Trip Report The 3rd Wheel, 3rd Annual, 4th Time Disney Closed Trip

Hi friends

This sure was a different trip for many reasons, the big one- being there during the hurricane.

The original title I was planning on was: The Third Wheel, Third Annual Food & Wine trip, but after being there during the hurricane I think that deserves some acknowledgement haha.

This is the third year that my best friend, Emily, and I went to Disney for for Food & Wine. The third wheel comes in because Emily’s husband, JP, would be joining us this year. I’ve known JP just as long as I’ve known Emily, so no awkwardness as it may seem going with my best friend & her husband. The third wheel part is also a joke because if you ask any of our friends, and JP, they would say JP is more of the third wheel between us haha


These were the original plans, but MUCH of this changed throughout the trip, thank you Matthew

WHEN:
Wednesday, October 5th – Sunday, October 9th.

WHERE:
We were doing a split stay between The Boardwalk and Saratoga Springs. I couldn’t believe when I saw the Boardwalk came up at such a good rate. I’ve always wanted to stay at one of the EPCOT resorts, and being there during food & wine would be perfect. I’ve also never stayed at Saratoga so was looking forward to checking that one off this list too.

PLANS:
Wednesday: Magic Kingdom, only night for Wishes & the LAST time we’d get to see the electrical parade

Thursday: Hollywood Studios in the morning, Food & Wine afternoon & night

Friday: The Chew taping in the morning, Magic Kingdom in the afternoon, Hoop Dee Doo (Emily’s only request this trip).

Saturday: Animal Kingdom in the morning, more Food and Wine

Sunday: Emily & JP leave early, no real plans for my morning



I was actually kind of hesitant on even making this trip happen. I was just there in July, and already had a trip planned for November, I knew I’d be relentlessly teased for going "AGAIN." I was also a bit wary on spending 4.5 days nonstop with JP. He’s a great friend, and him and Emily are perfect for each other, but you know how some people are just more difficult to be around, especially in close quarters for a long period of time…
Emily would bring up the trip and I’d kind of push it away, but felt bad because she’s used all her time off for other people this year (weddings, etc), this was the one thing she wanted for herself.

When I saw that my only options for hotels were 1 bedroom suites, that made me feel a bit better so we’d have some more space. Then when I saw The Chew would be filming the same week, I was even more excited. I love that show and the people on it, and have a few buddies that work there so was hopeful we’d get to go to a taping. THEN when they announced the Electrical Parade would be ending that weekend, it sealed the deal and the trip was on!



Off we go…or do we?

 

[LeighM]

Ugh!! I hope you got a lot done before the storm arrived. And impacting your flight home that's the worst.

Overall, it was a good trip. Not the best trip due to other reasons but I was still vacationing at WDW so it couldn't have been all bad It was just really bad timing because all the best stuff was at the end of the trip. I wish I could've found an earlier day for the Ohana dinner but I knew that would be next to impossible - and my husband refuses to eat dinner at 10:20PM LOL. Not that I blame him. Our first time dining there, we had an ADR for 9PM and we were so tired neither of us ate much. It didn't help that we both had a drink while waiting, which I will forever refer to as a Lapu Lapu fail.

The turbulence on the return flight wasn't fun. My husband was getting nauseous and the woman behind me kept groaning. I was holding onto my seatbelt pretending I was on TSMM every time we would jerk to the side Or 7DMT when we would make small drops. Sometimes it pays to have an active imagination

And I love your pictures of the fireworks!!

 

[samantha788]

Then we walked over to Toy Story Mania for our last fp+.
This view is SO sad. I want the Osborne Lights back.




I was happy to see that the big GMA poster was back up though! It had been a Nashville poster for the last couple years, although it is in the part of the park where it’s hard to see because the area is closed haha



Emily loved Toy Story Mania last time, JP really liked it to!



By this point Disney had made the announcement about the parks closing at 5 today and staying closed through Friday Also that Fort Wilderness and all showings of Hoop Dee Doo would be cancelled through Sunday. This crushed us. Emily’s really only request was to do hoop dee doo, JP was really excited for it too, and now we’d have no shot of going.


