We're here for the food! Sept/Oct Trip report! (Updated 1/16)

[VAtink]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my very first trip report! Since I’m a newbie at this, please bear with me as I figure this out. Hopefully this goes smoothly!

So who am I? This is me:


I am Debbie, aka VATink. Waaaaay back in the day when I was in high school my nickname was Tink because I actually FLEW when I was competing in the long jump, and the name stuck (well at least I’ve decided to keep it).

My travel party? For this trip just my mom, aka the best travel buddy ever!

We left my dad at home for this trip after convincing him that ALL the food at food and wine would be spicy so he would hate it. Ok, little white lie, but he is super picky about his food and I’m 100% sure he would only like maybe 2 things at the whole fest. Don’t feel too bad for him though, he isn’t the biggest Disney fan (shocking I know) and would prefer to spend time at the CT casinos, so while my mom and I got our Disney fix, he got to gamble. Win for all!

Now for our trip. We have been talking for YEARS about going to food and wine, so it was pretty amazing to finally be going. We had to book dates based on my mom’s schedule since she still teaches and can’t just take days off whenever she feels like it. Fortunately the classes she teaches doesn’t meet on Friday, so we found a weekend where she had the Monday off and booked it then. She also ended up getting a day off for Thursday, which was really tough for her (not tough to get but she hates requesting days off). So we ended up going September 28th through October 3rd. We decided to stay at the Yacht Club because, 1. We love the YC/BC, 2. Stormalong Bay is awesome and 3. We could walk to Epcot AND Jellyrolls!

Next up - Day -1 (yup, that's a negative 1!)

 

[Brittni__duh]

Hello everyone! Welcome to my very first trip report!

Yay! I'm so glad to be following along. I love reading TR's from the very beginning and I also love reading about F&W

We decided to stay at the Yacht Club because, 1. We love the YC/BC, 2. Stormalong Bay is awesome and 3. We could walk to Epcot AND Jellyrolls!

The Epcot resorts are such a great choice for F&W trips! YC/BC is on the top of my resort wish lists. One day! I can't wait to see how you enjoyed it.

 

[annie170]

A mother-daughter trip sounds like fun! I'm also a teacher, so count me in!

 

[VAtink]

Spent a bit too much time last night trying to figure out how to set up a TOC, but I think I got it!

Table of Contents:
Intro​

Day -1 – Pre-trip excitement!

Day 1 (ok, should be 0, but I prefer 1) – We’re on our way to Disney World!

Day 2 Part 1 – Our first taste of Food and Wine!

Day 2 Part 2 – It’s Spooktacular!

Day 3 Part 1 – That's a lot of Tequila...

Day 3 Part 2 – Party Time!

Day 4 Part 1 – Did I mention I hate Elevators?

Day 4 Part 2 – So THIS is the rivers of light!

Day 5 Part 1 - Extra Early morning Magic!

Day 5 Part 2 - Little Food, Little Wine, A Whole Lot of Singing!

Day 6 – Back to Reality

Day sometime in the future - We're going BACK to Disney World! (coming much later)​

 

[VAtink]

Day -1 – Tuesday September 27th
Some Pre-trip Excitement!

After months of planning and weeks of drooling over Food and Wine menus we finally made it to the day before Disney!

It started off a fairly normal, maybe slightly more antsy, work day. But then, about an hour before I was planning to leave for the day I get a call from one of our clients with some awesome news. A job that I had submitted a proposal for the previous month had just been awarded, and we won! This is the first project I’ve ever won! As a bonus, they even accepted my proposal as is!

At this point I was bouncing off the walls, I’m going to Disney AND I won a project?!? So of course I had to become this person: “how am I celebrating my first project win? I’m going to Disney World!!!!” I’ve always wanted to say that, can’t believe I finally had a reason to!

Finally, it was time to head home for the day and do some last minute prep for my vacation. I called my mom on the way home (she lives up in MA while I’m down in VA) to tell her the good news and to verify her flight information. Since we were both flying JetBlue and our flights were scheduled to land within a few minutes of each other, I was planning on meeting her at her gate.

Well, apparently the day did not have enough excitement yet because everything was about to change!

After getting home and talking my pup for his walk, I sat down to watch the news. Btw, this is my dog Dug, named after the Disney Dug from Up!

I figured this day isn’t going to have fun Disney pictures so I might as well put in an adorable dog picture!

