Disney Springs Morimoto
With all of the hassle and transportation related to our move from Illinois, we put Mother's Day on hold until we got to Florida. J. R. booked an afternoon dinner at Morimoto Asia in Disney Springs. We made a day of it with some shopping and a trip through World of Disney and then had a wonderful family style meal. We started off with some Shumai, which was a pork, shrimp and mushroom mixture in a dumpling. We followed that up with Morimoto Gomoku Fried Rice, a mix of duck, chicken, pork, shrimp and vegetables in a sambal sauce. We also had Orange Chicken and a spicy tuna roll.
Everglazed
We made a return to Disney Springs to see Cruella at the AMC Theaters and made a stop at Everglazed for some donuts and coffee before the movie.
Shula's
For J. R.'s birthday, Janie made a reservation at Shula's Steak House. We went to the Swan early and visited the shops and then sat in the lobby and had a drink before dinner. The food and server were excellent.
Riviera
We made another trip to Disney Springs for dinner in late June. We went over early and took a bus to the Riviera resort to do a little shoppping and look around.
Skyliner
Our primary reason for going to Riviera was for Rebecca to ride the Disney Skyliner. We picked it up at Riviera and rode it to Caribbean Beach where we turned around and rode it to Epcot. After that, we walked over to Beach Club to take the bus back to Disney Springs.
Homecomin'
Dinner was at Art Smith's Homecomin'. It was Janie and J. R.'s second trip but Becca's first. The ladies split some chicken and donuts and J. R. had the fried chicken.
Father's Day
Rebecca took J. R. to Fantasia Gardens for a round of Father's Day miniature golf. Lunch was at Frontera Grill at the Springs and it was a disappointment. Rebecca's dinner was hard lumps of over-salted pork. J. R. wanted the chicken mole, but they didn't have that, so he ended up with steak tacos, which were well done, but not good.
Disney in July
Before Becca headed back to college, we needed to get her to Disney World so we bought some tickets and took her to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. She got a lot of comments about her "Loki" ears which she had found a few weeks before at Disney Springs and which were not available anywhere now.
Hotel Hopping
We took advantage of our close proxmity to Disney to do a couple of days of hotel hopping. One afternoon we headed to Coronado Springs for drinks at the bar atop the hotel and dinner at Maya Grill. On another occasion we went to Kona for lunch and walked around the Polynesian and Grand Floridian (and got a Dole Whip).
Disney Studios
We booked a day at Disney Studios and were able snag an early boarding group for Rise of the Resistance. We hit all our favorite rides and had lunch at the Brown Derby.
Magic Kingdom
After the Studios, we drove over to the Magic Kingdom for some shopping and a ride through Pirates.
Magic Kingdom Again
We made another trip to the MK a couple of weeks later to look for the rest of the gold 50th Anniversary statues.
Epcot
We thought we would get some exercise so we made a reservation at Epcot to walk around and sample some food, beverages and fireworks.
Food & Wine Festival
We booked a full day in October to spend at the Food & Wine festival. We arrived early and rode some rides (Test Track, Soarin and a broken-down Spaceship Earth which kept stopping every few minutes). Then we walked around the World (Showcase) and sampled some great food and beverages. As always, we came out tired.
Epcot International Food and Wine Festival Menus
Animal Kingdom
We decided to make a trip to the Animal Kingdom on a Tuesday night to walk around and see the animals. We made a beeline for Flight of Passage which was advertising a 40 minute wait. It ended up being about that long due to two breakdowns. Then we tried to ride Expedition Everest, but it was closed, so we went on the Asia nature walk. Most of the animals were hiding but we saw a few monkeys. Then we did the Gorilla walk in Africa and then the Safari ride, where most of the animals were on display. Everest had reopened so we rode that next and then wandered the stores for awhile.
Boma
While at the park, J. R. saw there was an opening at Boma, so he snagged that. We drove over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and had a drink at the bar, chatting with a couple of other couples, including a woman from Ohio who went to Baylor and was in Becca's sorority. Then we checked in at Boma and had the traditional buffet and finished off with zebra domes for dessert.
Art of Animation
Since we had dinner plans on property, we drove over to Disney Springs and parked and took a bus to Caribbean Beach (since they wouldn't let us park at Riviera to have a drink). We took the Skyliner to Art of Animation to get some exercise and check out that resort since we had never been there.
Toledo
We capped off our night with drinks in the Dahlia Lounge atop the Coronado Springs tower and then dinner at Toledo. Other than having to listen to a screeching child at a nearby table all night, dinner was excellent. We split the 'dinner for two' and had a perfectly cooked ribeye which also provided us with dinner at home later in the week.