After Toy Story we decided to skip the boat and walk back to The Boardwalk. I’ve always wanted to do this walk, I’m not really sure why, but just always liked the idea of walking between Hollywood Studios and EPCOT, and with our hotel on the way it was the perfect time to actually do it. This ended up being the first of MANY times we took the pathway the rest of the trip. We stopped in our room to drop off pretty much everything we had with us since it was raining steadier now. Then we walked to EPCOT, it was just before 2:00 in the afternoon and they weren’t even checking park admission anymore! Just go through security and waved you in That was different!



Ample Hills smelled AMAZING! We kept saying we need to get here and never made it, we were always too full haha. Definitely a must do next time!



We didn’t have much time and knew certain things we definitely wanted to hit – Ireland for JP, the loaded mac n cheese – our favorite from last year, America because it never disappoints, and Belgium for the waffles. We ended up covering a LOT of ground and were so stuffed haha. It also helped that there was nobody there I’m scared to type it all out, we’re going to seem like pigs But we had a mission to do!


First up…Ireland!
JP had the Seafood Fisherman’s Pie, and we all had the Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale. Two thumbs up




JP then stopped at Scotland next door and grabbed an Innis & Gunn Irish Whiskey Aged Stout. One of my favs too.




Next…Farm Fresh!
We LOVED the mac n cheese last year and couldn’t wait for it again. It didn’t disappoint. We also got the Two Henrys Elderberry Hard Cider from here too.







Our next stop was at The Chew Collective. We thought this booth had our favorite dessert- we couldn’t remember exactly but it was the liquid nitrogen chocolate something or another. We didn’t see it on the list so picked the Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Mousse with Caramel to share instead. It was good but not what we were looking for.

From Emily's snapchat...and spelling of mousse

 

[DimpledDevil18]

All those yummy food and wine snacks is definitely making me hungry! That loaded mac and cheese looks amazing!

 

[LisaBelle]

I absolutely loved your MSEP photos and of course Wishes! It is my favorite, too. I want the shirt that you and @Tuvalu have! I totally agree that it never gets old. I listen to the soundtrack all the time!!
Wow! Hollywood Studios really does look sad .
Some day I have to get to Disney for Food & Wine! Everything looked delicious.
So sorry you had to miss Hoop Dee Doo. I am very interested in hearing about how things went during the hurricane.

 

[DisneyJeff]

After Toy Story we decided to skip the boat and walk back to The Boardwalk. I’ve always wanted to do this walk, I’m not really sure why, but just always liked the idea of walking between Hollywood Studios and EPCOT, and with our hotel on the way it was the perfect time to actually do it. This ended up being the first of MANY times we took the pathway the rest of the trip. We stopped in our room to drop off pretty much everything we had with us since it was raining steadier now. Then we walked to EPCOT, it was just before 2:00 in the afternoon and they weren’t even checking park admission anymore! Just go through security and waved you in That was different!

I love the walkway between HS and Epcot!! Plus, it is actually faster to walk than it is to take the Friendship boat.

 

[samantha788]

Overall, it was a good trip. Not the best trip due to other reasons but I was still vacationing at WDW so it couldn't have been all bad It was just really bad timing because all the best stuff was at the end of the trip. I wish I could've found an earlier day for the Ohana dinner but I knew that would be next to impossible - and my husband refuses to eat dinner at 10:20PM LOL. Not that I blame him. Our first time dining there, we had an ADR for 9PM and we were so tired neither of us ate much. It didn't help that we both had a drink while waiting, which I will forever refer to as a Lapu Lapu fail.

The turbulence on the return flight wasn't fun. My husband was getting nauseous and the woman behind me kept groaning. I was holding onto my seatbelt pretending I was on TSMM every time we would jerk to the side Or 7DMT when we would make small drops. Sometimes it pays to have an active imagination

And I love your pictures of the fireworks!!

