 Hey friends. Today, I am hanging out at Epcot because today is the first day of the Flower and Garden Festival 2020. I'm so excited. This is one of my favorite festivals and actually it's also opening day for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway over at Hollywood Studios, but I have a fast pass, so I'm gonna go a little bit later in the afternoon instead of doing the rope drop. Anyhoo, let's go do this. One thing I'm probably most excited to see is actually the facade that they usually have out front, but because of all the construction, I'm sure it's limited a lot. Oh, but look, they still figured a way to make it very pretty. Look at all these flowers. And then we got a Pluto topiary right here. Wow. I love all the different colored flowers that they have here. They have it pretty much scattered all over the walkway as you're walking in. Nothing like good flowers and the beautiful sound of soaring in the background. Step one is complete. I picked up my Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival guide now to head to World Showcase or to whatever I think the coolest stop is to get some snacks. Snacks! This is what makes Disney magical. Opening day of the Flower and Garden and they're actually just upkeeping on all the flowers to make sure they look pretty. How awesome is that? Walking on over to World Showcase and check out the outdoor escapes exhibit. Wow, look at this. It's really cool. What a awesome place to hang out and chill. I like it. And these chairs kind of look comfortable. A little bit awkward the way that they're slanted like that. We definitely have to test them out. Seems pretty. Oh, that's hot. That chair is hot. It's a really cool area to hang out but watch out for the chairs. It is Florida and the sun beats down on them. It's only 9.30 in the morning, so I'm just a little shock. When I sat back, I was like, ooh! Felt like a heating pad on my back. And take a look at those topiaries. They're actually dripping in water because it looks like they just got watered. How awesome! Wow, they blow me away every single year with these. Biggest thing about coming into Flowering Garden this year is seeing what Disney is doing with most of the areas that they have closed off. Because that's where a lot of the Flowering Garden stuff was and I don't know what they did. Did they move things around, put them in different spots? Did you guys notice I have new glasses? But for example, this used to be the butterfly tent, but there's no butterfly tent here. So that means that maybe they put it somewhere else. We're gonna find out eventually. But now they just kind of have this open space here. Oh and look at this. Just like I said before, it's amazing how they just keep on upkeeping on this. That's fantastic. Thanks guys! Oh yeah, right over there. I see the butterfly tent. Very interesting that they put it over there. They had space over here, but that's good that Disney's not using up all that space. Sometimes you just need a lot of walkways. This was always one of my favorite things about Flowering Garden Festival because I liked going in there and holding little butterflies on my hands. I also like walking through the beaded screen. Whee! Oh wow, the butterflies are definitely yelling about. I see them flolking around here. Oh, one just drove by the camera. Oh and I love the music in here too. Please grace me with the butterfly touch. She got one on her shoe. Look at that. Finally. Honestly, I've never seen this many active butterflies in this tent before. Maybe this better location is awesome. More sun. Well, that was real fun. I did get touched by a butterfly once in there, but like I said, you can't force a situation. They have to willingly come to you and it's very hot in that tent. Very hot. All right, I definitely think it's due time for some food and some drinks. I'm loving the music though, the music, the smell of the flowers, all reasons why I love Flowering Garden. And I think our first stop is going to be the Northern Bloom over here in the Canada Pavilion. I'm excited to see what they got to eat. Oh boy, look at this. I think we're going to go with the beef tenderloin tips and probably the grilled maple pound cake. Both of those sound pretty fantastic. I've had this maple popcorn shake before. I was not a fan, so we're not going to do that again. And look at that. Nothing like steak and potatoes and some maple pound cake in the morning. I think the first thing I'm going to dive into is probably the steak and potatoes. Those carrots look fantastic. Ultimately, I want to get a little steak, a little potato and a little carrot all in one bite. So we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and we're going to do that. Perfect. That's what I'm talking about. This is a perp. Wow. The tips are so soft and the carrots soft. Wow, this is delicious. I'm really liking this. But I just realized that it has ice cream on it. It's melting very quickly. So we have to eat up, eat up, eat up. I had to go grab another fork because I got gravy all over the other one. I don't want to mix gravy with maple. Let me see where I'm at here. Ah, spoon. And we got peach compo with some popcorn. This is going to be interesting. I'm excited. Oh yeah. Wow. Like wow. Like I said, I'm pretty blown away by this, but you have to make sure you get a popcorn with the bite actually in it. So they only put like two popcorn pieces on top. Maybe ask for like maybe