The Epcot 25 Anniversary, Food and Wine Festival, and MNSSHP Trip

im just starting to collect pins

im first gonna start on the 23 of october. i saw videos it looks like fun to do but where can a newbie get the lanyards just wondering.

So much for on-going update.....

The network port on our laptop got fried somehow. And since Disney resorts do not have wireless connect (at least, not at OKW), I've been unable to connect and post updates and pictures. So it looks like I will not do any updates until after I get back, which will be after Oct. 7th.

Still, the Anniversary Celebration day was spectacular, even if we were almost completely soaked. But again, as when I was describing my most magical memories of WDW, even when soaking wet, there was no where else that I'd rather be at that moment than at Epcot, and with many wonderful friends who shared the same love and affection for this theme park.

So thanks Adam, Jen, and Jason, and everyone involved with this day for organizing a terrific event. More reports will come.

Zz.

Anyone going to tonight's MNSSHP? If you are, look for me in a chef outfit with the words "Kiss The Cook" on my chef's hat and on my apron. Can't miss it!



I tried to find a small plush Remy to put under my hat, but they had none small enough. So I have a Remy in the pouch on my apron.

Zz.

We got back last night from a very memorable trip, for obvious reasons.

I have to sort out all of my photos, but here's one I bought from the PhotoPass guy who took our group picture after the Epcot's 25th Rededication ceremony. I think this is what he was trying to do, pan over the whole group that was way too big to fit into a single frame of a picture. Since he has done that, I used my photo stitch feature and stitched the photos together. This is what I got. I present to you, the Celebration 25 attendees plus 2 Cast Member Ambassadors, and Jim McPhee, Vice President of Epcot.



I will have more reports later after I've recovered from this trip.

Zz.

ZapperZ said:

We got back last night from a very memorable trip, for obvious reasons.

I have to sort out all of my photos, but here's one I bought from the PhotoPass guy who took our group picture after the Epcot's 25th Rededication ceremony. I think this is what he was trying to do, pan over the whole group that was way too big to fit into a single frame of a picture. Since he has done that, I used my photo stitch feature and stitched the photos together. This is what I got. I present to you, the Celebration 25 attendees plus 2 Cast Member Ambassadors, and Jim McPhee, Vice President of Epcot.

I will have more reports later after I've recovered from this trip.

Zz.

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That is so awesome. I envy everyone in that picture and can't wait to read more of your report!

WDWFigment said:

That is so awesome. I envy everyone in that picture and can't wait to read more of your report!

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Thank you, WDWFigment.

I haven't had time to write much yet about the trip, but here's a video that I worked on last night. This is the complete video of HalloWishes that we attended on Oct. 4th as part of Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. As with my video of Illuminations and Wishes, I've replaced the live sound with the actual music.

You can find my other videos online here.

Enjoy!

Zz.

Thank you so much for your HalloWishes video! I was at the first MNSSHP of the season (pretty darn dreary) so I'm really enjoying this video so much more than the show I actually attended!

cymbaldiva said:

Thank you so much for your HalloWishes video! I was at the first MNSSHP of the season (pretty darn dreary) so I'm really enjoying this video so much more than the show I actually attended!

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You're very welcome. Sorry to hear your party didn't turn out well. Luckily, the rain stayed away for our party, but the humidity that evening was unbelievable.

Anyway, stay tuned. The Boo to You parade from MNSSHP is coming up soon.

Zz.

As promised, here is the Boo To You parade during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It was videotaped on Oct. 4, 2007 as well.

Zz.

ZapperZ said:

As promised, here is the Boo To You parade during Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It was videotaped on Oct. 4, 2007 as well.

Zz.

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Thanks for both videos - it makes very excited to be at MNSSHP on the 30th!

Thanks for the video of the Boo to You parade. I had never seen it before. We're going at Christmas this year -- which is typically better, the Christmas parade (I know it's new this year) or the Halloween parade?

Thanks Z!

It's so much better to see these videos when it's not pouring! I still enjoyed the fireworks and parade on the 14th (or Mickey's Really Soggy Halloween Party!) but it's nice to see what it was supposed to look like!

PotteryGal said:

Thanks for both videos - it makes very excited to be at MNSSHP on the 30th!

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You're very welcome. You certainly have many wonderful things to look forward to. Just make sure you get your spot early and don't miss the headless horseman!

WDWFigment said:

Thanks for the video of the Boo to You parade. I had never seen it before. We're going at Christmas this year -- which is typically better, the Christmas parade (I know it's new this year) or the Halloween parade?

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I am not sure. I haven't seen first hand the parade during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, so I can't make any comparison.

nibblesandbits said:

Thanks Z!

It's so much better to see these videos when it's not pouring! I still enjoyed the fireworks and parade on the 14th (or Mickey's Really Soggy Halloween Party!) but it's nice to see what it was supposed to look like!

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Oh, I'm sorry to hear you had a soggy party. I hope the candies didn't get wet.

Anyway, don't miss my video on the Epcot's 25th Anniversary. It is online now. I think after this, I'll start working on the pictures finally.

Zz.

I've made another photo stitch of the group picture. The one that I originally posted had a flaw in it that I wasn't happy with. I have replaced that with a new one that I think is significantly better.

If anyone wants the higher-resolution version of it, please PM me with your e-mail address.

Zz.

ZapperZ said:

Oh, I'm sorry to hear you had a soggy party. I hope the candies didn't get wet.

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Oh, they did! They are all stuck together. :lol: But we're eating them anyway.

MNSSHP Oct. 4th

So this is a late trip report on our last trip to WDW. Since I couldn't do a day-by-day update on the trip, I'll do my report on each of the events that I attended (MNSSHP, Epcot's 25th, Food and Wine Festival, and Misc.). The first one up is the MNSSHP on Oct. 4, 2007.

