Trip Report * Completed* The Food and Wine Christmas Time Last Minute Trip

Hey everyone!
We have been back for almost two weeks so its time to finally start my TR!
We had a great time, but the trip went by too fast

Who?
My Mom (Mary) and I (Megan). This is our second trip together with just the two of us...we traveled to Disneyland together in August.

When?
November 14th - November 21st

Where?
Art of Animation Lion King Suite. It was OK, I'm sure if we had kids with us we would have felt differently but it wasn't our cup of tea. I only booked it because I booked this trip semi-last minute and its the only hotel they had available

Why?
I was throwing around the idea of going to Disney by myself during my vacation and when I heard the Osborne Lights were going away I knew I had to go! My Dad and I convinced my mom to go with me and she agreed so off we went !

Day One Saturday November 14th
I surprisingly slept decently well which I never do before a trip but my clinic shift the day before was pretty brutal so I was tired I guess. By sleeping decently I mean I slept like six hours instead of three haha
I always look super great on trip mornings ...

Our flight was leaving at 7:50 so we got to sleep in a bit and not leave for the airport until 6ish. My Dad laughed at us for having four suitcases total and wished us luck to navigate with those Luckily for us the Southwest Counter is close and we didn't have too much of a struggle.

Check in was painless and we were on our way! No TSA pre-check this time though
We stopped at our usual spot to get some breakfast (bagels...so exciting!)

Off to Florida we go!

We put our Magic Bands on almost right away on the flight!

We killed time on the flight by watching the Lion King (seemed appropriate since we were staying in that suite). My mom had never seen the full movie so she enjoyed it (but made me fast forward through Mufasa's death). We arrived in Florida like 30 minutes early but our gate was broken so we taxied for a bit. I spied sunshine which we barely ever see here in Buffalo past September so I was pleased

We headed straight to the Magical Express...oh wait...no we didn't first we had to take pictures haha

When we stopped to take this picture we inadvertently caused a small child to have a fit because he wanted to stop and take a picture too and his mom said no...oops!
First ride!

When we got down to DME the lines were insane! Hence my face! I seriously have never seen it so crowded before!

Nevertheless despite all my whining we really didn't wait more than 20 minutes.
Sadly we got a yellow Mears bus

First thing's first its selfie time!

On our way to Disney I was so distracted by this plane that was at a standstill in the sky...probably waiting to land

Soon enough we were on Disney property! Yay!
Worst picture ever...

I got this text on the way...gee thanks for telling me the room is NOT ready haha

Art of Animation was the first stop! Yay we were at our Disney home for the week!

Ah time to rush off to work...next post Food and Wine !

 

[Mindy16]

Woo! Sounds like fun so far! I think it's great that you and your mom take these trips, it's something my mom and I would love to do since we always do Disney with the whole family. We're planning on next year!

 

[samantha788]

Can't wait to read it all! I'm working on my report too, we left just a couple days before you got there!

 

[catmom46]

Yay, new TR from my favorite Disney Doc! Hopefully that pesky work stuff won't keep you from writing more soon.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Soooo jealous you got to see the lights one last time!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Beckett]

Great trip report! I hope my daughter and I get to do Mom+Daughter trips when she is an adult too. We do them now that she is 9 and I hope she never stops loving them! The memories that are made are my favorite treasure

 

[LisaBelle]

Yay! So excited you started your report. Too bad you got a yellow Mears bus! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Good trip report so far. We were there during the same time period, or at least part of it.

 

[Doc Disney]

Woo! Sounds like fun so far! I think it's great that you and your mom take these trips, it's something my mom and I would love to do since we always do Disney with the whole family. We're planning on next year!

We really enjoyed these last two trips together but we do miss our family on the trips too haha. We are going as a whole family (or at least most of it) in May and we are looking forward to that

Can't wait to read it all! I'm working on my report too, we left just a couple days before you got there!

