Episode #205: Connections Eatery Live Dining Review

Disney's Epcot offers countless dining options, but is Connections Eatery worth your precious park time and dining credits? We're pulling up a chair to give you the unfiltered scoop straight from our family's lunch table.

Navigating the bustling atmosphere of this World Celebration eatery at 2pm (still surprisingly packed!), we put Disney's Quick Service Dining Plan to the test with a variety of menu items. The hand-breaded chicken sandwich delivered solid flavor without excessive breading, though the accompanying black garlic truffle fries proved divisive—enjoyable in small doses but overwhelming as a full side. Meanwhile, the Flower and Garden Festival's hot honey chicken sandwich hit the perfect balance of heat and sweetness, complemented wonderfully by pickles for a contrasting crunch.

The real star? Connections' pizza. With gigantic slices that practically count as double portions, the $11.29 cheese pizza stands as one of Epcot's best quick-service values. Our family debate about sauce levels (some wanting more, others preferring the lighter approach) highlights how this adaptable menu caters to different palates. All these options—plus alcoholic beverages like Oregon's Rainstorm Pinot Noir Rosé—were completely covered by our Quick Service Dining Plan credits.

Beyond food, we share our refreshingly laid-back approach to park touring. Arriving during Early Entry without the rope-drop rush, we walked straight onto Soarin', Figment, and Nemo before experiencing the "big party" atmosphere of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. This relaxed strategy sparked fascinating family discussions about park touring philosophies—are you Team Rope Drop or Team Take-It-Easy?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello and welcome to Circular Parks Podcast episode
number 205.
Today we are bringing you alive dining review from
Connections Eatery in Epcot.
There's far too much to see anddo.
We are here to help guide youthrough.
But before we do that, let mejust tell you about some Disney
merch I've been seeing in theparks already.

(00:22):
There are some really cute newmini ears with all the park
icons.
There's a lot of cute mugs outright now Corksicle brand and
others.
Just a lot of new merch I'mhappy to see.
So come to the parks check itout.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thank you everybody for joining us.
Episode number 205.
We are live at ConnectionsEatery.
We just finished eating lunch,we are on the quick service
dining plan and a quick overviewof this place.
It's crazy.
It is a madhouse.
It's 2 o'clock and I thoughtthis would be a little bit after
the lunch rush.
No, it's a really crowded dayin the park too it is uh, but

(01:05):
the atmosphere is great.
we're looking at this beautifulmural with uh, different uh
cultures and their food and andeverything in the music here.
You probably can't hear itbecause there's too many people,
but it's that beautiful epcotworld celebration music playing
in the background.
It's just.
If it's not so crowded I thinkit would be a really beautiful

(01:26):
place.
Yes, but we're going to talkabout what we got.
Again, we're on the quickservice dining plan.
I had the hand-breaded chickensandwich, which I have not had
before.
I've had the pizza and I've hadthe French Bistro burger.
So I wanted to try somethingdifferent and I got it with the
black garlic, truffle andparmesan fries.
Brittany, you got the hot honeychicken sandwich with french

(01:50):
fries yes, it's a special forthe flower and garden festival.
Ryan got the pepperoni pizzaand Nolan got the cheese pizza,
and then I had a bud light andBrittany got a rainstorm pinot
Noir rosé from Oregon.
Again, this is all included onthe quick service dining plan.
So the chicken sandwich Ithought was really good.

(02:11):
It wasn't overly fried, itwasn't overly battered.
I thought it had a good flavor.
The black garlic and truffleand Parmesan fries a little much
, yeah, which I'm always goingto like that with truffle stuff
Because it's such a strongflavor.
I enjoy it, but not a whole lotof it Because it can get
overpowered right.
But it was good to have like afew here and there A few bites

(02:33):
of it was good, but I wouldn't,unless you really love truffle
and parmesan and garlic.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Are you done?

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Then I would be wary of this Brittany.
What did you think of yoursandwich?

Speaker 1 (02:47):
My sandwich was really good but it wasn't too
spicy, but the flavor was thereand the pickles and all of that
was good as well.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, Nolan.
What do you think of yourcheese pizza?

Speaker 1 (02:56):
It was good, but two slices is really big.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
It is yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, it's giant.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
So it is really big, and so the pizza itself is 11,.
The cheese pizza was $11.29 ifyou weren't on the dining plan,
and it is huge.
You're definitely getting yourmoney's worth for the pizza, for
sure, right.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
If you weren't on the dining plan.
Oh for sure, because thesepieces are huge pieces of pizza.
It's almost like two pieces inone, so it's almost like a total
of four pieces of pizza in thetwo slices right.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Ryan, what did you think of your pepperoni pizza?

Speaker 1 (03:29):
uh, it was very good.
Yeah, but needed more sauce soyou're a sauce guy yeah um, I've
had the pizza before.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
I think it's pretty good.
I don't like a lot of sauce,that's why I think I like it.
It's better than just typicalpuffy pizza, but I don't think
it's better than the italypavilion pizza.
Window right, but it's reallygood for the price.
The amount that you get youreally can't beat it.
Uh, the prices for thehamburger chicken sandwich was
13.19 and for your hot huntingchicken sandwich was $13.90,

(04:01):
which are typical Disney prices.
I would think, yes, yeah, so weare about to go to Remy's.
We have a lighting lane for$2.55.
It's currently $2.20.
Me and Ryan just got off ofGuardians and we had conga Great
Love it.
Everybody was just cheering anddancing and it's just a big

(04:22):
party.
It's just a big party, love it.
Everybody was just cheering anddancing.
It's just a big party.
It's just a big party, love it.
We've done most of the stuff onthe non-World Showcase side
this morning.
We didn't rope drop, but we gothere still within the time of
the early entry, not because wewanted to, but it just kind of
worked out that way.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
And it worked out, so we started with Soarin'.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yes, walk onren.
Yes, walk on.
Literal walk on, yeah.
And then we literally walked onto figment and then, uh, we did
nemo and then walked around theaquarium area, I did moanas and
then moana and then nema.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
No, we already did nemo.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, no it's been a good like we haven't rushed.
We woke, I think, pretty wellrested this morning.
Yeah, took our time, hadbreakfast in Coronado Springs
and I like this a lot betterthan having to like we have to
get up at this time to ropedrive.
No, we've got to catch this busand we've got to do this and
we've got to do that to get hereLike.
This is a very chill morning.

(05:21):
I really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
I did too.
It's good not having that rush.
We've also done Spaceship Earthas well.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Living with the land.
Ryan is thinking his head.
No, he does not like the chillmornings.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
You like the rush of road dropping?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
He's shaking his head .

Speaker 1 (05:38):
yes, You're the one that couldn't get going this
morning out of bed.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
He said he just likes doing stuff.
We're about to hit World, theone that couldn't get Helen this
morning out of bed.
He said he just likes doingstuff.
Well, we're about to hit WorldShowcase, which, surprisingly,
the boys have been anxious toget to.
We're going to be chilling inWorld Showcase the rest of the
afternoon and evening.
We're going to be doing dinnerat La Cantina.
Say, Dan and Helen, and getsome snacks and yeah, yeah.

(06:08):
So we will talk to you then.
Thank you so much for listeningand we'll talk to you this
evening.