First of all, we were lucky that the rain held off throughout the evening, considering that it had been raining in the morning. Still, the evening was awfully humid. I remember that the back of my shirt was completely soaked.

The Magic Kingdom was nicely decorated with Halloween theme. The entrance, Main Street, the Hub are well-decorated. However, I was a bit disappointed that other than Toontown, there are no other visible Halloween decorations throughout the park. They added different colored lights all over, but that was about it (other than the blowup Timon and Pumba in Adventure Land). So this first set of pictures are some of the decorations around the theme park.



They have these what appears to be blow-up things that sat on top of various buildings. One of them was Stitch that was sitting next to the entrance to Tomorrowland.





This was one of the "candy stations", I think.




Toontown was well-decorated, including the entrance area.


The zombies were out in force, of course, for the evening.




Of course, the very first ride that we went on was the newly-revamped Haunted Mansion. The exterior was nicely spooked out with the creepy lights.

The have done a tremendous job with the upgrade. I am loving this attraction even more than before. We ended up riding this 4 different times during our visit and we still don't think that we've seen everything. This attraction has become a MUST ride now.

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MNSSHP Oct. 4th [...cont]

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We then rode Pirates of the Caribbean (no lines at all) and then rushed over to Liberty Square to get a good place to watch the Boo To You parade. I took pictures and videos here, but the location and the lighting wasn't good. At the end, we decided to stay around after HalloWishes at watch the parade again at another location. Unlike SpectoMagic, Boo To You parade doesn't have a lot of its own lighting. It requires more external lighting if you want to videotape it properly. So these next set of pictures are from the 2nd Boo To You parade of the evening on the bridge on Main Street right before the Hub.







The video to this parade is also available online if you've read my earlier post in this thread.

We then stayed for HalloWishes. I've seen this captured on video before, but nothing compares to seeing it in person.






Again, I've uploaded the video to this spectacular show and you can find the link in this thread.

We then got on the Winnie the Pooh ride before heading out. We gathered a lot of candies by then already. The next two pictures are the ones we took on our way out.







It was a wonderful evening. The outfit that I wore came across quite well. I had chef's hat and an apron, both with embroidery that said "Kiss the Cook". But then I also had Remy sticking his head out of the pocket on the front of my apron. So when people saw that, they got the Ratatouille connection. I was very glad to finally get to do MNSSHP after wanting to do it for a couple of years now. I think next year, I'll plan on doing the Christmas party next.

Zz.

2007 Food and Wine Festival

As with MNSSHP, this was our first visit to the Food and Wine Festival. After looking around a bit, we got quite a bit familiar with the concept. We live in Chicago, and every summer, there's a 10-day food-gouging event called Tastes of Chicago. While the cultural variety of Tastes doesn't quite approach what was being offered at the F&W festival, there are similarities to the concept.

Anyway, Epcot was nicely decked out for the event, even amidst the 25th Anniversary celebration. We were at Epcot on 3 separate days - Sept. 30th, Oct. 1st, and Oct. 7th., and each day we sampled some of the food being offered.











The state of Oklahoma was being honored with a booth/pavilion/showplace by itself to celebrate its centennial. I didn't get to sample their food offerings, unfortunately.


The pears industry had a representation there, and you get to learn about pears, how to know when they're fully ripened, how to make dishes using them, etc...etc. I attended a couple of short cooking instructions in making pear salads, etc. I only wish they had used an actual chef, rather than an industry representative to do these demo.


I didn't get attend other cooking or food demonstrations. We simply had too much things to do especially with the anniversary activities with Celebration 25.

Now, about the food quality. In general, they were quite good, even though they were a bit lacking in quantity. I know you're not to expect any significant quantity when you pay between $2 to $3.95 for them, but still, some of them are puny. The calamari stew from Mexico had only TWO (count 'em) thin rings of calamari in it! I'm not expecting a bushel, but c'mon! I thought of all the food that I got, the stuffed cabbage from Poland was of a decent and fair size.

There was one disaster of a food. Don't get the samosa from India. The pasty dough was under-fried. It was doughy and limp, and fell apart as soon as you bite into it. It should have been golden brown and crispy. No indian worth his/her heritage would let something like this pass through. I go to a lot of Indian restaurants, and even the cheap ones do not have samosa this bad (in fact, I find that those are the best places to get really good samosa). So that was highly disappointing.

All in all, it was a great experience, especially the sampling of various different wines from many different regions of the world.

Zz.

Epcot 25th Anniversary Eve - Sept. 30th.

Of course, the biggest reason and the biggest event during our trip was Epcot's 25th Anniversary celebration. Our participation with Celebration 25 just made it even more special and something that we have been looking forward to. There have been already many pictures and accounts of the 2 special days for this celebration, so this will be my brief account and pictures of it.

The day started out early with a gorgeous weather on the Sept. 30th. We of course got to Epcot by 8:15 am. to pick up our Celebration 25 packets.





The table for Celebration 25 was already crowded with Epcot enthusiasts. Adam was busy working the crowd and shaking hands with everyone, and deservedly getting thank you's and compliments. He certainly could run for a political office! Jen and Jason were also busy working at the tables.





After the rope drop, we went into Guests Relations to make dinner reservations, and I took these pictures on the wall that I never noticed before.




Our first group event that day was the history tour. John did a tremendous job with this. It was very informative, even when the test track cars kept interrupting him every few seconds. I certainly learned a lot of stuff that I did not know or never appreciated before. The next set of pictures were all taken during the history walk throughout the afternoon.







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