Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Epcot?

From this point on, we were in Epcot everyday for some portion of the day. It seems pointless to give the day-by-day blow for the Epcot portions of the trip. We'd repeat phrases like "...sat in La Cava de Tequila", "watched Off-Kilter...", "...Chicken sausage from Canada" way too much. We'll split this up into a couple of posts.

It's Food & Wine Festival. For several weeks Epcot has over 25 additional food and drink booths around The World Showcase. In addition, there are culinary seminars, special lunch and dinner events, and 3 sets nightly from a headliner music act. The whole low-down is listed at Disneyfoodblog.com. This is our favorite Disney event.

On three occasions we came into the park at opening time (called "rope-drop"). For us that meant walking really fast (never run) from International Gateway (by England) to Future World. For three days we were within the first dozen on line for respective attractions: Soarin',Epcot's Character Spot, Soarin'. Yep, we burnt Power Hour time on character lines. In total, we spent about 6 hours at Future World attractions. On this trip Future World was there to kill time before World Showcase opened.

One of the features of the Festival this year was Ocean Spray's Cranberry Bog. In some early photos this looked huge. In real life not so much. Not sure we'd wanna stand there all day.

Deminars

Since we had ample time this trip we went to a couple deminars: demonstrations/seminars. These were around $12pp and you got a glass of wine and featured food item you learned how to cook.

Our first one was will Bill Clark, Grand Floridian Pastry Chef. When we signed up it indicated it would be a cheese dish, which it was......but we were thinking cheese plate. Ended up being baked brie in a puff pastry. Nice.

A few days later we went to Jamie Deen's seminar on chicken. He's Paula's son. He was very entertaining and actually walked through the line to say hi to folks before the demo. Nice guy.

We also attended one special dessert/cocktail event called “Taste, Shake, and Indulge Like the French: Grand Marnier Tasting and Interactive Experience” . This event was $55pp.

The brochure described it this way: "showcases the talents of a Grand Marnier cocktail master. Included:
* Indulge in a glass of Moët & Chandon Ice Imperial, the first Champagne to be served on ice
* Sample Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge, Grand Marnier 100th Anniversary and Grand Marnier 150th Anniversary
* Savor Crêpes Suzette and dessert au Grand Marnier made by the Chefs of Bistro de Paris
* Mixology lesson

Dave describes the event as a "chance to watch older folks get looped after having a glass of champagne, 3 shots, and a cocktail in 20 minutes". The host, a French lady, was entertaining, but at times we felt truly regarded the group as ugly Americans and told us to leave our country more often. Dave liked everything, Holly did not enjoy the traditional "cheaper product". We loved the Moët Ice Imperial and had a friend bring us a bottle last week since we couldn't fit one in our luggage.



Next up we'll explore some of the food and drink from the festival booths.

Dave's Artsy Picture of the Day:

Ohana Means More than Family

Today we're off to The Magic Kingdom. We're not going to see much of it this trip because Epcot's Food and Wine Festival is not at The Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom is Holly's favorite park so our day started out with the Welcome Show in front of the train station. If you've never seen it here's a summary: A Citizen of Main Street comes out at 8:50 and welcomes you to a cute song about the park. Then some dancers come out and do a routine to some 1900's melodies. Next the train comes with some characters on it and a family of the day gets to stand with Mickey and open the park. If you want to be front-and-center for the show it puts you out for the Dumbo Dash. Why?

There are two narrow tunnels for the guests to use to actually get into the park. The farther you are from the tunnels the more people ahead of you. That means to make up for it you have to walk VERY fast (never run) to try and get on the first ride of Dumbo. This is a no-thrill ride, but it's quintessential Disney World. It's slow to load and does not hold many people. We trucked it and got on the 3rd running. Set us back by 15 minutes. Another reason to ride Dumbo nowadays is to get a view behind the construction wall to see the Fantasyland Expansion. Things are progressing......

The rest of the morning went well - crowds seemed low today. We even went on Tomorrowland Speedyway because it was a ten minute wait. We accomplished one big goal of Holly's: we met Buzz Lightyear. Usually it never works out.

We had a reservation at The Plaza at 1:15. This is an old-time themed restaurant in Main Street USA. We arrived on time and waited 25 minutes to be seated. Longest wait of the day. We're eating cheesesteak sandwiches at 2:00 and split a kid's dessert (so we can have a snack later).

