Epcot Bench Talk

Usually we take some video during the entire length of our Disney trips. This trip was a little different.... We didn't really start filming until the end of the trip. Dave attributes this to always having something to eat or drink in his hand (it was a Food and Wine Festival Trip). We sat down on a bench in Epcot in the middle of the last day and recorded a recap (until that point) of our trip. Thrown in are some segments from the Magic Kingdom opening show, Festival of Fantasy Parade, Swan & Dolphin Food and Wine Classic, and other items. The rest of the post will include some talk about the Food and Wine Classic and some photos.

Swan and Dolphin Food and Wine Classic

One weekend a month the Swan & Dolphin hotels (on Walt Disney World property) hold their own food festival. You can choose to buy food tickets and pay as you go, or pay one price for full access from 5:30-9:00. The all-access price this year was $89. For an extra $20 we bought access to the beer garden, which gave us some added food items to sample like pretzels, sausages, and wiener snitchzel, plus 20 beers. Totally worth it. The festival price includes a plastic souvenir wine glass and the beer tent price included a festival plastic beer glass.

The set up was nice, albeit a little crowded at points. Food was easy to access the first half hour and last hour of the festival. Some of our favorites ended up being pasta dishes. Il Mulino's black pepper campanelle and Cabot's mac and cheese were delicious. The tacos were great and the fish and chips were cooked perfectly. In our video we show Dave trying the shrimp cocktail steamroller. The special food in the beer garden was delicious as well.

There was live music all evening with three bands taking the stage. One of the bands was a Frankie Valli tribute. Strange at first, but oddly enough enjoyable. Saturday (the night we attended) had fireworks for the hotels' 25th anniversary.

We tried a bunch of wines and found some we really enjoyed. The beer garden had a decent mix of beers that thankfully included some stouts and porters along with the pale ales.

The only downside to the evening was the weather. It was in the low 50's (which feels like the 20's in FL) with a wind kicking up at points. We went inside at several points to find some warmth. If we ever plan another trip for WDW this time of year we will be sure to try to book it for the weekend of this event. It was fun and a reasonable value for the quantity and quality of offerings.

Other Fun!

Upper-left is one of the Dawa Bar's (Animal Kingdom) new specialty Bloody Marys. There are four to choose from and this one included a beef jerky garnish. The upper-right drink is the Maelstrom margarita from La Cava in Epcot. Not worth it, but looks pretty. The bottom drinks are from The Brown Derby in the Studios. Holly got the martini flight and Dave got the Manhatten.

 

We were finally able to see The Festival of Fantasy Parade in the Magic Kingdom. This is a total overhaul of the former parade and is worth seeing multiple times. New floats plus a lot more street performers in between the floats. There were a ton of moving elements on the floats. Holly took this nice picture of the Frozen characters. The dragon shot is a screen capture from Dave's GoPro video.

 

New Shows at Epcot

We'll start with the positive. We walked by the new dance troupe in Morocco. Although we only caught a glimpse it looked like they were engaging the crowd. We wanted to go back and see the full show but they weren't performing again during the rest of our stay.

The flag wavers in Italy were somewhat interesting, but there's not a repeatability factor here. They were all from Italy and seemed very happy to be in Epcot performing. Worth seeing once. We have a longer video of the Flag Wavers we will release in the next few days.

The Lumberjack Show in Canada needs to go. Not just because they replaced Off-Kilter, but because it is an awful show involving chainsaws. We can't believe Disney removed live music for chainsaws and ax throwing.

Saw this at the Expedition Everest Store. Fun!

Our Test Track car. Dave largely responsible for the ugliness.

We watched Dream Along with Mickey from this angle. Holly enjoyed getting the characters to wave as they exited stage each time.

 

2014 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Wrap-up Part Two

In Part One of our Epcot's Food & Wine Festival wrap-up we went through the Discovery Passport pages covering the left side of The World Showcase. We'll continue on the the right side of World Showcase in this post. If you want to see good pictures of the food vs. Dave's awful photos check out The Disney Food Blog.

Items we had at Japan and Morocco were ok. The Gyoza was bland and did not come close to the goodness over at China. The Kefta Pocket might have been the better choice than the shrimp over at Morocco.

Belgium and Brazil were very popular booths. Holly enjoyed the Potato Leek waffle while Dave preferred the chocolate one. The beers offered at Belgium were a let-down since you can get them anywhere. Some non-generic Belgium beers would have been nice.

Flavors at the Brazil booth stood out. Great combinations. Of course we had overcooked fish and cold cheese bread.

