Orlando Memories

Five years and one month ago (or thereabouts), we went to Orlando with the primary goals of seeing the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and stuffing our faces at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. It was our first time at both, and although the days were long and busy and exhausting (tons of steps!), and A unfortunately got sick, we had a really good time.

Now that we've finally finished recapping the trip, here's a summary recap of everything we did and some reflections, since our memories of this trip have been spread out on this blog over the last five years.

We left in the morning from Newark, grabbing a breakfast of cinnamon pretzel sticks, chili, and a Jamba Juice smoothie for breakfast before our flight. (Oh, to be young(er) again.) The flight from NYC to Orlando wasn't long, only a few hours, and we got there in time for a late Chick-fil-A lunch. (Since we wrote that post two years ago, Chick-fil-A has opened a couple of stores here in NYC, so it's no longer so hard to find.) Then we were off to rent our car and check into our hotel and get settled in at Disney.

Most of the time when we've stayed on the Disney World premises, we've stayed on the Epcot side. That made sense this time especially since we were pretty much going to spend all of our time at the Food and Wine Festival, but we've always preferred staying there to not take buses. It's a short walk to Epcot, a short water taxi to Hollywood Studios, and then our preference was usually a walk through Epcot to the monorail to get to Magic Kingdom. No easy way to get to Animal Kingdom, but three out of four is pretty good. This time, it was tough to get a room because of the festival, and we ended up on the Vacation Club side of the Boardwalk. It was fine, and the location was good, but pretty expensive.

After checking in and relaxing a bit, it was time for dinner. We were really excited because we had made advance reservations for Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We love Boma, which if you're unfamiliar is a buffet of African dishes. We like it mostly because it's different, and we always end up trying some dish we've never had before. We're glad places like Boma exist, since in many parts of the country and world, it's not really that easy to try food from different regions in Africa. We're lucky here in NYC to have done some exploration, but even here, it's not that easy, and so much of the continent isn't covered, so there is so much we still haven't tried. Boma is a great way to push out of your comfort zone, and it's on our must list for Disney visits. It's even easier if you have a car since getting there by bus could take forever. (We've done it.)

We spent our first full day in Orlando at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Universal's Islands of Adventure. I love Harry Potter, so I had been wanting to set foot in Hogsmeade and Hogwarts for a long time. We were pretty excited about our lunch at the Three Broomsticks - fish and chips, Cornish pasties, pumpkin juice, and butterbeer. It was fun getting to try things that they always talked about in the books and the movies, even if the food/drinks weren't that exciting on their own. We also checked out the shops and went on all of the rides (although only A rode the Dragon Challenge).

We spent a lot of our Universal Day doing Harry Potter stuff, but we also visited the other "islands" (mostly Marvel Super Hero Island, Jurassic Park, and Seuss Landing), going on more rides and picking up a few snacks along the way (chicken fingers and ice cream). Universal's fun, although the price keeps climbing, and we can imagine that buying tickets for a family to both halves of the Universal theme park (which you'd now have to do if you wanted to see all the Harry Potter stuff, since the new half we haven't seen yet is in the other park) could be really cost-prohibitive these days. Our first day concluded at Downtown Disney/Disney Springs with a late dinner at Raglan Road, enjoying the music and food at the Irish pub.

For the next 2.5 days, we spent our time at Epcot, which is our favorite part of Disney World, eating at every single kiosk at the Food and Wine Festival, going on rides, visiting the pavilions of the World Showcase, and soaking up the hot Florida weather. Some of the kiosks and dishes from 2011 are still around in this year's festival, but others have since rotated out. The ones we visited were (in alphabetical order):

Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Brewer's Collection
Canada
Caribbean
Cheese
China
Craft Beer
Desserts and Champagne
Fife and Drum
France
Germany
Greece
Hawai'i
Hops and Barley
Ireland
Italy
Japan (parts 1 and 2)
Mexico
Morocco
New Zealand
Poland
Portugal
Scandinavia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea 

As we mentioned in our final post on the Food and Wine Festival, some of our favorite kiosks were Scandinavia, Hops and Barley, and New Zealand. There are also some more notes in the overview and some tips in the post about the 2012 festival. We tried every kiosk since it was our first time and we weren't sure when we would be back next. We probably could have had more self-control but we wanted to eat everything. It was a fun challenge trying to hit all the kiosks, and we succeeded!

