

Beverages:

- - Honey-Peach Cobbler Freeze with streusel (Non-alcoholic)
  - Nektar New Wave Lemonade Mead
  - Florida Orange Groves Winery Orange Blossom Honey Wine
  - Honey-Peach Cobbler Freeze with blueberry vodka and streusel

Pineapple Promenade (Near Port of Entry)

Food Items:

- - Spicy Hot Dog with pineapple chutney and plantain chips
  - DOLE Whip (Plant-based)

Beverages:

- - Frozen Desert Violet Lemonade (Non-alcoholic)
  - DOLE Whip with Fanta (Non-alcoholic)
  - 3 Daughters Brewing Tropical Hefe
  - BrewDog Hazy Jane IPA
  - Urban Artifact Teak Tropical American Fruit Tart
  - Playalinda Brewing Company Violet Lemonade Ale
  - Florida Orange Groves Winery Sparkling Pineapple Wine
  - DOLE Whip topped with Sōmrus Mango Cream Liqueur
  - Pineapple Beer Flight

The Land Cart hosted by AdventHealth

Food Items:

- - Fruit and Cheese Plate: Grapes, strawberries, cheddar, and Mini Babybel Snack Cheese
  - Vegetable Plate: Broccoli, carrot sticks, and tomatoes with dip (Plant-based)
  - Pretzels with Hummus Dip (Plant-based)
  - Cookies ‘n “Cream” Chocolate Mousse Cup (Plant-based) (Garden Graze)

Sunshine Seasons

Beverage:

- - Strawberry-mango Slushy (Non-alcoholic)

Connections Café & Eatery

Food Item:

- - Orange Bird Liege Waffle (New)

Beverage:

- - Flower Drop Cocktail: St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, and Minute Maid Premium Lemonade (New)

Jardin de Fiestas (Mexico)

Food Items:

- - Quesadilla de Flor de Calabaza: House-made masa tortillas with squash blossoms, bacon, onion, zucchini, and cheese (New) (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly)
  - Taco Vampiro: Barbacoa Beef in a Corn Tortilla with crispy grilled monterey jack cheese, salsa ranchera, and esquites (Gluten/ Wheat Friendly)

Beverages:

- - Mala Hierba Margarita: Centinela Tequila Reposado, elderflower-chamomile tea, Abasolo Corn Whiskey, and UNA Flower-infused Vodka with a chile salt rim (New)
  - Cristal Margarita: 100% Agave Tequila Blanco, Ilegal Mezcal Joven, clarified lemon juice, and orange liqueur in a souvenir cup (New)
  - Craft Mexican Lager

Lotus House (China)

Food Items:

- - Spicy Mala Chicken Skewer with creamy peanut sauce
  - House-made Cheesy Crab Wontons
  - Pan-fried Vegetable Dumplings

Beverages:

- - Classic Bubble Milk Tea (Non-alcoholic)
  - Cherry Blossom Pilsner Draft Beer
  - Kung Fu Master: Tito’s Vodka, Triple Sec, mango, orange juice, and soda water
  - Tang Dynasty: Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila Gold, light rum, strawberry, piña colada mix, soda water, and white boba pearls
  - Tropical Moon: Smirnoff Vodka, Triple Sec, passion fruit, soda water and white boba pearls (New)

Primavera Kitchen (Italy)

Food Items:

- - Caesar con Gamberett: Baby gem lettuce, shrimp, Caesar dressing, and crispy bread crumble (New)
  - Tortelloni Primavera: Spinach tortelloni, sweet butter, pancetta, corn, peas, and fava beans (New)
  - Budino alle Nocciole: Chocolate-hazelnut pudding with cookie crumble (New)

Beverages:

- - Peroni Pilsner
  - Prosecco
  - Moscato
  - Italian Sangria red or white
  - Italian Margarita with limoncello and tequila

Hanami (Japan)

Food Items:

- - Frushi: Strawberry, pineapple, and lychee wrapped in sweet rice and pink soy wrap served with whipped cream, drizzled raspberry sauce, and toasted coconut
  - Hanami Sushi: Assorted Nigiri sushi with lemon-cured salmon, soy-marinated tuna, and cured mackerel (New)
  - Creamy Shrimp Udon: Udon soup with shrimp and spring vegetables (New)

Beverages:

- - Sakura Cherry Blossom Pilsner (New)
  - Hakushika Hana Kohaku Plum Sake: Junmai Ginjo blended with Japanese plum (New)
  - Nigori Dragon Fruit Sake Cocktail (New)

Fleur de Lys (France)

Food Items:

- - Croissant au Fromage de Chèvre, Herbes et Ail Rôtie: Croissant with goat cheese, herbs, and roasted garlic
  - Daube de Boeuf à la Provençal, Compote de Tomate au Romarin Gnocchi à la Niçoise: Provençal-style braised beef, rosemary tomato, and niçoise gnocchi (New)
  - Tarte Chocolat Mogador: Chocolate tart with Valrhona single origin chocolate brownie, walnuts, and raspberry coulis served warm (New)
  - Beignet Caramélisé, Fourré Crème Vanille, Glacé au Caramel Fleur de Sel: Caramelized beignet filled with vanilla cream and glazed with caramel fleur de sel

Beverages:

- - Kronenbourg Blanc 1664 Draft Beer
  - VeRy Raspberry: Rosé wine with natural raspberry flavor
  - Kir àla Poire: French sparkling wine with Monin desert pear (New)
  - La Vie en Rose Frozen Slush: Vodka, Grey Goose L’Orange Vodka, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, and white and red cranberry juices

Funnel Cake

- - Banana Split Funnel Cake: Funnel Cake topped with Banana-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, Whipped Cream, Diced Strawberries, and a Maraschino Cherry drizzled with Chocolate Syrup (New)

Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company

World Discovery (Near Mission: SPACE) – Exotic Lemon Tea: A refreshing mix of Frozen Lemon and Iced Tea featuring Exotic Berry notes (Spirited option available featuring Grey Goose Vodka) (New)

Near Canada – Melonade: A tangy blend of Frozen Lemon with a burst of watermelon (Spirited option available featuring Grey Goose Vodka) (New)

World Showcase (Near Disney Traders) – Orange Cream Cold Brew: A smooth blend of French Roast Cold Brew with flavors of orange and vanilla topped with a splash of cream, whipped cream, and coconut shavings (Spirited option available featuring Kahlúa Rum and Coffee Liqueur) (New)

The American Adventure – Key Lime Cold Brew: A zesty blend of French Roast Cold Brew with flavors of Key lime and white chocolate topped with a splash of cream, whipped cream, and graham cracker crumbs (Spirited option available featuring Kahlúa Rum and Coffee Liqueur) (New)

(Note: All offerings are subject to change and availability.)

What Food Items Are You Looking Forward To?

I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited about some of these offerings. Mom and I always plan at least two EPCOT days during our annual Flower & Garden Festival trips. Some years we’ve even gone back a third time. We go for the Flowers, but the food is a becoming more and more of a draw every year.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Anna & Elsa Topiaries — Photo: Disney Parks

Is there anything you are really looking forward to trying?

It’s not too late to plan a trip for this year’s International Flower & Garden Festival. I’d love to help! Reach out now for a no obligation quote! Email brooke@disneycastledreaming.com or call 630-538-1124.

If you’d like to check out our other posts on this year’s Festival, please click here or here.

2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival

It’s almost time! The 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival opens March 1, 2023 and will run through July 5, 2023. The EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival is my favorite EPCOT festival. Every spring, my mom and I plan our annual mother daughter Disney trip around the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival.

EPCOT is never more beautiful than during the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. Even during these painful “construction walls” years of growth, EPCOT still sparkles during Flower & Garden. The glorious flowers everywhere and the beautiful topiaries manage to make the construction walls recede somehow—or maybe just make them less noticeable? But EPCOT just looks a little prettier every where during this festival than it does during the rest of the year.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Three Amigos Topiaries — Three Cabelleros Topiaries Photo: Brooke Hudson

The EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival features gorgeous themed gardens throughout all areas of EPCOT. There are special seating areas in some gardens where you can just sit and enjoy the beauty around you. Planters are every where, filled with flowers and greenery. There are even floating planters with flowers in them. Throughout EPCOT, you will find amazing topiaries themed to your favorite Disney and Pixar characters.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Gardens — Photo: Brooke Hudson

What’s new for this year’s EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival?

This year, there are a couple of NEW things to look forward to. Anything new, quite frankly, is a bit exciting. As much as I love this particular Festival, EPCOT hasn’t really done much in the way of “new” for the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival in a few years. So I am really excited that there IS some new stuff to look forward to this year.

New Topiaries

This year, the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival is going to be featuring several new topiaries. First, near the main entrance of the park, we will meet several characters from the beloved Disney movie Encanto. Mirabel, Isabela, Luisa, and Antonio are all making their debut as topiaries this year.

Also new this year: Princess Tiana from The Princess and The Frog will grace the American Adventure in World Showcase.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Figment — Figment Topiary Photo: Brooke Hudson

Of course all of our classic favorite topiaries will still be featured all over EPCOT. We will still be able to find Figment, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Anna and Elsa, Lady and the Tramp, and many, many more.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Snow White topiary — Snow White and Dopey Photo: Brooke Hudson

2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival Merchandise

One of the highlights for mom and I every year at the Festival is investigating all the new Festival merchandise. Every Festival has its own merchandise line. Mom almost always gets a coffee mug. We always get a pin from each year’s festival for our park backpacks. I almost always end up with a T-shirt or something.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival 2022 Mug Beets — EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Merchandise Mug 2022 Photo: Brooke Hudson

Epcot flower & garden festival 2022 mug — EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Merchandise Mug 2022. Photo: Brooke Hudson

In addition to Flower & Garden Festival Merchandise, the Festival also features Orange Bird 70’s retro themed merchandise. This line has everything from apparel and pins to housewares.

I haven’t seen anything yet for this year’s Festival merchandise. As soon as Disney releases images of this year’s Festival merchandise I will update this post.

Here’s some of the merchandise we found at last year’s Festival:

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Garden Rocks Concert Series

Throughout the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, various musical acts are featured at the America Gardens Theatre. Disney has not yet released the musical act lineup for 2023. I will update this post once Disney releases this year’s information.