I will have to check yours out! I feel like I've been delinquent on the forums lately because of work haha

Yay, new TR from my favorite Disney Doc! Hopefully that pesky work stuff won't keep you from writing more soon.

Thanks for following I will post more soon its more tech issues that are stopping me right now

 

[Doc Disney]

Soooo jealous you got to see the lights one last time!! Can't wait to read more!

It was so sad seeing them for the last time I wish I could go back once more. I have videos but it isn't the same

Great trip report! I hope my daughter and I get to do Mom+Daughter trips when she is an adult too. We do them now that she is 9 and I hope she never stops loving them! The memories that are made are my favorite treasure

We really enjoyed our two trips together! Its nice that you do them with your daughter now...I bet they will keep up! They are even more fun as an adult I think with going to different dinners and such!

Yay! So excited you started your report. Too bad you got a yellow Mears bus! Looking forward to reading more!

Yellow Mears was so sad haha No one else getting on the bus seemed to mind like I did. How is the training going?

Good trip report so far. We were there during the same time period, or at least part of it.

Thanks for following! Hope you had a great trip!

 

[Doc Disney]

Sorry for the delay everyone! I seem to be missing some pictures on my computer so I am trying to figure out where they uploaded to so thats whats taking me some time! I have to look at my memory card and figure it out but its at my parents house so I haven't had a chance to grab it yet. Anyway off to the Bills game...go Bills! (I think....I don't know why I torture myself haha)

 

[Longers]

Yay another TR. I looked out for you but didn't see you anywhere! Would have been good to meet you both as I have nicknamed you M&M's (Megan & Mary - lol) I don't think our paths crossed but I will be following along to see.
Hope you enjoyed the game

 

[LizC]

Looking forward to the rest. I loved your Disneyland report! Not sure if I ever commented though.

 

[Doc Disney]

Yay another TR. I looked out for you but didn't see you anywhere! Would have been good to meet you both as I have nicknamed you M&M's (Megan & Mary - lol) I don't think our paths crossed but I will be following along to see.
Hope you enjoyed the game

I was so sad I didn't see you guys! I showed my mom your picture and we were both on the lookout! I love the nickname haha

Looking forward to the rest. I loved your Disneyland report! Not sure if I ever commented though.

Thanks for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed my DL one

 

[Doc Disney]

Ok so I finally found my pictures and finally got the photopass website to work so I am slowly getting my act together here haha

Day One continued:
We already knew that our room wasn't ready so we popped in the front desk line just to change credit cards on our Magic Bands. We chatted with a nice CM while we were waiting about Dooney and Bourke purses vs Vera Bradley Disney purses and soon enough our own credit cards were linked to our Magic Banks. We quickly changed in the bathroom to warm weather clothes and dropped our carry on bags off at luggage services (I can't think of the actual name). As we were walking through the lobby we noticed that there were characters out (the Genie and Mickey)! It reminded me of DL as characters were always walking around the hotel.
The bus stops are right outside the lobby so we hopped in line for Epcot and met a nice family who took our picture for us.

It was so nice out!!!
The bus ride over was quick and soon enough we saw a pleasant site!

Food and Wine decor

There was a pretty long line for Photo Pass so we skipped for now and took our own pictures

We headed straight back to the Food and Wine booths and found a PhotoPass photographer

On the plane we looked at the menus from Food and Wine (I printed it before we left) and picked out a few things we wanted to try this day for lunch.
Our first stop was the Farm Fresh stand. It was only like a 7 minute wait. In line I realized I never got a passport and was pretty sad. Turns out it was OK because they were out of passports anyway haha
When we were in line the family in front of us had a son who dropped his pacifier on the ground and I picked it up for them but the baby started to put it in his mouth before I stopped them and told them it was on the ground. They had no idea! haha
We both got the Loaded mac n’ cheese (with bacon, cheddar cheese, peppers and green onions)

It was very good!!! We were very pleased with our first choice. We found a nice spot to sit on a bench in the shade and took some time to soak it all in. It was crowded but definitely not as crowded as I thought it was going to be. Granted it was like 12:30 pm but still not bad.
Nothing quite compares to the time we were in Epcot on New Years Eve....now THAT was crowded
We made our way towards Mexico after this and stopped inside so we could go on the Gran Fiesta Tour. I missed this ride last trip so I was itching to go on it haha

Probably to the dismay of the other people on the boat I sang along with the music. I was just so happy to be back in the World!