France changed up the escargot this year. No more puff pastry. Instead they were served in a pie-crusty tart. Good, but not like before. The gratin was good, especially if you like mushrooms.

We skipped the Lobster Pie in Ireland since we've had it many times before and just needed a snack at the time we hit the booth. We went with the cheese. It was good - it was cheese.

We miss the chicken sausage from Canada. The beef was just  ok. We didn't get a medium-rare piece so it was a little tough and salty.

Our experience a few festivals ago with the griddle cheese was not very good. This time, things went just about the same. Just not good - and we got a cool piece. Greek food is just not for us.

But what is up our alley is pairing champagne with a Cronut (Croissant Doughnut). That was awesome!

The food at Puerto Rico had promise, but did not deliver. Blander than expected, but Holly loved the Mayo Ketchup served with the Frituras.

Last two:
Hawaii's Pork Slider was a repeater. The sweet and sour chutney was perfect for a pork sandwich. We skipped the beers here since we can get Kona at home.

In Scotland we really enjoyed the scallop. Finally, seafood prepared perfectly. We tried the barrel aged beer. It was good, but barrel aged beers tend to have too much of a liquor taste we don't look for in a beer.

Overall, the festival was fun. Having the Swan &Dolphin Food &Wine Classic to add-on to the weekend made the quick trip totally worth it. It may be a while before we make another trip down for the Food & Wine Festival because there is a large element of same stuff, different year. With Off-Kilter gone there's less of a reason to spend so much time wandering the Showcase. If you can time a favorite band with your visit that can change the whole way you experience the festival.

Bonus food: Our first night in town we stayed at The Animal Kingdom Lodge and dined at Jiko. This is one of our favorite restaurants. Holly stuck to our go-to items: wild boar tenderloin appetizer and the filet over mac and cheese. Dave also had the filet but went with the carrot soup with garlic ice cream for the appetizer. Everything was excellent as always!

2014 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Wrap-up Part One

While assembling this post we have determined he will never be a food photographer. When he actually remembered to take photos 1/2 of them were blurry or poorly lit, while the others are just meh. If you want to see photos of anything related to the festival, we (strongly) encourage you to check The Disney Food Blog for AJ's superior coverage.

One of our favorite things to do at the festival is to grab a free Festival Passport and collect all the stamps. To collect the stamps you need to visit each festival booth that lines The World Showcase; usually 24-27 of them. This year Disney threw in the existing counter service stops as well and gave them each one signature item. So now we have 34 stops. We considered this unfair and against the spirit of F&W. You do not need to buy anything to collect the stamps so we should stop complaining. After collecting all booth stamps you can get a completion stamp at the Festival Center.

We split the festival over two separate visits to WDW this year. The first visit we had items from about 1/3 of the booths and rounded out our passport in November. During the last trip we spent three afternoons/evenings at the festival and found we had more than enough time to hit all the booths. A good plan of attack for future trips would be to hit another theme park in the morning, then the festival in the afternoon and evening. Booth traffic was especially light during the last hour of park hours - perfect for dinner.

Eat to the Beat shows are fun and crowded. In September we had reserved seats for all three Hanson shows. In November we were scrambling to find two seats for 38 Special 25 minutes before show time. American Pavilion area was pretty busy during Boyz II Men (didn't bother for seats - listened to a few songs while sitting by the fountain).

It looks like the Flower and Garden Festival will see a return of the mini Food and Wine Festival.

Terra was the vegan booth - something we were not interested in. However, the Blackened Chick'n was one of the most flavorful items at the festival. The Paperboy red was like Greek wine: port with some water pouring in it - yuck!

We loved both the skewer and empanada at Patagonia. Dave actually called the empanada his favorite item (it was great as far as empanadas go).

New Zealand mussels were awesome. We really should have had a second helping. The bread crumbs put them over-the-top.

During the trip Dave had several iced coffees at Joffrey Coffee carts so that was the food item at all coffee carts that we tried.

Craft Beer was inside the closed Odyssey restaurant. They had a nice area set up with pub tables and smooth jazz playing in the background. Most beers here were easy to find in a grocery store so we didn't sample much. The muffuletta was ok, but the real winner was the snack mix.

Australia shrimp were good. Nice mix of everything.

The tacos in Mexico were really good, but not as good as the tacos at the Swan and Dolphin Food & Wine Classic (post to come).

We visited Farm Fresh many times. We got the hash twice - Great dish! This kiosk had two great beers - Uinta's Ba Ba Black and Duke's Cold Nose Brown Ale. Ba Ba is one of our favorites and Cold Nose has now joined that list.

