Trip Report Food & Wine with a Long Line, but plenty of Sunshine! (and beer)

Trip reports are great and there's so much to know...
climb aboard explorers, its time to gooooo!

Welcome everyone to my overdue trip report! Apologies again for the delay and for a complete lack of updates and pics while we were actually in WDW, but there was a reason for that. Well, it was actually due to a mistake but we turned it into something new for us in terms of this TR. Allow me to explain. About an hour after we were on the road my wife turns to me and asks, "did you grab the camera bag out of the office"? I paused, then slowly turned my head to look at her as my bottom lip rolled up against my teeth in the manor which you make an 'F' sound. It was like the scene in the movie Christmas Story when Ralphie slowly says, "ffffffffudge". Although I didnt say fudge, well neither did Ralphy actually, but anyway... we realized that we had left our camera back at home. Ugggghhhhhh! There was no way I was turning around since we were already an hour into the trip. We both had our phones and we figured it would have to do.

Then she drops another bomb on me. She reminds that her phone memory is full and she cant take pictures. She had an issue syncing her iphone to her laptop to transfer pics and after a long call with tech support they told her she would have to bring her phone in and they would take care of it. Of course she hadnt brought it in yet which left us with one phone capable of taking pictures for the trip. I recently upgraded to the LG 4 (or whatver its called) and it has a great camera and decent battery. In that moment, my phone became Obi-Wan Kenobi because....it was our only hope! So after a short discussion we decided that the best plan was to take pictures and video and conserve battery whenever we could which would mean not going online to often, especially Instagram, which for some reason is a battery killer for my phone. No Instagram! This was gonna be tough, lol. Then my idea for this TR was born. We wanted to take more videos this trip for Food and Wine and I proposed that we do a mash up of a normal TR mixed in with some videos and reviews. We thought when we returned home we could do a video review of both of us going over the events of the day as well since we wouldnt be able to get everything on film in the event my phone died during the day (which it did, EVERYDAY!)

So thats how this bad boy is gonna roll! We will write a summary of the day with pics and then add our video at the end which will be us at home going over the day. We made the first video last night and had a lot of fun. It took several attempts because Akira and the cats decided to all act up once we started (youll see in the video). But if anybody doesnt like videos or doesnt want to watch, I understand. But if you wanna get to know us a little better, give the vid a try. Hope you guys like it! Im gonna post this part now and then begin day writing day one and post it within the hour. Sorry for no pics in this part, I just wanted to explain what we would be doing. There is plenty of good stuff ahead, dont worry!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Looking forward to reading along! I would be SO UPSET if I left my camera at home. At an hour, I may have gone back!!! LOL.

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 1

Allrighty, lets get going! As I mentioned in my prior reports we always hit the road around 3 or 4 am from Atlanta and head to Orlando. So the day before we left I was running all over town shopping and getting everything I needed. I had to make my last stop in downtown Atlanta and I got home around 10 pm. It was late but I got my bags packed by 11 and wife was still getting ready. She was waiting on some clothes in the dryer and went into the bedroom. I was online still trying to book a room for the following day arrival. The Disney website was sooooooooooooooo annoying. It was showing availability at All Stars and Carribean Beach. EVERY TIME I hit the "checkout" button it would kick me back to the main page. I did this for over an hour trying different variations but nothing would work so I gave up. I decided to lay on the couch for a moment and get some rest since we were hitting the road in a few hours.

