Lightning Delays?!?
As I headed into EPCOT, my husband and I were talking some through group chat/snap chat as he was killing the time. He had arrived at Wide World of Sports around 7:20PM and was zoning out killing the time people watching until it was time for him to move towards his corral. He got annoyed at people though when one lady decided to sit literally inches away from him despite there being a ton of open space!
While he was dealing with that, I was enjoying myself in EPCOT. I had some booths to enjoy!
As I had walked through the International Gateway, I started going counter clockwise through the World Showcase and started at
France
La Passion Martini Slush: vodka, Grey Goose Le Citron, cranberry and passion fruit juice
My slushie was super overfilled which was awesome! I poured it into my Christmas Osborne Cup and continued along my way sipping! I stopped in
Brazil to enjoy another favorite! I ended up stealing a seat at a table a couple was sitting at and they were from Sarasota, FL so we had some fun conversation passing the time until all our food was gone! The bread was perfectly cheesy & I can’t wait until my friend’s fiance brings me back some from Ecuador!
Pão de queijo: Brazilian cheese bread
I headed to the Mexico Pavilion to catch a ride on the boat. I was hoping there was actually going to be a line to avoid Illuminations crowds but there wasn’t. The boat ride was full of some rather intoxicated people that were in a great mood so it made the ride to find Donald a whole lot more amusing (they were happy I was in the front of the boat so I could drive it as the ‘sober’ one)
When leaving the Mexico Pavilion, I noticed the wind was starting to pick up. I decided to send this screenshot to my husband from the weather app on my phone.
His response:
I went to Instagram and saw this!
It seemed like it was going to rain as well at EPCOT and who knew when my husband was going to start running, I headed to Via Napoli about 30 minutes early for my 9:40PM ADR and was immediately seated (Illuminations was starting then a few minutes late)
My service pretty much sucked at Via Napoli but that could be because I knew I was the server’s last table but it took her about 15 minutes to come and take my order. I kept looking at the weather to see what was happening:
Eventually my food arrived after I had about half of my litre bottle of San Pellegrino (I figured I should have lots of water to balance out the drinking of the weekend!) My chicken was great - I felt it was the ‘cheaper’ version of the ravioli dish I love at Tutto Italia. I really enjoyed it though and I knew it would be hearty enough to keep me going throughout the evening!
Paccheri alla Crema Con Pollo - Large Macaroni Tubes, Cream, Chicken Pancetta
As the rain delay was still going on and the Illumination Crowds were finally leaving, I got a dessert. I only ended up eating about half of it but I did enjoy it. The soda was bitter but that was really balanced out by the sweetness of the gelato so it felt like a very balanced dessert!
Gelato Frizzante - Ice Cream Soda “Italian Style” Made with San Pellegrino’s “Aranciata” and Vanilla Gelato
I paid around 10PM and checked the weather again.
My husband had sent me a text around this time saying that the race was going to be delayed until 10:45PM so I knew I had some more time to kill until I needed to worry about finding a place to cheer him on! I walked towards Future World to see how the line for Soarin was and visited Dopey along the way. He wasn’t a fan of my shirt as it said Evil Queen on it!
I did stop by my favorite booth to get one last fondue for the year. I don’t need to review it at this point as I think this is my 5th of the year!
I was pleased to see Soarin had a 10 minute wait, except that wait was actually a lie and it was walk on. Everyone got to sit in the front row which made for an awesome ride.
Around this time, I got a not so pleasant text from my husband to which I responded with the screenshot so he would know how it was actually shortened as it wasn’t greatly described by the race announcers!
As I knew it was close to the time he was going to start - I decided it would be a great time to get all the characters in before the runners would be done and the lines turned into a hot mess. All of these photos were taken by the cast members. Their skills varied as you will soon see!