After our short Orlando trip, it was time to go home, with one last meal at the airport before leaving Florida. We haven't been back to Florida since then, and we're not sure when we'll be back there next. Disney is always a fun place to go, but it's gotten really, really, really expensive. Hopefully someday we'll make it back and also back to the Food and Wine Festival.

Goodbye Florida

After spending a few days at Epcot, it was time to bid farewell to Florida. We thought we would probably return soon, but it's been five years now and we haven't made it back. So I guess this is still the most recent meal we've had in Florida.

We headed to the airport late in the day after visiting the last few kiosks at the Food and Wine Festival. If I remember correctly, we didn't go to the same food court as we did when we got there, but instead opted to eat closer to our gate. We found ourselves at Qdoba, where we got fairly standard Qdoba fare, so I won't get into it here (especially since I'm not 100% sure of everything we got). We've written enough about Qdoba from other visits.

As we waited for our flight, A also got a coffee drink from some Cuban coffee chain that we don't remember the name of and doesn't appear to be there anymore. He doesn't remember anything special about it this many years later. It was some frozen mocha concoction and clearly didn't leave much of an impression.

That's the last stop on our Orlando trip. Next up - a summary of our trip (reviewed over five years...) and general thoughts about visiting Orlando!

Raglan Road

After spending the entire day at Universal's Islands of Adventure, we went back to our hotel to rest briefly and then headed out to what was then Downtown Disney (and is now Disney Springs) for a (very) late dinner. Since it was so late, options were a bit more limited, but luckily the place we wanted to go, the Irish pub, Raglan Road, stayed open late. When we got there, it was filled with people eating, drinking, listening to music, and generally having a good time.

Since our visit was five years ago, we don't remember a ton about the food itself, but the experience has stuck with us. We started out with some drinks, a cider for me, and a beer for A, but we couldn't tell you anything more about what they were specifically. It was nice sitting at our table, relaxing, watching the entertainment, and having a drink after a long but fun day.

We started out with an appetizer called Calamari City, described as "salt and pepper calamari and mixed tempura vegetables with a spicy remoulade." This was a little more unique than most fried calamari dishes because of the inclusion of the vegetables. The vegetables were very welcome because, outside of onions, they were pretty much the only vegetables we had all night.

We got two main dishes for dinner, and at this point, I couldn't tell you whether we split them or ordered separately, and if we ordered separately, who ordered which one. The first was the beer-battered fish and chips served with tartar sauce.

We also got something called "bangers and booz," Guinness and onion bangers on mash, topped with caramelized onions and beef stew. Basically, a really heavy but tasty version of bangers and mash.

Raglan Road was fun and a great escape. We liked that they set out to provide a fun Irish experience, complete with entertainment and a building that itself was apparently shipped from Ireland. We wish we remembered more about the details of the food, but it has been over five years now so it has faded a bit. We do remember that we thought the food was solid, a bit heavy and filling, but good. Part of that was because of what we ordered - all fried food plus bangers and mash - which was just a continuation of a really unhealthy eating day that started at Universal with more fish and chips, chicken fingers, and Cornish pasties. After our more balanced and vegetable heavy meal the night before at Boma, we had spent the entire day for the most part eating fried food. That said, we would return to Raglan Road again and maybe just make some different (less heavy) choices.

We ate so much at dinner that we needed to take a stroll around Downtown Disney before returning to our hotel, where we took a really late night swim in the pool for further digestion and relaxation before sleeping. It was a pretty late night and we were exhausted from spending the entire day at the theme park, but it was a lot of fun. The next day would finally begin our adventure at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival which we've already completely written about (our favorites list is here and links to all the reviews are in this post), which means our recaps for this Florida trip are almost done!

