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 !

 

[Doc Disney]

More empty MK pictures...

These new side things are cool

 

[Doc Disney]

.....and more:

Then we tried to take the sword out of the stone...

AND MY MOM GOT IT!!!!

She was so confused...she thought she broke it...hahaha

 

[Doc Disney]

More pictures...sorry...I definitely went crazy but its not often you get an empty MK to photograph

I'm sad that this turned out blurry...

Finally it was time for our breakfast at the Crystal Palace!

I always enjoy the food here...I even tried the French Toast for the first time and it was super good (I'm sad to say I have never eaten French toast before in my life...whats wrong with me?)

This time Tigger was in the middle of the restaurant and the rest of the characters walked around. Honestly it was pretty slow, we waited for quite a bit of time to see Pooh (like almost an hour). Pooh is my moms favorite..otherwise we would have left.

I'm ashamed to say this is the only character picture I have from breakfast My mom must have taken the rest and seeing as how I can not deal with snapfish right now I probably can't figure out how to get them on my commuter haha
Anyway, the food was good at CP but we still both prefer 1900 Park Fare in terms of both speed and food. It was very nice to get into the MK early though

 

[Doc Disney]

When we got out of breakfast we headed over to see what the wait was like for Astro Orbiter but it was already long we we hiked our butts over to Thunder Mountain.

I wanted to make sure we got on this ride again because it will be closed for refurb next time we are there!
After this we went all the way back to Tomorrowland and went on Space Mountain
LOL my mom didn't get the picture concept memo I guess

We took a spin on the Peoplemover again....because why not!
When I first made Fast Passes for this trip I made one for the Festival of Fantasy Parade but it almost immediately got canceled so I ended up getting a free one which we elected to use for a Princess M and G

We had a lovely meeting with the Princesses! They are always so nice and have such funny things to say
After this we took a spin on the Carousel and enjoyed the Sword and the Stone show..where a young girl got the sword that all the guys couldn't get out. It was pretty funny because the one guy was so embarrassed that he didn't stay to watch the rest of the show and they kept calling him out on it as he walked away haha
Well...it was sadly time to say goodbye to the MK....but wait! Something magical happened instead! We looked up and the train was running!! It had been shut down for quite a bit of time and it was scheduled to open this day but we hadn't seen or heard it all day! We felt so lucky so we rushed up to take one last trip around the World before leaving

These lights on the train are cute...I never noticed them before!

Well we took one loop around and sadly it really was time to say goodbye to the MK
Mad face...

Next up: finishing our last day off at Epcot

 

[Doc Disney]

LAST DAY CONTINUED

After saying goodbye to MK we hopped on the monorail and transferred to the Epcot monorail. On our quick trip on the express monorail (another first for us! We always took the resort monorail!) we saw a wedding outside. A little girl was on the car with us and she said she wanted to get married at Disney...me too kiddo, me too!

I also want to get the carriage, but I'm sure this costs a ton haha
Anyway soon enough we were in Epcot!

We decided to just walk around and look at some of the countries. This is definitely something I have appreciated more and more the older I get

We ran into a super cool band in Morocco and listened to them for a bit. I think this band is no longer which is sad because they were pretty good!
I only have a picture of their Christmas decorations...haha

Continuing around the World..

The train was actually off the track so some guy climbed over the fence picked it up and fixed it

We were pretty hungry at this point so decided to walk over to Via Napoli to see if they were taking any walk ups for lunch since we had done this in the past. We were behind a woman who asked the same thing and they said no but offered her a few different reservation times for an hour or two later. When I asked about walk ups she said no and that was that. No reservation for me I guess! Haha oh well!
We walked back to Mexico and decided to eat at La Cantina
We both ordered the empanadas con queso kids meal. We always get nervous buying kids meals as if they are going to call us out on it so we always act so awkwardly and say things like "did he say he wants the water?" as if referring to a kid that asked for this food haha. I'm sure they really don't care at the counter service restaurants

This comes with 2 empanadas, nachos and cheese, grapes and a drink (we got waters). We also ordered some pop to drink with it. It really is crazy just how much food comes with the kids meal. They were really good! Especially with the salsa that they have in little containers. Yum

 

[Doc Disney]

Oh wait! Just kidding I do have pictures of the Morocco band

Some more Mexico pictures:

After eating we decided to take a friendship boat to Germany area to get some caramel. While waiting we were behind a nice older couple who was talking about letting their 21 year old move back in should she need to. I had to laugh at this because I lived with my parents my last two years of medical school...at the age of 23 and 24 haha.

