An Empty EPCOT?

 by Beth Keating

Theme Park Life

DisneyBizJournal.com

June 22, 2024

 

We went to EPCOT recently, using it as our park hopping entry park in order to get in to the Passholder previews at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom.  We didn’t need to be at Magic Kingdom until 1:00 p.m. for the virtual queue check in, so we decided to make use of the morning, and maybe grab some lunch at EPCOT before heading to Magic Kingdom.

The thing is, something felt “off” about EPCOT that day.  The crowds were lower, there wasn’t as much energy, and the sound levels were even somewhat lower than normal.  It was hard to put a finger on why it felt so different than any other summer day.

The park felt empty – more empty than just from the lower crowds.  Sure, the construction walls were down, and that opened up a lot of space, and the new CommuniCore Hall was wide open, but it still seemed like more than that.

When we hit World Showcase, the answer became more obvious. The festival booths were closed up and shuttered.  The buildings were still there, but the goodies they usually serve up were not being prepared.  There were no food lines. There were no bands performing on the America Gardens Theatre stage. And there were no marketplace booths lining the pathways, selling event merchandise.  For the first time in a long time, EPCOT was festival-less.

In the early days, there were fairly big breaks between festivals.  There were fewer festivals to start out with, and the downtime between kick-offs was lengthy.  There was time to eat at sit-down venues for meals, rather than snacking around the festival booths for the day.  Over time, Disney added some of our favorite festivals to the lineup, including the Festival of the Arts.  Now, there are four annual festivals: Festival of the Arts starts the year, Flower & Garden Festival ushers in the spring weather with fanciful topiaries, Food & Wine is the granddaddy of the festivals, and the Festival of the Holidays brings the Candlelight Processional and sparkling decorations to wrap up the year.

American Pavilion Food Booth During a Previous Festival

The Food & Wine Festival had gotten progressively longer over the years, particularly post-COVID, and had been running into the summer months the past few years. This year, though, Food & Wine returned to its earlier calendar schedule, making its start in a more fall-friendly time slot.

  
And that leaves the park feeling a bit empty right now without those food booths.  Flower & Garden ended on May 27, and this year’s Food & Wine doesn’t start until August 29, thus leaving roughly three months of food-booth-less touring.  That’s the way EPCOT used to be when we were traveling with little kids, but it sure feels odd now, when we are used to only a week or two of downtime while Disney switches over from one festival to the next.

The excitement of an ever changing offering of snacks and treats makes the festival repertoire enticing to park guests, and our family, too, looks forward to seeing what new and returning plates are coming with each opening date.  But I will admit – it’s been a treat getting back to making actual dining reservations at the EPCOT table restaurants. We’ve revisited a few favorites that we’ve been away from for a while.  But it still feels out of the ordinary to have the park as quiet as it is!  

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

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Disney Makes Changes To Spring “Garden Rocks” Concerts at EPCOT

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

February 10, 2024

 

Disney has made some additions, and some date swaps, to the concert schedule for this year’s “Garden Rocks” concerts at the 2024 Flower & Garden Festival, so if you already booked your dining packages, or are planning the days you were visiting EPCOT around the concerts, you might want to check the updated list. Casting Crowns, Fonseca, and Sister Hazel have been added, and date swaps include the Raul Acosta groupings, and Funkified and The Female Collective have also swapped dates.

The concerts take place in the America Gardens Theatre at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m.  The Flower & Garden Festival runs February 28 to May 27, 2024.  To keep an eye on the list moving forward, you can go to Disney’s concert festival page.