Outdoor Kitchens

One thing we all know about Disney is that they are VERY good at making money. Disney learned very early on with the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival that there was LOTS of money to be made from Food Booths installed around World Showcase during the Festival. As a result, Disney started including smaller scale versions of the “Food” portion of the Festival at their other EPCOT Festivals.

For the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, these food booths are called Outdoor Kitchens. This year’s Festival will include more than 15 Outdoor Kitchens. Each Outdoor Kitchen will have a different theme and will feature 1-3 food items and 1-2 beverages according to the theme.

We don’t yet have much information about the 2023 Outdoor Kitchens. The only one we know so far is The Citrus Blossom, which will be located at The Odyssey.

Epcot flower & garden festival citrus blossom — The Citrus Blossom Outdoor Kitchen Photo: Disney Parks

As soon as more information is released, I will update this post.

Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration

Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration is a springtime Scavenger Hunt that adds a fun layer to the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. Mom & I did this last spring and really enjoyed it.

In 2022, the cost was $9.99. For $9.99, you got a Scavenger Hunt board and a sheet of stickers. As you worked your way around the Festival, you looked for Spike in various gardens located all over the Festival. When you found him, you placed the sticker for the flower he’s with on that Garden on your board. When your board was completely filled out, you turned it in at a Festival gift shop for a prize. It was educational, fun and encouraged us to pay more attention to the different gardens as we moved around the Festival.

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I highly recommend playing. We plan to play again this year!

Blossoms of Fragrance

On the bridge from the “Construction Zone” 🙂 to World Showcase, you will pass through the Blossoms of Fragrance Exhibit area.

This exhibit area offers some great photo opportunities. Blossoms of Fragrance is presented by Scentsy. Guests will be surrounded by butterfly topiaries. There are six different scent stations for guests to explore. Each aroma will inspire memories and enhance your experience.

Final Thoughts

I can’t say it enough. I love visiting EPCOT during the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival every year. EPCOT is so beautiful. It’s just an explosion of colors. There are flowers everywhere, and it’s just something that fills me with joy every time.

EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Topiaries — Flower & Garden Festival Mickey & Minnie Topiaries

This year, Mom and I are going from May 3 – May 10. Not quite in the middle of the Festival, but close. That is another thing to consider when planning a visit to the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival. The Festival itself changes throughout the growing season. The gardeners update plants and flowers as the season goes on. In a perfect world, I’d visit (at least) monthly throughout the Festival to see the evolution of the florals. But for now, we try to visit mid-Festival. It’s close to Mom’s birthday and Mother’s Day, and about a month before my birthday, so we use our trip as a celebration for all of that stuff.

Will you attend the 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival?

What do you think? Will this be the year you visit for the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival? If you’d like a no obligation quote, email now brooke@disneycastledreaming.com or call 630-538-1124.

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

La Creperie de Paris: Another Reason to Visit France

La Creperie de Paris is one of the newest additions to EPCOT’s table service restaurant offerings. Located in the “new” section of EPCOT’s France pavilion, La Creperie de Paris offers guests both a quick service option and a table service option.

La Creperie de Paris EPCOT — La Creperie de Paris (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

Counter Service

Crepes A Emporter by La Creperie de Paris is a quick service window connected to La Creperie de Paris. At this quick service window, you’ll be able to enjoy both savory galettes and sweet crepes, as well as soft serve ice cream and ciders and wines.

The line for the quick service Crepes A Emporter at La Creperie de Paris (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

We observed fairly long lines for this quick service window every time we were in the vicinity. It’s definitely a tasty and popular option, and worth the visit to this “back of France” area. The new Ratatouille attraction is located back in this area of the France pavilion, and that is the main reason most guests flock to this area. (Note: There are also new bathrooms back in this area–I like knowing where all the non-restaurant bathrooms are located!).

There is not much seating anywhere in this area, and crepes are not the easiest thing to eat while standing; however, if you are wanting something a little different to eat or for dessert, the offerings here are quite tasty.

My nephew Vinnie absolutely LOVED the dessert crepes here, and visited this quick service window several times during our October trip.

Quick Service Menu: Crepes A Emporter at La Creperie de Paris

Galettes (Savory Crepes)

Cream of Brie Cheese Galette $9.95

Ratatouille Galette (Tomatoes, Zucchini and Eggplant) $8.95

Bechamel, Cheese & Ham Galette $10.95

Crepes (Sweet Crepes)

Butter & Sugar Crepe $5.95

Housemade Hazelnut & Chocolate Spread Crepe $7.95

Red Berries Crepe $7.50

Vanilla or Chocolate Ice Cream Crepe $6.95

Glaces (Ice Cream)

Soft-serve Ice Cream in a Waffle Cone

Cidres (Hard Ciders)

Cidre Brut (Dry) $5.95

Cidre Doux (Sweet) $5.95

Petillants (Sparklings)

Champagne Malard Excellence Brut $15.50

Mimosa Sparkling Wine & Orange Juice $12.00

Kronenbourg 1664 French Beer $9.00

Vins (Wines)

Rose, Cotes de Provence $14.00

Chardonnay, Chefs Selection G. Duboeuf $7.50

Merlot, Chefs Selection G. Duboeuf $7.50

Cabernet Sauvignon $8.00

Boisson (Soft Drinks)

Assorted Beverages (Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Iced Tea, Lemonade $4.75

Evian Natural Spring Water $3.50

Perrier Sparkling Mineral Water $4.75

Our Thoughts

Overall, we found this quick service location to be good option. Every crepe we tried was tasty, and we thought it was positive that there were a couple vegetarian options here.

Our favorite crepe overall was definitely the Hazelnut & Chocolate Spread Crepe. This crepe was so tasty! It’s very rich, though, so you’ll want to make sure you have some water or an alternative beverage. (If you can get a scoop of vanilla ice cream for your crepe, that helps a LOT with the richness AND adds a lovely cold element on a hot day. We discovered that wonderful combination at the table service restaurant, though.)

EPCOT France Pavilion New Addition — Photo: Brooke Hudson

I am not kidding when I tell you there really isn’t anywhere in this area to sit and enjoy your crepe. That is the only real negative I have about this quick service location. Much of the area back here is absorbed by the Ratatouille queue; there are a few planters with ledges where people frequently sit…but it’s not nearly enough room for everyone waiting in line at any given time. There are a few tables on one side, and a few high top tables with no seating where you can at least set your food and drink down, but you can’t sit. There is not a lot of shade in this area, either, so on a hot day, you would probably not want to stand around in the sun to enjoy your crepe and your drink. But if you can stake out a shady spot and some seating, this quick service location is a definite winner for us.

Table Service: La Creperie de Paris

I much prefer eating at table service restaurants at Disney to quick service, I must confess. I like knowing we will be able to sit down, in air conditioning, and be able to get a decent rest while we enjoy our meal. After trying out the quick service window for Crepes A Emporter at La Creperie de Paris during our October family trip, I knew I wanted to check out the table service option for our spring Flower & Garden trip.

I made all our dining reservations at the same time, 60 days out from our trip. Fortunately, I was able to get every reservation I wanted with little difficulty. For the purposes of this review, I have gone online several times to check availability, and while I can rarely find same day reservations, I can usually find something a few days out. Weekdays are easier than weekends, of course, but I suspect with a little planning ahead, you should be able to secure a reservation for La Creperie de Paris.

Decor

This restaurant has a pretty modern feel to it. It’s all beiges and whites, and fairly clean and simple feeling. I think they were going for a French Bistro feel here, and my mom, who has been to several French Bistros in her travels, says this effort is successful. We got a table right in the windows, so that was fun for us. Avid people watchers, we loved the opportunity to people watch both inside and outside the restaurant.

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Bonus: One thing we really liked at La Creperie de Paris was that we got real menus! Disney is still using the online menus at most table service restaurants where you scan a QR code with your phone and look at the menu on your phone. I miss real menus! La Creperie de Paris uses their paper menus as your placemat, and I like it!

Service

Service was very good here. We both felt the absence of the international program for EPCOT though. We’ve always loved that the EPCOT restaurants were primarily staffed with team members from the country the restaurant was themed to. That program was paused when Walt Disney World closed in 2020 due to Covid, and it has restarted only very recently. As a result, there are very few international cast members back in EPCOT at this time. While each of the service team members we met was terrific, I missed being able to talk to and learn from the international cast members in the restaurants.

The service was a bit TOO good, in fact. We felt a little rushed. We hadn’t finished our salads when our savory crepes arrived, and our dessert crepes arrived before we had finished our savory crepes. However, on the positive side, my water glass was pretty constantly refilled — It was a hot day and I was very thirsty.

We were celebrating my mom’s birthday, and our server brought out some VERY tasty french vanilla ice cream for her birthday. Mom suggested we add the ice cream to our hazelnut chocolate dessert crepes and WOW was that amazing! We both decided this was our favorite way to enjoy the hazelnut chocolate crepes by far!