Next thing I know, Im waking up in a panic as I realize I fell asleep without setting my alarm! I grab my phone and I see the time is........7 am!!!!!! Noooooo! My wife had fallen asleep also and was just getting up. We were upset but figured it was ok because I really needed some rest anyway. Oh well, she started loading up the car and I tried getting back on the Dis site to book a room. Same thing. I would try and checkout and would kick me back to main screen. I called the 800 number and got a less than magical CM. I told him I had the Carribean room in my cart on the website but couldnt checkout. He explained the website was showing "false availability" and the only room he could book was a room at Carribean Beach resort? I told him thats EXACTLY what I had in my cart on the website. Difference was that the room on the website was showing $180 (or something close to that) with AP discount, but he said he could only book it rack rate and it was $320????? I told him that seemed high for rack rate but he explained it was some upgraded room. I declined and got on priceline and booked our back up option which was Caribe Royal. I got it for under $120, checked the confirmation email, loaded up the big suitcases and we hit the road! The rental I got from my deer incident was a 2015 Jeep Trailhawk Edition. It was pretty sweet and fully loaded so we were glad we had a nice car for the trip!

Our chariot was packed up, the sun was shining, and I was hoping rush hour would not too bad. We hit traffic going through the city but that was it. Wife snapped a few pics of the ATL skyline

So this was about 30 minutes into the trip and shortly after is when she asked me about the camera (the one we left at home). So we chugged along down the highway on a mostly uneventful journey towards Fla. We stopped for a restroom break in Kings Frog at Adel. My mom used to always stop here when we were kids and it was a bustling area. I hadnt stopped at this exit in awhile, and it was pretty run down. Seemed like they are starting to re-develop it though.

Got back on the road and made one other stop for gas and that was it. We arrived in O-town around 3:30 and there was a little traffic but we made it to the resort with no problems. We forgot to grab a shot of the resort as we puled up but here is a stock image

It was in a great location. Around the corner from DTD and you can take a right out of the resort and your about a mile or two from Disney property. Very nice and clean looking resort. Check in was quick and easy and we headed up to our room in tower 3. We talk more about the resort in the video and give our comparison between it and the Wyndham Bonnet Creek where we stayed last trip for anybody interested in the resort review. Very big rooms and nice furniture. Here are some pics

It had a small room before you get to the actual room. It had a desk with phone and a pullout sofa and TV. Great for a family with kids.

A shot of the entry room pullout sofa.

So we cleaned up and wanted to get to Epcot. We were need of some booze! So about 20 minutes later we hopped in the car and headed out. Within a few minutes, we were heading under the arch! Driving to the parks in our car is something we had never done. We stayed at Wndham Bonnet for a day last year but drove to DTD which was a first for us as well (driving there).

Finally! It felt official! A few minutes later we were at Epcot. We parked and headed toward the big golf ball.

If your wondering what the second pic of me standing in a random spot is all about, let me explain. On our last trip we took several photos doing my moms "verklempt" pose. So this trip, we decided to pick on my sister. Whenever she is in Disney she sends the worst pics. Its usually her kids standing in a spot that you cant even tell theyre at Disney. Like in front of a brick wall or in a dark area or nothing in the background but a plant. So I decided this was a good spot to send a pic to the family, which they all immediately recognized what I was doing.

So we made fun of my sister then entered the park. We made a b-line towards World Showcase. We stopped to check out the cranberry bog and got a quick picture

It felt great outside with a nice breeze and the aromas from F&W were calling us. Up next will be our first stop for Food and Wine and our first drinks of the trip! Ill continue day one in a little bit!

 

[pirategal]

Following along! Sorry your trip is over, but so excited to hear about it!

 

[Mickey2422]

Following along...can't wait for Food and Wine pics and report! We are heading out in less than two weeks

 

[ScarletBegonias]

hahaha, the thing about your sister is hilarious. I actually was wondering what the heck you were standing in front of!

 

[CtDisneyGuy33]

Damn- looks like the guy in Maroon got you guys with a photobomb...

 

[wdisney9000]

Day 1...contd

So after our photo by the bog we headed to World Showcase to start some Food and Wine action! As we had walked through Future World the crowd level was low and we figured we could knock out at least 5 or 6 booths by nights end. So the first one we came across was the Farm Fresh booth which was right at the intersection of FW and WS. There was only a few people in line and we hoped in. We ordered the loaded mac n cheese. We both agree that it was our favorite item of all the Food and Wine booths we visited.