 

• The Vybe: February 28-29
• Jason Scheff: March 1-2
• Richard Marx: March 3-4
• Evolution Motown: March 5-7
• Berlin: March 8-9
• Rick Springfield: March 10-11
• Dian Diaz: March 12-14
• Modern English: March 15-16  
• Commodores: March 17-18
• Foreigners Journey: March 19-21
• The Orchestra: March 22-25
• Funkified: March 26-28 (change)
• Mike DelGuidice: March 29-30
• The Pointer Sisters: March 31 – April 1
• The Female Collective: April 2-4 (change)
• Blue October: April 5-6
• Crowder: April 7-8  
• The Hooligans: April 9-11
• Jo Dee Messina: April 12-13
• A Flock of Seagulls: April 14-15
• M-80’s: April 16-18
• Plain White T’s: April 19-22
• The Champagne Orchestra: April 23-25
• Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas: April 26-27
• Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone: April 28-29
• Southbound: April 30 – May 2
• Monsieur Perine: May 3
• Raul Acosta & Oro Solido with Luisito Ayala and The Puerto Rican Power Band: May 4 (change)
• Raul Acosta & Oro Solido with Magic Juan: May 5 (change)
• Fonseca: May 6 (New)
• Gilly & The Girl Band: May 7-9
• Element: May 14-16
• The Spinners: May 17-18
• Sister Hazel: May 19-20 (New)
• Epic Live!: May 21-23
• Lit: May 24-25  
• Casting Crowns: May 26-27 (New)

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at

https://raykeatingbooksandmore.com/shop/ols/products/disneyplanner.

Testing Out the Beer Flights at Festival of the Arts

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

January 30, 2024

 

Over the holidays, a visiting relative, who fancies himself a bit of a craft beer fan, was lamenting the fact that “Florida doesn’t have much in the way of microbreweries and craft beers.”

  
We were a little puzzled by this out-of-towner’s statement because we recalled seeing a number of Florida breweries featured at various EPCOT festivals.  Disney has always been very good about connecting with local businesses. Disney Springs even features many local brews in their annual “Flavors of Florida” festival. In fact, the Florida Brewery Data Base lists more than 350 breweries in Florida. Central Florida, where Disney is located, claims 60 craft breweries alone, the third most in the state.

We took the guest’s comments as a bit of a challenge this year when the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts rolled around.  We would make it a mission to seek out the local Florida brewers, and see how their offerings measured up.

 
First up was the beer flight at the Deco Delights booth, near Port of Entry.  This is the booth that features that oh-so-sweet Neapolitan Dessert Trio, with a Chocolate Tart, Vanilla Bean Cheesecake and Strawberry Mousse.  (It’s a “Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine” item for good reason.  The colors, and flavors, really pop.)

The beer flight at this booth was also Neapolitan themed, a tribute to chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  The flight was $10.25, and included one small pour each of the 3 Daughters Brewing Strawberry Blonde Nitro (St. Petersburg, FL); 81Bay Brewing Co.’s Vanilla Porter (Tampa, FL); and for the “chocolate,” the Playalinda Brewing Co.’s “Milk Stout” (Titusville, FL).

We started our investigation with the 81Bay Brewing Co.’s  take on Vanilla Porter, which was very reminiscent of a vanilla Christmas beer we’d tried.  While we liked this “toasty” tasting dark beer, Disney should really bring it back for Festival of the Holidays, because it would be a great selection, conjuring up flavors of a winter ale that we’d enjoyed at Christmastime.

Next was the “chocolate” inspired beer – the Playalinda Brewing Co.’s “Milk Stout.”  To our way of thinking, this was very close to a traditional Guinness on tap, a creamier, smooth dark beer.  We enjoyed this very slightly sweet cup, but we’re not really sure why the Disney cast members thought this would fill the “chocolate” category of the Neapolitan flight.  Earthy maybe, but we were not getting an overwhelming “chocolate” feel.

Last in this flight trio was the “strawberry” – the 3 Daughters Brewing Strawberry Blonde Nitro.  Glad we tried this one last, because it was by far our favorite of the trio, and in fact our favorite of the day. Light with distinct strawberry notes, it was one of the most unique beers we’d try on our visit.  A smooth, golden colored brew, it had a very crisp feel, with just a touch of hoppy-ness. If we’d known ahead of time how much we’d enjoy this one, we might have skipped the flight and ordered up a full-sized version of the Strawberry Blond Nitro.

