Just the two of us...no dining plan, no discounts, no allergies...lots of pics! COMPLETE

[tweetylori]

We had been to Tutto Gusto in the past and I can remember relaxing at a high top enjoying a drink. This time they insisted that we had to stand at the bar. I don't know if it was because it was lunchtime and the park was pretty crowded so they wanted to be ready in case folks wanted to eat lunch in there, but I will say in the time we were standing at that bar there were plenty of tables available and we would have appreciated being able to sit. As a result, we limited it to the one drink each and headed off with intent to bar hop. Due to the crowds everywhere else, that was basically impossible. We couldn't get into Rose and Crown. Nor the Tequila Bar in Mexico. Good thing we had a fast pass to Frozen. We decided to ride hop after that, going back to the other part of Epcot.

As for food for the rest of the day, I will say that the night before we realized that due to the weather conditions and our lack of cold-weather clothing preparedness, we were going to have to change our ADR for dinner. We were originally scheduled to do San Angel at 8:00 so we would be nice and close for the night show. We knew we couldn't handle the cold that late, so Husband did cancel San Angel. (you're welcome someone!). Our remaining choices for an earlier dinner were quite limited. We couldn't do too early because we knew we would be full of pizza, but we couldn't do too late because we knew we would be freezing, so we took the one ADR at 6:10 that we could get.

 

[elaine amj]

Loving your review. Especially as we arrive tomorrow to spwnd a week with no kids and *gasp* no dining plan!

 

[tweetylori]

Coming up, the big birthday dinner at Epcot...was it one of our favorite meals of the trip?

Loving your review. Especially as we arrive tomorrow to spwnd a week with no kids and *gasp* no dining plan!

omg, so excited for you! And very much hoping for better weather for you!

 

[HeidiGW]

Excited to by-pass checking in, we headed for our room at the farthest point in Country Fair All-Stars Music (last building, almost last room)...we were greeted by this cute fellow (who we never saw again until the day we left) View attachment 469084

Ha! I have stayed in that second-to-last room before....it was hell walking to after all day in the parks!

 

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Loving your review! And Happy Birthday! I turned the big 6-0 in September so feel your pain - lol. And - you are my neighbor - we live in Apex!

 

[DLo]

Just found your reviews and all caught up. Great start and looking forward to reading more. I also was surprised to actually enjoy my meal at Mama Melrose. Via Napoli is a favorite too. I haven’t been to the Edison yet . Sci Fi is hit or miss food wise for me but atmosphere is fun .

 

[tweetylori]

Loving your review! And Happy Birthday! I turned the big 6-0 in September so feel your pain - lol. And - you are my neighbor - we live in Apex!

Well thank you neighbor! So nice to hear of another recent 6-0! Takes some getting used to, huh?

 

[tweetylori]

Just found your reviews and all caught up. Great start and looking forward to reading more. I also was surprised to actually enjoy my meal at Mama Melrose. Via Napoli is a favorite too. I haven’t been to the Edison yet . Sci Fi is hit or miss food wise for me but atmosphere is fun .

Thank you! And yes, we do get a kick out of the atmosphere at Sci-Fi too. Can you imagine working there though, and hearing the same 30 minutes of movie lines over and over for years and years?

 

[tweetylori]

Ha! I have stayed in that second-to-last room before....it was hell walking to after all day in the parks!

Especially if weather conditions aren't favorable!

 

[tweetylori]

We are not wait-for-rides people. We'll usually just keep walking (or check the app) and find something that doesn't require an hour in line. But it was so cold at Epcot that we happily hopped in an hour line for Soarin'. Wait in line INside out of the cold and wind? Okay! But then right at the end of the wait, we were moved to a line right behind a Mom with her three kids. Bless her heart she had her hands full with one in a stroller and two older boys who had quite the personalities. One of them appeared to be having a big problem of ...how do I put this delicately?...extreme itching in the back end. As a result he was uh, digging, incessantly. At first it was funny because he would stop every time his Mom turned around and looked at him, but he wouldn't stop! Then right as they opened the doors he ripped a big one, reached back again and said "uh oh". And I was put on the ride next to him. All this right before we headed back to the World Pavilion for our 6:10 ADR.

 

[tweetylori]

Between that and the fact that we had eaten almost an entire large pizza earlier, we weren't starving when we arrived at Nine Dragons for our ADR. Having read mixed reviews for this Chinese restaurant, it wasn't high on our list of where to go, but because we had changed our ADR just the day before, it was literally our only option. But I LOVE Asian food, and Husband likes it, so we were happy to try it. After a less than friendly greeting, we were brought to a table for two (they had plenty available!). We were brought waters, and birthday gal ordered a Chardonnay, not because it goes with Asian food, but because I wanted wine to warm up and red REALLY doesn't go with Asian. Husband ordered a Diet Coke, but was pretty sure it was a regular Coke.