Table Service Menu: La Creperie de Paris

Appetizer or Side Dish

Soupe du Jour (Soup of the Day) $6.75

Salad Maison (Mixed greens, tomatoes, onions, and vinegarette) $6.75

Prix Fixe Menu * (My recommendation for this restaurant)

Choice of Soup of the Day or Salade Maison; choice of one Galette with a glass of Hard Cider, Soda or Juice; Choice of one Dessert Crepe $34.95

Galettes (Buckwheat Savory Crepes)

Classique (Ham, Egg, Swiss Cheese) $16.95

Poulet (Chicken, Bechamel Cheese Sauce, Mushrooms) $16.95

Chevre (Goat Cheese, Spinach, Walnuts) $16.95

Saumon (Smoked Salmon, Creme Fraiche, Chives, Lemon) $16.95

Ratatouille (Tomato, Zucchini, Eggplant) $16.95

Savoyarde (Raclette Cheese, Carmelized Onions, Bacon, Imported Bayonne Home $16.95

Menu Enfant Prix Fixe Menu (Kids’ Prix Fixe Menu)

Choice of one Galette (Brie Cheese, Ratatouille, or Ham & Cheese) and choice of one Crepe (Sugar, Red Berries or Hazelnut Chocolate Spread) $14.00

Crepes (Dessert)

Gourmande (Hazelnut Chocolate Spread, Whipped Cream) $9.95

Banane (Banana, Caramel Beurre Sale) $9.95

Melba (Peach, Red Berries Sauce, Almonds) $9.95

Poire (Pear, Chocolate Ganache, Whipped Cream) $9.95

Pomme (Carmelized Apples, Caramel Beurre Sale) $9.95

Add-On’s (Each: Whipped Cream, Ice Cream, Sauce) $2.95

Add a Shot to Any Crepe (Grand Marnier, Rhum or Calvados) $7.00

Cidres (French Hard Ciders)

Brut $29.00 (Bottle) $5.95 (Glass)

Demi Sec $29.00 (Bottle) $5.95 (Glass)

Doux $29.00 (Bottle) $5.95 (Glass)

Rose $40.00 (Bottle) $7.50 (Glass)

Vins (French Wines)

Chardonnay $36.95 (Bottle) $7.95 (Glass)

Carbernet Sauvignon $36.95 (Bottle) $7.95 (Glass)

Merlot $36.95 (Bottle) $7.95 (Glass)

Rose de Provence $69.50 (Bottle) $14.95 (Glass)

Divers (Miscellaneous)

Biere Kronenbourg (Beer) $9.50

Champagne Malard $17.55

Mimosa $12.00

French Martini $15.75

Sodas, Jus (Imported Soft Drinks)

Evian $7.50

Perrier $8.50

Jus de Pomme (Apple Juice) $5.00

Limonade (French Sparkling Limonade) $5.75

Orangina (French Orange Soda) $6.25

Hot Beverages

Espresso $4.75

Cappuccino $5.25

The (Tea) $4.50

Cafe (Coffee) $4.25

Our Thoughts

We liked our La Creperie de Paris lunch very much. I highly recommend the Prix Fixe Menu, which includes soup or salad, a savory buckwheat galette, a dessert crepe and a glass of hard cider, soda or juice for $34.95. Both of us felt this was a good value, especially for a Disney table service restaurant. Definitely choose the cider to maximize your investment. Note: There is also kids Prix Fixe Menu for $14.00 that includes a savory galette and a dessert crepe.

At this time, La Creperie de Paris does not accept any discounts. No DVC discount, no passholder discounts, etc. This is pretty common for newer restaurants when they first open. Most likely this table service restaurant will offer discounts at some point in the future, but while it is still new and very popular, discounts are unlikely to materialize.

Overall, we both our enjoyed our meals. The salads were fresh and light, and the perfect size for an appetizer. The weak link for both of us were the savory buckwheat galettes. They were good, don’t get me wrong, but they were not great. We both felt the flavor of the buckwheat crepe itself was a bit boring. Mom and I also each felt our galettes were too dry and needed more sauce.

We enjoyed the environment, it was relaxing and comfortable. The host seated us almost immediately after we checked in, and we had a great seat in the front windows. Each of us enjoyed our hard ciders; mom had the Brut, which is dry and really liked it. I tried the Doux, which was sweeter. I would definitely order this again. The highlight of the meal for both of us was the dessert crepes. We each had the Hazelnut Chocolate Spread dessert crepes, and we’d eaten about a third of our crepes when the server brought my mom’s “birthday” ice cream. We both agreed that while the crepes was VERY good with whipped cream, the ice cream took it to a whole other level. It became OUTSTANDING.

La Creperie de Paris Dessert Crepe (Photo: Linda Harkness)

La Creperie de Paris Birthday Ice Cream — Mom and her dessert crepe with her “Birthday” ice cream!

I would definitely recommend you check out this table service restaurant. Our meal was filling but not too heavy, and we felt recharged and ready to head back out into the 90+ degree heat of the afternoon, very satisfied with our meal.

Have you tried La Creperie de Paris or Crepes A Emporter by La Creperie de Paris for yourself yet? If so, what did you think? Please comment below, I’d love to read your thoughts!

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Disney Parks News Updates: Kevin from UP! Spotted at Animal Kingdom! and more…

Hello Everyone! Lots of Disney Parks News Updates to share with you today!! Some of these updates I’ve already shared in Instagram stories or Facebook lives on the DisneyCastleDreaming page, but I know a lot of you don’t check those places…and for those of you that did catch any of those stories, I had promised to post some of the pictures and videos I mentioned.

AND I’ve got a couple of additional updates to give you as well! We will start in California, and then move on to Florida today.

Disney Parks News Updates: Disneyland/California Adventure

The Disneyland After Dark: Heroes Assemble at Disney California Adventure

Disneyland After Dark Heroes Assemble California Adventure Marvel Superheroes — Disneyland After Dark: Heroes Assemble at California Adventure

As I have discussed before, I’m a fan of the Disney After Dark events. Yes, they are a separate ticketed event BUT Disney limits the number of tickets they sell, and usually lines are fairly short for attractions that are open, and there are some fun extras included.

Disneyland has announced a new Disneyland After Dark event. It’s called Heroes Assemble at California Adventure. Tickets are already on sale for Annual Passholders, and they go on sale on Thursday, February 21st for the general public. Tickets are $109; children under 2 do not need a ticket.

So far, only two dates have been announced, and based on the dates, it looks like this is a tie in with the release of the Avengers: Endgame movie coming out in May. This event is being held on April 30 or May 1. Event hours are 9 pm to 1 am. It’s not clear yet if your ticket will grant you access to California Adventure earlier than 9 pm on the night of the event, as is usually the case for Disney After Dark events in Florida.

For this event, Disney is encouraging you to come dressed as your favorite super hero; however, they are also reminding everyone to check the rules regarding costumes and accessories. To review the rules, click here for Disneyland Park Rules, and here to view the costume guidelines for special events.

Celebrating 80 years of comic art, Disneyland After Dark: Heroes Assemble at California Adventure promises to feature encounters with superheroes, “rockin’ dance party” and heroic show moments. There’s also a fun scavenger hunt planned where you and your friends will have to hunt to find artifacts to help save mankind!

You can also expect lots of great photo opportunities, special event only merchandise and themed food and beverage offerings. Your ticket will entitle you to free downloads of all Photopass pictures taken of you that evening, so make sure to take LOTS!

The Soundsational Parade is BACK!

I mentioned this a while back, but the very popular Soundsational Parade is back at Disneyland Park as part of the Mickey and Minnie Celebration, Get Your Ears On!

Downtown Disney

In Downtown Disney news this week, Disney has announced a new ticketed event/attraction coming soon to Downtown Disney called Pop Up! Disney.

They haven’t given us a whole lot of information yet, but it sounds like this will be sort of an exhibit, sort of an adventure in Photo Opps. It’s going into the space near the Monorail Station where the ESPN Zone used to be. They’re describing it as a bunch of themed rooms, all dedicated to 90 years of Mickey and Minnie. I will let you know more as soon as I actually know more! Disney did release this artist’s rendering of one of the themed rooms/Photo opportunities, see what you think:

Disney Parks News Updates: Walt Disney World

Epcot

A few pieces of news from Epcot this week. First from Mexico, beloved Mariachi Cobre is expanding their repertoire and adding a new show featuring the story of Pixar’s Coco. (If you haven’t seen Coco yet, go watch it now. I’ll wait. Seriously, it’s on Netflix, and you can rent it on Amazon or Vudu or YouTube. Go watch it. It’s about family and dreams and there is so much love and joy…it’s really lovely.)

Ok, now that you’re back 😉, beginning March 6, Mariachi Cobre will be joined by a pair of Folklorico dancers to tell the journey of Miguel Rivera. They are also joined by a puppet of Miguel.

Disney Epcot Coco Miguel Mariachi Cobre — Miguel from Pixar’s Coco

Ralph and Vanellope are coming to Epcot!

You may have seen Ralph and Vanellope briefly in November when they popped up at Hollywood Studios to promote Ralph Breaks the Internet when it came out…but they are moving into a new (potentially) long term location at the Imagination Pavilion at Epcot.

Disney Epcot Ralph and Vanellope Character Greeting — Ralph and Vanellope from Ralph Breaks the Internet

Here’s what’s happened: The Imagination Institute has been conducting a new experiment to open portals into other dimensions….and they’ve opened a portal into the Internet. This has allowed Ralph and Vanellope to come visit us at Image Works at the Imagination Pavilion!

I’m pretty happy about this. This pavilion has been largely ignored for a long time, so it’s exciting to see it get something new. I’m also really happy that Figment will have some fun company!

In somewhat related news, you will soon be able to take Ralph and Vanellope home with you on DVD with the release of the Blu Ray of Ralph Breaks the Internet on February 26.

Garden Rocks Concert Series

The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival starts in just 2 weeks! Can you believe it??

Disney Epcot Flower and Garden Festival — Epcot Flower and Garden Festival: Cogswell

I can’t!! As you probably know if you have been following me for any length of time F&G is one of my FAVORITE times of the year, and my absolutely favorite time to visit Epcot. One of the fun elements of F&G every year has been their Garden Rocks Concert Series. Garden Rocks concerts are held at the America Gardens Theatre in the American Adventure Pavilion, and are included in your Epcot admission.

Artists are usually nostalgic favorites from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, like Night Ranger, Tony Orlando, Berlin, Herman’s Hermits, Dennis DeYoung and Rick Springfield, among others. New this year: Air Supply, Journey former lead vocalist Steve Augeri, Wang Chung, The Smithereens, A Flock of Seagulls, Christopher Cross, Sister Sledge….the list goes on and on. Click here for the full list of performers, and the dates they will be performing during the Festival.

What’s new THIS year is that instead of Garden Rocks Concerts only happening on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the concerts are now going to be held EVERY NIGHT OF THE FESTIVAL! 7 nights a week!

Animal Kingdom

Kevin from UP! at Animal Kingdom

In one of my favorite stories of the week, Kevin, our favorite colorful bird friend from Pixar’s UP! has been seen wandering around Animal Kingdom’s Discovery island area. So far, it doesn’t look like there are any plans to set up an official character greeting area for Kevin–so his visit may be temporary–we’re not sure yet. For now it appears that he’s exploring and interacting with guests, along with his Wilderness Explorer guides.

