FOODIE FRIDAY!! Day Three. Dining For My Birthday!

Yes.......Happy Birthday to me was the theme of the day on Tuesday March 3rd.  The day I turned 62.  Yes, I said 62.  When I was a kid, I used to think that was ancient.  Older than dirt.  Over the hill.  And yes, even elderly.  Well, if you have ever seen me do 14 miles at Walt Disney World in a day, you would never have the nerve to call me elderly ever again!  HA!

This was our EPCOT day, and we really had a great time.  We started out early enough for a first thing in the morning Fast Pass at Spaceship Earth.  Now, in retrospect, I am so happy we did this since the parks are now closed due to COVID-19, and I had to delay my next trip.  Spaceship Earth will be going down for a MAJOR refurbishment at the end of May.  This is expected to be close to two years for completion.  It's one of my very favorite EPCOT attractions and I am so thankful we did not miss it on this trip.

After that Fast Pass, we headed to Sunshine Seasons for a quick breakfast.  We had sweet rolls and orange juice, then we headed right over to our Fast Passes for SOARIN'.  Perfect timing too.  We finished, and we were there one minute early and got right in.   SOARIN' is Paul's favorite attraction at EPCOT.  

We then had quite a bit of time to kill before our noon lunch reservation at Garden Grill, so we headed over to The Seas With Nemo and Friends.  It said 25 minute wait, but unbelievably it was more like 40 minutes by the time we got in our clam mobile.  
It's a short attraction really, so we headed back to the Land pavilion and we got to our reservation time 5 minutes ahead.

This was Paul's first experience at Garden Grill and he loved it as much as I do!  He really enjoyed how the character interactions were.




Above photo credits: My Disney Experience


One of my very favorite salads at WDW anywhere is the salad here at Garden Grill.  I love the fact that all the greens and vegetables in the salad come from the Living With the Land attraction just downstairs.

              Hanging with Pluto again!

                    Dale is just goofy!

                     Chip thinks Dale is NUTS!  (GET IT?)

                     Last trip I was with Mickey on his birthday, this time he is with me                 on mine!

I got a special birthday treat dessert!  Chocolate Mousse!  YUM!

And a card signed by the gang!

                     Mickey sat down and had a conversation with us over dessert!

                      Regular dessert!  This was also delicious!

After lunch, we had another Fast Pass for Journey Into Imagination with Figment.  Love it!!!  When we were done with Figment, we went into the character greeting area for Vanellope and Wreck it Ralph, and Joy from Inside Out!  

After that we headed to the Disney and Pixar Shorts theater to see the films, and meet up with Mickey there too!  I can never get enough of Mickey Mouse!  Can you??

We then headed over to spend the rest of the day at World Showcase.  We began our journey over at the Mexico side as we had dinner reservations that would take us to Japan.  We started out on the Grand Fiesta Tour with Donald, Panchito and Jose!  We then met up with Donald in his sombrero!

We then made our way around World Showcase to the American Pavilion and the smell of the BBQ coming from the new Regal Eagle Smokehouse was too over powering to resist!  We were a little hungry by then so we got a meal to split so we could taste something from here.  We got the Memphis Dry-Rub Pork Ribs!  Totally delicious!!    The Mac & Cheese with it........REALLY YUMMY!!

That was a perfect amount for us to share!

We walked around and about in World Showcase until right around 6pm and shopped in the store at Japan, and then headed over for our reservation at 7pm.  We had a reservation at Takumi-Tei.  If you remember, I dined here on my solo trip in November and I loved it so much I made the decision that was where I wanted to have my birthday dinner.  

My last visit I sat in the Stone Room.  This time we were seated in the beautiful washi paper room.  I'm happy I got to experience a different room this time. 

The complimentary sample "bite" they present to you is always different.  You never know what you are going to get.  

Both Paul and I ordered the salmon, and we were so very pleased with the preparation.  It was totally delicious! Misoyaki Salmon, Citrus Curry, Asparagus, Baby Shiitake Mushroom, Black Sesame Tofu, Ikura. Service here is stellar.  I love all the sweet young ladies who work in this location.  The manager is also amazing.  I spoke to her on both of my visits.

A surprise birthday cocktail for me from the manager!

Dessert was also special and very delicious!!  This was the 

Shizuku Water Cake, Yuzu Crumble, Black Grape, Blackberry Sake.  

That just about ended our evening.  We had plans to stay for extra Magic Hours, but after two glasses of wine and by special birthday drink from the manager, I had to throw in the towel and call it a night.  

Join me again next week as we talk about our next day celebrating my birthday!  