After this we made our way around World Showcase taking in the sights and stopped in Africa to grab some more food. We both went for the Buttered chicken (with micro cilantro and naan bread).

It was delicious! We didn't finish it because we wanted to make sure we saved room for dinner later but I wish I had finished it (especially since I was starving like an hour and a half before we ate haha). We yet again had no trouble finding a place to sit and eat. After this we wanted to grab a drink before heading over to Future World for our Fast Passes. We both had our sites set on a Frozen Strawberry-Lemon Sunset so we headed to America

These were delicious! They had Grey Goose Vodka in them

'

We took our time sipping our drinks and heading to Future World.

We kept saying this whole day we were so out of it almost and we had a hard time believing we were actually in Disney! Maybe because this trip was a bonus trip for us and we booked it pretty last minute, but I am not sure. It seems it always takes me a few days to really believe that I am back in my happy place!

Next up Future World

 

[Doc Disney]

Day One Continued

Oh I forgot! After our Farm Fresh food we ran into Daisy! I was sad Duffy was replaced, but Daisy is pretty cool.

Our first Fast Pass was for Turtle Talk with Crush so we headed to the Seas
Nemo had a short wait so we hopped in line

I got the red card!

The wait was listed at 10 minutes but there was seriously no one in line...it just takes ten minutes to walk through the queue haha
After singing along through this ride too we went to Turtle Talk.
An eel!!

I'm sot sure why I always waste a Fast Pass on this but I suppose their aren't many options in Epcot. We did, however, have a really great show! The kids asked some great questions (Like how turtles survive tidal waves).
We explored the aquarium after this

Manatees!

We happened upon a dolphin show upstairs which was pretty neat

We had a Fast Pass for the character spot after this so headed over to meet some of the gang!

We had a little bit of time to kill before our next Fast Pass so hit up Living with the Land! My mom really doesn't like this ride but she suffered through haha

We had a flight scheduled (er I mean Fast Pass) after this so headed over to Soarin'
We actually had to wait quite a bit of time in line but thats OK!

On Soarin' we sat next to two older woman who were riding for the first time. They were loving every minute of it and kept saying stuff to my mom and I about the ride! I always love riding with first timers. I am not a huge fan of Soarin' but riding it with new people made it pretty exciting again! Plus the scents were working really well this time which was nice. We slowly made our way out of the park to head over to the Contemporary.

Next up quick trip to the MK!

 

[catmom46]

Aww, it looks like the manatees were hugging! At least I hope that's what they were doing.

 

[Doc Disney]

Aww, it looks like the manatees were hugging! At least I hope that's what they were doing.

haha when I took that picture I was thinking about it too but I asked the CM and he said the one has a bad tail and sometimes hooks on for a ride haha

 

[Doc Disney]

Day One Continued:
Since we considered this a bonus trip we made sure we did things we never did before instead of feeling the need to rush around and do all the usuals. That being said neither one of us recalls taking the monorail to the TTC from Epcot so we hopped on! Its a nice ride! A long monorail ride without a million (slight exaggeration) stops haha

We had quite a bit of time to kill before our dinner reservation so when we got to the TTC we debated about how to get to the MK side and ended up deciding on the ferry which we never took before! Another first!
While we waited we looked around and took in the sights from a new perspective

Polynesian bungalows!