We LOVED it. So much so that we have already made a homemade version of it since we got home. I think we did a decent job. It was almost as good as the one we had at Epcot. Heres the comparison photo with a little SB action of Sierra Neveda White IPA!

Moving along... after we devoured the mac n cheese we decided to make our way to La Cava de Tequila and hit a booth or two on the way. This is when reality decided it was time to punch us in the face. Remember the low crowd levels I mentioned in Future World? Well, as we rounded the corner from the Farm Fresh booth we could see nothing but mobs of people. From a distance we figured it was just people crowding around the Mexico pavilion but as we got closer to the booths it was ridiculous. The lines were insanely long for ALL of the booths. I couldnt even get a photo of it all because the foot traffic was so heavy there was literally nowhere to stop for a moment. It did not take for long for us to decide that we would just go to La Cava and skip the booths in this area for now.

As we entered the pavilion we saw that La Cava was mobbed as well. It was a friday night but much busier than we have ever seen in October. We decided to get in line so she could get her cucumber margarita and I could get a beer.

With a drink finally in our hands we felt a bit more energized! We made our way outside and stopped by Norway to get off the crowded path for a moment. For some reason the entrance to Maelstrom was locked? I tried as best I could but they wouldnt let me in.

She always loves getting a picture on front of the waterfall so here it is

Next stop was Germany. She wanted some Nudel Gratin, of course, lol, and I was ready for a beer flight! Every booth we passed was just packed with people. There was no point in stopping to try anything as it would have just taken too long and we had plenty of time to come back on a slower day. I got a little lucky at Germany and the booth for the beer was separate from the food booth. It was about a ten minute wait, but worth it. Since the nudel gratin is served at a non F&W stand she was able to get in and out fairly quickly.

As always the nudel gratin was great. She gulped it down and ate the liquor soaked cucumbers from her drink as dessert as I enjoyed my beer flight.

In our video review we give a comparison between the nudel gratin and the loaded mac n cheese at Farm Fresh booth

We had a FP+ for Soarin so the plan was to make our way towards The Land eventually. We stopped at America Pavilion and Sugar Ray was about to go onstage so we stopped to catch some of the show. A CM took our picture with SSE in the background and we just stayed by the rail by the theater to watch the show and they didnt say anything. It was pretty good area to watch the show.

The show was actually very good and we stayed for a few songs. We give a bit more info in our daily video review that will be the end of day one.

We continued on the WS showcase path and it only got more crowded as the night went on. On a funny note, I overheard a woman who was talking to her family while looking at her phone and she says "oh look, they have a Test Track here too"! I was curious where else on earth she had seen another Test Track? Maybe they toured an auto manufacturing facility? Oh well, the things you hear people say at Disney are always a hoot! We passed everything and hit the Canadian stand and grabbed 2 labbat blues and walked around the waterfall area behind Canada pavilion. As crowded as the park was, it was very peaceful back there.

We had time to spare before Soarin so we just enjoyed some quiet time and listened to the water. Then some drunk dude up above by the shops yells down at us and says "Is that beer for sale"? I could only assume he was referring to the beer in my hand. I enjoy hearing funny comments people make at Disney, but some rando drunk guy asking me the most ridiculous question was just annoying. I just shouted back up "theres plenty up there where your at" and we kept walking.

After Canada we hit Nemo and then made our way to Soarin. Ive hit the limit for photo uploads for a post but we only had a picture of me in front of The Land sign and that was it for the night. I will post our daily video review in a little while after I upload it to youtube and we discuss our trip back to the room and the events after we left Epcot as well as the entire day in review.

We have a lot of videos of us doing Food and Wine reviews at Epcot and of course our Monorail Crawl which will be coming up in day two! For day one review we just recorded ourselves last night at home going over the daily events since I didnt take any videos in the park on day one. The rest of the trip has plenty of live action videos in the park that we will mix in with our daily video review. The day one review wound up being around 15 minutes and Im just too tired to edit it down but we will make the rest of them a bit shorter or break them up into smaller videos. We had fun making the video and discussing the day together so as I said before, if you want to get a better idea of us as a couple and what we sound like or how we act, it should be a nice watch! Maybe Im weird but I always try and imagine what people sound like or how they interact with each other while Im reading a trip report so thats another reason we thought people may enjoy it. Thanks everybody for reading and following along!