I love the imagination A lapu lapu fail?! Oh no, they're my favorite!
I promise I'm going to read your report soon!! I'm so far behind on everything

All those yummy food and wine snacks is definitely making me hungry! That loaded mac and cheese looks amazing!

So good! I want the mac and cheese for dinner tonight

I absolutely loved your MSEP photos and of course Wishes! It is my favorite, too. I want the shirt that you and @Tuvalu have! I totally agree that it never gets old. I listen to the soundtrack all the time!!
Wow! Hollywood Studios really does look sad .
Some day I have to get to Disney for Food & Wine! Everything looked delicious.
So sorry you had to miss Hoop Dee Doo. I am very interested in hearing about how things went during the hurricane.

Check out Happily Ever Tees! They have a ton of cute designs, I want them all!!
You have to check out food & wine sometime, it really is fun to try so many different things from around the world!

I love the walkway between HS and Epcot!! Plus, it is actually faster to walk than it is to take the Friendship boat.

SO much faster! I loved being to run in and out on my own time and not have to sit and wonder about when a boat would come haha.

 

[samantha788]

Our next stop was at Craft Beers


I got one flight I thought the three of us were going to share, then JP appeared with the other flight option haha. The first flight – and one we liked better was – Orlando Brewing Orlando Weiss, Florida Beer Company Passport 20 Belgium-Style Tripel Ale and Two Henrys Blueberry Vanilla American Wheat Ale. All were very good!


The second flight had – Concrete Beach Stiltsville Pilsner, 3 Daughters Bimini Twist IPA and Shipyard Midnight Snack Milk Stout.


We took this time to relax a little, plan out the rest of our stops, and dry off some! This is a nice little indoor area they have, a good place to chill out for a bit!

Probably snapchatting...

And Emily snapchatting haha



When we left craft beers we split to two locations. I was going for the Jalapeno Margarita in Mexico and JP went to New Zealand for the Seared Venison Loin with Wild Mushroom Marsala Sauce and Kumara Dumpling.





My margarita was good, but the jalapeno margarita from La Cava del Tequila just a few steps away is much better.
JP and Emily enjoyed the venison.




We bypassed a bunch of places until we got to the Brewers Collection. We got one flight to share that had Radeberger Zwickel Pilsner, Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weisse, and Schofferhofer Zitrone Weizen-Mix. All were pretty good, one stood out as my favorite but I can’t remember which it was.

 

[samantha788]

Forgot to include this one after Brewer's Collection hahah


Next stop…Hops & Barley!


I got the lobster roll and an Anchor Brewing Liberty Ale. JP got one of everything haha – the lobster roll, smoked beef brisket and pimento cheese on griddled garlic toast and the carrot cake.

It was all really good! Emily was so funny with the carrot cake, she offered me a bite to taste which was delicious, then proceeded to eat the whole thing herself. It wasn’t until later that JP asked about the carrot cake and she said it was really good, didn’t think anyone wanted any, and didn’t want it to go to waste, so just ate the whole thing haha. JP was like of course I wanted some, that’s why I got it



I then proceeded to carry our garbage all aroundThey were moving all the garbage cans because of the hurricane. We finally found some a few countries over - all saran wrapped together! They saran wrapped the glass on all the lights too.




Then finally Belgium!! These waffles are delicious. It was raining pretty hard by this point so we ran over to France to stand under an awning, but in the process Emily nearly lost hers and ended up sticking her hand right into it haha.





We were so full at this point and rushed through most of what we wanted, I really wanted to see Anna & Elsa, so we headed back to Norway. Along the way we stopped at the refreshment port for the dole whip served with coconut rum! SO GOOD.
It was huge though, definitely should have shared but was expecting something smaller like what you get at Animal Kingdom.



There was no wait for Anna and Elsa, they made us take off our rain coats etc before meeting them haha. I forget what we talked about with them but Anna made sure to tell us what a beautiful day it had been in Arendelle haha.





We had just about 10 minutes before the park was closing so decided to rush over to Soarin. Emily and JP hadn’t been on before, I knew they’d love it. We made it just in time, again with no wait and it was so cool. I really love the new version!