While one of the beers in this flight reminded us of Guinness, and the other gave us strong seasonal holiday vibes, the Strawberry Blond Nitro stood on its own, and would be especially delightful in the spring and warmer weather - a very refreshing glass.

Rosé Blonde Ale

If you’re looking for a good beer, of course, you’d go to “Germany,” and we were surprised to find two Florida-based breweries on the menu at the Germany pavilion’s Pastoral Palate booth, where we’d expected to only see German brews.  We chose another 81Bay selection at this booth, the Rosé Blonde Ale. While the ale was fine, with definite strawberry notes, it wasn’t one of our favorites of the day. This blond ale was a bit hoppy, and the 6-ounce pour was $5.75. (A 12-ounce pour is also available for $9.75).

A stop at the American pavilion’s booth, The Artist’s Table, later in the evening gave us a peek (or sip, as the case may be) of another local Florida brewery, this time a bit closer to home in Lakeland, Florida.  While waiting for the Disney on Broadway concert, we enjoyed a 6-ounce pour of the Brew Hub Jazzberry Wheat Jam Ale for $5.75.  (A 12-ounce pour would be $9.75). This pour was a light drinking beer with a very distinctive and fruity taste (hint of blueberry, maybe?), and it was one of the better beers of the day.  We’d come back and enjoy this one again on another day, especially if the Florida weather was heating up.

Brew Hub Jazzberry Wheat Jam Ale

So now that we’d tried a few of the offerings from four local breweries, it was time to find out a little more about them.

3 Daughters Brewing is from St. Petersburg, Florida, on the west coast of the state, but they also have a second location in Clearwater Beach.  3 Daughters was founded by a group of friends and family who had known each other for decades, and it’s one of Florida’s largest independent and family-owned breweries. At their locations, you can sample some of the brews they create, particularly at their tasting room in St. Petersburg, but they also have a pretty extensive menu for snacking while you are there. 3 Daughters has a host of events to keep you entertained as well, from trivia nights, yoga, bingo, Valentine’s Day Fun Runs, to live music, festivals and markets on the weekends.  Last year, 3 Daughters Brewing was named “Best Brewery” for  Tampa Magazine’s 2023 Best of the City.  If you can’t make it to St. Petersburg, their brews are also for sale at stores, restaurants and bars throughout Florida.

81Bay Brewing Co. in Tampa, Florida, is also on the west coast, around an hour and a half from Orlando, pending traffic on I-4. It is a growing company as well, but their Taproom is currently closed for renovations. They do offer tastings, and an interesting selection of pizzas to accompany your beers. Check their events page for such fun as bingo and trivia nights, and Art After Dark.

Playalinda Brewing Co., in the downtown historic district in Titusville, Florida, was opened by Donna and Bryan Scott in 2014 as the first microbrewery in northern Brevard County, on Florida’s east coast. They now have two locations (with interesting food menus), including Sunday brunch at their Brix Project location. (You can bring your pooch to their outside garden there, too!). Their events page offers up trivia nights, bike and brews, the Playalinda Run Club, and Paddle & A Pint for those of you who like to spend some time outdoors.  And if you love those Girl Scout cookies, they’ll be hosting a week-long pairing with Girl Scout cookies and craft beers.

Brew Hub in Lakeland, Florida, is a little more than halfway between Disney and the west coast of Florida, and they have expanded four times in recent years.  According to Visit Central Florida, Brew Hub’s 75,000-square-foot facility is a unique business in that, “They offer brewing, packaging and distribution for small craft breweries looking to get their name and products out into in the marketplace.”  Brew Hub has partnered with Disney festivals in the past, and they’ve offered guests a number of their brews over the years.