We had China's Mongolian Beef twice and loved it (Dave got beyond the mayo). Black Pepper Shrimp was ok.

The Kimchi dog in South Korea was ok.

The beef in Africa wasn't as good as it was in other years - too salty. The bobotie was tasty and the wines were pretty good.  On our first visit the stamp was broken so a cast member signed our square.

We skipped the special items at The Refreshment Port and visits there were for Yuengling refills.

To try everything at Brewer's collection we shared two flights of four oz beers. One flight was the lighter beers and the other the darker beers. We enjoyed the darker flight.

Singapore's mahi had great flavor, we just got an overcooked portion.

The German bratwurst and pasta were our dinner after the marathon Hanson sets. We repeated the pasta another time because it was that good.

Poland - the sausage was good but the pierogi was similar to Mrs. T's.
In Italy we had the ravioli - they phoned it in.

Liberty Inn was a beer stop (who eats here?).

Five and Drum also a beer stop. We did try Hanson's Mmmhops. Ok for a Pale Ale, but we are not fans of the genre.

The Slider at Hops and Barley was decent and the we enjoyed the lobster pasta. Lots of pieces of lobster.

At Block and Hans we tried a wine for the fun of it. Nothing too exciting with the red blend.


That takes us 1/2 way around the World Showcase. We will follow up with the second half of the Festival Passport in another post. We'll close up with a quick review of The Hollywood Brown Derby patio in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

The patio is a separate seating area and small bar attached to The Brown Derby restaurant. A hostess will seat you. It seats maybe 30 or so people at a time. We just missed arriving at opening so no seats were available. We put our name on the list and timed it right to arrive back for a short table wait. The outdoor menu is more appetizer and sandwich focused, but you could order food from the inside menu. Since we were hitting the festival we split an order of waygu sliders. Excellent choice. We opted for two beef as opposed to one beef/one duck. Holly had the martini flight and Dave the Jack Diamond (a Manhattan). We look forward to future visits.

Epic Disney Weekend Day 3

The last three times we were in Disney Parks we were waking up early to get to race start lines. It was really nice to actually be able to sleep in until 7:15 each morning. Today's agenda wasn't as demanding as the previous day. Morning in the studios, afternoon in Epcot. Most of our morning would be occupied by Frozen Summer Fun and our evening by hitting the three Eat to the Beat Hanson sets.

Of course we had bus issues. "Let's walk to the main building". Along our way we were able to see buses for other parks go by, including one with no name listed. We decided we'd wait at the main building for a few minutes and get a cab if we had to. Luckily, that blank bus was actually heading to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Hooray! We got to the main gate with lots of time to spare and hold these stupid Olaf signs. After passing through the turnstiles we made our way towards the Sorcerer's Hat stage for the park's special opening show for Frozen Summer Fun. This involved some British guy on stage talking to Olaf on a Jumbotron while attempting to be funny.

After the fun we hit headliners - Rock & Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and Toy Story Mania. Fortunately Holly's gun was broken and we got a second ride around without waiting. Because of this Dave got his highest all-time score (213M - not great but great for him). The Frozen winter wonderland was still open (not the official name) as well as Wandering Oaken's store. The play area with the snow and ice skating rink were well done and a nice add-on unique activity.

We settled into a space on Hollywood Boulevard for the Frozen Processional. We had to guard the space with our lives since this was the last day of the parade and people were being pushy. The parade portion of the processional lasted about five minutes and featured some costumes and floats from the Magic Kingdom Christmas Parade. This was ok with us since we've never seen that parade live. After the princess and queen pass you sorta join a mass of humanity and shuffle up to the stage where the characters engage with the host and lead the crowd in a horrible rendition of "Let it Go". We skipped the sing-a-long show in the theatre since we were returning in November when that particular show will still be running.

Time to head to Epcot. We had just missed a boat and decided to wait for the next one. It took forever for another boat to arrive and took even longer for the boat to get just to the Swan. We decided we could race the boat to Epcot from there. Good news is we won. Bad news is we got real sweaty doing so (humid out there). We made our way to the Chase Cardholder Lounge in the American Adventure Pavilion. Chase credit card holders had access to a third floor lounge with AC, sodas, bathrooms, and a small cash bar. Disney Visa Cardholders could get wristbands for special seating to one concert and Illuminations fireworks. We obtained our second reserved seating for a Hanson set (the first one was obtained by booking a lunch package). We may have found a loophole and received reserved seating to the third show, but we didn't feel too bad about since we each have a Disney Visa Card account and could get two bands per card.

