Our 2013 combined birthday trip to WDW Part IV

[uscwest]

We started out today with a trip to Old Key West to have breakfast at Olivia’s Café. This is a nice, quiet, out of the way restaurant located in a lovely old resort, the original DVC property on WDW. Donna and I would love to stay here some day, but I think we’ll have to find a way to rent points from someone to do so. We were promptly greeted by the hostess Cricket and led to our table where we were greeted by a handsome young man from Hungary named Akos. Donna insisted on having her picture taken with him. We both started with one of their delicious Bloody Marys ($6.75 ea) and some coffee ($2.59 ea). For her breakfast Donna ordered the Sombrero Beach Omelet (Green Peppers, Onions, Cheese, Ham, with Sour Cream and Pico de Gallo on top $11.49). It came with a side of Olivia’s cheesy breakfast potatoes and since she didn’t want bread, some fresh strawberries. I ordered the Florentine Eggs Benedict (two poached eggs with tomatoes and sautéed spinach on an English muffin with Key Lime Hollandaise $9.49). It was also served with the breakfast potatoes and I ordered a side of bacon ($3.99) and a glass of milk ($2.59). It was a very good breakfast, served by an excellent server.

After breakfast we were off to EPCOT. As I stated lines would be the story of this trip and the entrance into EPCOT was no exclusion. It was only 9:30 and they were already parking cars on the grass. We headed into the park and went right to test track. The standby wait was 40 minutes and we had barely moved forward when it went to 115 minutes. I jumped out of line, picked up fast passes and we both went over to the single rider line. The queue has changed and everyone had a chance to “design” their own vehicle. I would do this later when we went in for our fast passes, but didn’t see a whole lot of difference in how it worked. Maybe I wasn’t doing it quite right. Where the cars used to be several different colors they are now all the same color blue. The indoor part of the track is totally different. There are no more Belgian and German blocks and no more heat, cold and acid rooms. Even the trip into the tunnel where you meet the truck coming head on was a bit different. The braking section with and without the ABS has even changed. Outside the only difference appeared to be that you go about .1 mph faster. After the ride is over there are places where you put your design card and can play little games and get some statistics. It was fun but neither of us was overly impressed. After our first TT ride we stopped to watch the Jamitors and then walked over to the pin station where we got a Valentine’s Day pin, though not the limited edition one, a President’s Day pin, an Annual Passholder’s Pin and a D23 pin. From there it was over to Spaceship Earth where they had the longest lines we have ever seen. They wound back and forth everywhere. As we came out of Spaceship Earth the wind had picked up quite a bit and it had gotten quite chilly, though the temperatures we actually still quite warm. There is a freeze warning out for tonight and tomorrow morning. We headed back over to TT for our FP. The standby line is now up to 150 minutes, the single rider line is 50 minutes and the FP line is so long that people were actually missing their windows, but the CMs let them in anyway because of the lines.
After our second ride we headed to World Showcase, with our first stop being the Margarita Stand in Mexico. We found a place to sit down and enjoy these before continuing our walk. I did notice, on a sign, that acrobats are back in China. With the crowds you would have sworn that it was a Food and Wine Fest weekend, but there were no kiosks. We stopped in Germany for a bit of sweet at Werther’s. I got Donna a strawberry dipped in dark chocolate and caramel ($4.49) and I got a square of plain caramel ($3.99). With tax can you believe I spent over $9.00 for two pieces of candy? We walked around the World Showcase; stopping at Monsieur Paul’s to take a gander at the menu for tomorrow night and then headed back to the resort to prepare for dinner at Artist Point tonight.

OKW 2.jpgOlivia's 2.jpgOKW Outside Olivia's.jpgOlivia's 1.jpgAKOS.jpgUS.jpgSombrero Beach Omelet.jpgEggs Florentine.jpg

[uscwest]

More pictures

Jamitors 2.jpg

Jamitors.jpg

Strawberry.jpg

Test Track Entrance.jpg

Werther Chocolate Caramel Strawberries.jpg

[uscwest]

And still more

Test Track Entrance.jpgFast Pass.jpgBuild Your Ride.jpgBasket.jpgEPCOT Flowers.jpgEvanora.jpgFlowers.jpgFlowers 2.jpgGlinda.jpg

[Mari]

Loving your trip report!!!

The Margarita Kiosk is my MUST STOP HERE place at Epcot They are so good!

[Slowhand]

I MUST make the effort to visit OKW again. Even though it is my "home resort" with DVC, it has been many years since we last stayed there.
Your t/r and photos are fabulous John. I just love Epcot at this time of the season when they plant out all of the bedding plants for the Garden Festival, truly stunning.

[Wendy]

Epcot looks lovely, I've only been once at this time of the year but I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for bringing back memories John

[Johnie]

I know why Donna wanted her picture taken! He is a cutie. I must get over to OKW and tour one day. I hear so many rave reviews but I have never been there.

[Tink]

Shhhhhhh, John! Olivia's is our best kept secret! Isn't it a lovely little hideaway? The food is consistently good and the service is truly excellent. I'm biased though, as OKW is our home resort and a favorite place to stay. We love the spacious villas (largest of the DVCs) and the convenient parking, even though we don't use our car on Disney property when we are staying there.

You'd really like OKW if you stayed there. It's the oldest, but they have redone many (if not all now) of the villas. I must say I preferred the original decor (more authentic to Key West) but the newly redone villas are very nice too.

[Beccaberry]

Excellent addition! That's the first I've "officially" read about the changes to TT, and now I'm anxious to ride it again!

Breakfast looks lovely. I've never been a fan of Hollandaise sauce, but the Key Lime addition piques my interest! Loving the photos...it's still so cold and dreary here, it's nice to see a bit of sun and spring

[susanm]

your pictures are just amazing....and the food looks so delicious...and you have hit things i never did...so you are giving me lots of ideas