It’s always sad when you get to the last day of a trip. It’s the same feeling you get on the last day of a weekend, knowing you have to go back to school or work the next day. It’s still a good day, but it has a little something hanging over it. We started our morning by sleeping in, since we had been at The Magic Kingdom until past 2 am the night before. I was feeling a little under the weather, so my champ of a husband grabbed me cough medicine from the gift shop, and Mickey Mouse waffles, which are a proven cure-all. After eating breakfast in our room, we headed to Disney Springs.
Before the overhaul began, when Disney Springs was Downtown Disney, we have never spent much time there. We viewed Downtown Disney as a place to grab a quick Holiday Sandwich (which is the best sandwich EVER), and then head to the parks. Disney Springs is different to us now. The transformation is not complete, but it’s well on its way. We will cover our thoughts on Disney Springs more extensively in another blog, but we love everything Disney has been doing with this area.
We spent a leisurely, late morning walking around Disney Springs, exploring all the new development that was taking place, and taking pictures. They’re still doing a lot of work over in this area (we hear they’re building an Anthropologie!), but everything that is finished looks amazing. We ate an early lunch at Morimoto Asia, which is a restaurant we’ve been dying to try, after getting to peek inside on an earlier trip, and having heard rave reviews from other people. Morimoto Asia is a GEM. We were blown away by how much we loved it, especially after our lackluster experience at The Skipper Canteen the day before. We will follow up with a full review later, but everything about Morimoto Asia is amazing, from the ambiance, to the food, to the price points that can fit any budget.
When we were done with lunch, we drove over to Epcot to spend some more time walking around Flower and Garden Festival and enjoying a few cocktails. We were shocked when we got there – two days before, on a weekday, the park had been almost empty. Now, on a Sunday, they were escorting people to overflow parking because the park was so crowded. So friendly tip of the day, if you can avoid going to Flower and Garden Festival on a weekend – DO IT. We spent time walking around World Showcase until we got sick of the crowds, and decided to walk over to The Boardwalk.
The Boardwalk is one of our favorite places to just hang out at Disney World. It feels whimsical, and other-timely, which we love. For us, not every moment at Disney has to be a scheduled race to another attraction. Some of our favorite moments are just sitting at the Boardwalk, and just enjoying the fact that we’re there.
We headed over to Hollywood Studios after eating some dinner at The Boardwalk, which is not a place we plan on spending too much time at in the next couple of years, to be honest. With more and more being shuttered as the park undergoes a massive renovation, there’s not as much to do here, and this park has officially become a half-day excursion. Our only reason for going was to meet Kylo Ren, who was a terrifying character, and to watch the Star Wars fireworks. We really enjoy when Hollywood Studios does fireworks, and we love the Star Wars ones. We know they’re adding a new Star Wars fireworks show in the coming months, with projections a la Disneyland forever. We can’t wait to see it, and hope they do it a really great job with it.
We headed back to our hotel to pack to go home – we had scheduled a 6 am flight to get David back to the office in time for work. People often ask how we travel so often, not just financially, but with time off of work. We take a lot of short weekend trips, like this one, that don’t require any, or much time off of work. It was an amazing trip, and we, as always, can’t wait to go back. I’ve found that I’m happiest in life when my suitcase stays half-packed.