The rest of the day went well. We got a lot more attractions in, did some good pin trading, and made a stop at Aloha Isle for Dole Whip (Holly) and root beer float (Dave). Since the Chicago Marathon was a week earlier Dave was used to working with his DSLR and not the instant camera that has a slight delay. Lots of blurry pics this trip.......

We left the park by boat and headed over to The Polynesian. Lots to do there. We started with a relaxing sit-down at their pool bar and tried Pipeline Porter: a coffee flavor beer. Nice. Then we toured the stores. We love their downstairs shop and The Wyland Gallery. Then we got some beverages from The Tambu Lounge and ended up getting our table at Ohana.

The good thing about Ohana is the food is very good and it's all you care to eat. The bad thing is they bring about 70 pounds of it to your table and you feel obliged to make a dent in it.

You start off with a nice salad and coconut bread. Then come potstickers, wings, and a ton of noodles. Next, the nice folks come around with 4 types of meats. You can't say no....... Then, when you are completely stuffed, the tasty bread pudding and ice cream comes.

Now stuffed, we make a stop at Tambu to pick up supplies for the beach. This is where we are watching Hallowishes from.  Hallowishes is a special fireworks show in The Magic Kingdom they show only nights they have Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Parties. It costs extra to get in those nights and we decided to skip the party this year. The special effect of the fireworks is the 180 degree feel when you are in the park. You feel like the fireworks surround you. From a distance you get a nice panoramic effect. Worth the watch from here (photo to the left is not mine). Found this good YouTube video from the same vantage point:


After the fireworks we took a monorail to the Magic Kingdom so we could transfer to a Boardwalk Bus. The next day was Food and Wine Festival Round 1. Time to re-evaluate those ADRs.

Dave's Artsy Photo of the Day

Pin Trading Update: October Hidden Mickey Pins

Back in August we posted about our love for pin trading in Disney Parks. Pin trading (and vinylmation trading) gives you a chance to have a scavenger hunt every day of your trip. We showed you what pins we were going for in the Hidden Mickey series (you can't buy these: can only get them through trading with castmembers) and we're happy to show you our progress after October's trip.

I'll be using photos from Pinpics.com to go over what we were able to collect.

Disney releases Hidden Mickey Pins 2 times a year. These pins were not available in June so this T-shirt collection was new for us. We were able to collect all ten (the Figaro is a variant)

These Figment Warhol-style pins were new this season as well. We got 3 of them.

These new pins were representing the UK Pavilion in Epcot (ignore the stupid princess pin). We got 3 of these in one shot thanks to a Tomorrowland cast member with a pocketful of traders and found the rest a couple days later.

We collected these 40th anniversary pins in June, but they released part two of the series recently and we were able to pick up the rest.

We were one away from our icons set. We found our closer, the sun from Gran Fiesta Tour, in the Mexico Pavilion. We spend a lot of time there because of the good shops and great tequila bar. Management seems to always give the staff there good pins at the start of the day.

We completed our Yeti and Orange Bird collections.

We needed three more DeeBees. Tower of Terror, Chimney Sweep, and Jack Skellington. No luck at all. While playing around on Pinpics.com Dave found out why...  These three were only released in Disneyland. Yeah, they do that sorta thing.

We did find pins from two Disneyland sets we wanted.  Dave found the engine to Casey Jr. And Holly found the tiki from the DL icon set.

Good thing we're going back in January to participate in our races, meet up with great friends, and share the in the accomplishment that we've helped to advance research to end breast cancer with Team AllEars.

We'll shamelessly remind you that you can still donate by clicking on the Donate link below.  Please add "Team AllEars - Team Tizzel" in the notes so they know whom sent you.

Donate


Don't forget the "Dress Me Like Duffy" Challenge.

Let the Adventures Begin

Dave has one comment about this day: "My ribs still hurt (three weeks later)".

Our first full day touring this trip was spent at Animal Kingdom. For the record: we like Animal Kingdom and spent a full day there (and didn't see everything). It's pretty, well-themed, and fun to walk around.

After Mickey and friends did their little show we followed a pretty standard touring plan. Expedition Everest, Kilaminjaro Safaris, Kali River Rapids, and Dinoland attractions.

This was the first time we've been on Kali in years. Since we are old and don't tolerate wetness, we wore ponchos. It may have taken longer to put those things on than the actual ride time itself. We forgot how short the ride actually was. Having folks throw buckets of water on us from a rooftop may have been more interesting.