Coincidentally, Disney is releasing a new Kevin plush toy in Animal Kingdom gift shops this month, so keep your eyes open for him. Look how cute he is! You KNOW that if you meet Kevin in the Park, you are going to HAVE to take one of these home, so be careful! 😉

The Lion King, 25th Anniversary

As you or may not know, this year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Lion King animated movie’s original release. As The Lion King has always been a big part of the Animal Kingdom story, I’m sure you are not going to be surprised that Disney is ramping things up a little bit for the 25th Anniversary of the Lion King.

Disney Animal Kingdom Hakuna Matata Dance Party — Live musicians help guests let their inner animal loose on the dance floor during “Hakuna Matata Time Dance Party” at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Hakuna Matata dance parties are already taking place daily at Discovery Island. These feature animal inspired popular songs from the Lion King performed in a World Beat style. Timon, Rafiki, Baloo, Korda, Meeks and Terk stop by too! (Kinda feels like all the animated movies with animal characters got together and decided who could participate in this, doesn’t it?)

Disney has said they are releasing new fun photo spots themed to the Lion King. They also say we should watch for a 3D scene that looks like it leapt right out of the film. If I had to guess, I’d bet this 3D scene will be outside the main entrance, as Animal Kingdom is usually very good at preseving its theming and I can’t really picture a three dimensional cartoon scene plopped down in the middle of the park. But who knows? I could be wrong. I guess we’ll have to wait to see where they put it when it shows up.

Disney Animal Kingdom Tree of Life Awakenings — Animal Kingdom Tree of Life Awakenings

Coming this summer, also in celebration of the Lion King’s 25th Anniversary, a special new story for the Tree of Life Awakenings projection show. The new story will depict moments from Simba’s journey in an “artistic style”, which I’m interpreting to mean NOT the art from the original film. The new story will also feature music inspired by the score of the Lion King–rather than from the movie itself.

And in another shocking coincidence, Disney’s new “Live Action” version of the Lion King is being released this summer. Have you seen the teaser trailer yet? If not, here it is:

What do you think? I suspect it will be very good, but I’m not sure how much “LIVE ACTION” it is…I’m thinking a lot of it has to be CGI, right? It looks good though, at least what we’ve seen so far, and I love the Lion King, so I’m in. I’d love to hear what you think, so post in the comments below.

Hollywood Studios

Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy

We are starting to get a tiny bit more information about the new show at Hollywood Studios that is coming this spring. It’s definitely a SHOW, which wasn’t 100% clear originally, and it sounds like it will allow for some audience interaction with Lightning McQueen. Check out the video below that Disney released:

I think it sounds like fun, and a welcome addition to Hollywood Studios, which still struggles a bit with all the things that closed in the last two years to make ways for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the new Minnie/Mickey ride that will replace the Great Movie Ride. Toy Story Land is terrific, but there’s still a fairly big gap at Hollywood Studios, so I think this will definitely help, and it pairs nicely with the other Pixar attractions and character greetings at Hollywood Studios. Now if we could only get our own Cars Land…

Disney Springs

In our final news story this week, Disney Springs welcomes a new store, The Art Corner. Located near The Art of Disney store, not far from Goofy’s Candy Company, this new pop up store sounds like a lot of fun!

It seems to offer several different opportunities to get one of a kind, handcrafted souvenirs–in some cases, even handcrafted by YOU.

Walt Disney World Disney Springs The Art Corner — Disney Springs’ The Art Corner

Disney is calling this a Pop Up store, which makes me think this is most likely a temporary offering…but if it’s popular, it could stick around! The Art Corner features works and hands on activities that were popular at the recent Epcot International Festival of the Arts. For example, pictured above is the ancient art of Suminigashi, also known as artistic marbling, used to custom make silk items.

The store also features:

Coffee and Canvas—Coffee themed paintings

- Caricatures, both the new digital sketch version and the classic watercolor style. (I LOVE caricatures! I think they are a terrific souvenir, especially if you have kids–a really fun way to track how their interests change over the years, as usually the artist will incorporate the child’s interests into the work.)
- Name Works, hand drawn names personalized with your choice of illustrations

Ron Jon Surf Shop Coming Soon to Disney Springs

Coming later this year to Disney Springs, a Ron Jon Surf Shop. The famed Surf Shop is moving into a 10,000 square foot space located near the Polite Pig. I don’t have dates yet, but will update you when I do.

Well that’s all I have for Disney Parks News Updates this week. IWhich of this week’s news stories are you most interested in? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

P.S. In case you missed it, Disney released the teaser trailer for Frozen II last week. Click here to check it out.

Happy Dreaming !

Brooke

Disney Launches Free Dining Authorized Disney Vacation Planner — Ready to Plan Your Disney Vacation!

We’re BACK!

This was a WONDERFUL trip! We had a terrific time, and I learned a few things I hope to incorporate into future trips…

I’ll be doing a detailed day-by-day trip report over the next couple of weeks, but for now, here are some highlights:

Parks: All four parks looked great this trip. We visited Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Magic Kingdom each twice. Hollywood Studios was a blink and you’ll miss it visit this trip—we went in for dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby (AMAZING!) and caught the nighttime shows after dinner–but that was it.

Weather: We had absolutely glorious weather most days—but we did have a couple days with a LOT of rain. Saturday, our pre-planned Typhoon Lagoon/Disney Springs/Rest Day ended up with torrential downpours that lasted several hours. Fortunately, we still got a few hours in at Typhoon Lagoon before the rain rolled in, and hey, if you’re going to be caught in the rain, somehow it’s better if you’re already in a bathing suit and flip flops with wet hair, right? Our evening at Disney Springs had some sporadic rain showers, but they were fairly light and didn’t bother us hardly at all. Sunday was a little more challenging as it was our last full park day…it rained off and on most of the day. Fortunately, we were prepared with our ponchos, so it didn’t really affect us much…and had the bonus benefit of reducing the crowds a little bit.

The rest of the time, we had lovely blue skies with lots of sunshine. Mid-afternoons to early evenings got pretty HOT and humid. Us northerners don’t do as well in the heat as southerners more used to the heat, and I have to admit, I was a bit of a wilted flower most days around 3pm. But a cold drink, a little A/C, and a little sitting and people watching usually recharged my batteries just fine.

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Disney’s Magic Kingdom (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

Magic at Cinderella Castle! (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

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Crowds: Originally, when I booked the trip, crowds were projected in the 3-5 range (out of 10, with 10 being so crowded it’s hard to walk, and parks at or near full capacity) for most days. The closer we got to the trip, the higher the projections went, with crowds projected to be at 6-8’s most of our days. In actuality, I think most days ended up being around 6’s, especially in the afternoons…maybe creeping into seven territory on Monday. Our mornings were especially lovely, and crowds stayed lighter until around 11am most days. Lots of strollers, lots of ECVs, but not unbearable by any stretch. We did not see many big tour groups, either.

Resort: We stayed at Old Key West this trip and really loved it. It’s such a pretty resort, and has the largest studios of all the DVC resorts, with 2 queen sized beds—so it was perfect for us. We had a second floor villa, so thank goodness for the wonderful bell services that helped us with all our stuff! They are in the process of rehabbing this resort, but we saw no signs of construction during our visit. The landscaping here is really lush and pretty; everything looked terrific! We took the ferry to Disney Springs one night, and wow, that was so nice! The ferries come every 20 minutes between 10 am and 11 pm, and it’s a really scenic ride to Disney Springs. Our balcony had a nice golf-course view, and parking for our rental was very close by. The gift shop at Old Key West is a really good one; OKW has some of the best DVC resort specific shirts and related souvenirs of any of the DVCs we’ve stayed at. Cast members were all really nice and very helpful. We had two meals at Olivia’s, the OKW main table service restaurant and they were ok, but not great. The first was a lunch, and we had club sandwiches which were good. The highlight of the meal was sitting out on the patio, though, honestly. The second meal was breakfast on Saturday morning, and it really wasn’t great. The service was very slow, and both of us had issues with our eggs. The biscuits were very good, though. Again, the highlight was our table out on the patio.

Old Key West DVC Resort (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

Old Key West Resort (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

Disney Transportation: We rented a car this trip, so we did not use a lot of Disney transportation; however, what we did use was great, and we never had to wait very long. We used the resort Ferry to Disney Springs, as I mentioned above, and that was a big highlight of the trip for us. We used the Ferry at the Ticket and Transport center to get to and from Magic Kingdom a few times; I love that Ferry! Also did a couple monorail rides—again, not much waiting, and they got us where we needed to go. We rode LOTS of parking lot trams, haha. The only real waiting we had to do there was on Friday when we left the park at the end of the night, along with about 20,000 of our closest friends 😉. We waited about 20 minutes and through 4 tram loads before we got on one, but it wasn’t too bad, considering. We did NOT use Magical Express or any bus transportation this trip.

Merchandise: Mom and I both love to shop, and we shopped our hearts out on this trip. Financial limitations meant we didn’t necessarily BUY a whole lot, but we SHOPPED and SHOPPED, haha. Lots of fun merchandise, as always, for the Flower and Garden Festival, but we were a little disappointed. It’s been a few years since we have been to the Festival, but in the past there was a pretty big variety of Festival merchandise, including, usually, several different pins. This year, there was only one pin available, and we found it sold out in many locations—with three weeks still left to go in the Festival! Perhaps there were more options available earlier on? I’m not sure, but there were no special Passholder pins available for the Festival and only the one pin option. Of course we DID buy the pin they had…but I would have liked to see a couple of different options. One of the things I like about Festival time is that there is usually more variety in the shirts, hats, mugs, etc. at the Festival park than you’ll see everywhere else. And that did hold true this year as well, although there wasn’t as much varied merchandise as I recalled from previous Festivals. Other than Festival or Park specific merchandise, most of the shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, toys etc. were found in most shops across all four parks and Disney Springs. The advantage of this, of course, is that you don’t have to buy something when you first see it, as you’ll likely see it many more times during your trip. This is good for me, since I usually buy all my presents and souvenirs at the end of my trip when I think I’ve seen everything and can make a good decision. But the big disadvantage is that the merchandise doesn’t feel as SPECIAL when you see the same stuff over and over and over. Yes, it’s a big pain if you fall in love with the one shirt that you can only find at that little shop in the corner of Adventureland…but that makes it more FUN and more memorable, even if it means having to go back to that park on the last day to go to that little shop in the corner. I have lots of memories of long ago trips when the last day was all about running around to find that special something we’d seen at the beginning of the trip and looked for in every store we went to after that….