When we got out the park was closed so we started walking back to the hotel. We had some snacks in our room but didn’t know what the food options would be like that night and next day, so we wanted to get an uber and go to walmart for drinks & food. We had no problem getting an uber and were off to walmart, but when we pulled in it was closed! There is a liquor store in the same plaza that was still open so we ran in there real quick, then our driver offered to drive us to Publix. When we got there, that was closed too! Our driver was so nice, our official uber trip was over but he wanted to drive us anywhere he thought may still be open (it was only 6pm – just light rain) but everything was closed. He also didn’t want to take any money from us. We still paid him of course, he did us such a favor trying to help.
So it was back to our resort and our lockdown began

 

[prfctlyximprct]

This is so interesting to read! As much as it must suck to have a hurricane literally rain on your parade, the fact that you are in Disney World making memories seems to make it a little better. You guys all have smiles and that makes me super happy! I love all your food and wine pics, definitely wanna try that lobster roll! Can't wait to read about the lockdown!

 

[LadyBelle]

This is definitely a trip to remember! Someday I'll make it down to the Food and Wine Festival.

 

[LeighM]

I love the imagination A lapu lapu fail?! Oh no, they're my favorite!
I promise I'm going to read your report soon!! I'm so far behind on everything

I read a lot about the Lapu Lapu leading up to that trip but I didn't know how strong it was. R had their Long Island Iced Tea, which was also really good. We had dinner at Ohana on our first day there, late at night, and we were both hungry. I had their bread and dip appetizer so the drink wouldn't go straight to my head but apparently it did not help. I got up to go to the bathroom and almost fell flat on my face and the room was spinning. I have a high alcohol tolerance too. Soon they called our name and all I wanted to do was sleep on the plate of noodles. The drink was deceptively strong LOL. It was so good and blended really well so I didn't really notice how generous the bartender was with the pours

I'm looking forward to seeing how your experience with the hurricane compared with mine. I couldn't help but shake my head at some of the people I came across...

 

[Tiggerish]

Enjoying this trip report! I didn't make it to F&W this year, so I'm doing it vicariously through you. Excellent choices so far.

I love staying at the Boardwalk for the ease of walking to 2 parks. I never take the boats! Your photos are fantastic, especially the ones of Wishes & MSEP.

It's interesting to see the hurricane preparations.

 

[samantha788]

This is so interesting to read! As much as it must suck to have a hurricane literally rain on your parade, the fact that you are in Disney World making memories seems to make it a little better. You guys all have smiles and that makes me super happy! I love all your food and wine pics, definitely wanna try that lobster roll! Can't wait to read about the lockdown!

I was getting so upset about the hurricane and questioning the trip before we left, I felt guilty for it but had to keep telling myself - it's still Disney World so we'll have fun no matter what
Lobster roll is so good!!

This is definitely a trip to remember! Someday I'll make it down to the Food and Wine Festival.

It certainly is! And I really love the Food and Wine festival. Emily, who is not at all an adventurous eater, loves it and is open to trying new and different things

I read a lot about the Lapu Lapu leading up to that trip but I didn't know how strong it was. R had their Long Island Iced Tea, which was also really good. We had dinner at Ohana on our first day there, late at night, and we were both hungry. I had their bread and dip appetizer so the drink wouldn't go straight to my head but apparently it did not help. I got up to go to the bathroom and almost fell flat on my face and the room was spinning. I have a high alcohol tolerance too. Soon they called our name and all I wanted to do was sleep on the plate of noodles. The drink was deceptively strong LOL. It was so good and blended really well so I didn't really notice how generous the bartender was with the pours

I'm looking forward to seeing how your experience with the hurricane compared with mine. I couldn't help but shake my head at some of the people I came across...

Oh my goodness! What a lapu lapu story. The one time my sister and I split one and it was really strong, maybe we had the same bartender

Enjoying this trip report! I didn't make it to F&W this year, so I'm doing it vicariously through you. Excellent choices so far.

