On this episode, we check into all-star movies, eat some festival favorites, hang out at Banana Cabana, we break down Luminous Symphony of Us and have one of the worst dining experiences when it comes to food at Mama Melrose and Hollywood Studios. Today's July 2nd, 2024, this episode 681, with the Main Street Magic Podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of Main Street Magic. I'm your host, Jeremy Stein, and as always, I'm joined by my lovely wife, Rhonda. Hey guys, make sure you check us out on the web at mainstmagic.com as well as follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @mainstmagic and on TikTok @msmpodcast. If you want to be part of the community and join the conversation, in addition to live streams from the parks and our weekly live show, head to Facebook and search for the Main Street Magic community and ask to join. And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can get brand new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Planning a trip to Disneyland or Walt Disney World can be overwhelming and at times just downright frustrating. But don't worry because Mouse Dining removes the frustration of booking Disney dining reservations alerting you when they spot availability for your desired restaurant, date, meal, and time. Visit msmfriends.com to use this free service. So on today's episode, we are talking about our weekend and Tiana's Buy You Adventure opening. That will include Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but we are going to break this into two episodes. So happy 4th of July, everybody. Yeah, 4th will be in two days from when this comes out, right? And then the second one will come out a day. Right. So happy 4th of July. We are actually going to go to Disney. We are going to take Lacey this time and let her pick a friend and we're going to do typhoon lagoon. Hopefully, Lord have mercy. We have tried to go to we'll talk about that coming up daytime daytime should be fine. We're in that we're in that Florida afternoon evening storm. Yep. Period. We sure are. And we'll touch base on H2O glow. You won't notice it in any of the headlines or the descriptions, I should say, our titles for this episode and the next episode. But yeah, we're going to we're just going to start going through our weekend and all you know, we went down for Tiana's Buy You Adventure. That was the catalyst for us going down this weekend, which, you know, opened officially on June 28th. We went down June 27th because we really wanted to be there and wake up the morning of opening, not only for, you know, just getting over to the park and checking out March and we'll go through all that. But, you know, Jenny plus enlightening lane of virtual queue, just doing it from there. So that was the reason we went down early. And then we actually were just going for one night. We added on a second night prior just because I really I didn't even know that. Well, originally, you know, it was one of those things like you don't know you don't know how the opening day will go because it's there's there's no guarantees anymore. You know, there's not a key that you can ride like when, you know, we go way back to to some of the things prior to virtual queues where you just showed up early and you waited. Yep. You know, like back to the opening of Galaxy's Edge in Toy Storyland, which happy six year anniversary. That's right. As of today's recording on June 30th. Wow. Those Facebook memories were popping. Yes, they were. Had the soft open the night before that we ran over to. Yes. And I think we were actually staying at movies when that opened. So, yeah, I believe so. Here we are six years later staying at all star movies for this one as well. So we'll just start talking and at some point we will just break it up and then we'll finish off for Friday's episode. So, let's start with heading down though. You know, with the way that our plans are going to look, often a lot of times we'll drive down and we'll go straight to whatever park we're starting at. Yes. But we were going to actually end up at Epcot Hollywood Studios later at Banana Cabana. So it was like we didn't want our cars stuck anywhere at a park. So, we drove straight down and got all checked in to all star, right? We sure did. And on Thursday when we went down it was kind of funny too because we did not pack on Saturday on Sunday and I need to do that because we're working those three straight days and then trying to get up and go Thursday first thing morning. But it is nice that I am off that we can and are able to do that. So, yeah, we went straight to all stars. Music. No movies. Yes. Movies. And checked in and our room was ready. So, that was fantastic because we were able to just go check in and get stuff put in and then bus on over. But all star movies actually is the Animal Kingdom Resort area. A few bullet points is it did open January 15th, 1999. Yes. This actually opened five years after music and sports. Those opened in '94. Which is crazy. Yeah. And then this opened and it didn't all open at once. If I remember correctly, it I think it started with possibly it was like Mighty Ducks Dalmatians moved over and very soon after opened up Herbie and Fantasia and last opening section was Toy Story. Yes. Which is normally our favorite section, but it's preferred section and we just don't bother usually paying for preferred. Correct. We don't see the value in it. You know, when you're at like, for example, really any of the value resorts as far as it goes with the three all-stars, pop century, and then of course of art and animation, if you're getting preferred, you're staying in a suite basically. Yes. So, you don't really get a choice there. But for, I don't know, an extra 20 bucks a night, it might be worth it to you. We just don't, we don't find that need like we're okay walking a little bit extra. You know, if we're on the other side of this property and we've got to walk up to the bus stop, it's not a big deal for us. We'd rather save the money. Yeah. Now, if you're only going for one or two nights, I can see maybe paying extra. But if you're there for a week, you know, at 20 to 30 dollars extra a night for preferred, that'll really add up. Yes. I don't really know that it's worth it, right? Yeah. I mean, I don't think so, especially like, okay, so we didn't pay for preferred. We got standard and we were, like I said, at movies in Fantasia, which was great and where we were was a great, great location. We were under the hat, which I love that I walked in through the hat every time. And where we were located, it was super great because we could get on a bus either to music or to movies because our music, if we got on to a music bus, which we did a couple of times actually. And we'll talk about that. We were close enough and we again, didn't mind walking that. Yeah. So I think it just depends. Yeah. I would probably save the money though. Yeah. And when you look at, and I can't remember exactly how the buildings are set. So we were like the Fantasia building five, I believe is a preferred building, right? But we are on the way opposite side of it, which I don't necessarily think is a preferred room. Okay. It might have been, I mean, we might have gotten a little bump. But like Ron is saying, once you get there, notice what building you're in, because between these three resorts are so close that, yeah, you could be at movies over in the Mighty Ducks section, especially. Oh, yeah. You're actually closer walking to the music lobby and bus stops than you are the movies one. Yes. Or you know, you could be over at music, and you might actually be a little bit closer to sports, you