Awaken Summer Preview Event, Day 3- Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, Via Napoli

Another early morning for Mommy while the kids and Mike slept in a bit. My last bit of business was breakfast inside Jiko’s Capetown Wine Room at 8am.

Once breakfast was eaten and goodbyes were said- I headed back to our room in Zazu to get the family rolling. We had decided to start our day at Epcot exploring the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. (We haven’t been to Walt Disney World, during the Festival since April 2002- when we were only a family of 3 and I was pregnant.) To my surprise, pretty much everyone was ready when I opened the door- I was the one who was dragging. These late nights and early mornings were catching up with me. I was super grateful we were going to be strolling and snacking through World Showcase and not much else until dinner.

The new monitors at the bus stops are pretty handy too, now if there was a channel in our resort room so we wouldn’t just miss a bus- my Disney Parks life would be perfect. 😉

It was a gorgeous day. We actually lingered a bit in Future World- heading into the Cool Spot to sample some sodas…

and walking through the Butterfly House.

Then we strolled a bit in Future World admiring some of the amazing topiaries.

We then made our way over to World Showcase from some strolling and some snacking…

The first Outdoor kitchen we encountered was The Cider House in the United Kingdom:

One of our favorites is the French Pavillion…

Time for some crepes and Grey Goose Slushies (the latter for only Mike and I)!

Then we decided it was time for a Dole Whip. Right next door was the Florida Fresh Outdoor Kitchen, so we checked there…

Nope, no luck. So we back tracked to Showcase Plaza to Pineapple Promenade.

Score!

The Frozen Desert Violet Lemonade:

La Isla Fresca smelled amazing nearby..

where there were more topiaries…

But we did pick up one of the signature drinks on the way to Mexico. It was a bit strong and not what I expected- but it did cool me down as the temperature was increasing.

We finally reached Mexico and we rode the Gran Fiesta, which is always so much fun with the kids. Again, I am blessed with kids who love to still do these things with Mike and I.

From here we passed the Norwegian pavilion and checked on the Frozen attraction’s status…

Anna and Elsa were nearby though. 😉

We soon arrived in China:

We had been told that the candied strawberries were one of the not to be missed snacks, so we had to try some and could not agree more!

Mikey can never resist the puppets!

We then traveled through the African Outpost…

Then it was on to Germany. I couldn’t help but think of my grandmother and the German rock gardens she created in our backyard growing up.

Then we were off to Italy!

By now we were pretty hungry, and craving pizza. We headed to Via Napoli in hopes to secure a table for lunch- they asked us to wait 20 minutes, but our table was ready in less than 10 minutes. We ordered the calamari and mozzarella caprese to start and a half margarita half 4 cheese Mezzo Metro pizza…

OK, the Mezzo Metro pizza is HUGE!

As large as it is, it is even more delicious. We could not rave more about our meal at Via Napoli. Everything was perfect- the food was outstanding only to be topped by the customer service. All 5 of us left full and happy. We will be back!