Disney World. Day 2. Today we ate all the points.

Today we ate everything.

I guess I’ll start by saying today was a good day. Much better than yesterday. Hallie woke up at 730ish and we cuddled.

We got up around 8 and started getting ready for the day. We didn’t move too quickly but still made it out around 9:45 and headed for EPCOT.

We got to EPCOT pretty fast, but were stopped about 1000 feet from the entrance to the parking lot. Our first line of the day. I’ve never seen anything like it. I think it took us ten minutes to go the last 1000 feet. We finally parked, rode the tram to the park entrance, and then met our second line of the day - the bag check line. Next was the ticket line, where we had to pick up our tickets, and then finally the actual park entrance line. Tzvi was very upset about the picking up the tickets situation. We should have had them mailed to us, but when I originally bought them I just said we’ll pick them up in Disney Springs on Sunday. Well, because Hallie had strep, we couldn’t go to Disney Springs, so we had to wait on a line for tickets. Obviously this was my fault (and it seems, the start of a running tab of things that are somehow my fault).

Finally we were in.

Can you take a picture of us with the Food and Wine sign? No? How about just the wine then. Thanks

As opposed to most of our EPCOT visits where we run frantically through the park to do all of the rides and then spend the afternoon walking through all of the countries, we decided to do today differently, mostly because it was our first time visiting during the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival. Today was actually the last day of the festival, so we were just in time, along with everyone else in the world. The festival is an annual festival where special food kiosks are set up around the world showcase and in future world.

We began by going straight into the world showcase to Norway for our 11:30 am Frozen fastpass. Hallie has been pretty obsessed with Frozen lately, so we thought this was going to be amazing for her. As soon as we got into the ride though she started complaining that it was too dark. Once we were on the boat she was upset, and as soon as we got into the dark she started crying. The rest of the ride was a rollercoaster (of emotions) as she cried, then was excited and happy to see Olaf and Anna and Elsa, and then cried again from the dark, and then “She’s singing Let It Go!” and then a little more crying. Afterward she said it was a great, but decided she didn’t want to go on again later. From there we went to actually meet Anna and Elsa. While we were on the ride, my parents waited on the line to meet Anna and Elsa. I think she was still reeling from the ride, but she was pretty happy to meet the princesses.

From there we made a quick stop in Mexico to ride the Three Caballeros, which was a little less scary for her. Then we went back to the beginning of the World Showcase to start eating. We made our first stop at the Greece kiosk, where Tzvi and my parents shared spanakopita (spinach and cheese in phyllo dough) and Greek “Nachos” (pita chips with veggie sausage Tzatziki). Nothing for me, but they said both were pretty good.

Next we walked around to the UK where Hallie got to meet Alice (a’la Alice in Wonderland fame), and then went on to France. At France we got a crème brule and a frozen passionfruit martini. Both were delicious. In one of the stores Hallie got a small Eiffel Tower model that she saw and wanted.

From there we kept walking and made a stop at Brazil where Tzvi got cheese bread (he said Hindel’s is better), then to Belgium for waffles (one with chocolate and one with berry compote) which were both pretty good. Next we stopped at Morocco for hummus fries and baklava. The hummus fries were actually fried hummus and tasted a lot like falafel; they were really good. The baklava was also surprisingly very good. Next we did some shopping in Italy while Tzvi got apple strudel in Germany, which was just okay.

My mom stopped in Italy at some point to buy perfume. At some point Tzvi almost fell asleep sitting on the floor of China, and then we made our way around and back out of World Showcase and into future world where we had our final food stop - the Cheese Pavilion, where Tzvi got a cheese trio (a profiterole with cheese, a bagel chip with cheese and lox, and a macaron with cheese). He said it was good. We finally finished off the eating with a class Mickey ice cream pop.

After that we rode the Nemo ride, which Hallie enjoyed, and then rode The Land. Tzvi didn’t want to go on the Land so he got Starbucks instead. The Land was great as always. Watching vegetables growing never gets old. One day we’ll do a private tour of the land. They probably let you eat things.

After The Land we waited about 15 minutes to meet Mickey and Minnie. Hallie was really excited to meet them and gave them hugs and kisses, but she really didn’t want to meet Goofy because “Goofy so tall.” I met Goofy instead. Hallie now says that “mommy loves Goofy.” My new boyfriend.

After that we walked around a bit and then rode the boat across the water and back to Italy for dinner. On our way to dinner Tzvi and Hallie stopped to watch the concert happening at the American pavilion. The concert was Big Bag Voodoo Daddy – swing music that Tzvi says was popular in the ‘90s (swing music was popular in the ‘90s?). Tzvi was pretty excited because he knew all the songs and said he even had their CD. Why does that not surprise me?

If you don’t mind awkwardly watching Tzvi look into the camera for 26 seconds, you can kind of hear the music and Hallie is really cute in the below video:

We had a 7:30 reservation at Via Napoli in the Italy pavilion, but showed up at 6:00 and only had to wait a few minutes to be seated. While the wait for the table wasn’t terrible, the wait for the food was pretty bad. It took over 20 minutes from the time we ordered until we got our appetizers. At one point she came over and asked if we wanted bread and said she would bring a lot of bread, but then she only brought four pieces. Finally the appetizers came, except my appetizer and main came together. I had a minestrone soup and a salad with arugula, string beans, candied walnuts, pear and a mustard vinaigrette. Tzvi and my mother shared a mozzarella caprese appetizer that Tzvi said was okay. Hallie got a “fruit cocktail” - a fruit salad in a cocktail glass, which she ate half of and then knocked off the table, shattering the glass. Glass flew everywhere. She didn’t seem to mind though, she just kept eating her grapes.

Next they brought the pizza we ordered for the table. I had ordered the small 10” pizza, but Tzvi thought that was too small so we got the next size up, which was a large and basically enough to feed a small Italian family. Whatever, it was pretty good pizza. For his main Tzvi had tortino melanzane – an eggplant dish that was basically layers of fried (but not breaded) eggplant topped with tomato sauce and melted cheese and all on a bed of spaghetti. He cleared his plate and said it was delicious. Hallie ate a little bit of her personal pizza (yes, we also got her separate pizza) and some of the big pizza, and finished most of her fruit. She was pretty easy at the table as she spent most of the meal watching Frozen on her tablet. We skipped dessert and made our way out of the park and back to the hotel.

Good day.