Soon enough the ferry came and we hopped on. It was a tad windy out so it was chilly but we enjoyed the ride nonetheless.
Our final destination was the Contemporary but we were feeling weird about not being in the MK yet (we always go on the first day) so decided to pop in real quick!
We also looked around at all the pretty decorations outside the MK

trying to take a selfie with a tree was proving to be difficult haha

When I say we went in for a quick trip I wasn't kidding. All I remember distinctly doing is longing for popcorn because it smelled so good and I was so hungry haha. We took in the sights and the big tree on Main Street and then we left. For some reason we actually didn't even make it to the rest of Main Street to see the castle

After popping in we took the monorail to the Contemporary
We ran into the gingerbread house almost right away

It was so cute! We STILL had a lot of time so we walked around and ended up outside to take a few pictures

I am going to split this post because I have too many pictures

 

[Doc Disney]

My mom loves getting a picture here so we made our way down.
In case you are wondering why its only half its because some kids were on the other side and wouldn't get off even though we waited for like 10 minutes...oh well

Well, I guess I overshot how long it would take us to travel between places so we STILL had time to kill but decided to just check in for dinner and grab a drink at the bar. Our dining place was the California Grill...our first night tradition! We ended up checking in almost 60 minutes early which they said was totally fine. When we were in DL they wouldn't let you check in more than 15 minutes early. I told the CM on the elevator about that and she was shocked to hear. In WDW they always let you check in early especially if you say you wanted to have a drink. Anyway they did ask us if a table was ready earlier if we would take it and we said yes. So, we sat down at the bar and opened our menus and the pager went off haha they look us literally 50 minutes early but we were pleased (especially since we were starving)
Our server was Roberto and he was great!

We started with some cocktails. My mom got the Monte Ray

I got the Captains Mai Tai
We both had these drinks before so we knew we would enjoy them

Actually if I remember correctly we got our appetizer before the drinks came haha
Bread Service

For an appetizer we ordered the Sonoma Goat Cheese Ravioli. We definitely were a little surprised when we saw it was just one ravioli but it was amazing anyway haha. I mean it is an appetizer so I am not sure why I expected anything different haha

For dinner my mom ordered the Bell and Evans chicken

I ordered the Oak Fired Filet of Beef

We order the same things every time but they do change it up a little bit with sides and such so we don't feel bad about not trying new things. As usual we really enjoyed this meal!!
I asked Roberto if we could go outside quickly to look at the castle and he said of course
These pictures are awful but it was so hard to get a good picture

Attempt number 10 (literally) for a selfie with the castle in the background

Anyway, we went back inside and decided we weren't too keen on anything on the dessert menu so we decided to leave and grab something downstairs.
The CMs offered to take our picture as we were leaving.

Dessert!
My mom had a pecan cluster and I had a peanut butter cup. We got them from one of the gift shops

We did plan on staying for Wishes or at least going to the MK to see it but it was like 7:30 and there was no way we were going to make it until 10pm so we headed back to the MK *via a VERY crowded monorail* to catch the bus back to our hotel. When I saw how crowded the monorails and lines at the hotels could get it made me wonder if its even worth staying at a MK monorail resort, but thats just a side note.
It took forever for the bus to come but when we made it back we were happy to be in our room and happy to see that our luggage and carryons made it safely. We were in building 10 room 814 The room was huge for just the two of us haha. My mom slept in the actual bed and I slept on the pull out couch. We did note the lack of blankets but I found a few tucked away.
I went to take a shower and noticed that they only had a shampoo-conditioner combo. In the moderate and deluxe hotels they have separate shampoo and conditioner so I was surprised to see this. My mom and I literally pack so much stuff but this trip we decided not to pack shampoo and conditioner and just use the hotel ones. Of course its the time they have the combo haha Oh well, my long hair suffered a bit and I almost considered buying shampoo and conditioner in the gift shop but I sucked it up and dealt with it First world pains I suppose!
We were off to bed pretty early and ready for our first full day

Next up: Food and Wine and Epcot Adventures