We booked our lunch package at Via Napoli. For $40/pp we could each have a soft drink, appetizer, main dish, and dessert. Way too much food but it drove us to try things other than pizza. The calamari appetizer was probably the best fried squid we've ever had! The meat/cheese plate was a nice small appetizer and easy to share. We split a pizza and chicken parmesan for our main courses and had gelato and zeppolis for dessert. Cocktails cost extra.

We walked off all the food by strolling the Japan Pavilion and getting beverages for the first show. Our dining package bands got us seats a few rows back in the second section, which were not undercover. It looked like there was going to be a chance the skies would open up on us, but we dodged that bullet!

Some of our friends thought we were kidding when we said we planned a Disney weekend around the Hanson Eat to the Beat shows, but we really did. Most people gave up on Hanson as a child novelty act after "Mmmbop". Dave stumbled on a Hanson video podcast a few years ago focusing on making an album and visiting South Africa ("Taking The Walk"). As adults they proved to be talented musicians and songwriters. You could classify their current music with groups like Train, Sister Hazel, Better than Ezra, etc. As an added bonus they have their own beer.

We saw all three sets and they exceeded our expectations. Friends we coaxed into watching the show were quite surprised at their talent level,  Hanson sang well and put the effort into making each set a show. During set one, some lady in the front section passed out. We got to see Disney in action and take her out in a stretcher. Impressive enough, Taylor Hanson stopped the show for a minute to ask the cast members if she was ok. Set two and three we were about four rows back thanks to the Chase Lounge access. There were a few repeat songs in the 35 minute sets but enough variety to keep it all interesting. The final song of the night was AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top".

When the last set ended it was almost time for the park to close. Luckily the Food & Wine booths were open until the last minute so we were able to get a sausage and schnitzel from the German booth just before they closed. We didn't bother with Illuminations and headed to Mouse Gears (the big store) for a last minute merchandise check before leaving the park. Luckily an Old Key West bus was at the stop waiting. We closed the evening spending some time at the little closet bar then walked back to our room. The next morning we got up early and headed home.

This trip proved you can really get quite a lot accomplished at WDW if you plan well and resign yourself to the fact that you will be exhausted.

Here's some video with more Frozen Summer Fun, Hanson, and general nonsense:

Epic Disney Weekend Day 1

When you wake up to the news that the Aurora Air Traffic Control center is shut down due to a fire you know some travelers are in for a rough day. The center is responsible for air traffic at both Chicago airports. Our flight to Orlando was leaving around 3:15pm so maybe the small fire and early morning disruption would be taken care of by then. As the day went on more and more flights were canceled. We headed to the airport thinking we'd end up on a canceled flight, work our refund with the airline, have a dinner in the Rosemont area, and spend the weekend at home. This was a bonus trip so it wouldn't be as crushing of a disappointment compared to other trips.

We saw something that gave us a little hope of leaving Chicago. One of the airport terminal transport cars was all decked out with signs, balloons, streamers, and pictures of cartoon characters. The signs indicated that three kids were on their way to Florida as part of American's Something Maagic Foundation program. We decided to check out our gate area and we were amazed by the transformation. When we saw what happened we realized there was no way this flight was getting grounded today.

The gate wasn't a utilitarian ORD gate today, it was a party zone. Balloons were everywhere and a red carpets were laid out in several places. Cakes were set on tables, each decorated with the child's favorite characters. We saw backpacks full of goodies hidden behind the desk. We were fortunate enough to be there to watch the families arrive and to help give them a special welcome. As time went on costumed characters and a magician showed up. This was a big day for these families, but also for everyone in the terminal. The Orlando welcome party was equally spectacular.

We landed almost on-time and hurried through the airport to our rental car. After some traffic we made it to our Disney World hotel, Old Key West. This property is an all Disney Vacation Club hotel (time share) built in the early 90's. The buildings are scattered across a large area of property and looks like a cute little town house complex. After check-in, we had a half mile drive to our room. We dropped off our bags and walked to the bus stop near the room. An Epcot bus arrived quickly. Yes! We are not heading anywhere near the exit. Aaargh! We had about ten more minutes of driving around property until we left the gates.

It was around 8:15 by the time we made it to Epcot. We rushed through Future World so we could get to The World Showcase and the Food & Wine Festival booths. Dinner consisted of items from Patagonia, Australia, New Zealand, Craft Beer, and Farm Fresh. After a few booths we figured it was time to visit La Cava del Tequilia for a margarita. To our shock, they were closed at 9:00. This gave us a chance to take our last ride on Maelstrom tonight vs. Sunday. Maelstrom recently closed down in order to be converted to a ride based on the movie Frozen.