know, so just something to kind of note when you know there's areas for that type of stuff. So over there's 1,920 rooms is a very large resort, you know, this is the same amongst all three. Now, over at music, they do have suites, the family suites. Yes, that's right. So that's what you want to look at. You need to look specifically at music. And when you look at that pricing again, like right now, if I go ahead to the first week and in August, just rack room rate, a standard room is as low as 216 for that weekend and preferred as 238. Yeah. So $22 difference, those are much lower. If you get an AP rate, if you get a Florida resident rate, some of the packages, things like that. And then just note that the world premiere food court is going under refurbishment July 1st to July 31st. So starting tomorrow, you know, from the time of this recording. Right. So what that is going to mean is that it will be mobile order only. What they basically do is they set up tables, like six foot tables, foldable tables out along the perimeter of it normally, while they're doing the work in the back. And you will mobile order, all the tables will be assigned different sections and it will say, you know, return to three, you'll go up there, they'll bring you your food to go almost like COVID times. Yes, exactly the way that they did it during COVID times when we opened. It's the exact same type of setup that they've been doing. Well, that's good to know because I'm like, Oh my gosh, where are people going to get their food? Yeah, I know. And again, this is one where it would be wrong of Disney to do because it would be so slammed. But you could, if you really wanted the same experience and not mobile ordering, then just walk over to music. Yeah. You know, again, it's right next door, just walk over there and utilize their food. Especially if you're staying in the mighty ducks. Yeah, exactly. And it's funny because I was thinking about the world premiere food court and I went down in there several times. I went down each morning for coffee, which by the way, if you enjoy your coffee in the morning and you want to get it with ease and save a little bit of money opposed to going into the parks and standing at a Joffries or Starbucks. Now these do not have the amount of selection. These are machine based. It's the same ones that you would see in the club level, but they have different flavors. And you can get lattes, cappuccinos, Americanas or just straight up coffee and decaf and regular caffeinated. And so they got a bunch of so like I went down each morning would get like a vanilla latte or caramel latte. And both of ours, I mean, under 10 bucks for 216 ounce iced drinks, using Joffries coffee is a pretty good deal. And it's a lot cheaper than if you go into the park. So a little way to save money. But the mornings that I was in there, I like, I remember being in that food court in the lobby. And I was just looking around the world premiere food court and I was like, man, this is just, it's so classic. And it has this just wonderful nostalgic feel to it. And I hope that they don't change that with the refurb. I hope this is a light refurb, you know, some, like, I hope they don't replace kind of this. Man, it's like late 80s, 90s, like, it feels like you have just bought your tickets when you used to have to go, you know, I'll sell in Kailin this, right? Because we're been watching Stranger Things. And so I'm like, I'll where you keep referring and pausing and be like, did you know back in the 80s, we had to do this? But you know, you remember you used to have to call phone number of the movie theater? And there was a recording. And it told you when the movie was playing. I do remember that. So if you're going to see Zorro, you're you're waiting until the very end, because it's going to go in alphabetical order, you have to hear every movie, then they would list the number of theaters it was playing and they would tell you the times that it was playing. And that was if you didn't have the luxury of getting the daily newspaper, right? Because it would be printed in the newspaper as well. But they had to drive to the movie theater, right? And you had to buy your tickets. Yeah. And then you had to get there early. Yes. One. Yes. You wanted to catch movie trailers. Yes. Which you had not seen before going to the movie. Correct. Because there was no YouTube and social media, right? So you would go in and you would buy your ticket and then you would get there early because you wanted a seat. Yeah. They weren't assigned. You didn't know ahead of time. You couldn't show up whenever you wanted and say, Oh, I'm, you know, age three, whatever. Right. No, you had to go in and hope that you found your family of four seats together. You know, so, but all of that being said, when you walked into that lobby after purchasing your ticket, it had this, this feel, you know, and it's bright lights and it's, yeah, 1980s, 90s, the core. And there's, there's like, I don't even know how to explain it. But that's the feel that this has, and it's just such a nostalgic feel. So I hope that they don't modernize this in some crazy way. Like all the all stars, you know, even with the Enrube refurbs, which happened back in 2019, they completed them at movies. The rest of the property still just has this classic Disney feel. Yes. I do love it. Yeah. And we love the rooms, you know, especially when it's just the two of us, especially now that they were you firmed him. Yeah. Like the, the beds are great, always comfortable. And then with the Murphy bed, which is fantastic. You know, it's just us. So we don't have to pull it down. We can keep it as a nice table. Yeah. And then when we do have other people, you pull down and it's a great sleep. It's not the bar in your back. Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah, I really do enjoy these rooms. They're a great layout. And you know, we're talking those prices at rack rate. We paid, here we are, you know, mid summer, well under 200. I mean, I think overall or right around, I think by the time, you know, room taxes and all that stuff, I think we were for both nights somewhere around 373, you know, your Friday night's gonna be a little bit more expensive than your Thursday. Right. But yeah, around 373 for two nights AP rate. It was perfect for us. So we do love it. The transportation works well. You only got one bus stop. And so I do think, you know, if you were, if you were at an all star and you were thinking, maybe I want to stay preferred, I would look at the price of a standard at pop century and make that move instead. You know, if it was, if it was, if you were at all start and it was 20 bucks more to go from standard to preferred a night, or it was like 30 bucks more to go from a standard room at all start to a standard room at pop, I would just go to pop and have access to the Skyliner. Yep, because you're getting the same beds. Yeah. And the thing is there, you know, because of where the Skyliner is located, depending on where you are, if you're in a standard room, you either could be pretty close to the Skyliner or you're about even distance to the lobby or the Skyliner, you know, if you're on one of those outline buildings. So, so that was just a little bit of all star because we haven't talked about that in a while, but we did want to cover some of that. So we were going to head over to Epcot, really solely just to ride, you know, we had lunch plans at Hollywood Studios. And we really went to Epcot just to do cosmic rewind, because the last time we went, we didn't, we didn't make it to our queue. Right. And then we also, when we saw the encounter, we