Anyways, so I’m watching the news and the weather comes on, and it does not look good. They were predicting over 6 inches of rain here over the next two to three days! That is a lot of rain for this area.

Now I have had the worst luck flying out from here, I don’t think I’ve ever had a flight that wasn’t delayed or cancelled due to weather, so this weather forecast had me a bit panicked, especially since the storms were supposed to start a few hours before my flight. Eek!

I called my mom and told her about the forecast and asked if she would mind if we tried to get earlier flights down so I could avoid the bad weather. Fortunately, she is well aware of my bad luck with flights and weather as she is usually the one waiting at the airport for me to arrive, so she was completely on board! Also very fortuitous, she found out that she didn’t need to teach the next day so instead of having to take an afternoon flight, she could fly out first thing in the morning!

So we called JetBlue to get things changed around. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to change my flight! I got on the earliest one they had which was scheduled to land around 11:30 AM…so much better than 6 something PM from the original flight! Plus it only cost $60 to change, which for peace of mind was well worth it.

My mom on the other hand did not have such good luck changing her flight. They quoted her over $200 to change to an earlier flight! She was not going to pay more than twice the original ticket cost just to get on that flight. They did inform her though that if she waited until midnight, she could change for $50. At that point it was almost 8, so she figured she might as well just wait until midnight.

So she called again right at midnight, and in the middle of the call her phone died! And I’m not talking the battery went dead, the entire Fios system went out! My poor mom, she was already panicking because of these last minute changes, and now she was without phone and internet so she couldn’t let me know what was going on! She does have a cell phone, but I swear it only gets signal when there is a full moon or something crazy like that. Seriously, this thing is from about a decade ago, I’m amazed it still sort of works. ATT has even contacted my mom asking her to trade it in for a new one!

Well, good thing it must have been a full moon that night because that little cell phone worked for once and she was able to change her flight. Phew!

The new flight timing worked out really well for us, my flight was scheduled to land only about 15 minutes before hers, so we could keep our plan of just meeting at her gate.

At some point during the flight changing madness I had run Dug to the boarding place since I wouldn’t have time the following morning with my new early flight. So happy they had room for him to stay that extra night!

All I can say is what a day! Those were some pretty big ups and downs, but in the end it all worked out and we were soon on our way to Disney World!!!

Up next: Day 1 – We’re on our way to Disney World!

 

[nevadaone]

Looking forward to the report, heading down in 2 weeks for our first F&W!

 

[VAtink]

Day 1 – Wednesday September 28th
We’re on our way to Disney World!

Being the night before our Disney trip I could not sleep at all. I’m sure many of you have experienced this! It’s just so exciting!

So when my alarm went off nice and early I bolted out of bed. It was finally time!!!

I made it to the airport about an hour before my flight, got through security in less than 10 minutes and headed to my gate. I love flights down to Orlando, the gate area was full of people wearing Disney shirts and everyone seems so happy! I mean, it makes sense, from the moment I wake up on my travel to Disney day I cannot wipe this goofy grin off my face!

After a short wait we started boarding for the flight. They announced that we would have an early departure! Yippy! Sure enough, the flight was loaded and pushed off about 10 minutes before it was scheduled to depart. Happy dance time!

…but then we just sat. And sat some more. Eventually the pilot announced that just as we pushed off they got word that all flights heading south were on hold since there was a storm on our take off path. Ugh. My bad flying luck strikes again!

We ended up taxiing to a holding area to wait for the OK to take off. It wasn’t a horrendous wait, only about 40 minutes (I’ve had a lot worse), and soon we were on our way to….Ohio!

Haha, yup, apparently the storm was so big that we flew due west for the first 45 minutes of the flight. I was watching the flight path on my tv and was starting to get worried the pilot thought we were heading to Disneyland instead of Disney World!

Eventually, we did turn south around the Ohio/Kentucky boarder, but it did add quite a bit of time to the flight. Originally it was supposed to only be an hour and 52 minutes, but it ended up being closer to 2.5 hours. Not a big deal though, we were heading to the happiest place on earth, nothing could bring me down!

Somehow even with the delays, we only ended up arriving about 45 minutes after the scheduled arrival time, and I was off the plane by 12:15. I immediately headed over to my mom’s gate and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, I arrived just as people from her flight were coming out.