Mom and I DID manage to find a very special and unique souvenir, but I can’t tell you about that one yet, as we got one as a present for someone and I don’t want anyone to see it until that person gets to see it. 😊

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One of the things I love about Animal Kingdom is that it has a lot of merchandise that is truly unique to Animal Kingdom—not just shirts and ears and mugs, but really different merchandise that is in line with the conservation and nature missions that Animal Kingdom promotes. Now, there is one merchandise line that really stood out…in a fairly dreadful way, I must admit. I’m just as excited about the upcoming Meghan Markle/Prince Harry nuptials as any self-respecting Disney Princess loving girl could be….but this? This goes just a little too far, even for me:

Royal Wedding TEA TOWELS???? — Tea Towels???

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Nighttime Entertainment: To be honest with you, neither of us are big night owls, especially after a long, hot day of theme-parking. Our nighttime extravaganzas usually entailed whatever nighttime show was at whatever park we were in, followed by returning to the resort, showering off the day and CRASHING 😉. We really enjoyed the nighttime entertainment in each park though. Our very first night, we got to watch Rivers of Light at Animal Kingdom. We had great seats, and Mom loved it as much as I’d hoped she would.

Friday night we did a quick Hollywood Studios visit for dinner and entertainment–once dinner was over, we were just in time for the Disney Movie Magic projection show on the Mann’s Chinese Theater and surrounding buildings, followed by a special Star Wars themed Galactic Fireworks and projection show in honor of May 4 (“May the fourth be with you”). The Star Wars Spectacular was truly SPECTACULAR! The show incorporated video clips and stills from all Star Wars movies released to date and a few from the upcoming SOLO movie (SOLO merchandise was VERY prevalent in the parks and at Disney Springs this visit). It used lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, music, audio clips and fireworks to really dazzle the audience. There were lasers coming out of the screens (buildings) that looked like blasters were firing and lasers coming from the back that looked like shots fired back…. It was pretty immersive and VERY impressive. It was just a taste of what Disney is cooking up for Star Wars fans with Galaxy’s Edge, but I personally found it VERY exciting and can’t wait to see what the future will bring.

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Sunday night, the last night of our trip, we actually left Magic Kingdom about an hour before the fireworks and hopped a Monorail over to the Contemporary and went up to the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower. Available exclusively to DVC Members staying at a DVC Resort, the Top of the World Lounge features a large bar and several indoor seating areas, surrounded by a very large patio area with a spectacular view of Magic Kingdom. We had drinks and appetizers here, and I popped out to take pictures of the show from the unique “Top of the World” perspective, while Mom watched the show from her seat at the bar inside. They pipe in the music, which is great, because the music adds SO much to the show. Of course, you can’t really see all the castle projections that are an integral part of the Happily Ever After show, but the music and the fireworks are pretty fantastic, even without the projections.

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Another highlight: On Saturday evening while we were at Disney Springs, we caught two different groups performing on the main stage there. The first was a group of high school kids from Rome, New York. They danced and sang, and were really terrific. The second was a dance troupe, and each song was danced by a different group of kids–it seemed to be primarily by age groups. They were very fun to watch, especially the littler kids. 😊

Needless to say, I could go on for DAYS (and probably will!! 😉 ) about our trip, but I’m anxious to get this quick summary posted, so I’ll stop here.

Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

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Bottom line: The trip was WONDERFUL! The parks looked terrific, we had some really wonderful cast member interactions and some AMAZING meals. I’m so glad we went, and I can’t wait to go back!!

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

It’s All in the Attitude

One week to go!!

Next week, Mom and I head to Disney for a Mother/Daughter weekend, and I am BEYOND excited. We did these annually for a few years, until wedding planning and then financial strain put those weekend trips out of reach for a while. We’ve both really missed them, so this year, we decided to try again.

My work situation is different this year, which makes the trip a little bit easier. The last couple of trips we were only able to go for basically 2.5 days, which hardly made the trips worth it, financially. They’re ALWAYS worth it for the Mom/Daughter factor and of course, for the Disney factor, but with airfare and ticket prices, it’s hard to justify the expense for a trip that short. This time, we’re going down on a Wednesday morning and heading home on Monday night, so we have a few extra days to really enjoy ourselves.

And…get this…I’ve even planned a non-park/Rest day in the middle!!! Crazy, right? Seriously, I’m so used to planning quick or short trips, I never allow R&R time…as a result, we usually come home EXHAUSTED. Not this time! I still have a lot of fun planned for us, but I did plan some down time…both in afternoon “breaks” and with our rest day. This trip is all about having fun with Mom—but it’s also important to both of us that we NOT wear ourselves out!

A big focus for us this trip is the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. My mom is an EPIC gardener—her yards have always been the best in the neighborhood! And Epcot is just SO SO SO gorgeous during Flower and Garden. This trip, I’ve planned two visits to Epcot so that we can really take our time and “drink it all in”.

While we are (hopefully) missing the majority of the Spring Break peak crowd madness, I am expecting significant crowds. Let’s face, Disney just doesn’t seem to ever have slow periods any more…and attraction lines just keep getting longer, even when perceived crowd levels are low. When temperatures are higher, it can feel (at least to us Northerners from cooler climates) more crowded, and sometimes, the heat can raise tempers as it raises body temperatures.

Something that has always helped Mom and I on these trips is EXPECTING it to be crowded and adopting a very relaxed attitude about it. We went one year right in the peak period of Spring Break, that was just the way it worked out that year, and we had a WONDERFUL trip—MAINLY because we had the right attitude! We focused on what was REALLY important—spending time together, soaking up the Florida sunshine, enjoying great meals, and having fun. Did we ride every attraction? Nope. Did we cover every park, stem to stern? Nope. Was it super crowded? Heck yeah! But we just did our best to stay relaxed, and we took lots of breaks to sit down, drink some water (or a glass of wine 😉) and people watch.

I think back to a really crowded trip I did about, goodness almost 20 years ago now, at Christmas time, and I’ll be honest…I did not love that trip. I actually did not visit Disney again after that trip for 7 years. And for a long time, I blamed the crowds, the lines, and the attitudes of others before I realized that it was MY expectations that had led to my disappointment. I LOVE Disney, and I had set such high (and honestly, unreasonable) expectations for that trip, and as a result, I did not enjoy it as much as I could have. I focused on silly “little” aggravations instead of focusing on what was really important…the people I was there with, the magic of Disney, having FUN, and making the best of the VERY crowded conditions.

So that’s my message for today: Traveling to Disney during the holidays, or during Spring Break, or during a very busy and HOT summer season CAN still be a terrific time, you just need to manage your expectations and make choices that make sense for you and your family or traveling companions.

Don’t plan to do “EVERYTHING” on everybody’s wish lists…Pick a FEW priorities to focus on each day…if you’re able to do those things, you’ll all feel like you had a great day…and if you squeeze a few more things in…you’ll feel even better.

If you like attractions, accept that you will be waiting in lines. Lots of them! Even the Fast Pass return lines can get really long on crowded days. THINK about the lines before you go. What attractions are you willing to wait one hour plus for? Are there any? What if EVERYTHING has a one hour wait? What will you choose? What can you do in line to entertain yourselves? We tend to play a lot of Heads Up or Trivia games on our phones…together, not independently.

In our recent epic 2.5 hour wait for Flight of Passage at Pandora in Animal Kingdom (TOTALLY WORTH IT—ONCE….I won’t ever wait that long again, but we completely felt it was worth it the first time, since we did not have a Fast Pass for it that morning), we ended up playing with the two families traveling together that were in line with us. We had a great time getting to know them, they were a lot of fun, and it definitely made the time pass faster. If you’ve got little kids, (or adults with low blood sugar concerns) making sure you’ve got snacks or water bottles in your bag can also be really critical in a long line.

The big thing for us when the crowds are high and the lines are long: take in the “non-ride” based attractions….Disney has SO much more to offer than rides! See the shows…check out the live music. For example, have you ever taken the time to watch the Jamminators perform in Epcot? They are TERRIFIC, and lots of fun!

There are several live performances in the streets of Animal Kingdom you can check out if you pay attention. I LOVE the Streetmosphere players at Hollywood Studios, and could happily spend hours watching them do their thing (most of these are 10-25 minutes). My point is, there is a LOT of “free” entertainment at each Disney park that often gets missed in the rush from attraction to attraction. Watch a caricature artist at work (or get one done…they’re very fun!). LOOK for the little things that make Disney so special…I think you’ll find so much more joy when you do this, rather than focusing on moving from one attraction to the next.

Take pictures. Have fun. Be SILLY. Remember: One of the BEST things about a good vacation are the memories that make you smile–sometimes even YEARS later–when you’re back at your desk at work, or watching your 175th soccer game of the year, or thinking about someone that’s no longer with us. Make sure you are capturing those memories–in your heart and with your camera! (Or phone. Or photopass guy. You get the idea!)

On hot days, I try to make sure we spend some quality time every couple hours in either an air conditioned restaurant or an air conditioned shop. Spread out your souvenir shopping…A little here and there will help keep you cool and get you out of the crazy crowds for a little breather. Note: The shops tend to be VERY crowded at the end of the night—You’ll be happier if you do a little shop exploration throughout the day.

Tip: Did you know that you can have your items shipped directly to your resort if you’re staying on property? This is a great benefit—then you don’t have to carry your bags around with you all day—OR worry about losing them! This won’t work if you’re heading home within a day or so…usually the merchandise arrives within 2 days, but if you check out before it arrives, that would be a problem. Alternatively, you can request your merchandise to be taken to the front of the park to be held for pickup at the end of the day. There is no charge for these services!

Don’t be afraid to take breaks! There is nothing wrong with heading back to your hotel after lunch or after the parade for a couple of hours to rest, go swimming, take a nap or just to get out of the crowds for a while. Trust me, if you’re getting aggravated? You NEED a break! Sometimes people get wrapped up in how much they are spending on their tickets for that day, and they feel like they have to spend every minute at the park to justify the expense…but I’ve learned (the hard way, I have to admit!) that you’ll get more VALUE from your experience if you adopt a bit more relaxed and positive attitude. Take a break here or there, whether that means sitting down and drinking some water and having a Mickey bar, or taking the bus back to your resort for a couple hours–just get everyone off their feet and let them cool off and relax a bit. It will make a BIG difference in everybody’s moods, and their ability to enjoy the rest of the day.

