We start another wonderful day at EPCOT with flowers, new merchandise, construction, signage, and of course, more food. Let’s be honest: most of the festivals are all about the food, but the flowers are a nice touch though.
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? The painting of the World Drive sign still shows no sign of progression as Minnie awaits her own treatment. I thought ladies went first, but I guess it’s “age before beauty” for this signage.
Plants were removed from the side of Spaceship Earth and although from a distance the area is once again in its all-new glory, some wood dividers are left behind. Not sure if this is Disney’s new way of decorating, but most likely just temporary.
Walking by our new favorite spot to see the Innoventions West demolition, we add one last shot to show what little is left of the building. This is most likely to be gone by the end of the week, if not sooner at the pace, it has been going.
Mouse Gear opened up rather early today, but was told with crowds and sometimes long lines waiting outside the store that it may be opening up earlier than usual, especially this week. It honestly depends on the number of guests outside so don’t count on it opening up at an earlier time every day.
Just had to point out the cool little plastic dinosaurs close by.
A new face mask arrived today with our favorite little Orange Bird. They are selling pretty fast so your best bet is Mouse Gear to find the size you are looking for.
There’s also a new Passholder MagicBand for the festival. These were just being put out today so for all we know there may be some more locations we haven’t found yet. The band goes very nicely with the shirt found here.
No sign of any big changes occurring for the France Pavilion expansion from the outside. That just makes us more curious about what’s going on inside as the Oct. 1 opening date slowly approaches – very slowly, as it’s over 6 months away.
Maybe they’ll give us a sneak peak of the wait time sign, or not.
The Morocco Pavilion still does not have a bathroom.
The Germany Pavilion finally gets a new sign for the outside Bier kiosk/cart/quick service. Anyways, it was said that the Frozen Coca-Cola and Lemonade are still available and that the Mezzo Mix is no longer being made and has been retired. This sign will make it easier for new beers to come to the pavilion and cycle out as the seasons progress.
Frozen Ever After freezes up (see what we did there), but soon came back to life allowing guests to once again floor into the ride to see our favorite snowman that can’t help but melt our hearts. (These puns honestly write themselves)
On a different subject, it seems the more popular product being sold at Disney at the moment is the giant Stitch plush which has magically disappeared from every merchandise location in the park. The giant Angel plush is still available, though. But what happened to our lovable Experiment 626 and how did his giant version become so popular all of a sudden?
On our way out, construction workers were paneling another section of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. They completed the right side by the end of the day. We’ve got to admit, they do good work.
As promised: Food! Or in this case, drinks first, starting with the Tang Dynasty, which is delicious. We were given the wrong straw and had to swap it out because of the boba constantly clogging it. It’s a wonderful drink and well worth the price with the amount of alcohol in it. But just be careful — because again, it has a high amount of alcohol in it.
If you do happen to drink a little too fast because of the width of the proper straw, head over to the America Pavilion for the dish that’ll clear you right up: Boudin two ways (Or, just get it because it’s really good, but be warned — it has a bit of spice.)
We finished it off with a dark chocolate raspberry tart that you honestly can’t go wrong with. Dark chocolate? Yum; Raspberry? Yum; Put it together? Yum, yum.
Well, that’s all for today! We leave you with the brilliant sunset we saw as we left EPCOT. We think Central Florida just has the best sunsets.
Age before beauty?
Please tell me that you (and the other photo report journalists) leave plenty of time to recover from drinking those alcoholic drinks at the park before driving home!
By the way, your narrative on your photo reports are the most interesting and fun of all the reporters.
I don’t know that our reporters are getting inebriated from trying on small alcoholic drink with a light pour from a festival lol