did not get the festival favorite. So, we wanted to do these two things, correct? Yeah. And that was literally why we had a park reservation, got cosmic rewind virtual queue that morning, whenever rode that. So, you know, I was thinking, and I've kept track of all of our rides on cosmic rewind. Yes, you have. Right. And this opened in Memorial weekend of 2022. So it's been open for over two years now. We have in some capacity ridden 41 times. That's crazy. Now one or two of those, I was by myself, and I think one of them for some reason, you rode by yourself. But overall, 41 rides out of all the songs, we've had September four times, disco Inferno four times, conga nine times that that leads, that's shocking because I don't, I don't feel like we've had it much at all. I don't either. Right. Everybody wants to rule the world seven times. That feels like we've had it seven times, because that's probably my least favorite one. I think it might be yours too. Yeah, I ran eight times. Yeah, we don't love now. Then one way or another, which is our absolute favorite five times, and then the run rocket run, they did that overlay the first holiday season in 2022. And we've actually done that four times. So that wasn't bad. I really like that one. Is it time to update the songs? Yes. I agree. I mean, because we were leaving, and I don't remember the name of the song, but I'm like, this would have been better. And I think we had what we have, I ran the last time I ran the last two times. And I just, I don't like that song. And then we were sitting up front, we waited for front row, which was great. But I'm like, when I don't get a good song, I'm, I'm pretty much like, all right, this is boring to me now. Like I'm trying to then focus on not being sick. Yeah. So it just, it just stinks. I'll take any song, but I do agree. Some make it better than others. And it really does. There's so many times, I mean, I'd have to look up the, the soundtrack for when you're exiting. But there's a lot of stuff. And I know Disney says, you know, we did all these songs. We tried out on rides, we did whatever, whether they did simulations, or they actually, you know, assigned a song and then wrote it and picked it. I know that there's more than these six songs that fit on this ride. 100%. I mean, some of these, yeah, some of these when you exit, you're like, dang, this seems like it would be good. Yep. You know, and I don't think we're at a point where there's certain notes that just hit on the ride, you know, that like you could easily put a bunch of other songs on here. I'd love to see them just rotate or even whether you increase what's there now and you go from these six songs and make eight or 10 or 12, and you completely wipe them out and start over. I'd be down for either one. But we did go ahead to get a little snack since we had a little bit of a later lunch from the festival favorites. So you can stop by this casual eatery to explore an ever-changing menu filled with popular dishes from various Epcot festivals. So the way that they're starting this off is by providing dishes that have never been at an Epcot festival, which was kind of funny. But this, I think this is there like, hey, there is no festival. Let's put something fresh in here. Okay. So here's, here's my question, though. I thought they were going along with inconto. Yes, they are. But when you're saying festival, Epcot festivals, you think they're picking the top-rated or best dishes that we've seen previously in the festivals? Yes. Now, it makes sense that during this time, there is no festival. They're lining this up with inconto, right, which is genius. And we'll talk about the items. But what does that mean? They're going to do during the, so during food and wine festival, for example, maybe they'll have something near or maybe they'll have some past. Right. But that's what I'm saying. That's what I'm trying to get to. So for the festival favorites, during food and wine festival, are they going to have favorites that are currently at the festival? Or are they going to do favorites from the past that they no longer feature? Or are they going to give you a taste of other festivals? So for example, do you go, all right, it's food and wine festival time. We're going to put, we know that this is the most highly rated item. So we're going to put the beer, cheese soup, and the flamingon from Canada here. So it's an additional opportunity to get it. Or and then what would be a Canada? The same thing. But what I'm saying is they know that that gets just say the busiest and it's the highest rated for or are they going to say, we're going to take what was in case you missed it. Here was the favorite items from Flower and Garden, which was last. Let's have three or four food items from a bunch of different festivals, couple drinks. Or do they say, we're going to highlight international festival of the holidays, which is next. So let's have a couple items from there to kind of cross market and promote festival of the holidays and get people to come back. Oh, do they replace the Encato show with the different show and festival favorites doesn't truly feature favorites from the festival, but it interacts with the festival at that time, basically just making another boot. Time will tell. Yes, it will. Not what they're doing now. This is open 9 30 a.m. to 9 p.m. One of the offerings that they have that we did not try was the cheese stuffed arrepo with cilantro lime, crema and cojita. What do they have that we tried? They have a cheese stuffed arrepo with chicken and avocado for 650. They also we did not get, but they have a coconut trestleche, which is a vanilla cake soaked in almond and coconut milks. That's where the trust comes in the three topped with toasted coconut for $5. Probably delicious. I'm sure it is. How was that a rape? How was the cheese stuffed arrepo with chicken and avocado? This was one of the best things I have had in a very long time. Like I literally woke up this morning thinking about it and I literally asked Jeremy with if we could do and make it at home because so this was basically to me like what Jeremy would do and he'd be like, all right, we're going to make some enchiladas or something. He put some chicken in a crock pot and then he shreds it. This was then avocado like mash all combined. I say avocado, cream, chicken, and then the cheese. So it was like a sandwich. I wouldn't say stuffed. It was like two arrepo's and then cheese and then a scoop of chicken avocado mix. I mean, seriously, all everything was fantastic. I want another one. Holy moly. If they're going to count this as a festival booth moving forward, this is one of the best festival items ever. Yeah, like ever. Like ever. Yeah. And then it was funny because we saw John and he has had just the cheese one and he said it was just as good. Yeah. So if you don't want the chicken and the avocado stuff, holy moly. It was like a rapist like stuffed arrepo's with the masa and then you you stuff them and form it into a ball and then you rolling pin it out. You know, they're like a half inch thick, but they're actually stuffed within like the masa and all. And so this really was it was like they had made two masa discs to act as like the bun or the bread and then all this filling inside. It was it was so good. I mean, I if we were not going to lunch, if we didn't have lunch plans, we would have gone back and gotten another one immediately and split that one. Probably or even after the first bite would have been like, you know what, we're going to each one around and gone back and got one or gone back and gotten just the cheese. I just started to say since we