Disney Wonder Panama Canal Eastbound Cruise: Day 4 - Brunch at Triton’s

Date of Visit: November 11, 2019

The Puerto Vallarta All Ashore time was rather late (10:30), which made having brunch in Triton’s a great option they offered before going ashore. In particular, wee enjoyed that you could get lunch food early (Mik had a burger).

One of my favorite desserts of the trip was the cherry crepe at the brunch.

Disney Wonder Panama Canal Eastbound Cruise: Day 3 - Dinner at Triton’s

Date of Visit: November 10, 2019

Our first night in Triton’s was the regular menu for this restaurant.

Mik enjoyed his favorite appetizer here - the escargot.

For dinner, he had the Roasted Rack of Lamb.

For dessert, he had the Apple Tart Tatin.

Disney Wonder Panama Canal Eastbound Cruise: Day 2 - Dinner at Tiana’s Place

Date of Visit: November 9, 2019

We really enjoyed Tiana’s last trip, but it was even better this time as we had a table right by the stage. Our first night at Tiana’s was one of the restaurant theme nights with a New Orleans theme menu and the live music.

Mik had the Louisiana Hot Crab dip, which he enjoyed. It came out very hot and he was smart enough to notice and let it cool and not burn the top of his mouth like I did.

For the entree, he had the New York Sirloin Steak.

He had the Banoffee Cream Pie for dessert.

I got the Louisiana Root Beer Creme and this is I think the only dessert we’ve ever been totally disappointed with on a cruise. It wasn’t bad tasting, but it definitely didn’t taste like root beer and it was a very odd stretchy texture.

Disney Wonder Panama Canal Eastbound Cruise: Day 1 - Concierge Lunch at Tiana’s Place

Date of Visit: November 8, 2019

One of the benefits of Concierge was when we first boarded the ship we were able to have a full service lunch in Tiana’s Place. We particularly enjoyed this as Cabana’s is not only crowded on Embarkment Day, but the tables there don’t really work for the wheelchair to roll up to.  We also got to enjoy a window table in Tiana’s, which we haven’t had before and would not want for regular dining as normally it would be too crowded and difficult to get to/from that inner table.

Other than dessert, we don’t remember what we had because I only remembered to do photos of dessert on the first day for Mik. The dessert he had at the lunch was the Cookies ‘n Cream Cheesecake.

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Fourth & Final Visit

Date of Visit: May 6, 2019

On our last visit to Epcot together this trip (I went on my own on the 7th to do rides Mik doesn't typically do), we finally got over to the penguin sculpture near Living with the Land.

We started at Taste Track with the Violet Blueberry Vanilla Croissant Doughnut, which was tasty, but makes us miss the savory croissant doughnuts we've had at the Epcot International Art Festival.

Next we enjoyed the Sugar Cane Shrimp Shewer from La Isla Fresca.

One of our favorites was the Crab and Cheese Wontons from the Lotus House in China.

In China, we also enjoyed walking around to the Zodiac Garden to see all topiaries representing the 12 zodiac signs.

Mik finished with the Toasted Pretzel Bread at the Bauernmarkt in Germany, which was another of his favorites.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Third Visit

Date of Visit: May 5, 2019

As we got to Epcot before the food booths opened at 11am this day, we started by going through the gardens in the United Kingdom while the World Showcase was still pretty much entirely empty. The English Tea Garden is interesting in that it has the different plants that are used in different Twinnings teas growing in teacup shaped pots.

What we found most interesting, though, was the Shakespeare Garden. This area had signs with lines from different Shakespeare plays along with the plants mentioned in the lines.

For food on this visit, we started at the Northern Bloom in Canada. Mik had the Seared Scallops, which he thought were okay. He liked my Maple Popcorn Shake more.

Next at the Flavor Full Kitchen, Mik enjoyed the Cookie Butter Worms and Dirt, which ended up being his favorite beverage this year, while I had the Citrus-poached salmon.

We tried the Smoked Salmon Stack at Arbor next, which neither of us liked much mainly because it seemed too salty.

Mik enjoyed the Grilled Sweet Corn on the Cob from Trowel & Trellis as our final stop this visit. We ended up with two cobs because the guy serving them said they were small.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival: Second Visit

Date of Visit: May 4, 2019

For our second visit to the 2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, we focused on the areas at the beginning of the World Showcase. Our first stop was the Citrus Bloom, where we tried the lobster tail, which we liked the taste of, but found hard to get off the shell as tends to be the norm for lobster...

Next we stopped at the Honey Bee-stro. Mik enjoyed the honey-peach cobbler freeze and the chicken flatbread.

Nearby we checked out the Goodness Garden Butterfly House. There's lots of butterflies to see, but not that interesting to us because it just seemed like they were mostly flying by the netting trying to get out.

