I’ll be honest that I was pretty excited going into the newish Harry Potter section (Diagon Alley) of Universal Orlando. I had heard this area was large and well done. When I walked in, the decor of this area was simply incredible. The walkways, the paths, and the shop exterior decor were all very well done and on theme. We decided to wait in line for 15 minutes for this ice cream shop.

This was my first time ever to Universal Orlando, so I was pretty excited to see how this differed compared to Universal Hollywood. One of my favorite rides over there was the Backlot Tour, and behold, we realized there is no such thing as a backlot in Universal Orlando. This was purely a theme park. After we rode The Minion ride, my cousin wanted to show me the Simpsons area.

The finale for our Epcot night was this very last minute reservation for 5 at La Hacienda De San Angel. At this time, I’ve just barely recovered from being full, so I am ready to give this a try. Unlike the Mexican restaurant next to the Caballeros ride, this one was more like your typical restaurant without the smell of chlorine water or being overly dark. Per a recommendation and not normally eating Mexican food in NYC, this was something on my list to try.

Just like 2021 at Epcot, they had this lovely Flower and Garden Festival. Unfortunately this time around, I was simply too full to eat around. I had enough room to maybe try a snack or two but that’s about it. I noticed that the indoor area between the British and Canadian pavilion was not open, so it felt like there were just a few less options. Unlike 2021, it felt like there were significant more crowds as a whole everywhere.

We entered Epcot around 10 AM on this Friday from the north end of the park, and we had to walk all the way down to the France pavilion to try and ride Remy. The unfortunate part when we got there was that the wait time had already exceeded 90 minutes. I checked my Disney World app, and low and behold, we could do lighting passes for $11 per person. That felt worthwhile to do and not bake under the sun.

In our last year’s trip, we ate at Topolino which was pretty good. I had similar expectations for this restaurant because the menu looked even more exciting. The whole game plan here was to go for the prix fixe menu. We typically enjoy these types of menus because it helped us think less and just enjoy the experience. The entire menu, ingredient wise, seemed very accessible and still fit along the lines of Spanish style flavors.

Mobile orders are probably some of the best “features” that Disney World has to offer. Being able to order something while you’re walking towards the area is super convenient. Hopefully one day, every Disney World fast food area will support it. This one was near the Avatar river boat ride and was a quick stop for us. The food on the menu looked pretty decent, so let’s see how it went.

Boma is the last African centric restaurant that we’ve made reservations for on this trip. It sits across from Jiko on the first floor of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Around dinner time, this area was quite busy and seemed to have a lot of people. I didn’t have much expectations at all since it was just a buffet, but it was interesting to see how they laid the food outside and let people get what they want instead of being served.

When I first tried to make my reservations more than 60 days ago, this restaurant had no availability. Fortunately through my shameless Touring Blog subscription, it notified me there was a spot open just 2 days before my trip! I was excited about this reservation for 2 reasons: the price seemed very affordable, and I always enjoy a decent prime rib. This has to be good, especially for a new Disney resort restaurant, right?

This place in Galaxy Edge is close to the area where the Rise of the Resistance ride is located. We actually waited the full 2+ hours for the ride at around 10 AM, so coming out of it we were hungry. We walked all the way over to the 50s Diner, but our walk in time had passed. Fortunately, this place accepted mobile orders for lunch, and the availability window was pretty fast.