After the ride we picked up a few beers from Farm Fresh, sampling Ba Ba Black and Duke's Brown Ale. A new rule at the festival is no more regular size beers are served at the cart so we had to inconveniently hold two-six ounce cups while we watched that night's performance of Illuminations. The globe was broken so the middle portion of the show was really boring.

After the show we headed over to Italy for tonight's special event. We reserved an Epcot Wind-Down at Tutto Gusto. The event isn't held every night and will only be around for a limited time. We were shown to a table (and most were taken) then handed the special menu. We were required to each pick a set food/wine flight pairing ($35 each) from a choice of four. After that, we could order any other drink or dessert item for its regular menu price. Essentially we each had a cheese, meat, and bread plate with a little variation between the two. It was fun to try a few different wines this way. After the main plate we got some more wine by the glass and some shot glass desserts that were very tasty.

We were one of the last tables to leave Tutto Gusto close to midnight. We expected to see a line of cast members with orange lights leading us towards the gate. Instead, we were allowed to walk unescorted to the front. We stopped to film, take pictures, and enjoy the ambiance of an empty Epcot. This was worth the price of admission. All of the area music was still playing at full volume. Bathrooms were open for our use. If we passed a cast member they just said hello and kept moving along.

We walked over to the bus area, told the cast member our hotel, and our private bus showed up in 5 minutes. Our day went from being an almost cancelled trip to a fantasic evening in Epcot. We were really lucky.

Here's some video from the evening including a little bit of Maelstrom and Illuminations:

 

 

Fall Full of Disney

In our house Fall is not welcomed. The weather gets colder (although this summer has been pretty darn cold), the daylight hours get shorter, and the boat gets put into storage for 7-8 months. The only redeeming qualities of fall for us is the start of the fall race / travel season and Oktoberfest beer.

In the next few months we have three separate trips planned to Disney Parks. All three weekends were chosen because of special events.  As luck would have it we stumbled into some added Disney bonuses (and by bonus we mean special events you pay extra for).

First, we are heading to California for a few days at Disneyland. It's their Half Marathon race weekend. Holly is participating in her first Dumbo Double Dare which consists of the 10K and the Half Marathon. Dave is being smart and sticking to just the 10K. We're looking forward to spending lots of park time especially since we were worn out from doing the Coast to Coast Challenge in a week last time we were there. Highlights of the weekend should include taking in those parks again, seeing friends, visiting Trader Sam's, and trying Disney Family Wine Flights at Alfresco Terrace. Oh yeah, and maybe the races.

Our third trip chronologically was booked a few months ago so we could visit during Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. This event is our equivalent of "Disney Christmas". 27 food booths surrounding World Showcase with tasty food, great wine, beer, and cocktails. Add to that all our normal Epcot favorites (La Cava del Tequila, Tutto Gusto, Rose & Crown) and 3 concerts nightly from a headlining band makes for a good time. Usually we attend one or two seminars or special tastings, but this time we opted not to because we are attending the one-weekend only Swan & Dolphin Food and Wine Classic . During this event you pay one price to sample different food and drink options in the causeway between the Swan & Dolphin hotels.

We were hoping for some bands we enjoy to perform at the festival while we are there but we ended up with 38 Special and Boyz II Men. That means more time will be spent at Off-Kilter.

That last paragraph leads to the reason why we booked our second trip chronologically. Based on history Hanson (of Mmmbop fame) should have played the weekend we were booked for F&W Classic but they ended up on the schedule a month earlier. Dave's been wanting to see Hanson at F&W (yes he likes their music and as adults they are a decent band and they have their own beer) so we pulled the trigger.

Because of this decision we get to do some events that aren't available in November. The night we arrive we will go to one of the last Epcot After-Hours Wind Downs. For an added price you get to stay in a selected Epcot bar 90 minutes after park closing for a snack and drinks. We will also get to see the Disney Frozen Summer Celebration at the Studios, which includes our first viewing of fireworks in that park. Another added bonus is we booked the Parisian Breakfast as part of Food and Wine Festival. That means lots of pastries, cheese, and champagne early in the morning. Holly has optimized our touring plans to see the new Magic Kingdom Parade, ride the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and visit with Anna and Elsa (a usual 3-5 hour wait).

Leaving Illinois in the fall for warmer climates should help to extend summer a little longer. We're looking forward to all the new Disney Park experiences.

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We have a Spotify Playlist with some of our favorite Hanson songs.  We loaded it in reverse chronological order so you can listen to their newest music first: