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!

 

[bee]

Literally LOLing at the phone photos and the security guards story.

 

[fractal]

Hapa song always make me happy!

Ingenious use of hotel room props! Love it. Dinosaur one made me lol at my desk.

Love all the little stories of people, things and conversations around you. Make a report richer and gives a sense of being there with you.

Great update!

 

[xdan0920]

First, great trip report. Has me feeling very nostalgic for the trips my Wife and I would take every year. Our touring plans pretty much mirrored yours. Get a drink, stroll around, chill out, catch the occasional ride. Now we have a kid, ugh! lol

We try and avoid the buses if possible. We prefer the Boardwalk Resorts (BC, YC, BW) simply because you can walk to Epcot and HS and even if we go to MK we will walk through Epcot and take the monorail. Yes, that takes much longer than waiting for the bus, but we just drink from the International gateway up to the front. We only take bus to MK for rope drop or to AK

The bus situation at the Deluxe resorts is a tragedy, which gets very little coverage around here. We stayed at BLT on our last trip and it drove me absolutely bonkers to be sharing with all the MK resorts. Either the bus was full when it finally showed up, or it took an extra 15 minutes to get to your final destination because you have to stop at multiple resorts. And the Epcot resort area is worse.

Anyhoo, great TR, it could almost be my report word for word if I wrote one.

 

[sheriffwoody]

The line from the British guy had me laughing. "Look at that chap!" I love the way British people talk. Can't wait to see what else you came up with for the phone!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

I'm at work and DYING of laughter with the pic of you on the phone on EE!!! OMG. The story about the security guard...

 

[wdisney9000]

Hapa song always make me happy!

Ingenious use of hotel room props! Love it. Dinosaur one made me lol at my desk.

Love all the little stories of people, things and conversations around you. Make a report richer and gives a sense of being there with you.

Great update!

The Hapa song is the best! I like how you call it that. Its much easier than trying to say Duniani (which I never can).
We joke how we never use the hotel room phone, so I found a way to put it to good use, lol. FYI, my wife will put a plastic bag over the phone if she has to use it. I often think people may not be interested in the little side stories I tell so its good to know they help add a little richness to it all, thanks!

First, great trip report. Has me feeling very nostalgic for the trips my Wife and I would take every year. Our touring plans pretty much mirrored yours. Get a drink, stroll around, chill out, catch the occasional ride. Now we have a kid, ugh! lol

We often think that we have held off on having a child because WDW wouldnt be the same for us, haha. But then we visit with our nieces and nephews and our hearts melt when we see those expressions or pure magic. We are truly torn.

The line from the British guy had me laughing. "Look at that chap!" I love the way British people talk. Can't wait to see what else you came up with for the phone!

Ya, that guy was awesome. He recognized me when I was taking a photo of it and said something else in British fashion. Something like, "thats brilliant" (British accent of course). We did some really dorky but fun stuff with the phone as you will see .And I should have my wife take pictures of the people watching me as I did it. They had no clue what was going on. Just saw a weirdo with a desk phone

 

[MegRuss626]

Hahaha, glad you enjoyed it, you guys/gals will be seeing a lot more of that phone for the rest of the trip. It became a game of sorts to find stuff to do with it.

1- My husband and I are currently both singing the song from Animal Kingdom!

2- As a person who loves "posing" for the ride photos, I am dying over the phone! Genius!

 

[Mickey2422]

Just caught up on your report. I like the way you tour We also enjoy the beverages (and food) the World has to offer - especially during Food and Wine. Looking forward to those pictures and the rest of your report!

 

[wdisney9000]

Alright, its been a little over 3 months so its time to fire this bad boy back up! Its been almost a year since we took this trip (Oct 2015) for Food and Wine so thanks for still caring enough to read about a trip from 10 months ago. I am emulating the Disney companies pace of construction with this TR so it may be appx 4 years to complete this rather easy task, lol...Ok, that was a low blow but Im just trying to deflect the fact that ive been extremely lazy in getting this finished. Hopefully anybody attending this years F&W can get some useful info from this TR.

We have been doing well and keeping very busy. Akira had her first birthday not long ago. It feels like just yesterday I was starting the Pre TR for this and she was still a baby that could fit in my lap. She still tries to, but shes a bit bigger now. We also just recently adopted a Cane Corso. He was in bad shape and in need of a good home so we took him in just under a week ago. He was severely underweight but is doing much better already. Here is DW , Akira and Boo-Loo. Boo-Loo (the Corso) has cherry eye and we cant have the surgery done until he gets a little more weight on him.

I think its safe to say that my wife sleeps very well at night with these 2 by her side, lol.

Ok, all this chit-chats gonna get ya hurt....so lets get to some Disney stuff!!!!!!!!




Day 4 continued....

