Halloween, Food & Wine, and a Birthday, Oh My!-A Sept/Oct 2011 Trip Report

I can't believe 2 weeks ago I was in the Magic Kingdom for my first MNSSHP, my how time flies. I hope you all are ready because here starts my first attempt at a trip report!

Introduction:

Welcome to my very first attempt at writing a trip report! I’ve been reading everyone else’s trip reports for some time now, and have been inspired to write one of my own!!! So let’s start with a little introduction!

The cast for the trip:

(Left): Mom (Diane)-The greatest mom EVER because she’s taken me on 13! WDW trips and she got me into this website so if not for her I wouldn’t be writing this right now! Mom's favorites are Mickey, Stitch, and Tigger and her favorite ride is definitely Toy Story Mania I couldn’t tell you how many times we’ve gone on that!

(Right): Me (Jessica)-22 year old Walt Disney World fanatic (thanks to Mom) who is currently seeking a job as a Mechanical Engineer (if you guys know of anything open let me know! Sorry had to put in the little plug there ) My favorite ride is the Tower of Terror and my favorite characters are Ariel, Prince Eric, Goofy, & (newly favorite) Flynn Rider.

As mentioned above this is my 13th trip to the world and Mom's 14th. She went once when she was a little girl in ’74.

Details about the trip:

When: September 26-October 3 This is the first time we’ve ever gone at this time of the year, because I was always in school.

Resort: Pop Century We’ve stayed at this resort many times and have always loved it, even though we talked about changing and trying a different resort, we didn’t. But are looking into it for next trip!

Just a FYI: the pictures in this report are taken by both me and my mom. (There will be many, many pictures in this report since I took over 800!) The ones that I have taken were mainly in Aperture and Shutter Priority mode. I wanted to go manual but realized that I would have a much harder time with it. Av and Tv mode proved successful and I had fun playing around with the settings a bit. Thanks to Tom Bricker (wdwfigment), he has inspired me to take better pictures during my trips and in everyday life! (I was able to tell him this in person as you will read later in the report!)

We also ordered the photopass CD because we knew we would be getting a lot of photopass pictures this trip. We haven't looked at them yet, so I will add in some of those pictures at the end of the report once we go through them and get the CD.

Now let the memories and trip reporting begin!!!

 

[HollyBelle]

Actually, I think I found characters that are more awkward than the princesses...the fairies. Never ever again will I go there to see the fairies or Tinkerbell.

Oh dear, I forgot about the fairies! :ROFLOL: I stand corrected.

How awkward do you think that meet and greet was for Brett?! :lol: :lookaroun If your response was "very" then you deserve a cookie! And to think... I made him stop again for them during the 2010 Princess Half.

 

[Kristia]

Oh Tiana, you must improve your ability to multi-task! :lol: It sounds as if the poor girl came close to dropping character. Hilarious. I'm with you though, the princesses are the absolute most awkward characters to meet as an adult - it never fails. In an effort to eat at every restaurant on property, we finally checked Akershus off the list a little over a year ago, figuring the Princess Half Medal would provide us with some safe conversations. Luckily we were right. I still can't bring myself to book an ADR at the castle. The awkwardness, coupled with that exorbitant price, have me steering clear. Maybe one day I'll have a daughter - that's what I keep telling myself because then I'll have a legit reason to book the meal. :lol:

One more day into your report and I'll be looking for myself in the background. Who knows, maybe we crossed paths more than once! :animwink:

I sooooo agree with you! We were able to dine at Akershus for our honeymoon back in 1995 before princess mania hit. It was one of the best meals we had. I think it used to be a total buffet with hot and cold items. We loved it. Dan keeps talking about wanting to go back but the princess thing has kept us from doing it. We are not huge character people but enjoy doing Chef Mickey's or Crystal Palace at least once each trip. It is just so awkward to try and make conversation. I guess we have to wait till my niece is old enough to go. She is 2 right now and my sister wants to wait a few more years before going. Good thing we hit up the castle before it switched over too!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Oh dear, I forgot about the fairies! :ROFLOL: I stand corrected.

How awkward do you think that meet and greet was for Brett?! :lol: :lookaroun If your response was "very" then you deserve a cookie! And to think... I made him stop again for them during the 2010 Princess Half.