Hop on Pop Ice Cream Shop

We haven't posted in a bit (feels like longer than 9 days), first due to excitement over the Cubs World Series win and then pre-election stress and anxiety that made it hard to focus. But now that we've moved into post-election despair, time to try to restore some sense of normalcy and get back to posting every day if we can. First up, finishing the few recaps we have left from our Orlando trip from 5 years ago, since who knows when we'll be back to Florida next. - M&A

After our day of wandering around Universal Studios Islands of Adventure we decided to get another snack. If you've been reading us consistently, first I'd like to say thanks, and second you know that I really like ice cream. We opted to stop off at Hop on Pop Ice Cream Shop, a Cat in the Hat inspired shop.

The first thing we noted was that, due to its inspiration, the shop itself was very whimsical. M left it to me to order our snack, and I went a touch overboard. One thing that tends to happen on vacation is that we overeat really badly. This was no exception. I opted to get a large waffle cone filled with cookies and cream, topped with hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry.

The ice cream was really rich and creamy and tasted fantastic. It was a good, balanced sweet with just the right amount of broken up cookies. The hot fudge, whipped cream, and cherry seemed a tad excessive, but, again, it was vacation. The waffle cone was nice and crisp, and didn't actually leak that much somehow. While we probably should have gotten a smaller snack, I was more than happy with our choice.

Burger Digs

As we wandered the Islands of Adventure after our Harry Potter extravaganza, we stopped into various places for snacks. I guess with the thousands of steps we were logging, we were hungry a lot, and as I said before, we weren't super stuffed from our lunch. The next place we visited for a snack was the Burger Digs in the Jurassic Park Island.

The place may have been called Burger Digs, but we got some chicken fingers and fries. Nothing too exciting or amazing, just ordinary theme park fast food, but we got to snack on them while hanging out with a dinosaur.

We don't honestly remember too much about this stop, but it was in our photos, so we did go there for a snack. On to the next Island!

Hogsmeade Sweet Treats

After stopping into The Three Broomsticks for lunch, we set out to explore Hogsmeade. While there were various rides there, we also wanted to check out the shops. Universal really did a great job installing a large variety of stores, making it really easy for people to spend money on Harry Potter souvenirs (wands, joke items, and more). One of the places we enjoyed wandering around was Honeydukes, which, for those unfamiliar with Harry Potter, is the sweets shop.

Although there are quite a lot of magical candies in Harry Potter, like chocolate frogs that have a life of their own, a lot of the candy at Honeydukes was pretty much the same candy you could get at any candy store. It was just cutely packaged in nice Honeydukes containers.

I did like the way the store was set up, even if the candies weren't that revolutionary for the most part. They really tried to give it a light and whimsical feeling. I especially liked this display, which reminded me a little of a candy buffet/cart at a wedding, but that was mostly because I saw a lot of candy types I liked.

And of course, they had Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans there. We've had a box of those in the past, and for the longest time, we've said that was the one food A would never eat again (since he pretty much just eats everything otherwise). I don't know if they're still made by Jelly Belly, but they were then. They were true to the "every flavor" thing, even including jelly beans with really gross flavors like vomit. Laundry or soap, fine. Vomit, disgusting. Never. Again.

In addition to loose candy, they did try to include packages of a lot of the candy types mentioned in the books/movies which was a nice touch (and probably also helps them increase sales to fans). Too bad for any kids who try them thinking they're actually going to feel the effects of magical candy.

Outside of Honeydukes, most of the shops in Hogsmeade weren't food stores, but focused on all other sorts of magical items and implements. But there were a couple of other food stops in Hogsmeade other than The Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head (the bar). They had butterbeer and pumpkin juice carts out in the middle of the "town," which made sense, since it was Florida, it was hot, and people really needed to stay hydrated.

We picked up another pumpkin juice at the cart, since, like I said, it was a hot Florida afternoon. We had liked the pumpkin juice we had for lunch, so although it was not cheap, we thought we'd get one more during our visit. This one also had the benefit of coming in a really cute bottle.

We weren't expecting anything amazing food-wise from our visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, but it was still a lot of fun. After we got our fill of Hogsmeade, watched some performances, and tried all the rides we wanted to, it was off to another Island of Adventure!

The Three Broomsticks

For Harry Potter fans, amazing news broke a few weeks ago. For the first time ever, Warner Bros was hosting a special Christmas dinner event on the studio tour, with the Great Hall decked out just like it was in the movies. We weren't going to be in London in December and the tickets were crazy expensive (and quickly sold out), but it made us think back to the closest we ever got to being at the "real" Hogwarts. That was 4 years ago today, when we journeyed to Universal's Islands of Adventure in Orlando, and set foot in Hogsmeade for the very first time.

It was a sunny and hot Florida afternoon, and it was completely packed. (Who knew that many people took vacations in October? Don't kids have school?) Although the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was located at the far end of the park, we sped through all the other Islands to get there, figuring it would be the most crowded (which it was), and since it was the primary reason we had gone that day. Our first destination was naturally Hogwarts Castle, home to the Forbidden Journey ride. Walking around the castle grounds while snaking through the line was exciting, but the ride itself was quite motion sickness-inducing.

After the ride was over, we were ready for some lunch, both to calm our stomachs and because it was late and we were hungry. When in Hogsmeade, where does one go for lunch? The Three Broomsticks, obviously.

The Three Broomsticks was basically a pub/tavern, but that's what were expecting. Although they did serve some standard American theme park fare (like smoked turkey legs, chicken and ribs), they also made an effort to add in some more English items and things mentioned in the books/movies. You could choose from shepherd's pie, fish and chips, or Cornish pasties, or if you had a large group, could splurge on the Great Feast. I don't know if this is what they really ate at a Great Feast in the English wizarding world, but it just sounded like an American barbecue to me (garden salad, rotisserie chicken, spare ribs, corn on the cob, and roast potatoes). Also, as a side note, considering it was at a popular attraction at a theme park, the prices at The Three Broomsticks for all of this stuff (4 years ago, anyway) were surprisingly reasonable, not much more than you'd pay at a regular restaurant.

We got 2 entrees and 2 drinks to split for lunch. The first was the fish and chips, "fresh North Atlantic cod battered and fried with chips and tartar sauce." This was pretty standard fish and chips. They were okay, but it's kind of hard to screw up fried fish and fries. We have had better fish and chips at plenty of other non-amusement park places, but these were fine.

The other main dish we got was the Cornish pasties with garden salad, "flakey pastry pies filled with ground beef, vegetables, and potatoes, served with a side salad and choice of dressing." The salad was fine, mostly lettuce, but it felt good to have some raw vegetables alongside all the fried food and pasties. The pasties themselves were pretty tasty. The filling was well-seasoned and they felt more English and Harry Potter-like than anything else we ate at lunch.

We don't always order drinks when we go for meals on vacation, but we had to during our visit to The Three Broomsticks since they were drinks that they actually get in the books/movies. The first one we tried was the pumpkin juice, which we quite liked. It was perfect for fall, full of pumpkin spice flavor, along with apple and other fruit flavors. After reading the Universal site, it seems like the primary ingredients are apple juice, pumpkin puree, and apricot puree. (There are some copycat recipes online like this one that I'm very curious to try.)

The other drink we tried was butterbeer. We weren't really sure what the butterbeer would be like. We figured it wouldn't taste like beer since it was non-alcoholic, but would it be like root beer? Something else? Turned out it was frothy like a root beer, with the flavor of cream soda, to take A's description of it. It had a really strong cream soda taste. I'm not a huge fan of cream soda, so I took a sip or 2 of this and then passed on the rest in favor of the pumpkin juice. A likes cream soda, so he liked this, but he wasn't expecting it to just be cream soda since it was called butterbeer.

We enjoyed our meal at The Three Broomsticks. It was a good place to relax after being flung in all directions by that ride at Hogwarts, and gave us the fuel we needed for some Hogsmeade exploring (and other rides) later in the afternoon. It wasn't an exceptionally filling lunch, but it was nice. It's also the closest we've ever gotten to eating in the real wizarding world!