Steakhouse 71
A new restaurant opened at the Contemporary Resort in the former Wave location, Steakhouse 71. We decided to try it out one night so we drove over to the resort and had a drink at the Outer Rim bar near Chef Mickey's. Then we had a great steak dinner in the new restaurant. The decor didn't really scream steakhouse, but the food was good, especially the chocolate cake.
Halloween
After returning from our cruise, we spent Halloween at Walt Disney World. We started off at the Magic Kingdom with a ride through Space Mountain, then we got some popcorn and walked around the park and did some shopping. We rode the monorail back to Epcot where we had parked and rode Spaceship Earth and the Living Seas. Janie got another key lime mimosa and then we had dinner at the Rose & Crown, which was very good. We headed over to Beach Club to have a drink mid-afternoon and then walked around the Boardwalk before heading back into Epcot. Janie had gotten into the virtual queue for Remy so we rode that, then visited Club Cool and Creations shop.
Hotel Hopping
We made a park reservation at Epcot on a Sunday and waiting in an incredibly long line for Frozen and said "never again". The line was marked as 70 minutes but it took us over 130. This meant we barely made out reservation at Nine Dragons. The food there was very good but the portions were much too large. We hated leaving the leftovers behind. We rode the rat ride again and then left Epcot to wander the resorts, stopping to see the gingerbread carousel and the Beach Club. As we grabbed a drink and sat near the lake, we saw Mickey in his finest greeting a pair of newlyweds.
Disney Springs
We visited the Springs again to find some more of the Christmas trees we had not seen the first time.
Epcot Festival of the Holidays
On a Tuesday night in December, we visited Epcot to check out the Festival of the Holidays. We ate too much dessert and cookies but had fun. Most of the cookies were good, except for the American one. The desserts were great except, surprisingly, the Buche de Noel at France, which was dry.
Epcot Festival of the Holidays Menus
Disney Studios
We had a pair of tickets left over that we had purchased before we got annual passes, so we had those transferred to Rebecca. When she returned from Alabama in December, we went to Disney Studios since Rebecca had not visited there in awhile. J. R. purchased Lightning Lane passes for Rise of the Resistance and Genie+ for the day. First stop was Mickey's Runaway Railway and Slinky Dog Dash, neither of which Becca had never ridden. Then we had to hit Rock 'N' Roller Coaster and the ladies rode Tower of Terror while J. R. got popcorn and a drink. Lunch was at Hollywood & Vine, which was disappointing. It was not a buffet any more, which we knew, but the food was not great. J. R. was served beef tenderloin which tasted off and the texture seemed like it was not even meat -- even Janie thought so. We rode Muppets and Star Tours and finally took Becca to Star Wars Galaxy Edge to ride Smuggler's Run and Rise of the Resistance. We ended the day by applying her tickets towards her own Pirate annual pass.
Magic Kingdom
The next morning, we were off to the Magic Kingdom, where Rebecca's main goal was a ride through Space Mountain and a trip on Pirates of the Caribbean. We managed both of those quickly, plus hit a few other rides.
Grand Floridian
We had lunch reservations in Epcot, but it was too early to park hop, so we hopped the monorail instead to the Grand Floridian to check out the gingerbread house and Christmas decorations. We bought some gingerbread, but it frankly was not very good.
Epcot and the Candlelight Processional
We arrived at Epcot at 2PM and rode Spaceship Earth and the Living Seas before our lunch reservation at Coral Reef. Lunch was overly expensive and way too much food but we got our tickets for the Candlelight Processional and headed to see Figment. Then we went to World Showcase so Becca could buy some tea and do a little browsing. We ended up with good seats for the processional, where Lisa Ling was the narrator.
Animal Kingdom Lodge
For our anniversary, we booked a night at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We stopped by Animal Kingdom in the morning to ride Expedition Everest and the Safari, as well as a showing of the Festival of the Lion King. Then we went to the hotel and hung out by and in the pool and had a few drinks at the pool bar. Our room was not ready by check-in time so J. R. went upstairs and they assigned us a room. This is the third time the "direct to room" service at WDW failed to send us a room number when one was available.
Our room overlooked the savannah, so we watched the giraffes and zebras on our balcony before going to the bar for a drink before dinner. We made a quick run through the gift shop for snacks and then watched the animals for awhile before dinner at Boma. We had a night cap at the bar and headed to our room.
We had Boma breakfast in the morning and watched giraffes from the balcony until it was time to leave.