Take a break! (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

SONY DSC

Finally: Spend some time at the end of every day talking about the highlights of your day. What were each traveler’s favorite activities of the day? What was the best meal? Did anything really funny happen? I make envelopes for each day and print forms with some basic questions on them to help us to jot down these memories—super helpful later when you are putting together photo albums, or even just trying to remember and talk about your wonderful trip.

And there’s a bonus–when you take a few minutes to really think about the best moments of the days, those great moments take up more space in your memory, and the little irritations or aggravations fade to the background. Focus on what matters, LOOK for the happy and trust me, you will find it! They don’t call Disney the Happiest Place on Earth for no reason….it really IS…but we each bring our attitudes with us into the parks, and it’s up to US to make sure we are READY to be Happy. Know what I mean?

Mom and I are SUPER excited for our trip next week and we are DEFINITELY Ready to be Happy!

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Fast Pass Plus Planning Spring 2018

Today (March 3) marks 60 days until my spring trip to Disney World with my mom for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. I can’t believe it’s coming up so fast!! As you all might recall, I made Advance Dining Reservations for this trip back in December, at 180 days out. (You can read about that here). The next big activity in our trip planning is making our Fast Pass Plus reservations, and today was the day!!

A couple things to keep in mind: In order to book your Fast Pass Plus (FP+) reservations at 60 days out, you must have both a Disney resort reservation AND your ticket media for all guests in your party linked in My Disney Experience online. If you are not staying at a Disney resort, you will not be able to make FP+ reservations until 30 days before your trip. Also, if you do not purchase your park tickets in advance and have them linked in My Disney Experience for EACH guest in your party, you will not be able to book FP+.

I had purchased an annual pass last summer in preparation for my November anniversary trip with my husband. Mom and I had already decided to go to the Flower and Garden Festival this year, so I knew I had at least one more trip within a year—those extra days combined with the food and merchandise discounts available to annual passholders made it an easy decision for me to get an annual pass. Plus, at the time, DVC members were being offered a pretty good deal on annual passes. I did spend a lot of time evaluating the 5 day and 10 day passes first, especially for my husband’s pass…but ultimately decided on an annual pass for both of us. I still have hopes we might be able to do a short visit in the fall before our passes expire, but finances may prevent that this year…time will tell. Regardless, my annual pass was already in my account…but my mom had to get her pass in time so that we could enter the information into My Disney Experience.

As many of you are aware, Disney raised ticket prices in February. Fortunately, my mom purchased her 5-day pass a few days before that increase. She also purchased her pass through Undercover Tourist—which is a great site that does offer a slight discount on Orlando area theme park tickets. Mom purchased her ticket online from Undercover Tourist and received the actual card in the mail a few days later. She immediately took a picture of the back of the card with all the important numbers on it (this is a critical step, just in case you ever lose your ticket!) and sent it to me. I used those numbers and added the ticket to my account and assigned it to her. [To add ticket media to your My Disney Experience, log in and choose My Reservations and Tickets. Then click on the Link Tickets button.

Once you’ve selected “Link Tickets”, you’ll see the screen pictured below:

Disney offers several examples of different ticket media to help you figure out what information you need to enter. Once you’ve entered the ID number and hit enter, you’ll be directed to the list of Family and Friends you’ve tied to your account so you can assign the ticket to a particular person. Note: You MUST have the person whose ticket you are adding set up as a Family member or Friend in your My Disney Experience BEFORE you add their ticket media, or you won’t be able to assign the ticket to them. Also, tickets are non-transferable, so don’t plan to share a tickets between family members–it won’t work.

Once you’ve linked the ticket to your account and assigned it to the family member you are traveling with, you will be ready to book your FastPass Plus reservations. (Make sure that your friend or family member is ALSO linked in your resort reservation as a member of your Travel Party…without that, they won’t have the sixty day access that is for resort guests. If you made dining reservations at 180 days, you’ve most likely already done this!)

I had already linked mom in the hotel reservation we have for May 2-7 at Old Key West, and in all the Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) I had made for us for that trip; all that was left was to reserve our FP+. Once her ticket media was linked, I knew I would be able to make FP+ reservations for the two of us at 6 am March 3 (the window opens at 7 am eastern time, 60 days before the first night of your resort reservation). An important note to remember: If you are doing a split resort stay, where you are staying at two (or more!) different resorts during your trip, you will have a sixty-day window for each “leg” of your trip. For example, if you are staying at Saratoga Springs for 2 nights and then at the Grand Floridian for 5 nights, your first sixty-day window will open up sixty days before your first Saratoga Springs night…but you will only be able to book FP+ for the two days of that reservation. You’ll have to log back in two days later for the Grand Floridian five days to open up. If you have any questions about this, please reach out. You can email me at brooke@disneycastledreaming.com if you need help.

To prepare for this morning’s FP+ booking session, I spent about 20 minutes yesterday reviewing the plans I’d already made for our trip. I took a look at which parks I’d planned for which days, and what dining reservations I’d made for each day. This trip, we are visiting parks on both our inbound travel day and our outbound travel day, so I took a look at what times I was anticipating we will have available on each of those days. I made a quick list of the days of our trip, which park or parks I have planned for each day, and which restaurants and the times for our ADRs.

It looks like we will be pretty lucky from a crowd perspective for this trip; estimated crowd levels are relatively low for the days we are there, especially the first few days of our trip. Hopefully, this means that standby lines will be shorter, reducing the need for FP+ reservations and/or increasing our ability to be flexible and reschedule FP+ while we are at the parks. Late March through most of April tend to be very busy at the parks due to spring break visitors, so we deliberately planned our trip for early May, and it looks like it will pay off for us, at least from a crowd perspective. I also like the look of Epcot a lot during May. The Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot runs from February 28 through May 28 this year, and while Epcot is stunning throughout the festival, I think it gets more beautiful later in the festival, as more flowers bloom and plants mature.

Because the Flower and Garden Festival is our PRIMARY motivation for this trip, I’ve planned two days at Epcot this time, and am hoping we’ll be able to take in some of the special presentations and tours offered only during Flower and Garden.

When planning your FP+ reservations, be sure to take into consideration the preferences of everyone in your traveling party. For example, my husband LOVES thrill rides, so when I plan our trips, I make sure I plan for those “exciting” attractions, like Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror or Expedition Everest. My mom does NOT enjoy thrill rides, so I focused more on attractions and shows that she’ll enjoy. If you’re planning for a larger group with diverse interests, you’ll want to either split up a little bit to allow everyone to do the things they want to do, or you’ll want to let each person pick ONE attraction that’s most important to them for FP+ planning and try and balance everyone’s priorities. It can be challenging, but involving the whole group in the planning process can help build excitement and enthusiasm for the trip.

Normally, Saturday is the one day per week that I sleep in a little bit…but NOT today! 😊 That FP+ window is too important! So I set my alarm for 5:45 a.m., and as soon as it went off, I was up and in vacation mode!

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Disney is serious about this window…your access to Fast Pass Plus reservations for your trip will not open even 30 seconds early…If you try, you will see the dates after 30 days grayed out. I know it’s hard, but try to be patient. Your window opens at 7 am EASTERN time.

It’s important to start with the Fast Pass Plus reservations that will be most difficult to get. There’s an understandable tendency to want to book each day’s FP+ in order as you’ve planned your trip. BUT, keep in mind that there are thousands of other people visiting the parks the same days you are, and for some of them? Their 60-day window opened a couple days ago because they’re arriving before you. If your most desired attraction is Pandora Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, but you’re not visiting AK until the last day of your trip, waiting even 10-15 minutes to make that reservation will most likely result in either not being able to get a FP+ at all for that attraction, or one much later in the day than you might have wished. I can’t say it enough…the more planning and prep work you do up front, the more relaxed and laid back you’ll be able to be on your trip. So, when you’re planning your FP+ attack, focus on those hardest to get FP+, no matter which day of your trip that park might fall on. Some “HOT” attractions include:

Pandora Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom

Pandora Na’vi River Journey at Animal Kingdom (note: Disney only allows you to book a FP+ for ONE of the two Pandora attractions, so you’ll have to choose!)

Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom

Kilamanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom

Frozen Ever After at Epcot (in Norway)

Soarin’ Around the World at Epcot

Test Track at Epcot (note: Disney places Frozen, Soarin’ and Test Track in one FP+ tier, so you’ll only be able to choose ONE of these, unless you’re visiting Epcot more than once during your trip)

Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios

Rock-n-Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios (note: Disney groups Toy Story Mania, Fantasmic, Beauty and the Beast and Rock-n-Roller Coaster all in one tier, so you’ll only be able to choose one of those!)

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom

Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom

Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom

For us, I had three “high priority” FP+ reservations I wanted to make: Pandora Flight of Passage (Mom loves Soarin’, so I’m hopeful she will love Flight of Passage as much as I did), Frozen Ever After (it’s new since the last time we went, and I want Mom to experience it) and Toy Story Mania (it’s just FUN and we both love it!). Everything after that was pretty much gravy for us—I know we won’t be riding the thrill rides, and we are both big fans of getting to the park early in the morning so we can ride the things we want to ride before the lines get long. This works really well everywhere except for Animal Kingdom Pandora (as I learned the hard way!), so I’m relatively confident we’ll be able to do all the things we want to do, especially with the (relatively) lighter crowds projected for the first few days of our trip.

I was victorious with two of my three goals. I booked FP+ for Pandora Flight of Passage for early evening on arrival day; I booked Frozen Ever After for after lunch on our first Epcot day and I also grabbed FP+ for those attractions on our “return” days at those parks. I’d rather have them and decide to cancel then NOT have them and regret it!

Unfortunately, I was NOT successful with Toy Story Mania. All those FP+ were already gone for the afternoon we are planning to visit Hollywood Studios. And because we are doing two parks that day, we won’t be taking advantage of the early morning arrival to head to Toy Story—we’ll be at Magic Kingdom in the morning. So…odds are fairly high we will miss this attraction this trip. But that’s ok. Soon, Toy Story Land will be opening, and with it, more crowd absorbing attractions AND an extra Toy Story Mania track! So, next trip, it should be easier to book FP+ for this attraction.