When we got to Germany the caramel line was insane again so we decided to just move on. We ended up in France so I could try a crepe (another first for me!)
I got a Strawberry Preserve Crepe
Ironically I couldn't find a place to eat it which is funny because we had no trouble finding seating during the Food and Wine Festival. I ended up eating it on a curb in the U.K. while we listened to the Beatles band

I wouldn't say 100% this was my favorite snack but I did enjoy it and would probably try it again!
P.S. in case anyone is wondering I got that headband in a shop at Hollywood Studios. I'm pretty sure its for small children but it fit my head so whatever haha
My mom wanted a Mickey bar so we headed toward future world and sat outside The Land pavilion enjoying our last few moments in Disney. We also got to watch a squirrel dig through the nice gardens they had planted haha
We took one last spin on Spaceship Earth on our way out and sadly headed back to the hotel...

 

[Doc Disney]

Oddly enough on the bus ride home we heard them playing Harry Potter music. This is not the first time I have ever heard that either. Anyway, back at the hotel we decided to walk around and say goodbye. It was starting to get pretty gross out at this point

 

[Doc Disney]

More pictures...

While we were waiting for DME a lot of people seemed to be waiting with us, with a lot of luggage. When the bus pulled up it was already packed! The driver said he could only take a few people but luckily we were a small party so we were able to get on.
All aboard the Tragical Express (good thing we had another trip planned for after this one..otherwise it would have been even more tragical)

Its interesting they only drop you off at the one terminal now, I was nervous about it, but it really doesn't matter since its not a huge airport. We had TSA pre-check this time! But, when we went to turn our tickets in they were invalid
I had a mild panic attack about this but thought back to the morning and realized we were using the tickets the luggage place printed for us BUT we also had tickets on our door that morning so those were the ones we had to use. Just FYI in case that happens to anyone else...its the first printed tickets that will work.
Well, we were kind of hungry at this point but the whole Southwest terminal was getting redone so there was only one restaurant on each side to eat at (same restaurant on both sides)....which was packed. We ended up waiting in line to sit and luckily we were able to sit after only about 15 minutes. I must have been crabby because I don't have pictures but we both got baked potatoes and a glass on wine. All was well until we heard an announcement saying a lot of flights could not land because of the thunder storm outside....one of the flights was ours. A ton of planes had to go to the Daytona airport to land, refuel and come back. Of course ours was the last one in line so they anticipated at least a two hour delay meaning we wouldn't leave Florida until 11 pm. Oh well, we played some UNO, were entertained by a guy unsucessfully trying to flirt with a bunch of girls while on one of the hover board things, and best of all I got to meet Dawn (@disneyca) !
Finally we were able to fly out and we got home around 1:30 am. Luckily my dad still came to pick us up

 

[Doc Disney]

Final thoughts:

Time of year: we really enjoyed that we were able to see both the Food and Wine Festival AND the Christmas stuff. I do wish we could have seen a little more of Christmas stuff since the hotels weren't really decorated yet but honestly I loved being able to do the Food and Wine so wouldn't have gone any later. It was just an extra bonus that allowed us to see the Osborne Lights one last time My mom says she would definitely recommend this time of the year because "you get the best of everything."

Hotel: I dont want to be dramatic and say I will never stay there again, because who knows what the future will hold. However, I will probably avoid staying there at least until we have kids with us/ a big party. I will say the theming is cute (although a bit much for us at times) and the cafeteria has decent food but overall its just too big for us and the bus for the MK was always insane. Like I said, if we had kids with us I'm sure I would have felt differently. It probably didn't help that the last time we were at Disney we were at the Wilderness Lodge so thats a big change haha. My mom said "although, it was fun to be able to walk around and see the different characters/movie themes."