I love staying at the Boardwalk for the ease of walking to 2 parks. I never take the boats! Your photos are fantastic, especially the ones of Wishes & MSEP.

It's interesting to see the hurricane preparations.

Thank you for reading and for the compliments! Even though it was raining, it was so fun running around the empty world stuffing ourselves with everything we wanted haha
We did end up going back on Saturday for a slower walk around the festival

 

[samantha788]

By this point it's around 6:30 Thursday evening, when we got back to our room this was waiting for us:


Any updates were done over voice messages on the in room phones, they were really on top of getting the latest messages out the best they could.

A little bit later, we decided to head down to the lobby and see what was going on, check out our food options and talk to the front desk about the hotel switch we were supposed to do tomorrow even though we were left voice messages to stay in our rooms.
Before leaving, I had read around to see what Disney had done in the previous closures. Several people had noted that characters would usually visit the resorts, so we were hopeful we'd maybe get to see someone.

When we got to the lobby this was the sign about food-

We were still pretty full from food & wine, so didn't really want to pay $23 for the dinner buffet. I'm glad we decided against it because the next day people in the elevator were talking about it and were not at all impressed by the options. They also left a message saying that we'd be able to order room service, so we looked at the menu later in the night and picked something to share. When JP called, they didn't have a full menu and really were only offering the $40+ steak. No thanks
We lived on nuts, bananas and chips for the night haha

Back to the lobby...
Chip & Dale were there! It was a funny interaction with them fighting over Emily & I








Then Goofy came out! Emily proceeded to tell him how much I love him and he proposed to me, I obviously accepted haha







After our character fun, we went to the front desk to ask again what to do about switching hotels, we were “helped” by a cast member, Amanda.

I should rewind some – earlier in between our time at Hollywood Studios and EPCOT when we stopped at the hotel, Emily & JP had their credit cards assigned to their magicbands and we asked that guy at the front desk if he had any insight on what to do about our hotel switch. He said he didn’t know yet and to check back the next morning.

So later when we were in the lobby, we wanted to ask again since some time had passed.

Amanda told us the choice was ours if we wanted to stay at The Boardwalk, they could find room available – may or may not be the room we were already in, and we would have to pay the difference in the rate we had from Saratoga, which was significantly cheaper than what we were paying at The Boardwalk. OR we could check out at 11 and wait around to see if/when they would let us leave the resort and go to the new one. She explained that this very well could have meant sitting in the lobby all day Friday and still not being able to leave and go to Saratoga since no transportation was scheduled to be running at all.

We were annoyed, we already paid a good amount for these rooms- we loved the boardwalk and were grateful to have the option to keep staying there, but we'd have to end up paying a decent amount for the difference for Friday night and then switch on Saturday for Saratoga. We sucked it up since that was the best option, the last thing we wanted was to be stuck sitting in the lobby all day Friday. She couldn’t advise on the room number staying the same or switching so we headed back to our room.

Back in our room, we snacked, drank, played a lot of silly little games, and watched the Disney movies they had running on one of their channels It really turned out to be a fun night with some quality time together

 

[samantha788]

FRIDAY – OCTOBER 7
Emily and I woke up early, I jumped out of bed to look outside and see what was going on. We all had changed our attitude from being disappointed about the weather to excited, me especially…we don’t get many hurricanes in NJ
I selfishly wanted to look outside and see palm trees sideways, heavy rain etc...
Instead…just a little rain and gusty winds haha. I fully expected this to be the case, but was still hoping for something a little more exciting.



We both wanted to go outside, even though we were advised not to, so we went
Sandbagging along the boardwalk stores.



It was windy but nothing really crazy, still cool to see. Since it was raining and we stupidly left our rain jackets in the room, we headed back inside. They had said that the Belle Vue Lounge would have some light breakfast offerings so Emily and I checked it out.
They had coffee, bagels, croissants, muffins, & cereal. We decided to sit and have a bagel, and Emily brought a muffin back to the room for JP.