We had left AK and headed back to Beach Club to freshen up for some F&W action. The weekend was over so we hoped for better luck and lines at the kiosks that were not rivaling Soarin' on a busy day. We rested up at the resort for a bit and my brother called to ask if we could check if there were any resort specific pins we could get for his collection. We stopped by the shop on our way out and then hit the Boardwalk to get to Epcot.

That may be the last picture of the beach we will ever have without the new safety fence and net after the alligator attack.

We wanted to start at Canada but I grabbed a beer from the Ireland stand on the way.

I believe it was some type of stout, but for the sake of getting this TR rolling I will dig out the F&W passport later and just keep things moving for now. next we made it over to Canada for the filet and beer cheese soup, and a beer that was a proper size (Labat).

It was a nice size portion which made the $12 price not so bad. (I think it was $12). We really enjoyed it. Ive got short video recaps of the food also, I will post them later because right now my wonderful computer is freezing up when I attempt to play a video. So for now, I will post the pics I have and then add the vids of the other booths later, probly about 6 months from now, lol, JK. I wont take that long again.

This next pic is of the loaded mac and cheese from the Florida Fresh booth and some type of meat on a stick that I think came from either the Greek stand or Spain(??). Either way, we took them both over towards the Norway pavilion to grab a Einstock White ale which we thought would pare well together, and it id.

There were several booths between Canada and Norway and we stopped at most of them but thats on video, so dont think we just skipped past them all. We finished up an started to head back to the Odyssey building for the craft beer flights!! And yes, I know, we are criss-crossing World Showcase by going to Norway then back to Odyssey, but we didnt mind and we really wanted to pair the food with the Einstock ale and we figured this would help us burn a few extra calories. The crowd level was not that bad so it was nice strolling around and the weather was great. We reached Odyssey and prepared for some good craft brews!

I can feel the heat coming from my lap top so im gonna finish this part up and get back to it later before it decides to shut down. . Ive got an appt im heading to, but I will be back to continue this by lunch time. Thanks again everybody for still wanting to read my extremely slow trip report. Im gonna use the other computer so I can get the videos uploaded. We had such a blast making them and it was great to have them because It saved us the time of making notes for everything. Ok, Ill see ya reals soon.

 

[Tuvalu]

If folks didn't mind reading my 44-year-old trip report, they won't mind your 10 month delay!

When's the next trip?

 

[wdisney9000]

If folks didn't mind reading my 44-year-old trip report, they won't mind your 10 month delay!

When's the next trip?

Thanks, Ive been loving your reports.

We havent exactly planned our next trip yet, but we are about to have our house painted and we made the agreement that when it was done, we could book a trip. Hopefully we can sneak down before Christmas!

 

[lostpro9het]

Alright, its been a little over...

You don't know how many SBs Ive been sitting on!!!
BOOM
Chicago's own Local Option Bierwerker: die Königin, 6.5%ABV

 

[sheriffwoody]

You're back!! Huzzah!

 

[MinnieM123]

Oh yea!! Love your TRs and so glad you're back at it.

My goodness, your two dogs are amazing. Can't believe Akira is a year old now. Really like the fact that you and your wife took in the other dog as well, to take loving care of him. That's so sweet. He will have a wonderful home now thanks to both of you (and Akira!)

 

[wdisney9000]

Check it out, Im updating my TR in less than 3 months! haha. So what Im gonna do here is just upload the very short videos we took of some of the booths at Food and Wine. They are all less than 30 seconds. You can tell we were trying to conserve battery power on my phone since DW's phone was on the fritz. Watching these videos I feel like Lou Mongello sans all the perks...

First up is Canada pavilion....


Next is Greece....


Hawaii.....


Here is when we stopped at Norway....


After Norway we headed to the Odyssey Building for the craft beer...





So after all the beer we headed to Test Track for a breather and let our bodies process all the food and beer we had consumed. We were obviously a bit tipsy because in hindsight it doesnt seem like a smart idea to go 65 mph with a stomach full of booze and food. We made it though and had a blast. As usual, we designed the slowest and most odd looking car we could. Behold our creation....

When we boarded our vehicle, I noticed it had a built in resort room phone, so I made some calls...

After TT we headed towards The Land to check out the F&W booths over there and we stopped somewhere to get this beer, but I cant remember where. Either way , it was good.

Next up is the Sustainable Chew booth...



Then onto France since we had already been to Canada and Ireland....



And for our final F&W video we visited Brasil (Brazil).




There were many, many other booths that we either did not visit or simply didnt order anything other than drinks. We are not the most daring people when it comes to exotic food. My phone died after Brasil booth so we didnt get any pictures of the random drinks we had. For the most part we hung out in WS for the rest of the evening and headed back to our room before park closing. We wanted to get to MK early so we needed a good nights rest. Overall, we really enjoyed the F&W Festival and we will make a video recap of it soon. It should be fun to watch us struggle as we attempt to recall the events, lol.