Once I had my “hot” FP+ attractions booked, I filled in the days with other attractions, shows and character greetings that I think we’ll enjoy. When I visit with Mom, we tend to be pretty relaxed about our touring, so we may not use all the FP+ reservations that I’ve made, or we may end up tweaking these reservations based on what’s going on each day, but it’s good to have them booked in case there are unexpected crowds, or if we REALLY need a break from the heat.

Reminder: Disney only lets your reserve three FP+ reservations per day, and all three must be in the same park. Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom all use a “tier” system for their FP+ reservations, grouping the most popular and highly sought-after attractions together, and limiting guests to choosing just one of those, with the other two reservations coming from the rest of the attractions that use FP+. As a result, you may find yourself booking a FP+ reservation for an attraction you aren’t likely to need it for, unless you are visiting during busy times. For example, you will rarely need a FP+ to ride Living with the Land at Epcot or It’s a Small World at the Magic Kingdom…BUT if those rides are super important to you and you want to make sure you don’t miss them, go ahead and book the FP+. You can always cancel later if you get to the park and ride the attraction without a line ahead of your FP+ reservation.

Also: After you’ve used all three of your FP+ reservations for the day, you can book additional FP+ reservations, one at a time. Those can be in any park—but again, only one at a time. So, from a strategy perspective, you may NOT want to use a FP+ to book a reservation for something late in the day, like Fireworks viewing, because you won’t get the opportunity to book any other FP+ until AFTER that last one is used. Usually, I won’t book FP+ for the first couple of hours the park is open as USUALLY the lines are pretty short during that time, and I’d rather save FP+ for when lines are longer. But I also like to have used all our FP+ reservations by 3-4pm, so we can book additional FP+ reservations as needed later in the day. So my “ideal” FP+ window is usual from 11:30ish to around 3pm. The one exception to the early morning short lines scenario is Pandora at Animal Kingdom. That area seems to OPEN with already long lines, haha.

Character greetings: I rarely use FP+ for character greetings because I’m usually concerned about getting all those thrill rides in. BUT if character greetings are important to you, book the FP+ reservations…those lines can be maddening, and with FP+, your wait time will drop to minutes (in most cases). I booked us a couple this trip since we had the available FP+ space left, and I like character greetings…I just HATE waiting in line for them. So we’ll do a couple this trip.

Shows: Unless you are visiting at a busy time of year, you usually won’t need FP+ reservations for any of the shows; however, if you want to make sure you have great seats or you’re super concerned about seeing a particular show at a particular time, you may want to use a FP+ reservation to lock that down. This trip, I did use a couple FP+ for show reservations—mainly because both days we are visiting Animal Kingdom are travel days and we have a compressed window of time to visit the park—I wanted to be sure we’d have time to see Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo. In all likelihood, we won’t need them…but why not have them, just in case?

As we get a little closer to our trip, I’ll revisit all our meal and Fast Pass Plus reservations, and make decisions to make changes if necessary. I’m also trying to find out as much as I can about this year’s Flower and Garden Festival, since that’s the big draw for us this trip. Can’t wait to see Epcot in all it’s Spring glory!

Happy Dreaming everyone!

Brooke

Planning Ahead: Advance Dining Reservations

In last week’s post, I talked about the advantages and disadvantages of making advance dining reservations (ADRs) for Disney table service restaurants. If you read that post, you know that I am a FIRM believer in ADRs, and ideally, I recommend booking as soon as your window opens, whenever possible.

Currently, I am 8 days away from my November anniversary trip with my husband, and in the midst of planning a spring trip with my mom. This weekend, the 180 day window opened up for the May trip I’m planning with mom, and I promised to let you know how my ADR mission went.

In a nutshell…Very smoothly. I was able to book every reservation that I wanted, and in fact, I booked several extra as I’m not 100% on our vacation schedule and our plans just yet. I’ve set reminders in my calendar to make sure I cancel extra reservations as we get closer to finalizing our plans. It helps that our dates fall in the first week of May—after most of the heavy Spring Break crowds are gone, and before all the kids get out of school for the summer. Generally, this is a slightly less crowded time to visit, and it works perfectly for my mom and I. We’re going the weekend before her birthday and Mother’s Day, and while I’m expecting pretty warm temperatures, the heat and humidity won’t be at the extremes of June and July, making for a more tolerable visit for us northerners.

When mom and I go to Disney, generally the big draw is the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. My mom is an avid and gifted gardener, and Epcot is never more beautiful than it is during Flower and Garden. In past years, my job made it difficult for me to take time off work, so our trips were usually very short weekend trips, sometimes two full days, sometimes three. This year, my work schedule is a little more accommodating, so we’re planning a full 5-6 days for our trip, which is very exciting. I’m planning two days at Epcot for sure, and we’ll have one day where we don’t visit any parks at all—probably spend a few hours at the pool and visit Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney).

We have not made flight arrangements yet and Disney has not released official park hours yet, so I’m not able to completely plan our agenda this early. However, I don’t want to lose the advantage that can be gained by booking ADRs 180 days out, so even though I don’t have an EXACT plan yet for our trip, I made a loose plan, with a couple contingencies, and went ahead and booked the reservations that I wanted. That’s the strategy I recommend for you, whenever possible. Take advantage of that early booking window. You can always make changes later!

Key things to think about:

Who is in your traveling party? Are you traveling with kids? With seniors? With people that love sushi or only eat fried food? It’s important to understand WHO you are traveling with. I’ve learned that my trip is much more enjoyable when I plan the trip keeping everyone else’s preferences and priorities in mind.
Are there any special celebrations during your trip? Are you celebrating anyone’s birthday or an anniversary? If so, make sure that at least some of your plans center on that person or that event.
1. Make sure you note any celebrations on both your resort reservation and any meal reservations you make. While you should never expect special treatment, Disney will sometimes add some extra magic to make your celebrations extra special.
2. Make sure you get celebration buttons at the front desk or at guest services. Again, you don’t want to expect any special treatment, but if the person in your group with a celebration is wearing a button advertising that fact, you’ve increased the odds that SOMETHING COULD happen for them. At minimum, they’re likely to get a lot of happy wishes from total strangers, and that’s always fun, right?
How does your party like to travel? Is everyone a night owl that would sooner starve than be up early for breakfast? Or do you have a group of early risers that will be chomping at the bit to get going by sunrise? It’s important to try to structure your touring (and, by extension, your meal plans) to accommodate your group. This minimizes the stress on everyone, and significantly increases the odds that everyone will be happy with your plans.
How many meals per day will your group eat? Some families always eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, while others skip breakfast completely, but might have a late-night supper a few hours after dinner. It’s important to consider the habits and needs of your unique group.
How many days of your trip will be “Park” days? How many will be “Resort” days? Do you have any water park visits planned? How about Downtown Disney? While I don’t want you to feel that you have to nail down exact activities for each day of your vacation, it is a good idea to map out at least a general outline.
Does anyone in your group (or more than one) have a FAVORITE restaurant or quick service meal location that they MUST visit during your trip or [insert dramatic tone here] their “vacation will be ruined!!!” ? (You’d be surprised how often I hear that a vacation will be RUINED if something is left out, or a particular attraction is closed, or it rains, or is cloudy…you get the idea.) Perspective is important! But, while I don’t think we want to assign vacation destroying potential to any one meal or attraction, if your party has favorites, you may want to try to include at least some of those considerations in your planning.
If you have people in your group with very different tastes or priorities, you may find it helpful to give everyone a day where THEY are the primary focus. For example, if you have one kid that LOVES Sci Fi, and the Rock-n-Roller Coaster is their FAVORITE attraction, perhaps you plan your Hollywood Studios day to include lunch at the Sci Fi Dine-In Theatre and fast pass plus reservations for Rock-n-Roller Coaster and Star Tours. Then plan another day around a different child’s interests at their favorite park. If you have eight kids and a 5-day vacation, you may have to get more creative than that, but hopefully, you get the general idea.
What kind of budget are you working with? I’ve found the farther in advance I plan my trip, the better I’m able to manage my budget to make sure we can do the things we want to do. Shorter notice trips generally mean more economical meal and snack choices—perhaps more meals back at the resort or in the room, or perhaps even off property. Eating at Disney is not a budget friendly proposition, so it’s a good idea to review menus and prices when you are planning to help set expectations and to help set goals for pre-trip savings. In the trip I’m planning for the spring, I have a couple higher end meals planned. If, as we get closer, I’m not able to save as much money for the trip as I currently plan, I may cancel or change those reservations. Right now, I have lots of time, so I’m optimistic, but we all know that things can happen to derail the best laid budget plans.

Over the years and planning MANY trips to Disney, I have learned that my strategy in planning a trip for my husband and myself is very different than when I plan for trips that include my nieces and nephews or the trips that I plan for my mom and myself. Consider your audience. Just because your read about “the perfect Disney itinerary” on a Disney trip planning website, doesn’t mean it’s perfect for YOUR group. YOUR perfect itinerary may be very different, based on what is important to your group. AND that may change year-to-year, as your family or travel group changes. Don’t be afraid to re-assess and re-focus during your planning. People change, priorities change and Disney changes.

I realize I’m advocating a lot of planning ahead, both in this post, and in some of my other trip planning posts. And absolutely, I think advance planning is KEY to a successful and enjoyable Disney vacation. BUT, I have also learned to relax a little bit, and to build some flexibility into my plans. I think it’s just as important to include some blocks of time in each day where anything can happen. I might have a loose idea, for example, we will hit Park A, and we will be there ½ hour before the Park opens. We have lunch reservations at X and dinner reservations at Y. I’ll plan some fast pass plus reservations for late morning or early afternoon, and have a plan for where we will start when the park opens. If there is nighttime entertainment, I’ll be cognizant of what time that’s happening and have a general idea of when and where we want to get positioned to enjoy that. Otherwise, I try to relax and see where the day takes us.

The trips I take with my husband tend to be a little more structured, because we both have a TON of favorite attractions and I want to make sure we both get to do as much of the things we like as possible, so I will have a stricter plan of attack, to make sure we get to everything. Trips with kids tend to be much more loosey goosey, just because there are so many variables and unexpected surprises that pop up with kids…you have to be much more flexible—but it’s also critical that you have a broad idea of the major attractions that are a priority because you will have more distractions making it more challenging to stay on track and get the major stuff on your list accomplished.