Now, she had told me previously that she was in row 8, so I expected her to be off the plane fairly fast. But after way more than 8 rows of people had come out and still no mom, I started to get worried! Did she somehow sneak past me? Is she wandering around the airport looking for me? I ended up calling her cell, which of course didn’t work (seriously, she really needs a new phone). Finally, after a few worried minutes I see her! She was one of the last people off the plane! Turns out when she switched her flight, she was bumped from row 8 to row 26.

We were finally in Orlando!

We quickly made our way to DME, and ended up being the first people in line for our bus! Annnnnd then we waited. Again. Considering we didn’t go on any rides this day, it’s kind of shocking how much waiting we ended up doing. By the time our bus arrived we had waited more than 30 minutes, and the line behind us was ridiculous, I doubt all those people could fit on one bus.

One thing that I found amusing was how chilly it was when we went outside to get on the bus! I was expecting heat and humidity, but when we stepped outside we were hit with more fall in New England weather. Crazy!

We ended up sitting in the second row of the bus, with all our carry-ons piled on top of us. I think we looked a bit ridiculous because the bus driver pretty much begged us to let him take some of our bags. We’re stubborn though and wouldn’t let him, we wanted to be able to make a quick escape from the bus once we arrived at our resort!

After everyone was loaded on the bus, our driver went through the stops we would make, Caribbean beach, Boardwalk, Beach Club, then finally, Yacht Club!

The bus ride wasn’t bad, and soon we were pulling up in front of the Yacht Club! It was right around 2PM when we arrived. My mom and I were the first off the bus and were immediately greeted by a cast member with a tablet. She asked if we had done online check-in, and we told her we had, but since our room wasn’t ready yet she escorted us to the front desk to see if they could find a different room that was already ready. Lucky for us, they had a room ready!

We got our room assignment (3038), then headed to the store to pick up some water, sunblock, and a journal so I could take vacation notes! At last it was time to see our home for the next few nights!

Here is our view:

Our room was nice, looked out over the quiet pool, and was super quiet. It was pretty far from the lobby though, but the secret entrance was just at the end of our hall so the hike wasn’t horrible to get to the pool or buses.

After a quick unpack, we decided to do something we never do our first day. Relax!

Yeah, we’re bad at that. Usually when we arrive we immediately head to a park for some fun, but this time around we decided to head to the best pool ever, Stormalong Bay! It was such a great way to start the trip, and the place was empty. I have never seen it so empty, although we usually go in June or August so that’s probably why. Also, it was oddly chilly that day. When we got out of the water it was too cold to sit out.

After about an hour of wiggling our toes in the sand bottom, we found ourselves to be thoroughly waterlogged, and decided to head back to the room to shower and make plans for dinner. By the time we were ready to head out it was around 4PM, and neither of us had ate since around 6 that morning, so we were getting super hungry. Since we arrived so much earlier than originally planned, we hadn’t had dinner reservations planned, so we just headed down to the Crews Cup Lounge to grab some food.

Crews Cup Lounge is nice, very low key and has a good beer selection. I got the grapefruit beer while my mom got an amber ale. I also got the beef sandwich and my mom got the chicken sandwich. Both were good and just the right amount of food. We were so hungry we completely forgot to take pictures though! Oops!

Fun fact, I've been rowing for the past 15 years, and this oar has the same design as the club I row at now!

Here I am outside of the lounge. Notice there is no one around? I've never seen this place so quiet!.

After our early bird dinner we headed out to take pictures around the hotel and the boardwalk.

Look at all those empty chairs!

It was such a beautiful day!

How could you not love these resorts? They're just stunning!

Friendship Boat!

Kinda love this sign.

We eventually made our way over to Abracadabar on the boardwalk and decided to stop in for some drinks. It’s a really cool place, and the drinks were great! I had the Parlor Trick and my mom had Collin’s Double. It was the perfect way to wind down the day.

Inside of the bar:

The drink menu:

When we left Abracadabar it looks like a storm was coming, so we decided to head back to the hotel and rest for the evening since we had plans to get up nice and early the next day. On the way back we swung by the Beach Club marketplace to pick up some OJ, milk, and some yogurt for the morning then made our way to the room to watch some TV and turn in for the night. It was a great first day, and we’ve decided from now on instead of running to a park the moment we arrive, we’re going to do a relaxed day like this we enjoyed it so much!

Next up - Day 2 part 1!