split it, I would have probably liked to have tried the cheese. But I mean, seriously, this I will next time we're in Epcot, I will get one. We'll get one. Yeah, easy. Hands down. That's how good it was. Yep. They do in there have some beverages with alcohol, like a passion fruit, daiquiri for 1450. They have the Goldschmidt Imperial Guard Cabernet Seven yawn from Sonoma, California for $15, which is very interesting because the Imperial Guard Cabernet Seven yawn is also available in Oga's cantina, where originally, those were all going to be specific to Oga's cantina. But this looks like it's the same drink with a slight modification on name. So I do wonder if it's the same one. So any wine connoisseurs, if you want to go try both and let us know, they have some seasonal beers. They've got a chardonnay and then a cider boy's melon mojito hard cider, which sounds delicious. We did get the non alcoholic coconut passion fruit smoothie for five bucks. I thought it was really good. It's it's very good. It's it's refreshing. It's light. It's a little bit coconutty. It has this very citrusy flavor to it. And it's it's a good. It's it's a nice refreshing drink to walk around when it's a thousand degrees. It was and it was a thousand degrees fricking absurd out right now. So we were doing Mama Melrose for our lunch, our little bit of a later lunch. And this was another reason I switched to Epcot because we've not seen our friend Marcy who works over at bar bariva and quite some time because she no longer works weekends. And so I made sure she was working Thursday and we thought, well, if we're at Epcot and we're going to head to Hollywood, then we'll just stop by there anyway. So we stopped by bariva and sat down there, mostly just to see Marcy. Yeah, they do have new menu items. And if you go back to 578, just a couple ago, we tried the chicken tenders and we did the burger. We both loved them. Yep. I love both items. They do have a grilled chicken pasta that we want to try in a charcuterie board, but we weren't eating. We were just having a little something you got a what oh, you got the roll spritz, correct? No, I actually told her I wanted to do something with lemon cello because we were going to Mama Melrose. And I kind of thought that roll spritz last time I went and because of Lucy. Yes. Okay, that's right. And then this time I told her and so she basically made me a margarita with lemon cello. And it was fantastic. I think it was $15. It was really good. I really enjoyed it really refreshing. Just sat and sipped on that. You had the Mediterranean mint lemonade, correct? Yeah, this is just their immediate minute made premium lemonade with honey and mint for 599. It's delightful. It is so good. It reminds me of the one over at Morocco that you can get in spice for a table at the walk up bar area. And it's just like I buy the sugar free minute made premium lemonade. And we have some right now. So I we have honey and we even have a little bit of spicy honey. So I just want to grab some mint. It's just it's really good. It's really, really refreshing. Nice. And I'm sure if you wanted they could add some sort of spirit to it. Yes. And charge you for it. But I love it. So we sat there just had this. We caught up with Marcy. And then we skylined on over to Hollywood Studios. Go to Mama Melrose, Risterontae, Italiano. Yes. We've not been here in quite some time. Yes. They've made lots of changes to the menu. I have heard personally wonderful things about their steak. Uh huh. I want you to go through a few bullet points real quick. Yes. Because it is best to discuss. Yes. It is located in the Grand Avenue at Disney's Hollywood Studios. And where that is, a lot of people even were like, where where is that? So when you're going over to Galaxy's Edge, when you're headed that way, there is a left that you can turn, which then has pizza rizzos in there. It has the Muppets. And then there's like this, like it looks like Christmas. And if you go around down the stairs and go around to your right, it's kind of, it's kind of hidden. If you go and watch them up at 3D, when you exit, it's pretty much right there and you can see it. Yeah. This used to be, you know, I mean, this was, you had to pass this in the past because, you know, this took you back to the whole area. This was one of the walkways through that went all the way back to lights, motor action, right, you know, streets of America. We're all part of this entire section. And then this was like Streets of America, which is now Grand Avenue. This was kind of like your little Italy, basically a New York style little Italy with pizza rizzo and mama Melrose. So it's been there. Yeah, it's been there forever. Yes. And now it's kind of like quote unquote hidden, because it's very, very hidden. Yeah. So that's why I wanted to explain where it is, because a lot of people was like, wait, where is that? Of course, this is American Italian. This is casual dining, dining plans and discounts. You get one credit for lunch and dinner on your dining plan. And then of course you get your AP discount, which is 10%, or visa, which is Disney, visa, which is the same as 10%. Your lunch runs from 10 45 AM to 355 PM. And dinner runs from four PM to nine PM. They should probably hide this better. I think this is this restaurant is not hidden enough. So I had originally booked a fantastic dining package, just because I was like, well, we haven't seen fantastic in a little bit. Let's do that. And then those plans change, because we were going to do a little mini meetup over at banana combana later that evening and hang out with a few folks. I was like, all right, I'll just drop the fantastic portion. I'll just book regular lunch. And we'll go eat here because it hasn't been a while. We're trying to get back to things. We're trying to, you know, kind of get back to the basics on some of these. So that was the whole reason that we decided to dine here. Also, I know that they've made a lot of menu changes. You know, one of the things I was excited, I'd always complain in the past was that they didn't have pizza. They had some flat breads that were only available as appetizers, but they didn't have like meals of Pete, like a lunch pizza or whatever, like get yourself a whole pizza or for your table. So they'd added those. I mean, the menu looks really good. It looks really promising. And I know they've made all these changes. So let's start with the decor and all though. I mean, it's a, it's a cute place. It's super cute. It actually reminds me of like it could be a ratatouille-themed restaurant. Yeah, this could be an easily converted. But I mean, obviously it wouldn't be good here because it's Epcot has ratatouille right. I still think it could be a muppets restaurant and you, I mean, sure, I think this should be I will just say it now because I'll forget to say it. I wish that they would turn this into more pizza rizzo. And this would be, I mean, you could, you could, well, I wouldn't keep everything that's is. That's for sure. But technically, you could do a very light re-theme and turn this into pizza rizzos, Italian cuisine that serves pizzas, but also some pastas and salads and stuff like that. And then turn pizza rizzos because this isn't really a little Italy that shops are closed. You know, I mean, you got Muppets 3D right there, but turn pizza rizzo into a quick service muppet-themed restaurant that isn't so niche into just rat pizza. You know what I mean? But instead, turn this into a quick service and it has different areas. Like you have that upstairs ballroom and you got like, you could turn this into different Muppet areas and have, honestly, I