 

[lostpro9het]

You know me so well. I'm contacting my growler shop now to see if they can import Shipyard from Maine becasue I'm all about that aged Imperial Stout action! Looks like they may only be available in bombers for a limited time. If you are ever in the neighborhood you need to try Cherry Street Co-Op in Forsyth. They have an IS that is off the chart and, yeah, it is almost feel like you're drinking liqueur...but oh so good liqueur.

 

[wdisney9000]

For the final day of our trip we do some serious park hopping and hit MK in the morning, then HS and we finish the day at Epcot.

Waking up on the last day of your trip is so bittersweet. Your at Disney, which is great, but you know you only have 24 hours left...which SUCKS!!!!!...unless your @Tuvalu and will probly be back the following month, haha. But for the rest of us, all we can do is soak in the day and try to not think about the pain and misery of leaving and going back to reality. Im even getting depressed having to write about the last day of this trip and it was freakin' 10 months ago.

Ok, I blew my nose and wiped my tears away and am ready to start the final day.

We woke up early, (not rope drop early) and made it to the bus stop and headed to MK. Grabbed some coffee at Starbucks and as we waited for our drinks we watched all the mouth breathers did what they do best which is act like they are the only ones there. We got our coffee and decided to have them in the new hub of the courtyard at the castle. It was basically empty so it was pleasant to enjoy some time there since most of the time when we pass it, it looks like a cross between a day care center playground and the quad for some hipster university. But today it was peaceful.

I think the new hub is nice, but nothing anywhere near the beauty and charm that it once held with all the trees it had.

We headed over to 7DMT for our first ride of the day!

We always feel better on our last day of the trip once we get that first ride in. It helps jump start the fun for the day and gets you into a better mood.

So from here we went over to Little Mermaid which is always a fun ride for us. It definitely has its flaws but still very enjoyable. We always soak in the queue. They did a great job with it.

After enjoying the discombobulated re-telling of The Little Mermaid we headed towards Tomorrow Land. Normally we start in Frontier Land and work our way to TL, but DW wanted to ride Buzz and get some chicken tenders at Cosmic Rays. She ONLY eats chicken tenders at Disney. Not because they are special or healthy or for any other reason other than the fact that its become a tradition for her. It all started at AKL a few years back when we got back to the resort one night and she was starving. She went to the room and I hit The Mara (the QS spot at AKL) for a pizza and some chicken tenders. I dont what happened but she ate the chicken and fell in love with Disney chicken tenders and now we try them at various locations, but she is still chasing the dragon from the tenders from Mara that night. We ordered some from room service at Beach Club once and she said that was her second favorite "Disney tender". Im pretty sure they are the same tenders all over the property but I guess the way they are prepared can be different depending on where you are. Who know, but its fun for us to seek out new spots.

So we had tried the tenders at Cosmic Rays a few trips back and she loved em. On that visit we had eaten at the bar top looking towards TL Speedway because it was crowded. We had never eaten in the room where Sonny Eclipse plays, so we decided it would be fun, and it was. Definitely worth checking out if youve never done it. It only took us about 25 trips before we tried it, dont wait that long, lol.

Whats funny is, she would NEVER eat fast food tenders at home but if I show her this picture, first she would drool, then she would go the store and get whatever is needed to make home made tenders today. And yes, thats mayonaise in the cup, I love it with my fries. She thinks its gross.

We devoured our food and headed over to Buzz. DW really like the scenes in the ride and sometimes she doesnt even use the laser gun, and she just sits back and enjoys the ride. Im way to competitive for all that. I needs to get me a high score! In a strange twist, we boarded another ride vehicle that was equipped with a resort room phone in it, so of course I made some calls as I blasted Zorgs minions.

She is such a good wife, and she let me win by a land slide...haha

After Buzz we jumped on Space Mountain since it was a short wait time. Sh decided not to ride because she didnt want to get an upset stomach after eating chicken tenders so I rode solo and conducted some business of course.

You cant visit Tomorrow Land without riding People Mover so that was our next stop. I was all caught up with my business calls so DW decided to get hers out of the way and she can multi task as well......

We were sending all the phone pictures to my brother and sister because their kids were getting a kick out of it.

Ill continue the rest of the day soon....thanks for following along!

 

[fractal]

Welcome back!

Loved the videos! I need to go back and count how many beers you consumed - gives me something to shoot for.

Never realized how many rides had resort phones in them. Thanks for the tip!

 

[MinnieM123]

I think the new hub is nice, but nothing anywhere near the beauty and charm that it once held with all the trees it had.

Amen. To me, it's just "different" and not the same place at all. I mean the castle is still there (obviously), but the feeling is not the same.

 

[sheriffwoody]

And yes, thats mayonaise in the cup, I love it with my fries. She thinks its gross.

Gonna have to agree with your lovely wife on this one. My coworker does this and it grosses me out!