 

[Lily13]

Spent a bit too much time last night trying to figure out how to set up a TOC, but I think I got it!

Table of Contents:
Intro​

Day -1 – Pre-trip excitement!

Day 1 (ok, should be 0, but I prefer 1) – We’re on our way to Disney World!

Day 2 Part 1 – Our first taste of Food and Wine!

Day 2 Part 2 – It’s Spooktacular!

Day 3 Part 1 – How much can you eat today?

Day 3 Part 2 – Party Time!

Day 4 Part 1 – Extra Early Morning

Day 4 Part 2 – Of course I can eat more!

Day 5 – Is it time to leave already?!?!​

Following along! I am loving this! Although I can't get your links to work starting on Day 2 Part 1? Maybe it is me or my computer?

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in! So glad your flights worked out for both you and your mom Would love to stay at the Yacht Club one day - we always stay at BWV and dine at Yacht and Beach club restaurants. Next trip I'm convincing my family to stay on the other side of the lake!

 

[VAtink]

Following along! I am loving this! Although I can't get your links to work starting on Day 2 Part 1? Maybe it is me or my computer?

Haha, well 99% of the time I would say it's something I did, but for this case I haven't gotten around to writing anything beyond the first day. Keep an eye out tomorrow, my goal is to do at least one post per day!

 

[VAtink]

Joining in! So glad your flights worked out for both you and your mom Would love to stay at the Yacht Club one day - we always stay at BWV and dine at Yacht and Beach club restaurants. Next trip I'm convincing my family to stay on the other side of the lake!

I definitely recommend it, the YC and BC have been a favorite for years. The pool is just amazing, we love it so much. Although we would love anything in the Epcot area, having the easy access to the Boardwalk and Epcot make such a big difference for us!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2 Part 1 - Thursday September 29th
Our First Taste of Food and Wine!

We woke up super early this morning since our plan was to get to the extra magic hour at Epcot before getting into the Food and Wine offerings. We had our fastpass scheduled for Soarin’ at 9:15, and the only other ride we really wanted to get on before eating was Test Track since we had yet to see the new version. Since we had the fastpass and only one other ride to get on, we decided to forgo our usual rushing and take a nice leisurly stroll to the International Gateway taking pictures along the way.

Here are some of the shots we took, it was an absolutely beautiful morning!

We eventually made to the International Gateway, and even though it was pretty close to the early opening, the place was empty. Look at the light shining through the trees here, so pretty!

Soon after arriving the cast members started letting those with ADRs in, and shortly after that they let the rest of us in! Security was very thorough, they dug through everyone’s bag, going into each pocket. Plus everyone coming in through IG had to go through the metal detector. It wasn’t a big deal though, the crowds back there were so light it didn’t take more than an extra minute to make it through. The security guys were also super nice, they were joking around with everyone in line and couldn’t have been nicer!

My mom and I decided to head over to Test Track, but we took our time and took pictures of the empty World Showcase on our way. It was so nice not having to rush, we have never had such a laid back approach to a Disney vacation!

We arrived at Test Track around 8:15, and were off the ride by 8:30, so even with our slow stroll through the park we hardly had any wait at all. We really liked the new version of this ride, although it turns out we’re horrible a designing cars. Look at this crazy thing!

Notice the side mirrors? Yeah, somehow they ended up on top of the car! HA! We decided to make it yellow because that’s my dad’s favorite color and snapped a picture to send to him. He actually thought it looked good, but I suspect he was just trying to be nice!

Little PSA here, if you have long hair, put it up before getting on this ride! This is pretty much what my hair was doing throughout the ride:

After Test Track we wandered over to the Land to ride Living with the Land. I don’t know why we enjoy this ride so much, but we really do. It was completely empty and we had a boat with only one family, so the cast member put my mom and I in the back row and the other family in the first row, so it felt like we were all by ourselves! One thing I found pretty cool was there were actually people working in the greenhouses this time around. I’ve never seen that before!

Once we got off Living with the Land we still had about 20 minutes until our fastpass for Soarin’, so we decided to head over to the Character Spot to say to Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. They’re all so sweet. I love meeting those guys!

It was finally time for our fastpass when we got done meeting the characters, so we headed back over to the Land. We walked right on with our fastpass and soon were flying! I’m torn about the new video. The quality is significantly better, the other version looked like there were actual holes in the film, but I kind of preferred it just being over California. We still had a great time, it has been and still is my mom’s favorite ride. By the time we got off, the standby line was over 60 minutes! When we first entered it was only 15 minutes! I’m amazed how quickly it filled up!

After Soarin’ we made our way over to the festival center to do some shopping. We picked up a bunch of stuff to give each other for Christmas, then wandered around the festival center a bit. The chocolate sculptures in there were definitely a favorite. Look at these things! I’m so amazed!

We still had some time after visiting the festival center before food time, so we stopped by the photopass photographers to get some awesome shots!

At last it was getting close to food time so we started making our way to the first booth we wanted to try, Canada! We originally had planned on getting the soup and the fillet, but by the time the booths opened up for the day it warmed up enough that warm soup didn’t sound appealing. So we ended up both getting the Fillet Mignon and the Apple Ice Wine. The fillet was amazing. Tied for first with the short ribs from France (I’ll get to those later). The Apple Ice Wine was good but, um, minuscule. It was such a tiny glass, it looked like it belonged in a doll house!

The Fillet Mignon and Apple Ice Wine from Canada:

There were a bunch of tables set up right next to the Canada booth and all were in the shade, so it was a nice place to stop and eat. We never had any issues finding tables to eat at, and only on the weekend did we have issues finding a table in the shade. During the week though there were plenty of shady tables to eat at.

Once we finished up our food from Canada, I swung by the refreshment port since it was right there to get a Dole Whip with Rum! It was soooo good, and they did not skimp on the rum! The cast member just kept pouring it in!

Next we headed over to the Chew and Greenhouse Guru area. I ended up getting the Grilled Beef Skewer from the Chew, my mom was originally planning on getting the Ravioli, but felt that it would be too filling at that point so just shared the skewer with me. It was good, but not nearly as good at the fillet from Canada. You can see the Dole Whip in this picture too.

Grilled Beef Skewer from The Chew Collective and the Dole Whip:

Afterwards my mom really wanted to try the Beet Salad from Farm Fresh, so we made our way over to that side of the park. I ended up getting the Chicken and Dumplings while she got her Beet Salad. I wanted to get the Mac n Cheese as well, but after the chicken and dumplings I realized it would have been too much food. The beet salad was on the small side, but the chicken and dumplings was a lot of food. I really enjoyed the chicken and dumplings, but it was very heavy and filled me up quite a bit. My mom loved the beet salad.

Beet Salad from Farm Fresh:

Chicken and Dumplings from Farm Fresh:

At this point we were getting pretty full, so we decided to start heading towards the IG for our daily pool break. On the way we stopped by the Patagonia booth though since my mom had her eye on the Salmon, and I wanted to try the Beef Skewer. We of course shared our dishes, and I ended up liking the Salmon a lot better than the beef skewer! I think it’s because I was comparing all the beef dishes to the fillet from Canada and seriously, nothing could compare (yet).

Beef Skewer from Patagonia:

Salmon from Patagonia:

Mom showing off her Salmon dish:

Here I am showing off my Beef Skewer (although I wish I got the Salmon instead!):

After finishing up our Patagonia food, we continued making our way towards the exit, until I came up with a brilliant idea! My mom had been saying for the weeks leading up to the trip that she really wanted to get a snake bite (the drink, not an actually living snake bite!) again since she had one in Disney a few years back and really enjoyed it. So as we were making our way past Rose and Crown I suggested we stop in for some drinks! At that point it was getting pretty warm out and a nice cold beer sounded amazing. I was shocked when my mom actually agreed that she liked that idea! (She typically doesn’t like drinking during the day). So in we went. Our timing was pretty awesome since we got there just as a couple were leaving a bar table, so we sat right down! I got a Harp and my mom got her Snake Bite. It was a great pit stop.

Our fantastic drinks:

We stayed there for a while enjoying our drinks and the AC. While there my mom decided that she wanted to swing by France on the way out to pick up a pastry for breakfast the next morning, so once we wrapped up at Rose and Crown we made our way over to France. Of course we had to stop at the photopass photographer on the way!

At France we picked up a chocolate croissant for breakfast, I have never seen the bakery so empty! There was no line at all! This traveling in the fall is amazing, the crowds were so much lower than what we were used to! We finally made our way towards the exit after that and soon after were heading down to the pool for our daily swim!