Boma

One of our favorite restaurants at Disney World is Boma, which is located at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We made it to Boma for the first time a couple of visits ago and we loved how different it was from everything else offered at Disney. We decided to take advantage of having a rental car for the first part of our trip by driving out to Boma for our first dinner on our vacation!

Boma is a buffet serving African dishes from a variety of countries, and from the dishes we saw, it looked like they tried to cover all different parts of the continent. Since there wasn't really a set menu for the night and buffets generally make it hard to write about each individual dish, here's a list of the types of dishes that they serve at Boma, some of which we had.

We have pretty limited notes from our buffet dinner and can only really guess at what some of the other items on the plates were. But one thing we both got at the beginning of our meal was mulligatawny soup. We've only really had this before in Indian restaurants, but the internet tells me this might be on the menu to represent cuisine from Mauritius.

Since we don't really remember exactly what we ate on each plate (and there were some other partial plates from the end of the meal that aren't even here), it probably doesn't make sense to go plate by plate, and talk about the flavor of every single item. We doubt we could, 3 years later, even remember which items were our favorites. We just tried so many different things. So here are A's two plates, with curry and meat and salads and other dishes.

M managed to find a list she kept of some of the stuff from her plates, several of which were also things that A got. As a sampling of what was available on the night we went, the dishes included: tabouleh, chickpea and edamame salad, fufu, couscous with raisins, bobotie, Durban spiced chicken, lamb curry, nut-crusted salmon, lavosh, sundried tomato hummus, black olive hummus, white bean hummus, kokonut rice, zaalouk vegetables, chakalaka stewed tomatoes and onions, shrimp couscous, kool slaai (cole slaw), and Ghana tomato salad.

Some of the dishes we got were obviously African to us (like fufu and bobotie), but we can't really vouch for the authenticity of everything since we're not experts in all different African cuisines. Our goal at Boma was to get a tasty buffet meal with interesting dishes, and we did. What was also a nice surprise is that they brought out a special plate for us with some desserts to celebrate our anniversary. Don't remember now what was on that plate, but we were happy to get it.

We've tried to get out to Boma on every Disney trip since we first discovered it, since it's a nice change-up from eating at the parks. After stuffing ourselves with food, we relaxed a bit in the lobby of the lodge, which is quite beautiful. Worth the drive over from our resort!

Florida Chicken Fix

We arrived at the airport in Orlando ready to run off the plane after dealing with a few hours of screaming children and uncomfortable cramped seating (sigh, United). It was around 2:30, so we decided to get lunch at the airport since we still had to pick up our car rental and didn't want to eat too late and interfere with our dinner appetite. The airport food court was full of chains. I remember commenting that international travelers to the United States were getting a good representation of American fast food culture just by setting foot in the airport. Our choice from the food court was easy: Chick-fil-A.

I went to Chick-fil-A fairly often as a kid since there was a branch at a local mall. A didn't live near one so he only really got it when he went shopping with my family. Chick-fil-A keeps saying they're going to open up some stores in Manhattan, but they still haven't, so we've only had their chicken sandwiches sporadically over the past couple of decades. When we saw that the Orlando airport had a branch, we were so excited to finally be able to get our chicken sandwich fix.

If you've never had a Chick-fil-A sandwich before, this might look like an ordinary sandwich that isn't particularly special. But the sandwiches are quite good. The buns are toasty and buttery, the chicken is lightly fried and juicy, and the sandwich is topped with slightly sour pickle chips. It's a very simple sandwich but the flavor is great. Even though we don't get it often at all these days, it's always been one of our favorite fast food sandwiches.

We also had to get the standard waffle fries. Always good, lightly salted, skin-on, and crisp. Why can't more places offer waffle fries (or curly fries)?

We were very satisfied with our lunch. We tried to appreciate the visit as much as possible since we had no idea when it would happen next (and in the past 3 years, it hasn't). Onward to Disney World!