almost think of turning this into a Muppets version of Minions Cafe over at Universal Studios. You know, where you could do a lot of play on the decor, it's very whimsical, it's fun, it's light-hearted, you have some inventive style dishes, you know, that go around the Muppets and all, not stuff like frog legs, but you know, things that could be themed kind of almost around, you know, frog legs, pulled pork sandwiches. Oh my goodness. What else would you, I've tried to think of what else you could have of your shrimp would be on there somewhere. But I think that would be better use and just go ahead and turn this legit into much Muppets quart yard. But they're not going through, they don't lay into the Muppets enough. So Angela was wonderful as a cast member as a server. Yes. She was awesome. She was. And if you want. She was really cool. Yeah, if you want to have wonderful service with a smile, you could go here. Yes. If you want to have edible cuisine, I would not. It wasn't not edible, except, well... Look at how you know where to know where to start. You want to say some of the stuff you can get and then it will be what we normally do, right? Which maybe we should have gotten a burrata salad. But anyways, you could tomato bersheda, fried mozzarella sticks, marinated olives, mushroom artichoke cheese dip, house garlic bread, maybe we should have gotten that. Yeah. Anyways, we got fried calamari for $16. So it is pickled chalets, marinara sauce, lemon aioli, and peppercinis. So peppercinis and the calamari was fried. Which are all rings. They were all rings. So I think what they do is they fry a bunch and unfortunately they put it in a pan like French fries. And then they, you know, scoop it and put it on a plate and stuff. I think we got the very last bottom of the barrel, like they should have taken it out and then put it and thrown that away and then put the new big ol thing up and then we could have gotten that because it was just, it was too much breading. The taste of the fry from the calamari was great, like the herbs that the breading portion is very crispy. The best unfortunately was the peppercinis that were fried. The peppercinis were pretty good because they were still like soft enough and everything. The calamari was way overcooked. They were so cooked that like it shrunk way down. Yeah. I mean, these rings, if you're talking like ring size, this was like baby's pinky. These were, they were so small. They were a little chewy and overcooked. Yep. They were so overcooked that when you picked one up, the breading just fell off of it. Yes, it did. You're stuck with it. Like, okay, Angela was absolutely incredible. She was one of my favorite cast members ever. She was like, I honestly would almost go back to say, can we sit in Angela's section and we're just going to have like a beverage of some sort and maybe we'll try another appetizer. But everything else about this and we'll get it. This, this was, this was awful. Yeah. And then the pickled shallots where I just, I didn't understand it. It was not pretty and then it didn't taste good either. Oh, there was. So you had this pitiful plate of calamari and they really were. I mean, these rings were so tiny and overcooked. Like just, I mean, awful. It's the worst calamari I've ever had. And it's the worst appetizer I've had on Disney property easily. And then you had the marinara wasn't bad. It was a pretty good marinara. The alumni was fine. They had like a lemon aioli. And then next to that on the plate was a mound of pickled shallots, pickled red onions. And then on top of that was just raw, sliced, like baby bell pepper strips. Like none of them had to do with anything. They were just there. And like I said, I tasted them and they were gross. Yeah. They just, they served no purpose to the entire dish. It wasn't like you could eat it together and they were actually kind of, it was. They should have just breaded all that and fried it with everything else because the pepper genies were okay. And so it, somebody else came back to take the dish away because I think we probably would have said something if she came back and it was still sitting in front of us. I think we would have, I would have been like, this is we, and we were like, we got the bottom of a manual manner. Like if she would have been like, how was the calamari, we probably would have been like, kind of think we got the bottom of the barrel. And she would have been able to see what was left on the plate. Like, you know, that it was not very good. But so, but somebody else had come and taken it away and we had already placed our order for the meals. And she brought those to us. So they do have, you know, some classics on here, um, like Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp, mushroom and goat cheese pizza. They've got, uh, mama's Italian pasta with chicken, braised pork was a book, Asabuco, uh, parmesan, or, uh, yeah, parmesan chicken, um, chicken parmesan, uh, fresh fish, we got meatballs, margarita pizza, stuff like that, right? So you asked first about the polenta cake with the mushroom and herbed cauliflower for $24. Yes. It looks good. It polenta layered, salted mushrooms, spinach, red pepper, and a cashew cheese. Cause this is plant-based. And I was like, I like polenta, which is so funny. Cause the, the, that evening, we ended up having a cashew cheese conversation. Yeah, we did. With April and John and all. And well, you put your ass angel, you're like, you know, how is this? And we could see in her face. She was kind of like, and you said something about, you said, well, I like grits. Like I like creamy and delicious grits. And she was like, yeah, you like grits because they're both creamy and delicious. And then she basically, yeah, that's not what this is. Polenta cake is just dry. Yeah. And I'm like, Oh, and then I was like, what about the bolognese and rigatoni bolognese? And she was like, excellent choice. Yeah, excellent choice. And I was like, Oh, okay. And this is ground beef Italian sausage and Parmesan for $26. And I was like, okay, I will take that. I ordered because I love the prosciutto and melon pizza that's over at via Napoli. I got the prosciutto and honey pizza for 22 bucks, which is Parmesan, ham, red chili flakes, and she said, excellent choice. Yep. Who's do you want to start with? I mean, it doesn't matter. We'll start with mine because mine, I do feel like it was unfortunately just noodles that was in a box. And they boiled them. Sauce that was in a can. And then they tried to over wine it because it tasted like wine a little bit. And then just a beef and Italian, I really couldn't taste the Italian sausage because usually that gives a little bit of that's by I don't either. I think it was unseasoned ground beef. Yeah. To be honest. And then Parmesan shaving. So it wasn't it was your it was your typical what you could get out of probably the dollar general. I mean, you've got you've heard us talk Italian food, you know, and I mean, it's look, it's one of the things I'll say a lot of time, like all it's most Italian food to me is at least good in the sense that pasta good, sauce good, meat good, whatever, like cheese good, like it's good. You know, I have no problem if we finished recording. I mean, again, I made this a couple of weeks ago with your parents. I took we had we had frozen ground beef is in the freezer. We're trying to use it. So I cooked it all down. I got jarred sauce. Right. I added that to it. I bought boxed noodles. No, they were bagged. Well, bagged noodles from Costco. They're a little bit of fancier noodles. But bought those cooked it served it together. It's very good. This was yours was better than this. Yeah, but even what I made, I wouldn't expect to go in and spend $26 for a plate of what I made and be happy with it. I'd be like, what is this? Yeah, you know, so if again, if this was quick service, you know, if this is what Pizza Rizzo was serving, and you got this for 1350 1450, it'd be a bit different. But and this wasn't even like, it wasn't even good boxed and jarred. Like this was to me, I said dollar general. Yeah, you go up to dollar general and you get the dollar general brand, whatever that is, you know, or just it just was a poker brand or something like it was. It wasn't bad. It wasn't edible. It just 26 dollars for this. Correct. Sitting in a place that has this beautiful decor and Italian feel and flair and like this shouldn't be what's being served for 26 bucks and makes it almost inevitable because you're just you're just bad that you're spending this amount of money on something that can't cost more than $2 and 50 cents coming out of here. I mean, I don't even know that they cooked the beef and mixed it with the sauce. It all I don't, do they make jarred salsa with meat in it? Do you say salsa? Sauce. Did they make jarred marinara sauce with meat already in it? I don't know. Maybe. Probably. And I think that's what this was. All right. One note, there's nothing to do it. I'm beating this. No, of course, of course. Well, we're. Well, and it was funny because Chuck Marquette posted it under and said, "How about the bolognese?" And I just said, and I can't remember what I said, but I really like, I thought we were seeing him in person. That's why the next day, I was going to be like, well, I was going to be like, honestly, Chuck, your Italian like, alley makes a heck of a better than, I mean, you've had better like it. It's just, no, this is, no. So yeah, no, it's sad. It's sad because like you said, you want to expect it, you want to, and then the sad part was is like everybody was responding and saying like, well, they heard the, they've, they had really good food here, which I'm glad that y'all did, but it just wasn't good for us, which is sad. Well, any good about, you know, we saw John that night and he was talking about, didn't have the best experience recently at Tritoria, Alforno, which we've had a couple of times and have always had a wonderful experience. So all of these are still take with a grain of salt. We're giving you our experience on June 27th at a 110 p.m. dining reservation. Well, I will say yes. And I will say that Rachel had a next day and we told her she's a foodie. And I'm like, I mean, I'm like, no, don't do it because I just was not going to be happy. Like, I'm like, she's not going to be happy. Right. So and this still all comes down to comparisons. And that's what we always want to be fair about is if somebody says, is momma Melrose any good? I'm not going to say no, right and be done with the conversation. I'm going to say we had a bad experience there with the food here it was, whatever, because I know we've mentioned before and never trying to throw my parents under the bus. They're just plain eaters. They would have gone. They would have split this rigatoni bolognese, which they would have they would have had to ask exactly what it is because I think rigatoni and bolognese would have thrown them off. Yes. You know, but they would have split this meal and loved it. Yes, I would have been perfect for them. Yes. You know, maybe it's it still might have been a little too whiny. Maybe a little bit because on the red wine flavor, yes, it was. They would have enjoyed this. Yes. And so again, you have to think about that. A lot of kids, if at home you're going, this sounds great. I got a 15 year old boy who eats me out of house and home and I'm used to serving him, you know, because he's kind of plain or picky. I'm used to serving him jarred sauce and boxed pasta and from dollar general and he loves it because I have to feed him so much because he eats so much, you know, I buy maybe a cheaper whatever. So again, somebody else might love it. Right. prosciutto and honey pizza. I think this had some really good parts to it. This was in theory, really good. The crust did taste like it may have been homemade. It did taste as though it was wood fired. Good. The prosciutto slash ham that they were using, which was much more of a ham, not a prosciutto, but it was much more of a thin sliced ham. There was plenty of it and it was salty. It had a great flavor to it. The honey was good. It had a little bit of kick with red chili flakes in there. There wasn't really a sauce. It wasn't even like it was a white sauce, like a white pizza. I don't just, I think it was just so anywhere that there wasn't toppings, it was extremely dried out. Very, very dry crust. Some of the, some of the ham prosciutto was laid perfectly in a nice thin layer and it was good. Others of it were just balled up. It was like they scrunched it up in their hand and threw it on there. So it just, and those pieces got super overcooked. There wasn't enough honey like to balance everything. It, again, it wasn't bad. You actually ate your entire thing. I ate the rest that night. I was hungry. I did not. The flavors there did work together. So when you got the right bite, it was very good. Good. The problem is there were a lot of wrong bites. I would be very interested to just go there and potentially get a margarita pizza, because I think it has all the possibilities. And if they, they put the sauce on it right in enough sauce, I don't think you're going to get those dry patches, but it could definitely use a little help. So it wasn't like the worst thing ever. But when Angela came back, because, you know, here's that we don't, we don't know if this was bad for Mama Melrose. Right. You know what I mean? So if she came back and you said, my, my bolognese is not good and complained about it, but they didn't do anything wrong, then that just means we don't like the food as it's prepared. Right. It is very much to come back and say, like the pasta was cooked properly. It just wasn't, it was, it had no flavor to it. The pasta on its own, but it was cooked properly. You know, everything was technically done right. It just was missing the flavor. So it'd be one thing to be like, my pasta was way overcooked, or my pasta was undercooked and was still crunchy. Right. Everything was presented. I think the way that they're presenting this dish, it just isn't good to us. Right. Does that make sense? Yes. So we didn't see a need to complain. So when she kind of said, like, how is everything? I was like, it's good. And she immediately was like, oh, I have no, that's, you know, your voice changed. Like, what's up? And we didn't just say this is gross. This is bad. We just kind of, and she played along a little where we were just kind of like, yeah, it's, you know, we're, I said, we're, we're really hungry. You know, we're, and she could say, like, we weren't devouring this. And so. And we did take it. So then she was like, did you ask for a box? Yes, for a box to not upset me or something like that. And right. And I was like, no, because I'm like, he'll eat this later. And I mean, I possibly was taking it. And she's like, you look scared. And I was like, yeah, we did not touch your leftovers. We did not. So but she was funny, because she was like, you know, from the looks of everything and how it's gone, I probably don't want to probably can't interest you in a dessert. And we're like, we'll hear it. Yeah, we'll tell us about him. So she explained a couple of the other thing is too, she, she seemed surprised that we didn't love our meal. Yeah. With what we ordered. Yeah. You