We then went back to the front desk and try to figure out if we were staying in the same room or if we had to pack up and switch. We explained the whole situation to the women helping us, and she was so confused. Not by us, but by what we were told, and us having to pay the difference in hotels. She went and got a manager so he could get everything correct.
Even though we had told Amanda the night before, that we’d stay Friday and switch to Saratoga on Saturday, it was changed for us to be at the Boardwalk both Friday & Saturday, AND paying the difference for both nights, which is not what we asked for or agreed to.
He also was confused and said it made no sense what we were told. He knows the situation we were in, and leaving Friday to switch hotels was just not an option. He immediately said that we would be staying at The Boardwalk, in the same room we were already in, for both Friday & Saturday at the rate we already paid for Saratoga.
I don’t remember the names of the cast member and manager that helped us but THANK YOU! It was a total ease of mind.


We hung out in our room for a while before going back outside to look around. This was the trend all day, go in the room for a little, go back to the lobby and outside for a little.
JP was like, if you two were at home, you'd have no problem sitting on the couch watching tv and relaxing all day - why today when you are supposed to be doing that, are you so antsy?! hahaha. He's 100% right
So we went to the lobby and played a game of hide and seek.







Epitome of third wheel right here...


We were convinced the sign was for us - walking around in the same clothes for too long



During another trip to the lobby, Chip & Dale were back out! JP rolled his eyes when Emily & I begged him to stay down and take our picture hahaha. Again, they fought over us. I said I wanted to bring him with me and he started to walk away with me. His attendant said no, he had to stay and meet everyone else

 

[samantha788]

The Flying Fish had a lunch buffet so we went there. It wasn’t anything special and seemed a bit overpriced for make your own deli sandwiches, but definitely not complaining after hearing/reading some of the stories at other resorts.


[

While we were sitting there, there were rumors about transportation starting to run and Disney Springs opening that evening! Everywhere online that had said Fort Wilderness and Hoop Dee Doo would be closed through Sunday, had changed to just say through Friday.
I decided to give a call and see if maybe we could get a reservation at Hoop Dee Doo for Saturday. Sure enough, we could!! We were SO excited!

Then on our way back to our room, they were opening up the pool! This would be our next stop as we had been wanting to go down that slide for the last two days It's just as fun as it looks!

Emily had her timing off on her snapchats haha



Things were going in our favor again and looking up!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Don't know how I missed you starting this! You will not feel bad about eating so much once you see my report...we were major pigs! haha. Also, that elderberry stuff from Farm Fresh that you mentioned, we got that too and I think it was my fav beverage! I wasn't even sure I'd like it, but it was so yummy.

Love your pictures of the Boardwalk. I'm jealous you did the slide...I wanted to, but my husband won't swim with me, and I was too nervous to go down it alone. Dumb!

Also, so glad they worked it out where you didn't have to move or pay more! That did sound weird when I was reading it. I feel like Disney goes way above and beyond for people in situations like that, especially at deluxes. I mean, my goodness, you're paying enough already!

 

[LeighM]

Sometimes it sounds like you're writing parts of my trip bc they are so similar We didn't get letters at Riverside - maybe it's too big or something. I definitely can't complain about the food options at Riverside even though there were a lot of people that didn't know the lobby was open so they stayed in their room all day. I found it impossible to stay inside esp when I've seen worse storms. We would stay in our room for a couple of hours and watch Disney cartoons and movies then go back outside. I get really antsy when I'm stuck inside esp at WDW - it's just not natural

 

[LadyBelle]

FRIDAY – OCTOBER 7
Emily and I woke up early, I jumped out of bed to look outside and see what was going on. We all had changed our attitude from being disappointed about the weather to excited, me especially…we don’t get many hurricanes in NJ
I selfishly wanted to look outside and see palm trees sideways, heavy rain etc...
Instead…just a little rain and gusty winds haha.

You should have vacationed here in NC.

 

[Ciara]

LOVING this TR. Fun and interesting to read about you being there during the hurricane! Smh at Amanda... Disney should not make you pay more if they cant move you to where you were supposed to be. Glad the manager was able to work everything out!