Hockey Tournament in Orlando? Yes Please!

The Express Transportation drops you off near Spaceship Earth and you come in between the restrooms and Guest Services. We made our way directly to WS to start sampling the offerings at the festival booths. Our favorite of the day was:

Huarache: Flank Steak Guarache served with Black Beans, Salsa de Chile de Arbol, Frisee Lettuce, Queso Fresco, Red Cabbage, Shredded Carrots and Chipotle Mayo El Arista Hambriento (The Hungry Artist) Mexico

This was served on grilled corn dough which held up well with all of the toppings! The flavors mingled well but you could taste each component. We really loved this. I wish I had one now!!! (it is top center in the collage) We also selected the deconstructed sandwiches (reuben and blt) to try.

We had some rain this day so we really took our time wondering around. We spent a good bit of time in the festival center (you know stuffing our faces with mini croissant donuts) then headed out to meet up with a friend who was there. Luckily we snagged a table with and umbrella across from the refreshment port "Africa" to chat. After catching up we made our way to Germany where we grabbed another dish.

We made it to the American Adventure just after the Voices of Liberty started their set. I cam in on You've Got a Friend in Me which lead into Friend Like Me. I have never heard them do any Disney songs and was bummed that I missed the beginning. This is where we got out least favorite dish of the day. The scallop with chorizo. The scallop was rather plain and the chorizo, well, it wasn't chorizo... to me it looked raw, it was very pink. Joe only had one bite of it...

On around and our last stop was going to be Canada booth for Triple Chocolate Mousse. Well, they were out and the chef had gone to get more cake. We chalked it up to we really didn't need sweets that was until we got to the desserts booth and got the Smores. It started raining again so we ducked into the Port of Entry store to eat then just took off for the bus!

A couple of pictures for your enjoyment

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Now I get to tell you about the best part of Express Transport. We were leaving Epcot for AK. When you arrive you pass the main nursery, WOW the plants, trees and bushes!!! You also get a pretty good look at the back side of Pandora. As you get off the bus you are walking past CM buildings, lockers, Tusker House kitchens, trash compactors and more, you go thru a small door and POOF, you are in Africa!!! It was pretty startling to be honest. You can't really "hear" what is going on but when you step in it's like you've gone thru a magic doorway!

We walked right to Everest which we rode twice, stopped to look at the Rivers of Light floats in the lake and made it back to the pick up point as the Hollywood Studios bus pulled up! That's the way to do Disney my friends lol. When we got back to HS, Joe got a HUMONGOUS ice cream sandwich and I went in search of the frozen coke stand (it was closing as I walked up). We made the long slow walk to the car and headed to the tournament hotel. We are staying in Altamonte Springs. It's about 25 miles from Disney. It took us right at an hour to get here from HS. Of course we left right at 5pm... Not smart on our move but we were wet and tired. There is a Longhorn's right next to the hotel and we walked over for dinner. In bed and asleep by 9:30 LOL. Hockey and more Disney tomorrow

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I would love to do a write up!!! As far as favorites, everything lol. The food is amazing although I've heard there have been issues . I'll explain more about that later. Artisit booths are set up all around and the artisit are at most of them. Once I am on the laptop and finish up my report, I'll expand on it all.

Amy- I'm trying!!!

The kid's first game was in Daytona Saturday morning. Of course I wasn't getting up that early and going... I slept a little bit then headed to Epcot! There were a couple more things on my must try list from the festival...

I arrived about 20 minutes before park opening and OMG the people! I walked towards the Passholder line and it was LONGER than all the other lines put together. I went in the bathroom as the opening speech was going on, came out and purchased a pair of sunglasses since I forgot mine, and walked down the the touchpoints that was open for ADRs and tours, there was NO ONE in line so I went right in. I walked to Starbucks dreading the line I was going to be in there but I was first in line and got the first drink of the day!!! YAY From there I went in to MouseGear to look at Alex and Ani and ended up with a new Pandora bracelet with 2 spacers and a charm for $150 minus my 20%AP discount! I was also the first transaction there!

I decided to head to test track, single rider was only 5 minutes and by 9:30 I was heading towards WS. I headed right just taking my time and enjoying the sights. I made it to France and it was deserted. I grabbed a croissant and mimosa from Les Halles, and had my choice of tables outside. I took my time eating and drinking it was so peaceful. I switched the charms around on my bracelets and finally got up and moving a little after 10. I headed back around to take pics of the menu boards I didn't take the day before and waited about 15 minutes on the booths to open. I only wanted to try 2 things, the chevechi and the wild mushroom risotto. If you go to this festival GET THE WILD MUSHROOM RISOTTO!!! Of all the Epcot festivals and all of the food, this is by far my most favorite of them all! Yes, it is that good!!!!!!!!! As I left Canada it started to get a bit cloudy. By the time I made it to Italy it was raining again. In Disney terms, EPCOT was pretty much a ghost town, it was fab!!!! I stopped in Germany to get out of the rain a bit and got a milk chocolate caramel strawberry OMG this was so good. I got a chocolate caramel bacon bar for Joe which he thought was too rich... I decided that I was ready to go by about 12:30, I needed a popcorn for the road and was off

This is the night we went to dinner for our anniversary at the Citrus Club. It's on the 18th floor of the BB&T building downtown. Dinner was amazing. And Free!!! We are a members of Club Corp and it is one of our benefits. we started with burrata for me and arancini for Joe. We each had salads (Caesar and farm) and we both choose the dry aged ribeye with black garlic butter. We shared an amaretto cheesecake for dessert. Everything was top notch. Gentlemen were required to be in sports coats during dinner, I got roses, there was an amuse bouche from the chef and more. And we had a table right by the window! It was a great night with the love of my life!

Oh I forgot, there is a HUGE canvas set up, you can get a paint color and can paint up to 5 squares. I can't wait to see the finished product. I had color #10..

There are also paintings set up by the meet and greets I got pics of all the ones I saw. They are beautiful!

I always forge things then when I am attaching pics I think "Oh I need to add that!"

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Sunday the kids had a morning game and I talked Joe into going to Disney after. OK, I pretty much just said we have time and can go... but you know, I threw in some sad eyes

We arrived at Disney Springs as I needed to go into the Lego store, Blondie used 2 of the wrong color pieces on the castle and I wanted to see if they had them, no suck luck... We shared the Latin Poutine from the Daily Poutine for a snack. These were really good. Fried Yucca with pork, black beans and queso fresco. There was plenty for us to share this dish and not walk away feeling hungry. Back to the Lime Garage and off the Epcot we went.

WOW was the park busy. I forgot it was a holiday the next day and the locals were out in full force. I've been to Epcot on lots of weekends and during lots of festivals, but this is the first time the "drunks" were getting on my nerves... It wasn't horrible but there was a few loud and very obnoxious ones out. I got another wild mushroom risotto and Joe finally got the triple chocolate mousse that was very good.

We stopped for a while and listened to some of the Broadway songs. WOW, I wish we had seats and could have caught the entire show! What we saw and heard of it was fantastic!!! We checked out a lot of the artists booths this night and just slowly roamed around WS.

We didn't stay too late, we were tired and I just don't have the stamina yet... I start physical therapy tomorrow and another doc appointment in a couple weeks!!

Thanks for reading along. I will post my thoughts on the festival a bit later!