   
While we tried just five of the 6-ounce pours over the course of the day, we were able to check out the creations of four local Florida breweries, and we enjoyed each of them to varying degrees. Each of the brewers put very different offerings on the table.  There are at least 3 more Florida breweries at the Festival of the Arts’ booths, including Gulf Stream Brewing Company from Ft. Lauderdale; Keel Farms in Plant City (with Lavender Hard Cider); and the Tank Brewing Co. from Miami.  (And don’t forget that the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival is right around the corner, with a whole new set of booths to explore starting February 28!)

We don’t generally take the time to indulge in the beer flights at the festival booths (mainly because the full-sized selections at the restaurants and permanent booths offer better values), but this was a fun way of exploring a whole new aspect of the festivals that we hadn’t thought of before, and to sample some new flavors we might not otherwise have tried.

  
Plus, now we can go back and tell everyone that, yes, indeed, Florida does have a pretty good number of microbreweries!

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Support the Daily Dose of Disney with Ray Keating podcast – and by extension Disney Biz Journal – at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1724143. Subscribe at the $8 or $10 level, and get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. Remain a supporter and you'll get a FREE BOOK by Ray Keating every six months going forward. Thanks!

Final Weekend for 2023 Festival of the Arts

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

February 18, 2023

 

The clock is running out if you haven’t yet made it to the 2023 EPCOT Festival of the Arts.  The artistic extravaganza is in its final weekend, and you only have until February 20 to get to this all-too-short festival and maybe paint a few squares on the wall mural.

 

We had several pieces of art that we wanted to get signed by the visiting artists, so we made our way to World Showcase for these final festival days, and scooped up a few of the dishes we hadn’t been able to sample in our first go-around.  And we found a few gems amidst the Food Studios this time.  

At Pastoral Palate in the Germany pavilion, we discovered a dish that we are very sorry that we will not have the opportunity to enjoy again. If only we’d tried it earlier. Hopefully, it will return in future years because it was a winner in our book.  The Wild Boar Cassoulet ($9.25) with duck confit, ham hock and wild boar sausage was delicious!  The meat was uber-tender, perhaps the most meltingly tender of any of the dishes we’ve tried in the past few festivals.  Hubby had forgotten the plastic knives, but it turned out that we didn’t even need them, because cutting it with the side of the fork sufficed.  The small filet was nicely seared and seasoned on the outside, just enough to give some additional flavor to the meat.  The bland bean cassoulet that the meat rested on, though, was nothing more than a blank canvas to show off the boar and duck.  There was a bit of texture, but not much flavor.  We chuckled to ourselves as we enjoyed the dish, because we’d passed by this booth several times without giving it a second thought. After all, who goes to a theme park to eat boar?  And truthfully, we were a little skeptical about trying the offering.  We picked it up, almost on a lark, for the novelty of saying we’d eaten boar.  We were so glad we did, because without a doubt it was one of the “best of the fest” dishes for us!

Also at Pastoral Palate in the Germany pavilion, we tried the Red Wine-Braised Beef Short Ribs ($8.50).  Served with a lovely parsnip puree, crisp broccolini, a smattering of various colors of baby tomatoes, and a drizzle of aged balsamic, the dish was also a big hit with our family.  The flavor of the short rib was a satisfying, strong beef tone, and while it wasn’t quite as tender as the wild boar and duck, it was just as good as you’d expect from a long-simmering Sunday roast.  The sweet parsnip puree provided a nice backdrop to the beef, and the crunchy broccolini added a bit of texture to the whole plate.