:ROFLOL: poor Brett

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Friday September 30-Magic Kingdom and EPCOT (Food & Wine)

Today was an early morning because we had breakfast at the Crystal Palace!! We have never done breakfast here, and I definitely wanted an early morning at the Magic Kingdom for empty pictures of the castle!

We took the 7:10 bus from POP and were at the Magic Kingdom around 7:30ish. There must have been something going on this morning because we were the first ones through the turnstiles for Breakfast Reservations and didn’t get let into the park until after 8 am. And there were people behind us complaining because they had 8 am breakfast reservations. Ours was at 8:15 I believe.

There were two people in front of us, but they had a tour they had to get to, so my mom and I were the first ones up Main Street. I was very excited, and I was the first one into the hub and had it to myself for a whole 3 minutes. It was the greatest feeling in the world being the only one standing in front of Cinderella’s Castle I can’t even begin to describe it to you, so maybe these pictures will do!

I tried my best to keep the crane out of the picture

An empty Adventureland

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Oh no! I almost forgot about our breakfast reservations! My mom called me over back into reality. I was wondering what took everyone so long to get to the hub, when I turned around everyone was taking photopass pictures, well I guess I’ll be in everyone’s pictures since I was the only one in the hub! Hehe.

We were seated on the Adventureland side of Crystal Palace.

Breakfast with Pooh and the gang was really good, but I didn’t get to eat as much as I would have liked because I ate my first plate way to fast and was too full for more.

The characters were great, except Tigger was a little bit strange. I told him I had forgot my Tigger ears at the hotel and he purred at me, which to me was a bit creepy, but let’s just hope he was playing the Tigger part really well.

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

This one is my favorite from CP

We didn’t have much time after breakfast because Mom had an appointment at the Barber Shop!! We headed out to Fantasyland through the Castle and took some pictures along the way

We grabbed fastpasses for Peter Pan and checked out what was going on with the Fantasyland Expansion. They have definitely made a lot of progress since we were here in January!

Of course I had to get pictures of my favorite Fantasyland signage!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

The Little Mermaid!!! I am so excited for this part of Fantasyland, you can’t even begin to imagine! I have been waiting for Ariel to have her own ride! (I also can’t wait to stay in the Little Mermaid building at the new Art of Animation Resort!)

It was time to head back down Main Street for Mom’s haircut at the Barber Shop! This was a first! It was the first time both of us have ever been in here and I thought it was so adorable! I loved watching little kids get their first haircut, because they would get tons of stickers all over them to keep them occupied. And surprisingly during the period we were there none of the kids screamed. I guess the Disney magic keeps em quiet

Mirror Shot #3

Mom was very excited for her trip to the Barber shop!

Mom opted for the pink colored gel and pixie dust

Final Product:

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Next it was back to Fantasyland to cash in those Peter Pan fastpasses!

Now making our way over to Adventureland under the Liberty Square/Fantasyland underpass

And onto pirates! I had to go on this ride today because I was wearing my I <3 Pirates shirt!!

After Pirates we made our way out because we had a date at EPCOT with the Food & Wine Festival!!!!

Some pictures as we headed out

I had never noticed this before and thought it was a really nice touch

Oh Monorail Station..how I have missed you!

Monorail close up!

Our ride to EPCOT! I swear after riding Monorail Red to EPCOT every time we rode the monorail after this it was always the Red one. On the EPCOT line one day, and on Sunday it was the Resort Line, even on our last trip I have a lot of pictures of Monorail Red. Well I guess he’s just our best monorail friend!

Once we got to EPCOT we checked out the Festival Center in the old Wonders of Life Pavilion to get our bracelet gift cards and passports for eating around the world!

Wait! Turn around I have to get this shot!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

After purchasing our goods, I noticed on Twitter that Shelley (Fashionista007) and her husband Jason were in EPCOT! After tweeting her that we were also in EPCOT we were going to meet up! So off we went!!!