like two more pieces of popcorn. I'm sure they're not going to stress about that, but that really makes it unbelievable. I was going to do the citrus blossom next, but look at that line. Holy moly. Comes all the way out here. So we're going to come back to that. And right now I'm going to go meet up with some friends. I have to say I've only had two things so far, but they were phenomenal. They were great. And I really enjoyed the maple pond cake with the popcorn and the actual sauce. I wasn't a big fan of the peach compo though. I mean, I don't like compo in the beginning, but I don't know. I kind of just like pushed that to the side. So I met up with some friends and if you wanted to see what the flower and garden merchandise was like, they are like the perfect models for it. Josh and Taylor, the Walt Disney World couple. Look at that. They are decked out in sunshine. I'm walking on sunshine. Look at spirit jersey, shirt, hat, ears, leggings. They're here. They're here. What? Flower and garden, baby. This is a lot. Time for our next stop and we're going to do the primavera kitchen here in the Italy pavilion. But I'm not sure what I'm going to get because they have the margarita flatbread, the ravioli, and the ravioli comes with the creamy pesto sauce. So I don't know if I'm going to like it, but I might risk it. So there it is, the chicken ravioli with the pesto, the creamy pesto on the side. I wasn't sure if I'd like the sauce, but I'm happy that they did that because now I can try it. If I don't like it, then I can just eat the ravioli. I have to say though, for $9, four raviolis really isn't worth it. I did eat one already though, so don't be deceived. I'm going to take a look inside the ravioli. Like I said, it's got chicken in it, so let's see. Maybe I should take a bite instead of trying to cut it. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. But there it is. And I have to say, I'm glad that I got the creamy pesto sauce on the side because I did not like it, but now I just got plain ravioli. I have to say, I didn't finish my ravioli. I actually, I ate one as I was walking to the table and then I ate half of it on with the creamy pesto sauce. I didn't like the creamy pesto sauce, but Josh had one. He actually really liked it. Maybe that's more his taste, but like for me, wasn't happening. Our next stop is going to be the Magnolia Terrace right here. And look at that. What a pretty sign they have. This is very welcoming. I like it. A couple of things that actually caught my eye about this menu is this Southern seafood boil, which has shrimp, mussels, crawfish, potatoes, corn, and sausage, but also the house-made boudin two ways. I don't know if I said that right, but I don't know if I want mustard because you know, not a big mustard eater. So I think I'm going to go with that. So here is my boudin or boudin, but how cool is this? I got a seafood boil too. Look at that. Potatoes, corn, shrimp, crawfish. Wow. This is going to be exciting. I cracked open the boudin and look at that. Seal the rice and the sausage. This actually though, right here, this is where it's at. Definitely be prepared because this is spicy. I think I'm most excited for this right here. Oh, there we go. Oh, one more time. Yeah. For the seafood boil, I think I'm going to go with the shrimp first. That looks good. Oh yeah. And then the potato. Oh man. Honestly though, I am going to say that I would rather get this again than the seafood boil. But for $8 compared to what we just paid $9 for at the Italian stand, I mean that's a good deal, but this is better. And you put them both together. I seriously wish that there was a way you can smell what I'm smelling right now. Smells good. Okay, but I think I found my favorite topiary this year. Look at this beaut. Holy moly. Wow, that is awesome. And like I said, a trip to Flowering Garden is not complete without some good old fushy. And I also realized that I didn't have one alcoholic drinks at all. So I needed to get something and I decided to get the Bruno Martini, which I have no idea what it is. Look at that fushy there. Oh yeah, that looks good. Ah, there it is. Oh, look at that. That's the good stuff. And here is that martini. And look at that. They actually put a lavender flower right inside there. I don't know if I can eat that though. It's edible. It should be edible. Is edible? Would you eat it? You want me to eat it? I want you to eat that lavender. Yes, eat that lavender right now. Oh, that would, oh. Smells fantastic. It was edible, but he ate the root basically. I ate the stem. The stem, ah, put the drink. I don't know. Oh, hurry, hurry, hurry. Oh, fantastic. Wow. Oh, it's a little strong. But let's get down to fushy. Let's get down to fushy. And I'm going to dip and bite. That fushy didn't stand a chance. That's all I got to say about that. One last bite. And then washing it down with the rest of this martini. So to wrap things up, I have to say my favorite thing of the day was definitely the maple pound cake at the northern bloom. Unbelievable. The mixture of ice cream, pound cake, maple syrup, and popcorn couldn't beat it. Just could not beat it. And I think that's going to do it for me today. I had a lot of fun here. And I was eating a lot of food. Overly, I, like I say, the maple pound cake is my favorite. Pretty good to get the glasses. But, anywho, see ya. Oh, make sure you check out Josh and Taylor. Walt Disney World Couple. Bye. Bye.