My trips with my mom are less structured than when I travel with my husband, but more structured than when I travel with children. When I travel with mom, our schedule tends to be more relaxed, and we spend more time sitting, talking, and people watching with a glass of wine 😊 and not quite as much time going from attraction to attraction. I also don’t usually plan any character meals with mom as she’s not really into the character thing. (Although I do generally drag her in for some character photos here and there, and she’s always a good sport about it!)

Also, neither one of us are much into breakfast, so we’ll probably get some bagels or toast and fruit and just eat light breakfasts in our room at the resort. Saves a few bucks and helps get the morning off to a bit more relaxed start. It’s been a few years since our last trip, and I’m really looking forward to some quality time with mom.

I’m hoping we’ll have some time to stop by the newly remodeled Wedding Pavilion where Frank and I got married…I want mom to see it since they’ve redone it. We also may tour a couple of the resorts that have changed a lot in the last few years. I’d love to see the Polynesian now that it has DVC Villas on Seven Seas Lagoon, and Wilderness Lodge now that it has new additions. We’ll play it by ear, but resort hopping is always fun. Lots of great places to sit and relax, have a glass of wine and enjoy the views!! We haven’t decided how many park days we will do this trip yet, so I built a few different options into my preliminary plans.

We will arrive on a Wednesday—since we don’t know yet what time our flights will be, I don’t know if we’ll end up visiting a park that day or not. Usually on a travel day, we’ll visit Disney Springs or check out the Boardwalk area. I made reservations for dinner at the California Grill. Located at the top of the Contemporary Resort, California Grill offers great views of the Magic Kingdom and the Seven Seas Lagoon, terrific food and a diverse and large wine list. An added benefit is that the restaurant features a couple of catwalks where guests can walk out onto the roof and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. During the daytime, the catwalks are a terrific location for pictures. I usually try to plan one really good meal during our trips where we can dress up a little bit and take our time and have a leisurely meal. This trip, this is that meal.

I also have an alternative plan, in case we decide to visit a park that day: I booked a dinner reservation at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom with preferred access to Rivers of Light. I don’t expect we’ll end up doing this, but I have a couple of months to make that decision.

Since the primary focus of the trip is the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, I’ve planned two days at Epcot: Thursday and Sunday. I made reservations for lunches at Rose and Crown in the UK and Via Napoli in Italy, and our dinners are planned for Chefs de France (in France 😉) and La Hacienda de San Angel in Mexico. These are all places we’ve visited before and enjoyed. Via Napoli was a favorite on the wedding trip, and mom and I both really like Chefs de France, so I wanted to make sure we hit both of those.

Friday is a little up in the air at the moment. We will either do Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios that day. Or, if we decide to park hop, we will visit Magic Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon and evening…probably with a break in between. To allow for any configuration of those two parks on that day, I booked one lunch and one dinner reservation at each park. Once I have a better idea of our actual plan, I will cancel the extra reservations. At MK, I booked lunch at the Plaza and dinner at Jungle Skipper’s Canteen. At HS, we have lunch at Sci Fi Dine In Theatre and dinner at the Brown Derby. The Plaza is one of our favorite restaurants at Magic Kingdom and is a great place for a sandwich or a salad. Brown Derby is a higher end dining experience at Hollywood Studios; we’ve eaten here for both lunch and dinner before and had great experiences each time. Jungle Skipper’s Canteen is new, and we haven’t been there before. Frank and I are trying it out next weekend–how THAT goes may affect this reservation!

Saturday, I have planned as a rest day—possibly a water park day or maybe a pool and shopping day. I booked a dinner reservation at the Boathouse in Disney Springs in case we end up over there, and I figured we’d grab lunch at our hotel or by the pool. The Boathouse is one of the new places at Disney Springs, and I thought it sounded like a place we’d both enjoy.

Monday will be our last day and will be a travel day. Depending on how many park days we decide to do, we will either visit Animal Kingdom today, or we will have a casual day, maybe at Disney Springs or hanging around the resort until we go to the airport. In case we go to Animal Kingdom, I made lunch reservations for Yak and Yeti.

As you can tell, I’ve left a lot kind of up in the air. At this point, that’s ok. I’ve made sure we have reservations for most meals, and I have a loose plan for our trip. I may still play around with reservations over the next few weeks, until we firm up our travel plans a little bit. Given specific week we are traveling, most reservations should be attainable for another month or two. If we were going during a busier week, booking early like this would have been CRUCIAL. Now, it’s just more of a security blanket. By about 90 days out, I like to have a pretty solid plan, and at that point I’ll release any extraneous reservations, if I haven’t already, and I’ll start planning our fast pass plus reservations.

Also starting to make lists for a potential big family trip with the nieces and nephews in late 2018 or sometime in 2019. The more people involved, the more lists 😊 I find myself making. Absolutely love seeing the kids at Disney; their perspective is so different and so much fun to watch.

What trips are on your horizon? I’d love to hear what you’re working on!

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Epcot Flower and Garden Festival: Cogswell

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Happy dreaming,

Brooke

Planning a Trip with Mom for the Spring…

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I’m in the very early planning stages in the trip I will take in the spring with my mom. My mom LOVES to garden so about 8 years ago (when things were great financially, or at least I THOUGHT they were, haha), I decided that I wanted to take my mom to Epcot for the Flower and Garden festival and do a Mom/Brooke weekend for her birthday/Mother’s Day present. So, I booked the room, using some of our DVC points, and planned the trip. Mom did pay for her own airfare (Things weren’t THAT great, unfortunately) but that first year, I did the hotel and the tickets. She did her airfare and some of the meals. I planned everything. We had so much fun that we did it for the next two years. The year of the wedding, we didn’t do it because we were both saving money for the wedding stuff, and because Frank and I were going in May already for our wedding planning and food tasting trip. The year after the wedding, it just wasn’t financially feasible, and well, that’s been the story for the last couple years as well. BUT things are finally getting better, and I think if I plan ahead, like I did for our anniversary trip this fall, and work a little extra here and there, I can swing it this year. Mom is totally up for it, and fortunately, is willing to cover her airfare, her ticket and some meals. Since I decided to go the annual pass route for the November anniversary trip, I’ll already have my ticket, so I just have to figure out my airfare and food. And of course, spending money because let’s face it…no way am I going to Disney and NOT buying some souvenirs!

With DVC, you can book reservations at your “Home” resort (the resort where you actually own your points…in our case Bay Lake Tower) 11 months out from your arrival date. You can’t book a room anywhere else until 7 months out from your arrival date. When I go with mom, we stay at Old Key West. The studios at Old Key West are the largest, and always have 2 beds, which makes them ideal for us. Extra room to spread out and gives her a LITTLE space from me (I snore ☹). Old Key West studios also cost the lowest amount of points per night, so we can stay more nights for fewer points than when I book a stay at Bay Lake Tower.

When I go with mom, Epcot is the MAIN attraction, although I always drag her through several parks anyways. But Epcot is the primary reason for the trip. Now that I have a more normal work situation, I’m really looking forward to taking a slightly longer trip with her than we’ve done in the past… The last time we went, we flew down on a Friday afternoon and had to fly home at the crack of dawn on Monday, because I just couldn’t take more time off work than that. Previous trips were a LITTLE longer, going down Thursday night, but still coming home early Monday. For this trip, I’m thinking about going down on Wednesday, morning hopefully and coming home Monday night. I also want to plan TWO Epcot days in there, so we can maybe attend some of the seminars or special tours offered during Flower and Garden.

Choosing Dates

Flower and Garden Festival usually runs from March 1 through Memorial Day. Disney hasn’t officially announced the dates for 2018, but I feel pretty secure in that window. In the past, we’ve planned for late April or early May, trying to see the Festival at it’s peak, and, avoiding as much as possible, spring break crowds.

I decided to look at the first two weekends in May as our target. The second weekend includes Mom’s birthday AND Mother’s Day and while that would be perfect from a celebration standpoint, it’s not really fair to steal her away from my step-dad and my brothers and their families for that weekend, so I was hoping that first weekend would work. I checked the Crowd Calendar predictions at Touringplans.com and predicted crowd levels are fairly light Wednesday through Friday, moving to 6’s and 7’s for the weekend, which is fairly good. Disney rarely has light days or slow periods anymore, so while I would LOVE for every day to be a 2 – 3, I consider myself lucky to have 4’s – 6’s. I then checked availability at Old Key West for those dates. Because it’s an older resort, it doesn’t have the popularity that some of the newer, “sexier” resorts have, like the Villas at the Polynesian resort or the Grand Floridian, so it’s generally fairly easy to get reservations there—at least during non-peak times. Currently, the dates we want are available. Of course, that could change between now and when my booking window opens…remember, I can’t reserve the room until 7 months out. With an arrival date of May 2, that means I can’t book until October 2. SO…bottom line…Have noted on my calendar on October 2 to remind me to book the reservation. Also, I made notes on December 3 and March 3 to note when I can make dining reservations and Fast Pass Plus reservations for our trip. Time for both Mom and I to start saving! I won’t be able to save much until after Christmas, but it really helps to have a trip planned and (sort of) scheduled. I do much better when I have a concrete GOAL to shoot for, know what I mean?

At any rate, you will be hearing lots more about this trip as time goes on…

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Extra Fun for Foodies

Foodie Guide for the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival

What Food Items Are You Looking Forward To?

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What’s new for this year’s EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival?

New Topiaries

2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival Merchandise

Garden Rocks Concert Series

Outdoor Kitchens

Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration

Blossoms of Fragrance

Final Thoughts

Will you attend the 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival?

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Counter Service

Quick Service Menu: Crepes A Emporter at La Creperie de Paris

Our Thoughts

Table Service: La Creperie de Paris

Decor

Service

Table Service Menu: La Creperie de Paris

Our Thoughts

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Disney Parks News Updates: Disneyland/California Adventure

The Disneyland After Dark: Heroes Assemble at Disney California Adventure

The Soundsational Parade is BACK!

Downtown Disney

Disney Parks News Updates: Walt Disney World

Epcot

Ralph and Vanellope are coming to Epcot!

Garden Rocks Concert Series

Animal Kingdom

Kevin from UP! at Animal Kingdom

The Lion King, 25th Anniversary

Hollywood Studios

Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy

Disney Springs

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