Trip Report November 2016, If I Could Turn Back Time to October 2005 Food & Wine Trip Report.

So I was just looking though some pictures of ours from Food & Wine Festivals' of the past and came across the year I took pictures at all the kiosk's. It was October 2005... I know it was 11 years ago, but it was so much cheaper back then! And the crowds? So much easier to handle! I believe Disney is much happier with todays crowd levels... Not only have the prices almost doubled, I think the crowds have tripled!!!

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Dubman

Dubman

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Original Poster
Not to mention all the FREE wine and beer tastings!!

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Those of you that had attended these free tastings in the past probably would remember Bill. He was an older gentleman always presenting the winemakers at the seminars. He and his wife had worked at the Festival since year one! I was very sad to hear he had passed before our trip in 2014. We did get to see his wife though and were able to tell her how much we enjoyed his presence at Festivals past. She was very happy to her this and thanked us for remembering him..
 
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Dubman

Dubman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yes.. If we could turn back time!! We still enjoy the Festival and are looking forward to our upcoming trip, but soooo much has changed about it! :(


One of the best things that ever happened to us happened on our trip that year though.. Our son (now 10) was born on July 5th, 2006.. Exactly 9 months after our Oct 2005 trip. Best Disney souvenir ever!!!

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Dubman

Dubman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I will never forget that trip, not only for the awesome gift it brought us, but also for all we were able to experience. The next year is when they started charging for all the tastings and you needed to pay ahead of time and reserve your time.. Reserving the time is the only good thing, because before that you needed to wait in line and hope to get in the tastings, so we spent a lot of time getting to the tastings early to get a spot. Good things came out of that though too because we got to meet some pretty awesome people while waiting.

Also, that year was the least crowded that we can remember in all the years we have been to the festival.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a bit of the past of Food & Wine and please share any pictures you may have of trips to Festivals past...


Our next trip is 11/5-11/13, so I will plan to return here to report..

To be continued......
 
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Dubman

Dubman

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Original Poster
trampdog said:
That was a great year! Portions larger, better beer, and normal pours.
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Yes for sure! And the crowds were not nearly as bad.. Or as unruly hahaha. Only thing I like now is the craft beer addition, but now all you get is a 6 oz pour for around 4.00, back then you got a 12 oz pour for around 5.00. smh
 
trampdog

trampdog

Well-Known Member
Dubman said:
Yes for sure! And the crowds were not nearly as bad.. Or as unruly hahaha. Only thing I like now is the craft beer addition, but now all you get is a 6 oz pour for around 4.00, back then you got a 12 oz pour for around 5.00. smh
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And I miss the 22 oz souvenir mugs. I have close to a hundred in the man cave bar for the kegerator.
 
Dubman

Dubman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So enough of wishing it was still 2005...

I gave you some live photos in the the last few posts, and that shows just the tip of the iceberg as far as crowd levels went.. Still loved every minute though!

As much as it was a great time for experiencing the Food & Wine Festival before it reached "Prime Time", its time to move on to 2016 and share our experiences from our most recent trip... No matter what the crowd levels were, we still were so grateful to be able to experience everything Disney World has to offer!

I'll start by sharing some pictures from our first day

November 5, 2016


The cast.. Myself D, my wife J, and our son B


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Goodbye Upstate NY!! Especially to my place of employment in the bottom RH corner.. hahaha

Next up the beautiful coast of Florida!


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Along with a random cloud on the approach to Orlando International..
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The landing was perfect and before we knew it we were heading to Pop Century Resort!!

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We got to Pop by 11:00am and after we went to our room, we headed to Epcot to get our first taste of the Food & Wine Festival..

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Our first stop was Mexico to get B's churro fix!! And of course a couple Petrone Margaritas for us..

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Dubman

Dubman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
November 5th Part 2

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Next up was our fastpass for Frozen!!

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B found the first Remy of the trip!

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We thoroughly enjoyed our first ride on Frozen, and were especially thankful we didn't have to wait in the 120 minute wait stand by line!

We sampled a few more items..

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By this time the crowds were beginning to build....

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So we finished there and it was time to head to Disney Springs to meet J's friend for dinner at Raglan Road.. We decided the quickest way to DS would be to walk to the Beach Club and take the bus.. I was unaware that buses ran from the parks to DS after 4:00pm. It worked out perfect though, just had to battle the above crowds on our way out the back exit.. We looked at the line for the boat so just continued to walk to the BC. Another couple overheard me say it was quicker to walk and followed us out..

It had been less than a year since had been to DS, and we were so out of our element.. Everything had changed!! It was soooo different!

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prfctlyximprct

prfctlyximprct

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Loving the past to present trip report! I was there the same time and oh my goodness it was crowded! Let's go back to 2005 for the prices and crowd levels!!!
 
dukeaboy

dukeaboy

Well-Known Member
was there in Nov 2005 also and I will agree I've never experienced such low crowd levels in any of the parks...it was a great year to be there for sure...thanks for the trip back in time...
 
Dubman

Dubman

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
prfctlyximprct said:
Loving the past to present trip report! I was there the same time and oh my goodness it was crowded! Let's go back to 2005 for the prices and crowd levels!!!
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The prices have doubled, and I believe the crowds have tripled!! Good for Disney, not good for us!! lol

BTW, following your report too! Awesome job.. I have to admit it's fun to see when other people are in the same park on the same day, and I always look extra careful at pictures trying to spot ourselves in the background.. hahahaha
 
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