After riding Triceratops Spin Dave wanted to go on Primeval Whirl, which is a small mouse coaster that spins. Holly did not want to go on it because the ride usually throws you around and causes some minor injury. Not this time. This time it was a major injury. As the ride ended and we headed to the station they threw the brakes on. Hard. Dave's lower-right ribs were thrown into the restraining rail. He let out a noise that was unearthly. We exited the ride and pulled over to inspect the wounds. No external signs of injury. We briefly discussed reporting it, but figured it would mean a ride to the hospital from the Reedy Creek Fire Department. We didn't take that chance. It's been 3 weeks now and the rib area is still tender.

The rest of the morning was spent on Dinosaur, watching Flights of Wonder (bird show), and touring The Boneyard. Lunch was at Yak & Yeti. We had a great meal there. Pot stickers, tempura green beans, honey chicken, and pineapple cream cheese wontons.

After lunch we spent time on the Maharaja Trail looking for Hidden Mickeys. Then we hit Everest and Dinosaur again and visited Pooh and Tigger. We took a trip to The Dawa Bar and watched the parade. Later, we visited Camp Minnie-Mickey for character pictures and ended our day with shopping and It's Tough to Be a Bug. Dave really likes watching the children scream in terror during this movie.


What didn't we do? Nemo musical, Festival of the Lion King, Pangani and Discovery Trails, and Conservation Station.

From there we took a bus to The Contemporary. We were in search of the Dulce de Leche cupcake at Contempo Cafe. It was pretty good. We did some shopping and found those cocktail glasses we mentioned in a very early post.




We hit The Wave for a few drinks then went up to California Grill for dinner and scored a window table for Wishes. Dinner included a zucchini blossom appy, filet mignon for Dave and halibut for Holly. We split the kid's sushi dessert which was candy and rice crispy treats made to look like sushi. Lots of fun.

We caught a Magic Kingdom bus back to The Boardwalk and finished the night at Bellvue. Great first day sans injury.

New Feature: Dave's Artsy Photo of the Day

"I Can Tell We're off to a Great Start"

Finally! It was time to start our long Walt Disney World trip. We were really looking forward to this one because it was our first long vacation since Dave's heart surgery in March AND it was the first time we could spend more than a long weekend at Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. We were also lucky enough to stay at Boardwalk the whole time and not have to switch hotels.

Upon arrival we needed the perfect precision. We were scheduled to land at 6:45. We had dinner reservations at nine at Flying Fish (which is at our hotel). Not a big deal. BUT we had to rely on Disney's Magical Express and then get to Epcot quickly to get our Tables in Wonderland card (it's a dining discount program that saves us tons of money).

Plane landed on time. Magical Express was delivering our bags, so no baggage claim. Got into our hotel bus line, which was long; a good sign we'd leave soon. But we were pulled aside as the only Boardwalk guests and made to board another bus with first stop at Pop. We were stop 3. Made it to the hotel by 8:05 and checked-in quickly. We dropped off our stuff, loaded the safe with our iPads, cameras, and gift cards (took advantage of a Sam's Club promo and got 10% kickbacks at Disney Store). We walked quickly to Epcot and got our discount card by 8:20.

Holly said, "Since we're here.....". In we went. The pre-Illuminations music was on and the park was pretty busy with a Friday night Food and Wine party. We got beers at Rose and Crown and listened to The Hat Lady play piano. We finished our beers within enough time to walk back for our ressie.

We sat and ordered our wines (tried the flights). A few minutes later Holly asked Dave if he had the safe key. The answer was no. Dave dashed back to the room, passing The Wyland Gallery. Of course our favorite artist, Dan Mackin, was there doing a meet and greet until ten. Nuts....going to miss it.

Dave gets to the room and sees the suitcases were delivered and the safe wide open. Seconds of panic.... All items accounted for. Phew. He runs back down the five flights and decides he has to meet Dan. Luckily, Dan had a free minute.

Dave made it back to the table and reassured Holly was everything was fine, but confessed to having to meet Dan. After a few minutes Holly took off for the gallery. Our poor waiter.
This was our third time at Flying Fish and the best meal we've had there. We shared an Asian inspired lobster appetizer, Dave had the pork and Holly had the fish special. Dessert was the banana Napoleon and the trio of Boardwalk treats.

So our first two hours were filled with manic and panic. Thank goodness for the relaxing Bellvue Lounge.