Food and Wine: We really enjoyed this. Looking back we really didn't do much in the wine department and there are a few foods we didn't get to try so I would definitely want to go back. We found the crowds tolerable, especially early in the afternoons. Can not wait to go back! My mom said "We enjoyed new foods we have never tried before!"

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party: Well, first of all I would wear different shoes; its a lot of standing around!!! Otherwise I enjoyed it. I guess staying for the later parade (even if it means sleeping in that morning so as not to be so tired at night) would be the only thing I would change. That way we probably could have met another character or two. I would definitely go back but my next goal is to go the Halloween Party. My Mom says "the cookies were good!" hahaha

New Restaurants for us: Tony's: I liked the atmosphere, food was OK, not sure if I would go back; Garden Grill: loved it, already booked it for a return trip haha; Backlot Express: loved this, but they changed the menu so not sure about it anymore; overall my mom said her favorite place this trip was Tonys (we have a disconnect about this one) and mine was California Grill as usual haha

Next up: look for a PTR to follow, we have a trip coming up very soon

 

[Goofnut1980]

@LisaBelle This winter is so mild so far so I anticipate the 5K will be warmer Cant wait to read the updated PTR and see all your plans! Our next trip (and last for awhile) is April 30-May 12

Love the report! our trip is May 5-11!!

 

[Doc Disney]

Love the report! our trip is May 5-11!!

Oh nice! Maybe we will run into each other!

 

[Goofnut1980]

After reading all of your report... I have to agree so much with how guests behave. It also really makes me laugh with some of the things people will say.

 

[Doc Disney]

After reading all of your report... I have to agree so much with how guests behave. It also really makes me laugh with some of the things people will say.

Haha half the time my entertainment comes from people watching All good things though ! .... well mostly

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Final thoughts:

Time of year: we really enjoyed that we were able to see both the Food and Wine Festival AND the Christmas stuff. I do wish we could have seen a little more of Christmas stuff since the hotels weren't really decorated yet but honestly I loved being able to do the Food and Wine so wouldn't have gone any later. It was just an extra bonus that allowed us to see the Osborne Lights one last time My mom says she would definitely recommend this time of the year because "you get the best of everything."

Hotel: I dont want to be dramatic and say I will never stay there again, because who knows what the future will hold. However, I will probably avoid staying there at least until we have kids with us/ a big party. I will say the theming is cute (although a bit much for us at times) and the cafeteria has decent food but overall its just too big for us and the bus for the MK was always insane. Like I said, if we had kids with us I'm sure I would have felt differently. It probably didn't help that the last time we were at Disney we were at the Wilderness Lodge so thats a big change haha. My mom said "although, it was fun to be able to walk around and see the different characters/movie themes."

Food and Wine: We really enjoyed this. Looking back we really didn't do much in the wine department and there are a few foods we didn't get to try so I would definitely want to go back. We found the crowds tolerable, especially early in the afternoons. Can not wait to go back! My mom said "We enjoyed new foods we have never tried before!"

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party: Well, first of all I would wear different shoes; its a lot of standing around!!! Otherwise I enjoyed it. I guess staying for the later parade (even if it means sleeping in that morning so as not to be so tired at night) would be the only thing I would change. That way we probably could have met another character or two. I would definitely go back but my next goal is to go the Halloween Party. My Mom says "the cookies were good!" hahaha

New Restaurants for us: Tony's: I liked the atmosphere, food was OK, not sure if I would go back; Garden Grill: loved it, already booked it for a return trip haha; Backlot Express: loved this, but they changed the menu so not sure about it anymore; overall my mom said her favorite place this trip was Tonys (we have a disconnect about this one) and mine was California Grill as usual haha

Next up: look for a PTR to follow, we have a trip coming up very soon

I love how you throw in your mom's quotes. I love that you did this with your mom. So sweet. Nice memories.

 

[Doc Disney]

I love how you throw in your mom's quotes. I love that you did this with your mom. So sweet. Nice memories.

Thanks! We really enjoyed this trip and are lucky we travel well together I think. Though he was going to kill me last night haha. I went to my parents house for dinner and was reading them some of this report and then I got to the "the cookies were good" and she was like you make me sound like an idiot! hahaha she wasn't serious though we had a good laugh about it! And that really is what she said when I asked her for her thoughts