 

[wdisney9000]

Damn- looks like the guy in Maroon got you guys with a photobomb...

Ya, I noticed that, lol. We asked they guy taking our picture to get the bog in the background but he went with maroon shirt guy instead, haha

 

[wdisney9000]

Following along! Sorry your trip is over, but so excited to hear about it!

Ya, its always sad but we are already planning future trips to help ease the pain. Thx for following along!

Following along...can't wait for Food and Wine pics and report! We are heading out in less than two weeks

Thx! Hopefully some of our food and wine experience can be of use to you. We made some fun videos of food and wine that we will eventually get to as well. Very excited for you guys!

hahaha, the thing about your sister is hilarious. I actually was wondering what the heck you were standing in front of!

I had to pick on my sis a little bit. She does it every trip no matter how hard we rail on her to stop it.

 

[fractal]

Love the "can't tell its Disney" Disney pic.

 

[MinnieM123]

Your opening post had me in stitches. Well, OF COURSE, you forgot the camera! Also, I thought it was so funny that neither one of you set the alarm on your departure day, so you both overslept! You know, all this is because you're both working so hard; you needed to get the pets to the relatives to watch while you were gone; and, you had that recent mishap with the deer and your own car, and now you had to find a rental quickly--so, details like cameras, alarm clocks, etc., just get lost in the fray. Basically, I think you two are very organized and always manage to plan nice vacations.

I like the pictures of the Caribe Royale--it looks spacious and clean--certainly more than adequate for just one night. I can't believe what a mess the Disney hotel reservation system is--I mean, "false availability"?? Good grief, Charlie Brown!!

Glad you made it to WDW despite all the various setbacks. That loaded mac n' cheese looked scrumptious!!

Question: your post about some videos, etc. -- there was a lot of white blank space under that. Is that where you're going to insert a video, or was all that space just an oversight? I'm only asking because I wanted to be sure that if there was a video, I wouldn't want to miss it!

 

[wdisney9000]

Your opening post had me in stitches. Well, OF COURSE, you forgot the camera! Also, I thought it was so funny that neither one of you set the alarm on your departure day, so you both overslept! You know, all this is because you're both working so hard; you needed to get the pets to the relatives to watch while you were gone; and, you had that recent mishap with the deer and your own car, and now you had to find a rental quickly--so, details like cameras, alarm clocks, etc., just get lost in the fray. Basically, I think you two are very organized and always manage to plan nice vacations.

I like the pictures of the Caribe Royale--it looks spacious and clean--certainly more than adequate for just one night. I can't believe what a mess the Disney hotel reservation system is--I mean, "false availability"?? Good grief, Charlie Brown!!

Glad you made it to WDW despite all the various setbacks. That loaded mac n' cheese looked scrumptious!!

Question: your post about some videos, etc. -- there was a lot of white blank space under that. Is that where you're going to insert a video, or was all that space just an oversight? I'm only asking because I wanted to be sure that if there was a video, I wouldn't want to miss it!

Ya, lots of crazy last minute stuff definitely had us a bit tired the days leading up to the trip. But when Disney is the payoff for all the hard work, its worth it, lol!

That white space was just a mishap. The video is uploading now and should be done soon. Ill post it in a few!

 

[wdisney9000]

Heres our video review of day 1. We go over the whole day from start to finish since I didnt make any videos that day. We will make the next few much shorter at around 3-5 minutes and they will have live footage from in the parks as well! I was just too tired to edit this for day one and I wanted to get it posted and we had recorded it all at once anyway. Its our first time trying a trip report this way so I hope you enjoy and we will improve as we go along. Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions or tell us if you liked it or hated it and never wanna see our faces again! That may make me cry a little on the inside but I prefer honesty, lol. Thanks for watching!