Now I have to say the minute I met Shelley and Jason I felt like I have known them forever. They are two of the nicest people I have ever met and we all got along great. I could go on and on about how great they are. But I’m happy to say I have now made lifelong friends, scratch that I’ve made a sister for life and a brother-in-law haha. I was so excited to hear all about the wedding and I am definitely looking forward to it in her trip report! After chatting it up for a while, it was time to go our separate ways. Luckily though this will not be the last time we see each other!

Shelley and Jason turned to go check out some more booths and we were headed to the Dolphin resort to meet the one and only Deb Willis from Allears.net! But not without a stop at Belgium for a Godiva Chocolate Liqueur Iced Coffee!

Definitely good stuff, but a little bit expensive for a small cup ($7.25)

We headed out through International Gateway and waited for the Friendship boat to arrive. While we were waiting the Cast Member who happened to be the Friendship boat manager (I think that’s what he was he was dressed up nicely and said if we had any problems with the boats to just let him know) stopped and chatted with us for a while and turns out he was originally from MA also, not far from us! So it was really nice to chat with him. There was actually quite a few CM’s we ran into that were from MA.

Finally the boat came and it was off to the Dolphin!

Thought this little model was really cute

The Allears.net meet was in the Picabu restaurant inside the Dolphin hotel

We jumped in line to meet the one and only….DEB WILLIS! My mom was especially excited because she gets the newsletters every week and is always on there reading some type of blog.

After meeting Deb Willis, we received some little surprises such as an Allears.net lanyard, pin, and some trading cards! We sat down amongst other fans and grabbed ourselves a drink because it was scorching outside! After a little while Deb Coma (who is also a part of Allears.net) was wandering around and came over to talk to us. We didn’t get a picture though…I can’t remember why either, we must have just forgotten, but she was super nice.

We decided to head on out since now it was around 3pm. I really wanted to go check out The Boardwalk, and since it was just over the bridge that’s where we went!

I think this is the most beautiful resort at WDW, I’m not sure why exactly since I’ve never stayed here but there is just something about being along the water and being able to walk to two different parks (one of them being my favorite) that is just so beautiful and peaceful. I am determined to stay here one day! I even took a picture of it and sent it to my boyfriend and told him I wanted to stay here, and he thought it was beautiful too and agreed! Such a great guy I have.

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Why hello there Spaceship Earth!

Now it was time to head back to EPCOT and enjoy some more Food & Wine!

We started off in the area right after France and hit up Portugal (yay for homeland!..well my dad’s homeland that is I’m 50% Portuguese) and Morocco. In Portugal I decided to try the
Calamari Salad with Fennel, Smoked Paprika and Olive Oil. It was the only thing of the food on the menu that I never tried before. Up here in my area of MA Linguica is super popular. The calamari was really good with the spices in it, but not great. In Morocco Mom decided to try the Kefta Pocket and I got a Sangria..oh man do I love those . Both things were soooo good. But the Sangria got to me after a little bit. Phew.

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

I really wanted to go into Morocco and get some pictures so Mom sat down while I went to explore. And she actually made a friend who was visiting from Germany and chatted it up with her while I was exploring! Pretty cool meeting people from many different places!

Next stop was New Zealand for which was the best meal I had at the Food & Wine Festival: The Seared Sea Scallop that had a red curry and sweet potato puree served with an apple-radish salad. The flavor was just amazing and it was seared to perfection. (Random side info: I really want to visit New Zealand one day because the Lord of the Rings which is my favorite movie EVER was filmed there and from what I’ve seen in pictures the landscape is just beautiful.)

After New Zealand, we skipped a few kiosks because there wasn’t anything that we really really wanted.

Picture of Japan and we walked on by:

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Up next was a stop at the Hops & Barley station to try the delicious Pumpkin Mousse for a mere price of $1.50! I’m not sure if we were originally going to try this but after seeing on Tom & Sarah Bricker’s twitter that it was so delicious we had to have some. And it definitely did not disappoint! Sorry I don’t have a picture of the mousse..I guess I was just so excited to have it! But here’s a picture of the kiosk!

While eating our delicious Pumpkin Mousse, we hung around to watch the Eat to the Beat Concert Series with Taylor Dayne. She was okay, for the short time we were there she sang a cover song and one of her songs. Wasn’t anything spectacular. I was really bummed out that Sugar Ray is playing there now and I missed them by a few weeks.  I love the 90s music and love Mark McGrath watched him all the time on Don’t Forget the Lyrics so it would have been really awesome to see them. But oh well.