know what I mean? Now, she had told us, Hey, the plint of cake, probably don't want to head that direction. Right. But with what we ordered, she seemed surprised. She seemed like, Oh, okay, I'm not right. Heard that. Oh, interesting. So I'm hoping again, something was off. But she was explaining some of the desserts and she explained some regularly. And then some of the ones she was as nice as could be. But she was very much kind of like, you know, Oh, it's a terrible. So I mean, they have a tiramisu, which is normal. They have many cannoli trio. And I mean, we looked at thinking of it, but I'm like, yeah. And you know, they have a cherry chocolate cake. They have a cream tart. They have a flourless chocolate cake. So I think when she got into the cream tart, and I think she started, that's when she started like going like, we have these things. And I think she named the cream tart and the cherry chocolate cake. It was funny because she kind of said them in a sense of though she was reading them. It wasn't like, Oh, it's got this really delicious. You know, she wasn't like, it's this delicious house made tart. And it has this kind of like pastry, like she basically was like, well, there's there's pasty or pastry cream. And there's some powdered sugar. And then it is too much tart. Yeah, yeah. And it was like, it was it was funny. It was hilarious. So she started getting to these and she gets to this goat cheese moose tart, which actually kind of sounded good. It is topped with a honeycomb and an edible flour served with blackberries and a Cassie Kompel for $10. She was hysterical. And I almost kind of wanted her to bring me one because I like goat cheese. But she said that she has only had one customer at bar like it that the restaurant has only had one customer that ever said they liked it. Why it's still on the menu. And then one lady likes was like, Oh, I like, you know, and so she was like, okay, I'm going to bring it to you basically for free. So she brings it. And then she takes a small like cautionary bite and she said, Oh, no, no, no, no. No, you took it. Go ahead and take your full. So she took a full spoonful and basically was like, I they videoed her and it was completely exactly what she expected, which I thought was funny. And I'm like, no, I looked at the drinks earlier and I was like, you know what, I will take a chocolate martini. So and I was like, can you get that to go because we weren't going to stay? And she was like, yes. And that was fantastic. So that was the best out of this whole thing I enjoyed. Yeah, this was the this is the worst. I think I think through and through the worst meal we've had on property. I'd have to go back and compare it to the Mansoor Paul, the one time we did it. That if anything was worse because the cost was so much higher. But again, you know, I mean, we're still we're walking away here with the $100, you know, lunch, which is understandable, but not satisfied with any of it, which is a shame. But you know, as we said before, I'm not kidding. I would go back and ask for Angela. And if she was working, I think honestly, we would sit and maybe just try. Let's just get some fried mozzarella sticks. You know, you get if you want to get a chocolate martini or whatever again. And yeah, you know, I'll just I'll get a soda or something. But like, I would go back for her. Yeah, you know, but I would not recommend this to anyone based on our experience ever. And then I don't know if we would want to come back here. No, which is sad. No. And because the last time we were I was like five or six years, maybe we'll wait another five or six years. It'd be very hard press to go back here anytime soon. That's for sure. So take that for what it's worth. But we we will have only positive things to say about food from here on out. Yes. So from here, we went ahead and we bus back to the room. And we were going to go ahead and just chill there for a little bit. Get changed because we were going to go over and meet some folks at Banana Cabana. Huge thank you to April and her wonderful daughter and John and Chris that came out. We got to hang out there for a little while, which is just nice and talk Disney and food and and all kinds of stuff. Laugh at April because she's hilarious. She's great. But yeah, but it's always interesting because she has some dietary needs. Yes. And of course, with what John does in writing about food all the time and our experiences, it's just it's kind of neat like to all sit around and chat about food and you know, Disney and all that. So that was great. But we were going to go ahead and it was another one of the situations was like, well, we don't want to drive to Banana Cabana. And first of all, try and park because you just don't know because, you know, they're they can be very strict on getting into restaurants if you're not staying there or have a dining and of course they don't take reservations there. So we're going to Uber over there. There were going to end up at Epcot and we knew we could just bus home. So our last two Ubers and I've gotten lost both times. This Uber driver was hilarious. She was. She she missed the turn to head towards the the areas we ended up in Epcot. No, this is the one we ended up in Epcot. This is the one we were trying to go to North QC's and we ended up in Epcot. Yes. This one, we were trying to head to Banana Cabana and we ended up on the other side of i4 by the Gaylord Palms. Yes. Which during this time, we found that her sister who had purchased a 250 year old home up in Massachusetts, believed it was haunted and they contacted Travel Channel who came out and did a ghost hunters on the house and found that two little girls that they're not sure if they were related had apparently died in this home and were haunting it. It was fascinating. Oh, it was and freaky because I'm like that's a big nope for me. But it's just so interesting how you can get from here to there sometimes. Well, we started with where we from. I mean, just kind of like anytime, you know, listener we meet and we're like, where are you from? You know, and they'll tell us. So, you know, they do the same thing with us. Uber drivers sometimes cast members and she asked and we said St. Augustine. So then she was like, oh, and starts talking and then talks about the ghost tour. And I was like, we've never done one. We've lived here. And I said, because I'm just, I believe in that stuff. So that's where it went from. But then she was talking and then she left. Yeah. Like you just think about that like at any point in your mind before you entered that vehicle, did you think we would end up talking about ghosts? And at any point in her mind, she's obviously told this story before. But was she just like, if there's a way to get this ghost story in, I'm bringing it in. And as soon as we said, St. Augustine's like, Oh, I got one for y'all. But it was fascinating. It was so interesting. So yeah, I mean, we got lost a little bit and we're like, whatever. I guess we get to finish here in the end of this story. But so ended up at Banana Cabana, sat there, they're open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. This is, of course, their pool bar. That is located right there. We've dined here a bunch of times. We love it. They have really good wings there that we've loved in the past and April got them and loved them. Yep. And she was able to get them for her dietary needs, of course. And then we sat for a little bit because we weren't starving because we had ate a late lunch. And then it wasn't even a good lunch. So I was just kind of like, I just, I don't want food that's good. Right. So we ended up getting