THROWBACK THURSDAY! Hanging with Crocodiles in 2012

Of course these photos are zoomed in, but these are some angles of the photos we took at the crocodile area on the Wild Africa Trek back in 2012.  This is pretty up close and personal, right??  

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY!

Grand Circle Tour Podcast Vinyl Review!

Join Jungle Skipper J and myself as we review the Disney's Ultimate Hits Vinyl album,
If you don't have this one, it's a great way to start a vinyl collection of Disney music!



https://gctpodcast.libsyn.com/vinyl-review-disney-ultimate-hits

Happy National Goof Off Day! 3/22/20

March 22, is National Goof-off Day, and who better to take lessons from??  

The Goof-Master himself!

Silly Saturday!

FOODIE FRIDAY! Day Two Dining and Lounges, Free Snacks, and After Hours March 2, 2020

First off, I want to start our by saying that since we are in the midst of a global pandemic caused by COVID-19 and we are now pretty much all stuck in our homes, I am hoping at the time of this post, and going forward I hope and pray that you are all well.  God made us all to be strong and resilient, and I am confident that this will only make us all stronger.  I go to bed each night, and during the day I am saying a prayer for the world that things will get better as quickly as possible.  

I also hope that these posts that I am making will make you think about happy things, with good food and good times to look forward to when this comes to an end.  ((((((((HUGS)))))))))) to you all.

NOW!

Here are the dining locations we had meals at on our last trip.  Day two was sort of an off day for parks, but we did do the After Hours at Magic Kingdom on this day.  

I had gone really early to do the Keys to the Kingdom Tour for the 8am time slot.  It was totally amazing and I will be doing spoiler-free  review of that at a later date.  

After my tour was over, I met up with Paul outside of Magic Kingdom and we took the Monorail over to the Polynesian Village Resort and had lunch at Kona Cafe. 


Photo Credit: My Disney experience

I love this place, and it really is a hidden gem right out in the open.  I think they have great food, and our server was great.  

We had a Dragon Roll sushi appetizer that we split, and then I had the Seafood PuPu Platter.  I was just in the mood for seafood that day and since we did the sushi, I figured I would just stick with it. Paul had the Hawaiian Style Reuben.  He said his was delicious as well, but enough for two people.  He only ate a little over half of his sandwich.

We also did a little resort hopping that afternoon since we had hours before we had to head back to Magic Kingdom for the After Hours event.  We went to the Grand Floridian and went to the Enchanted Rose lounge for drinks, and relaxed there.   What a lovely place this is!!

This is the Island Rose drink which contains Ketel One Grapefruit and Rose, Lime, Orgeat (Almond), Pineapple, Bitters, and Rose Water.  It was delicious!!  Paul had beer.......of course!  He really did enjoy his choice though.  It was the Cigar City Florida Cracker White Ale - Tampa, FL.

After leaving there, we took the Monorail back over to Magic Kingdom to hop on a boat transport over to Wilderness Lodge to walk around there for a while.  I wanted to show Paul the area I was going to be staying on my trip for May, that unfortunately, has now been postponed to September and I will no longer be staying at my favorite resort.  Oh well, life goes on, right?

We took the bus over to Disney Springs from Wilderness Lodge.  The more we thought about the evening...and that it was cooling off, we made the decision to head back to our resort to change into something a bit warmer.  I put on capris and a sweatshirt, and Paul put on long sleeves from the tee he had on with his jeans.  We were happy we made that choice.  

We had a dinner reservation at 7:15 at The Plaza Restaurant, and fortunately, we were seated very close to the front windows so we could see the Happily Ever After Castle and fireworks show going on. 




Two above photo credits: My Disney experience

 We each had the wedge salad and  the Plaza Club for dinner.  It's something we get when we go.  Not heavy, and always delicious!

 Photo Credit: My Disney Experience

After that, the place was beginning to empty out as the park officially closed that evening at 8pm.  By the time 11pm rolled around there was hardly anyone left.  We actually hit 11 attractions that night, and had two Mickey Ice Cream Bars each and got a couple bottles of water for free.  That's the nice part about that event.  Cart snakes are all free!  
Well, there is the end of day two!  

Please join me again next Friday for another edition of FOODIE FRIDAY!  EPCOT is the spot for day 3, my actual birthday!  Also, I hope you check out WORDLESS WEDNESDAY and THROWBACK THURSDAY's!  If you have not signed up for e-mail alerts, please do so while you are here!
 See ya real soon!

THROWBACK THURSDAY! Thinking of Happier Times

And really.........what makes me more happy than being with my favorite Disney character at my Happy Place? NOT TOO MUCH! Looking back at October of 2014 and smiling.