 

[tweetylori]

My first reaction was the water tasted funny...reminded me of the water we had had at Mama Melrose. Florida has never had the best tasting water, imho, but both of these restaurants had particularly not so good, but I was really thirsty so I downed half of it quickly so I wouldn't chug the wine. Then I saw it. There was a little bug in that water. With dangling dead legs. I did get our Waiter's attention and he took it away without comment and brought me a fresh one without comment. Much better.

Not starving, we decided to share two appetizers and an entree. So we ordered:

Vegetable Spring Rolls
Sweet Chili Aïoli

$5.00


Pot Stickers
Pork Dumplings served with Soy Dipping Sauce

$7.00

 

[tweetylori]

The potstickers were good, very porky, and the dipping sauce was one of the best ones I've ever had with potstickers. You could taste a nice vinegar tang. The spring rolls however had a very thick somewhat hard crust, with almost invisible filling. Literally almost hollow inside with a shred or two of what was probably cabbage, but there was so little of it, I couldn't tell for sure. Come on Nine Dragons, how much can a few more shreds of cabbage cost? I mean, raise the price of it if you need to, but vegetable spring rolls should have, well, vegetables in them. And the dip tasted like mostly ketchup with maybe a little of sweet chili sauce. Disappointing, but at least they weren't expensive. For our entree, we shared:

Kung Pao Chicken
Peanuts, Dried Chilis

$20.00

We ordered this because there wasn't much else that wasn't breaded and fried. We were given a choice of one or two chilies for a spice level. Both of us said one, and boy was I glad we didn't go with two. I like spice but this was SPICY.

 

[tweetylori]

I was sure grateful for the bugless glass of water I had for this entree. I'm talking REALLY spicy! The chicken was definitely not white meat. I usually prefer dark meat anyway, but it didn't help that the first bite I took was pure cartilage. And it was right when the Waiter showed up, so I couldn't spit it out. It was just that one piece though, the rest was okay, although some pieces were just a bit rubbery. Personal preference would have been for this to have had veggies in it, but hey, it's probably authentic this way. I was glad we shared it, and surprisingly Husband didn't think it was "that spicy". So maybe it was just me.

Would we eat here again? With all the other options in Epcot? Doubtful. The quality just wasn't there, even for the price level.

Up next, a sweet surprise!

 

[kastoney]

I am fashionably late to the party but all caught up.

Your Via Napoli pizza has me so jonseing for some pizza. That really is just the beat pizza!

Happy Birthday!!!! Can't wait to read more.

 

[tweetylori]

I am fashionably late to the party but all caught up.

Your Via Napoli pizza has me so jonseing for some pizza. That really is just the beat pizza!

Happy Birthday!!!! Can't wait to read more.

Thank you, and yes it really is incredible pizza!

 

[tweetylori]

Even though our meal was pretty quick at Nine Dragons, we were done in and ready to get back to our home-away-from-home, where we could only hope the heat was working well, because it was even COLDER. We found out later that this was the coldest Orlando had seen in 8 years. Happy birthday to me! Would have been no problem if we had our winter attire with us, but we had barely packed the slightly heavy stuff we had brought based on weather forecasts. (liar liar pants on fire!)

We worked our way back out, stopping for a Living With The Land walk on and another SpaceShip Earth almost walk-on. The winds were still especially fierce around this ride. We warmed up briefly in it, then said goodbye to Epcot and headed for the bus to All-Stars Music. Ugh, we saw our bus pulling away as we walked up, which meant what felt like ten hours of heavy shivering while I clung to my South Dakota Husband who was bravely trying to block me from some of it. Okay, so maybe it was only 20-30 minutes, it just felt like 10 hours. While we had not packed the right coats, we had been smart enough to bring a bottle of red wine for me and a small bottle of bourbon for Husband, so thoughts of that kept our spirits up through the long trek from the bus stop to our back-of-the-resort room.

Husband unlocked the door and like the Gentleman he is (haha, that should have been my first clue), told me to go on in. I turned on the light and SURPRISE!

 

[tweetylori]

I didn't do my pic-taking best because I was so surprised by this sweet gesture of Husband's. There were six cupcakes, three chocolate, and three vanilla, all decorated slightly differently. Inside the Mickey basket was a bag of sweet colored popcorn, the birthday hat, and four Mickey Rice Crispie Treats on a stick. Plus the giant card. Husband said he had planned this a long time ago. I was very touched.

 

[tweetylori]

This went quite well with the wine I had brought with me. I don't know if you can see it or not, but the tie around the napkins even had a little Mickey. (It was also incredibly hard to get open.)

 

[tweetylori]

Yes, the cupcake was as fresh and good as it looks. They all were. We each ate a chocolate one and shared a vanilla on this night and put the rest in the fridge for later.

This was so SWEET of Husband. I know he had been thinking and planning so hard and so long to make my 60th special, and he sure did. The only catch is he is 18 months younger than me, so I have my work cut out for me to top this for his 60th! That being said, please NO ONE tell me what this bargain-loving-gal's sweet surprise cost, okay? I can only imagine! And I really really really don't want to know!

Up next, our Magic Kingdom day!