We are lucky to live only a few hours from Disney World! Currently, there are some reasonably priced tickets to the parks for Florida Residents. We were in need of a little weekend trip so we scooped up the tickets and began planning! Since we have not been to Disney since quarantine, heck we haven’t been to a Disney theme park in a few years, we decided to just use 1 of our 3 day passes on this particular weekend. I had spoke with friends who have been recently and they explained all the precautions that Disney is taking. This made me feel safe as we headed out on a Friday afternoon.
We arrived in Orlando around 3:00 and headed straight to check in at The Wyndham on Hotel Plaza Blvd. This particular hotel is next to Disney Springs… or Downtown Disney as this Florida native still refers to it! After settling into the room, we walked to Downtown Disney, I mean Disney Springs. It was about a 5 minute easy and very safe walk. Disney Springs was not crowded at all when we arrived.
We shopped around until our tummies started growling. At that point we made a bee line to The Daily Poutine. I love seeing the creative concoctions they come up with. We ordered the taco inspired poutine. It was do delicious! Since it was made to order, it came out piping hot covered in all the taco toppings you would want on your french fries!
After, we continued shopping and exploring. We stopped off for a $5 margarita happy hour on the outside bar area of Frontera Cocina. It was a pleasant but small area of outside tables next to the bar where we could take a load off for a bit while cooling down with a few refreshing margaritas!
Next we headed to the Coca Cola Rooftop Bar as I had read about a create your own beverage experience where they bring you a variety of soda flavors as well as fruit and other ingredients to create your own unique drink. Unfortunately, this was not available the evening we were there. Instead we did a float tray. This was well priced at around $11 and we had a lot of fun sampling them all! We were given 8 different sodas each with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in them. Each drink had the soda name underneath it. None of us were a fan of Sprite with vanilla ice cream! It was a beautiful area to sit outside on the 3rd floor and take in the views of Disney Springs!
We were shopped out and full but I still had one more stop that was on my list! Sprinkles Cupcakes! We fell in love with Sprinkles on a trip to Vegas. They have a creation that should be illegal…. you pick your flavor of ice cream and whichever cupcake you want and they blend it into the most incredible milkshake you will ever experience. Well, sadly this was not available at this location. After I composed myself from this devastating news, I proceeded to order a pumpkin cupcake. It was yummy but had it been blended with ice cream it would have been even better!
From there, we walked back to our hotel room and relaxed. We had a Disney Springs view room on the 15th floor and it was absolutely magical! That view was worth every penny! We could see the Epcot ball and the Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios along with all of Disney Springs. I could have looked at that view forever! But I was eventually tired so off to sleep I went! There was no need to set an early alarm for the next morning as Epcot didn’t open until 11am!
We took our time getting ready in the morning and grabbed some breakfast before driving over to Epcot. We arrived around 10:20 and they were already letting guests into the park. So that was a pleasant surprise. It was a cloudy day with a high chance of rain so we were ready with our raincoats in tow. Throughout the day it lightly rained a few times but nothing like the downpours that we get almost every afternoon here in Florida. The rain did cause Test Track to close down two of the times we were in line. So after the second time, we gave up on that ride.
The Food and Wine Festival was going on. And while the menus and beverages sound delicious, the length of the lines deterred me from getting anything until about 30 minutes before the park closed. Then I grabbed Chicken Dumplings with Chinese Slaw and a Mongolian Beef Bao Bun. These were very tasty. We ate them while waiting in line to ride Frozen for the second time. I also indulged in one of the adult beverages at the China kiosk. It was called the Happy Peach. It was dark rum and peach liqueur and it was delightful!
Though the crowds for the food stops were extremely long, the ride lines were not. With the exception of Test Track, we rode all the rides including Frozen twice. We never waited in line more than 30 minutes and that is without fast passes. As fast passes are not currently available. The hours are shortened though. Epcot closed at 7:00 the Saturday we were there. So I was pleased that with only 8 hours in the park, we were able to do so much! I will say that some of the Disney “magic” that we always experienced in the parks from the Disney employees was really missing on this visit. We only encountered a couple employees that seemed to be happy. This was disappointing but I was still grateful to have the parks open!
After walking 10 miles that day at Epcot, we arrived back to the hotel and ordered dinner in! The next day was spent shopping and then driving home. Next month, our plan is to visit Hollywood Studios. We are saving the 3rd day of our passes for December so we can experience the Magic Kingdom while it’s decorated for Christmas.