 

Apparently, it was a meat-centric expedition this time, because over at Craftsman’s Courtyard, near the Creations shop, we tried the Beef Wellington ($8.50), another very tender cut of beef that was small but delightful.  Our family has served Beef Wellington for Christmas a number of times, and it is always a time-consuming chore to make, so we were excited to try someone else’s handiwork with this dish.  It did not disappoint.  The beef was tender and flavorful, and while the pastry coating the outside of the beef was a little soggier than the flaky pastry you’d normally expect from Wellington, it blended well with the meat.  We would definitely order it again.  It was served with a slightly salty gravy, and three small onions on top, along with a few of the most adorable, teeny tiny carrots we’d ever seen.  The carrots were so small they were no longer than the nail on your pinky, with a miniscule bit of greenery still attached to their tops. (The carrots were perfectly cooked – how did they manage that for the size?). Once again, you hardly needed the plastic knife to cut the beef.

Hubby took the advice of so many Arts’ Festival guests and headed for Moderne, over near the Creations shop.  There he ordered the Angry Crab ($7.25), a relative bargain in the food booth universe, particularly for the quality of the dish. The plate is a whole soft-shelled crab, fried crispy, with a green papaya salad, mango-Sriracha fluid gel, coconut lime foam with pomegranate, and mango crushed pearls.  Wow, that’s a mouthful!  The crab itself was pleasantly crunchy without being overcooked, and had a tiny bit of a kick.  The crab was offset nicely by the various sauces and the slaw that was piled high beneath it.  While my husband loved the crab itself, he wasn’t as big a fan of the accompaniments, which while creative, he thought detracted a bit from the traditional-ness of soft-shelled crab.  (It is, though, an Arts festival, so the chefs do like to show off their creative side…) Regardless, the family enjoyed it so much, that both hubby and son went back to the Angry Crab again on a second occasion.

Also at Moderne, hubby added the Pan Seared Scallops ($7.50), two small scallops with vanilla-butternut squash puree, brown butter cauliflower puree, and lime foam.  The scallops were perfectly cooked, with a great, fresh seafood taste. The dots of the various purees were an interesting side note to the scallops, with some dots providing a sweet accompaniment to the milder scallops, but the white polka dots being “just sort of there.”

 

The one disappointment to the day’s meals was the grilled cheese.  I know, hard to mess with grilled cheese, right?  But it’s probably my own fault.  I think I’d built up too much anticipation for the sandwich (or, more correctly, half sandwich) based on other people’s recommendations.  I was expecting angels to sing.  But it was just a grilled cheese.  I’d ordered the fancy version, the Tomato Soup with the Pimento cheese, bacon and fried green tomato grilled cheese at Pop Eats! (near Port of Entry, by the now defunct Starbucks’ booth). The $6.50 plate came with a small cup of tomato soup and a half sandwich.  Admittedly, there wasn’t anything wrong with the grilled cheese (though the bread was a bit crunchy), and the tomato soup tasted fresh, not the tinny taste you get from canned soup, but with all the other opportunities floating around at the myriad of booths, I should have spent the money and calories elsewhere.  The bacon disappeared into the sandwich without adding much to the flavor, and the fried green tomato added some texture to the dish, with the tiniest bit of a bite from the pimento cheese, but otherwise it just wasn’t a standout dish for us – and I so wanted it to be!

Bellies full, we headed for the America Gardens Theatre to catch one last spectacular performance of Disney on Broadway, before heading for the exit, grabbing a delicious “Panda” Bubble Milk Tea ($8.75) from The Painted Panda near China on our walk out.  The black tea and milk concoction was made with a hint of chocolate and a sizeable swirl of whipped cream, with two Oreo cookies on top, forming an adorable silhouette of Mickey’s ears.  And they certainly didn’t skimp on the Boba pearls in the cup.

We are just days away from the start of the 2023 Flower & Garden Festival (the topiaries have started to sneak their way into the park already), and there will be a whole new set of food booths arriving.  But I still wish the Festival of the Arts was a bit longer to get a chance to sample more Food Studios, and meet a few more of our favorite artists.  And maybe add some painted squares to the murals…. or find more hidden chalk drawings of our favorite Disney characters.  By the time the Flower & Garden festival starts, those cute little chalk cartoons will be only a memory!