The next kiosks that we were interested in were Italy and Poland. I looooove Cheese Ravioli so the Ravioli di Formaggia was definitely for me!!! It gave the scallop a run for its money!! I also had the Primavera Smoothie, which was like a non-alcholic strawberry smoothie and was really good and really refreshing! In Poland, my mom decided to try Golabki (some pork wrapped in cabbage). It was okay, but wasn’t for me. My mom liked it though. Sorry forgot about a picture of it.

Some pictures in Italy:

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

We hit up the Germany, Cheese, and Mexico kiosks next. Sorry, forgot pictures again! I was just so excited for the food sometimes that by the time I remembered, it was already all gone :shrug: We tried the Apple Strudel from Germany, which was disappointing, it sounded and looked a lot better than it tasted. The Cheese Fondue from the Cheese stand, which I didn’t really care for much either but was okay. And a Strawberry Lime Margarita, that had way too much tequila in it for me. (I’m not a tequila fan).

I did get a picture of the Magarita though!

We were getting a little full at this point, but we really wanted to try the Jerk Spiced Chicken Drumstick from the Caribbean before we called it a night. So off we went! The chicken was really good and had nice flavors to it.

Of course you can’t just eat dinner all around the world and not have dessert! It was off to the Deserts and Champagnes booth to try the trio of all desserts! This trio contained these three desserts: Tres Leches Verrine, White Chocolate Macademia Mousse with Dark Chocolate Pearls, and Lemon Chiffon. They were all soooooooo good. They were the best desserts that I have ever tried. And it was much cheaper than buying them all separate.

I remembered!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

From here we decided to make our way on out of the park, even though it was only 8 o clock, because we planned on getting up very early on Saturday morning for the 40th anniversary. As we made our way out, we stopped and rested to watch the beautiful fountain show that goes on behind Spaceship Earth. It was really nice just to sit down and enjoy the surroundings.

Then it was the wonderful walk over to the POP bus stop. I hate how the EPCOT bus stops are set up :fork: It’s the longest walk out of all the parks. Oh well. We caught the bus and called it a night! We were really excited for tomorrow!

Up next: Happy Birthday Magic Kingdom!!!

 

[fractal]

Wonderful update and pictures! I'm loving your tour through Wine & Dine - makes me want to go next year.

 

[jesemeca]

I am loving your Epcot pictures. I have plenty from Future World, but not so many from World Showcase. I felt like I was rushing too much. We only had one day at Epcot and I wanted to try as many Food & Wine booths as I could. Just another reason to have to go back. :animwink: I am going to have to look for myself in the next sets of pictures. Who knows how many times we passed each other without knowing.

I will be waiting for more!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Love all the pics from Epcot. I think Epcot pics are my favorite!
Glad to see you got to try so many different things at the F&W Fesitval. We definitely want to try the dessert trio and also I want to try the Strawberry Lime margarita. I love tequila so its right up my alley!! :slurp:

 

[HollyBelle]

Mirror Shot #3

Hooray, Diane's getting in on the mirror shot action! I know you're lurking out there somewhere... so might I just say, LOVE the haircut!

Great update, Jess!

 

[Fashionista007]

Yay that picture of us from F&W turned out great! That was such a fun day, my mouth is totally watering for the dessert trio right now! I'm really glad we got to hang out on Sunday too though, that day was even better :sohappy:

Now it was time to head back to EPCOT and enjoy some more Food & Wine!

I just about died when I saw this picture, I TOTALLY took the exact same picture on the last day of our trip! I love the sign "Have a Magical Day!" That's too funny! I think maybe we really are sisters but some sort of Parent Trap nonsense happened to us

 

[jesemeca]

I just wanted to let you know that I finally started my Trip Report. I decided to just start now, while I am waiting for my Photo Pass CD to come in. I finally talked to them today about the missing pictures. Two of them, they were able to find/fix. The third one, my dad and the 7 Dwarfs, was not able to me fixed. The man on the phone told me they were too blurry to use. Thankfully we took a picture with my dad's camera too. Did you ever find out about your Photo Pass pictures?