 

[bee]

KITTTYYYYYY

ETA: The cat wasn't the only thing I noticed, I promise! I like the combination of text, photos, and video you're using for the report! I too love that Nudel gratin and may quite possibly eat myself into a stomachache given the chance. I'm glad you (and others who have done F&W) mentioned the crowds because I'll be there this weekend and am now mentally preparing myself. Thanks for the unique TR presentation and looking forward to Day 2!

 

[pirategal]

Fun video recap! And I appreciate the hotel insight. I hope my family has many WDW trips in our future, so it's great to hear about the hotels around property!
Thank you both for taking the time to make this trip report. I need to go make bacon topped Mac and cheese now......

 

[MinnieM123]

Your TR is very good for people contemplating a visit during F&W. I was intrigued by your wife's comment regarding F&W back around 2009; she said it was so pleasant and uncrowded. It just seems like everything now is crowded. I've gone to the Flower & Garden Festival every May for a number of years and found the earlier years more pleasant. Even F&G is now starting to get crowded (not as much as F&W though).

Both (yours and your wife's) comments about the Caribe Royale were helpful as well. (I hate thin walls and noise from other guests, so I'm not sure I'd stay there more than perhaps, one night only.)

The loaded mac n'cheese should be an item they add on a permanent basis to one of their restaurants, since it was such a big hit. If they added it to one of the QS in any of the parks, I'll bet it would be a best seller.

Looking forward to your upcoming TR videos. You two are great co-hosts, by the way! (As you indicated, shorter videos are upcoming, and that may be better for some people who might not have a lot of time for viewing.) P.S.: I hope that Akira will make a "guest appearance" in one or more of the videos, too!

 

[DRD]

Following, and enjoying the posts. Our F&W experience was significantly less crowded but that is because we went on a Thursday versus a Friday. I was impressed with the number of "locals" or at least Central Floridians who were there for it.

Hate we missed that mac & cheese. That looks delicious.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I wish I could watch the video, but can't at work! I will try to catch it at home! I think it's a cool way to recap!

 

[wdisney9000]

Your TR is very good for people contemplating a visit during F&W. I was intrigued by your wife's comment regarding F&W back around 2009; she said it was so pleasant and uncrowded. It just seems like everything now is crowded. I've gone to the Flower & Garden Festival every May for a number of years and found the earlier years more pleasant. Even F&G is now starting to get crowded (not as much as F&W though).

Both (yours and your wife's) comments about the Caribe Royale were helpful as well. (I hate thin walls and noise from other guests, so I'm not sure I'd stay there more than perhaps, one night only.)

The loaded mac n'cheese should be an item they add on a permanent basis to one of their restaurants, since it was such a big hit. If they added it to one of the QS in any of the parks, I'll bet it would be a best seller.

Looking forward to your upcoming TR videos. You two are great co-hosts, by the way! (As you indicated, shorter videos are upcoming, and that may be better for some people who might not have a lot of time for viewing.) P.S.: I hope that Akira will make a "guest appearance" in one or more of the videos, too!

Ya, its just getting crowded year round. Time for a 5th gate! haha. Agreed they should sell the loaded mac n cheese year round. The recipe we made was fairly easy and almost as good. We will perfect it eventually!

The next round of videos will be much shorter and I will space them out through the the daily recaps. I dont blame people for not wanting to watch a 16 minute video as I cant stand it when a friend hands me their phone and says "watch this" and I see its an 8 minute video. I kinda broke my own rule there, but as I said, I just wanted to post it and get to day 2 of the trip which is when things really get rolling!

That video was actually take number 3. The first one was interupted by Akira tugging on my leg about one minute into it and I was being pulled out of my chair. Perhaps Ill post a quick "bloopers" style video and the second take was interupted by Ruxin walking in front of the camera and then Brolly barking. Dont worry though, I have a feeling you may see Akira in the next video