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

Checking Out the Food Studios at Festival of the Arts

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

January 21, 2023

 

There are so many great restaurants at EPCOT that we just haven’t gotten around to visiting, mainly because our family likes to snack our way around the food booths during EPCOT festivals.  The nice part of festivals is that each family member, with different tolerance levels for both the types and amounts of food they enjoy, can find a comfortable and tasty journey through World Showcase. And with nearly year-round festivals at this point, there aren’t too many openings to try some of the long-awaited sit-down restaurants. Your stomach simply can’t hold both a full sit-down meal and the food booth snacks in the same day. Way too much goodness!

 

Among our favorite food booths are the Food Studios at the EPCOT Festival of the Arts.  The presentations are just so colorful and so creative that the dishes are some of the most fun foods served up at the festivals.  With that in mind, we set out to have dinner at a couple of booths and discover a few new plates this past week, the first week of the just over five-week-long festival.

 

The Artist’s Table Studio in the American Adventure will see our smiling faces again this season, the dishes were that good!  Our family members tried the options separately, at different times of the day, and we all came to the same conclusion:  Wow, that was unexpected! Who goes to a theme park food festival expecting good meatloaf?  But we enjoyed it so much that we’ll definitely come back for it again.  (And that’s saying something, since I make a pretty good meatloaf at home!)

The Three Meat Meatloaf with “Peas and Carrots” ($6.50, and nope, no explanation available in the guide as to what the three meats were, but they were delicious!) was tender and scrumptious.  The meatloaf itself was small, petitely cute but definitely worth the money.  It was served with a mini-tower of potatoes, seared crisp on top yet soft and buttery below. The tiny tower was adorable, and was no more than two bites. The “green pea pudding” side-kicking the meatloaf was smooth and creamy, with a strong, pure pea flavor, served with two crunchy snap pea pods perched on top.  It contrasted with a circle of thinly “shaved carrots” sitting in the middle of the pea pudding. Carrot “ketchup” completed the dish, which according to our Disney cast member, was meant to invoke the memory of the old TV dinners of American childhood, but with a complete twist.  The line for this booth was long, but our amiable cast members kept the guests entertained with Disney trivia and Jungle cruise worthy punny jokes as we waited. 

We also really enjoyed the brand new Duck and Dumplings ($7.00) at Artist’s Table. We are a family who loves roast duck, and even had it for Christmas dinner this year.  The Artist’s Table rendition was fabulously tender, with just a hint of smokiness. A bit of saltiness gave it a flavor akin to what you’d get with a baked fresh ham.  The three pieces on my plate were easy to cut with the side of the plastic fork. While the potato puree base that anchored the duck to the plate was light, it didn’t add much flavor to the dish, but rather, acted as a kind of canvas for the rest of the foods. The duck was accompanied by a few crisp-on-the-outside and compact-on-the-inside ricotta dumplings that flirted with having a teensy bit of a sweet note to it.  The dumplings were firmer than expected, browned on the outside, but still welcome in the dish.  A few strips of sliced carrots added a little color, and the duck jus drizzled over the dish was a thin coating resembling gravy, but without the overly salted flavor that sometimes haunts typical gravy. 

Hubby is a huge dessert hunter, so he, of course, opted for the hummingbird cake ($4.75), a sweet offering that was totally unexpected in presentation.  A small, oblong banana cake topped with a squiggle of cream cheese frosting and a scoop of pineapple and coconut, served with a side of chopped pecans and a very tasty banana sorbet, the cake hit the after-dinner spot without being obnoxiously sweet. 