the loaded fries for $12, which come with chili, cojita, and picket agayo. And then we went ahead and got, which we'd never had before as the coconut shrimp for $16 is served with citrus chili sauce and French fries as well. These, we love these loaded fries. Yes. And you don't like chili. Now, but it was, and I really didn't eat a ton of them. I really liked the coconut shrimp, which I was surprised at because they're very, like it's got, it's fried coconut shrimp. And, but it was fantastic. Yeah. And the chili is a good chili. It reminds me in between Skyline and like, like a regular homemade chili. Well, it's not. Yeah, it's, because it's not, it's much more of just meat ground beef, it's more of just ground beef with chili flavoring, yes, as opposed to a chili, which, you know, again, it's going to have a bunch of other stuff pozzly in it. Right. You know, like outside of sky, like onions, right? Maybe peppers, right? Different cuts of beef and beans. And it can be more soupy because, you know, like you'd eat it with a spoon, like you could eat this stuff with a fork, but it's, it's, it's delicious. Yep. And then yeah, the coconut shrimp, I thought we're outstanding. Five, butterfly shrimp, pretty good size, nice light breading, citrus, chili sauce. That was really good. You can get in a jar from your local publics or whatever. So I really enjoyed these. I don't think we realized the coconut shrimp was going to have fries, and then we got the loaded fries, because I think if I think I would have switched out the seafood fritters. Instead of getting coconut shrimp, no, instead of getting loaded fries. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, because the fries came with the coconut. Yeah, no, I agree. We probably should have tried that because we've not done those, but yeah, so from there, we went over into Epcot because we wanted to go kind of check out luminous, the symphony of us, which we really haven't seen a ton of times because we don't love it more on that in a minute. But we did run in Pam and Steve, who ran late at their dinner at Boma. Wonderful listeners. We ran into in creations. It didn't make it out time for the banana cabana, but we sat there for five, 10 minutes and chatted with them. So they were wonderful to run into. So thank you all for saying hello and glad we caught you. And then, of course, I wanted ice cream. So I was going to go to swirl showcase and then Jeremy was like, I had a better idea. Ah, let's go to the L. Yeah, la Artie Artisan de Glace. Yes, that one. Over in France. Yes, this is open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. And there's no discounts, which is fine. But, um, you know, they have single scoops, double scoops, singles, 575, doubles is 795. They have ice cream and sorbet. And then they have all kinds of, like, um, the flavors, that's what I'm trying to say. Yeah. But they also have things like the Artisan specials, which you have macarons, which that chocolate or seasonal macaroon ice cream sandwich. Yeah, I would like to try that one. We'll totally get that next at $7. They have the croque glace, which is what we got before, which is your homemade brioche bun. And they you pick a flavor of ice cream. They have an ice cream martini, which at this point, I had had a couple of drinks and I just was like, I do not want anything else. I want you to get it one time. I do want to get it one time. It has two scoops with a shot of grandma and yay whipped cream vodka or rum, which I would pick the vodka. So, um, I think it's 15, 1495. So $15. I think that would be fantastic. Um, so yeah. So we got in a waffle comb. I got, um, the caramel cinnamon caramel apple, um, crunch ice cream, which was fantastic with mine. And then you just got the caramel and it was ice cream. So good. Really good. It's super, super delicious. Really enjoy everything that we've had it from here. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely love it. So, uh, yeah, I would highly recommend and I can't remember if you said scoop is 575, double scoop seven. We got one. Yeah. Cause I'm like, scoop is enough on it. It is. I could have totally done too, but I'm like, it's late and let's say this for only two dollars more. It is well worth doubling up on the scoop. I'll agree. Well, I'll do agree. All right. Let's talk a little bit real quick about, uh, luminous, the symphony of us, uh, Epcot's current nighttime spectacular. Um, you can, you can, you can really, a good view is most anywhere. Yeah, which is nice. Right. Um, it's just, I just, it's not a great show. It doesn't hit me in the fields. No. So there's, it's not, it's not a bad show. It just doesn't hit me in the fields. Yeah. It's a, it's a good show. Um, but it's just one of those where, I can walk away watching it. Yeah. Whereas we watched half of it and then I was like, you know what, I'd rather beat the bus go out so we can kind of turn our head over our shoulder to catch the rest of it. And it was, it's, it's good. It's cute. It's just something that I don't want to stand and watch and see as like, I would stand and watch happily ever after. Um, and it's not something that I'm wanting to go. I'd rather watch a fantastic over this. Yeah. 100%. So rather watch most anything over this. And it's just, there's not like, it doesn't evoke emotion, at least for us. And I just, there's not enough going on. You say what you want about the barges when they were there, right? But at least they added something to the overall show when you have something that is not only taking place in the water, because it's very minimal here. There's, there's some water fountains and there's some little lasers and, but there's just, I don't feel like there's enough going on, on the ground level. Um, yeah, I, the soundtrack's fine, but it's just, all right, there's an Aladdin scene that is super inner, like high charge energized. It's wonderful. Nothing else in this show for me lives up to that same emotion and energy. Yeah. That's what I would say. It's like it lacks emotion. It lacks energy, but you know, the ground level, you kind of wind it up in the sky anyways. So, but you had more, it was more collective. If I'm, I don't want to see where fireworks are shooting off from in that sense. You know what I mean? Without you giving me a reason to look in that area as well. I think when you can collaborate, both what's happening on the ground and what's happening in the sky, I just think it works so much better. So it just kind of lacks those types of things. I'll agree. Um, we'll take a break now for this episode because we still have a, we spent probably more time because we did want to talk a little bit about our star, all stars and all star movies. Um, we did want to touch base on a few of these things that we probably spent some extra time on. So we'll come back and do the next episode, which will include the opening of Tiana's, a lot more food. Yes. And a very fun game that we played on Saturday before we headed home. Yes. That will now go into our rotation in our arsenal. It might be something that you guys want to do as well. So with that being said, make sure you hit that subscribe button so you can get brand new episodes every Tuesday and then catch the next part of this on Friday. And of course, Ron and I would be super duper thankful if you could please leave us a rating and review because it helps our show grow. That's all we've got. We'll see you real soon. Jeremy and Rhonda are more than a little pond of Disney world. So they made this podcast to share it all with you. Reports and resorts, top 10 lists of all sorts. Main street magic is bringing it home for you. [BLANK_AUDIO]