Next we stopped by the Gardeners Terrace where Minnie's Garden Party is going this weekend only. Here we picked up the button they were giving out and also tried the fried green tomatoes at Arbor, which Mik didn't like, but I got them mainly for me and I liked them except the paprika oil does make them spicy.

Our last stop was dessert from Pineapple Promenade. Mik had the pineapple soft-serve ice cream and I had the desert violet lemonade (sadly my flower blew away as I was carrying the items back to Mik).

On the way out of Epcot to park hop over to Magic Kingdom, we stopped for a photo because Mik wanted one with his Darth Vader socks for Star Wars Day. We were going to do a photo in Hollywood Studios earlier in the day, but we were just done with the park after discovering that we couldn't use our Toy Story Mania fastpass because the wheelchair accessible vehicle was down.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival

Date of Visit: May 2, 2019

Every year we talk about wanting to go to the Flower & Garden Festival again. We'll go next year turned into five years since the last time we went mainly because we started doing an annual extended family trip every January (once it was February) and then it just seemed too soon to go again for the Flower & Garden (or we were doing Destination D for our just us WDW trip for the year).

As we started our day in Hollywood Studios with Toy Story Mania fastpasses, we entered Epcot between the UK and France pavilions. After hanging out in the gift shop by the entrance for the rain to let up, we decided to start in France where Mik had one of his favorites from before - the duck confit. We also enjoyed the chilled cucumber soup.

Next we enjoyed a key lime tart and a watermelon cucumber slush (my favorite thing we had today) at Florida Fresh between France and Morocco.

Next Mik had the shredded beef brisket with smoked potato from The Smokehouse in American Adventure. He didn't particularly enjoy it, but we did like the sunflower topiaries with Mickey and Minnie.

After the brisket, Mik was full so we just strolled through the rest of World Showcase making note of what we might want to try later this week. Of course, we also strolled through Mik's favorite part of Epcot - the Romantic Road in Germany.

We also enjoyed checking out the various topiaries with my favorite being Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Destination Info:
2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Jaleo by Jose Andres

Date of Visit: March 14, 2019

As we knew there were a lot of restaurants around the Capital One Arena/Chinatown area, we decided to walk home from the National Building Street via 7th St. We ended up at Jaleo, which is a tapas restaurant (we were kind of aiming for tapas as Dad knew there was a Mexican tapas in this area that we were sort of heading to).

Mik really enjoyed the height of the table. It was just right for him and as long as he wasn't at the end spot there was no barrier to roll under the table to get close to the table.

We each did the lunch menu that allows you to pick one from each section of a select menu for just $20 person. Mik started with a potato dish that he really enjoyed.

Mik also enjoyed the pineapple sage soda.

His second selection was the chicken fritters. His third selection was the shrimp, which I apparently forgot to take a photo of. He also enjoyed them, but didn't finish as he was getting full and wanted to save room for desert.

For desert he chose sorbet, but he also ate most of the flan Dad had chosen (and again I forgot to take a photo).

Overall we really enjoyed eating at Jaleo. Also, at only $20 per person it was a good price for a meal in DC.

Destination Info:
Jaleo by Jose Andres
480 7th St NW
Washington DC 20074

Walt Disney World - Disney's Wilderness Lodge: Storybook Dining at Artist Point

Date of Visit: January 8, 2019

The day before our annual family trip I was reading the latest DVC magazine and discovered that you could meet Grumpy as part of the character dining at Artist Point. I was surprised to find I actually could get a reservation for one of the days on our trip and we went back and forth on whether we would keep the reservation or not because it was also the day we had booked the character breakfast at Chef Mickey's, which was something we overall preferred to keep. In the end, we cancelled our dinner reservation in Disney Springs for later in the week and went for a splurge dining day. It particularly made sense to not push this back to try next year since this year we stayed at Boulder Ridge Villas and we have not enjoyed our experiences getting to dining where we're not staying.

When Mik got the menu, he thought he needed help opening it because it looks like it's through a loop, but it's actually just a magnet.

We really enjoyed that the appetizers were shared as that meant we got to try them all. For the appetizers, Mik's favorite was the Hunter's Pie.

The winter squash bisque was also fun in the little cast iron bowls.

For his entree, Mik enjoyed the Magic Mirror Slow-braised Veal Shank.

The desserts are also shared, which in the end we really appreciated because it meant we didn't choose something that sounded good and end up disappointed as we didn't really enjoy any of them.

The meal ending with The Hunter's Gift to the Queen (cracked maple popcorn and ganache hearts) was not a disappointment, though, and good highlight to end the meal.

Overall we really enjoyed this character dining experience. Of course, the best part was Mik meeting Grumpy. Kirsten, Nora, and I also enjoyed visiting the Evil Queen.

Destination Info:

Artist Point at Disney's Wilderness Lodge

901 Timberline Dr
Orlando, FL 32830