 

It would have been impossible to go to the Festival of the Arts without visiting Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey building.  Thank you, Disney, for giving us this treat!  While we had snacked our way through other parts of the festival already, and didn’t have room for the rainbow cake this time around, we did opt to try the Grape Smoothie ($5.50), which would have been pricey for the size of the drink, except for the fact that you got to keep your charming Figment cup.  The small plastic drinking vessel features Figment’s face on one side, with the back of his head on the other.  It’s especially cute when filled with the grape smoothie, giving Figgie his purple colors.  Topped with whipped cream and a rainbow of freeze-dried Skittles, the “grapeness” of the drink was reminiscent of the grape bubble gum (Grape Bubblicious?  Bubble Yum?  Hubba Bubba?  Dubble Bubble maybe?) of your childhood.  This is where it turned out to be a good thing the cup was small.  While it was a thinner drink, definitely more yogurt drink consistency than milk shake thickness, its strong grape flavor would have been way too much to drink in a bigger glass.  So, about those freeze-dried Skittles on top… I kind of liked them better than regular Skittles.  The texture was crunchy and airy, a big improvement over the chewiness of normal Skittles. It was a fun treat, but I don’t know if I’d go back for a second round.

Our family members have also been frequent flyers at the food booths in Japan during the various festivals, and this festival was no exception.  Unfortunately for our readers, this year’s stop at the Goshiki Studio was well after dark, and our ability to take photos of the dishes was disappointing, and our photos disappeared with the setting sun.  The food, however, was not a disappointment. 

 

First up was the new-this-year Rainbow Katsu Sando ($6.50). This colorful selection was excellent, and this came from a person who is not at all fond of pork. But this pork cutlet sandwich turned out to be a delicious mix of tangy (courtesy of the Tonkatsu sauce), sweet (due to the rainbow bread), and crunchy (thanks to the cabbage). It’s more of a half sandwich in style, but worth the effort.

 

And as for the returning Sushi Donut at Goshiki ($8.25), this was another thumbs-up. The salmon, tuna and shrimp were each fresh and flavorful, with cucumber adding some crunch. The sauces on this small plate - Wasabi Aioli, Sriracha Aioli, and Eel Sauce - ranged from a touch of spice, to downright hot. And we loved the creative donut-shape.

 

There are a few more dishes we are still hoping to try, but with the Festival of the Arts being one of the shortest festivals, we only have until February 20 to get there.  Looks like I’ll get at least one more night off from cooking dinner! 

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival Begins March 1

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

January 20, 2023

 

We’ve said it before – it makes us sad that EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts is so short, because there is simply so much to explore, especially with the rotating schedules of terrific artists and performers.  The Festival of the Arts only began a few days ago, and already Disney is getting ready for the start of the next Fest, the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. It kicks off March 1, 2023, and runs through July 5.

If the Festival of the Arts is a vibrant and colorful place, the Flower & Garden Festival surely gives it a run for its money, with its stunning gardens, butterfly tents, fanciful topiary displays, and more than 15 outdoor kitchens featuring dishes with culinary flair, underscored by garden themes and fresh produce.  And in case you needed even more reason to stop and smell the flowers along the way, Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration will be back, and you can hunt for this adorable little bee hidden among the scavenger hunt in the gardens.

This year, there will be a few more “green” versions of your favorite Disney characters gracing the walkways of EPCOT.  Topiaries of Mirabel, Antonio, Isabela and Luisa from Disney’s Encanto will be located near the EPCOT main entrance.  Princess Tiana’s topiary will greet guests at The American Adventure.  And if you are looking for some of your other favorite characters, including Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs; Peter Pan; Tinker Bell; Captain Hook and Tick Tock Croc; Figment; or Anna and Elsa, check the front of your festival guide. There’s always a list of their locations there to make your search easier. Or maybe you’d rather just be surprised when you amble your way through the gardens and find them by accident!

 

The Garden Rocks Concert Series will also be returning. Keep an eye on the Disney Parks Blog for the future release of the artists who will be arriving this year.

In the meantime, enjoy the next few weeks of the Festival of the Arts.  I know we’ll be heading back there.  We have a few more pieces of artwork to seek out, and there’s an Angry Crab calling our names!

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.