Once again we had the pool to ourselves. It was fabulous! Unfortunately it did start raining about 15 minutes after we got there though, but we figured we were already wet and as long as it wasn’t a thunderstorm we’d be fine. It did eventually turn into a thunderstorm after about 40 minutes so we got kicked out and went back to our room to rest and get ready for….Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Up Next – Day 2 Part 2!

 

[VAtink]

Little aside, after telling my dad all about our trip and how awesome it was, he has decided that we need to head back sooner than later and bring him! This is perfect since we have a nice discount on the hotel AND because of a little snafu on the flight home I have a nice JetBlue credit to use!

So the big news of the day is...We're going back to Disney World!

We're either going to go in January or sometime in the spring...depends on my moms schedule. I can't believe I'm going twice in a matter of months! I feel like I won the lottery!

 

[annie170]

I've never stayed in an Epcot resort, but I can't imagine a better way to start the day than your leisurely stroll to the International Gateway and through World Showcase.

I love the Food & Wine Festival and your samplings looked delicious.

 

[VAtink]

I've never stayed in an Epcot resort, but I can't imagine a better way to start the day than your leisurely stroll to the International Gateway and through World Showcase.

Yes! It was so nice taking our time and just enjoying the views on the way over. It did feel odd not rushing since we've always rushed at Disney, but it turns out we prefer the slower pace! We need to remember this for future trips!

I love the Food & Wine Festival and your samplings looked delicious.

Thank you! We loved the food, I wish we could have tried more of it. We'll have to come back next year to try more!

 

[Brittni__duh]

Little aside, after telling my dad all about our trip and how awesome it was, he has decided that we need to head back sooner than later and bring him! This is perfect since we have a nice discount on the hotel AND because of a little snafu on the flight home I have a nice JetBlue credit to use!

So the big news of the day is...We're going back to Disney World!

We're either going to go in January or sometime in the spring...depends on my moms schedule. I can't believe I'm going twice in a matter of months! I feel like I won the lottery!

Yay! I love Disney in the spring. The Flower and Garden festival is beautiful.

 

[VAtink]

Yay! I love Disney in the spring. The Flower and Garden festival is beautiful.

That's so good to hear! I've never done a spring trip before so I'm not sure what to expect. Is there a lot to do at the Flower and Garden festival? We love Epcot, so I suspect any special event there we'll enjoy. Especially if there is food

 

[Brittni__duh]

That's so good to hear! I've never done a spring trip before so I'm not sure what to expect. Is there a lot to do at the Flower and Garden festival? We love Epcot, so I suspect any special event there we'll enjoy. Especially if there is food

It's like a mini Food & Wine. There are some special booths, but not nearly as many. Usually between 10-20. And there are a lot of beautiful flowers and topiaries all throughout Epcot.

 

[VAtink]

Day 2 Part 2 - Thursday Sept. 29th
It’s Spooktacular!

After showering and resting we got changed into our costumes for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party! I went as the Cheshire Cat while my mom was a Mardi Gras Witch. Since we only brought carry-ons down we didn’t have room for any big costumes so we made do with little things like my cat ears and her witches hat.

Here’s our costumes:

At about 3:30 we headed out to the bus stop to catch the bus to Magic Kingdom! We got to the stop at 3:35 and the board said the bus was arriving at 3:36. What amazing timing! In fact, we had great timing with the buses almost all trip, only once did we have to wait more than 2 minutes!

The bus arrived right on time and we all piled on. It was great to see everyone else’s costumes. Some people really went all out! When we got the beach club stop a family dressed up as the characters from Alice in Wonderland got on and sat right across from us, and the daughter couldn’t help but notice that my costume fit right in with her families! It was so cute!

We got to Magic Kingdom right at 4:00, and headed straight to the security check point....and proceeded to wait in the longest line we would see that night. It took about 30 minutes to get through security, but once through getting our wrist bands took a hot second and we were off to races!

Of course we had to stop at the photopass photographers on our way in though. We’re slightly obsessed with them!

One of the photographers by the castle noticed that we had the party wristbands but not the trick or treat bags, and told us that we had to go pick them up and instructed us where to go. It was so nice of him, no one at the front of the park or the entrance ever mentioned this to us, so it was greatly appreciated!

After our magic shots and picking up our treat bags, we made our way to the first ride of the night…Space Mountain! Since it was still pre-party time there was still a line, but it only took about 20 minutes to get on the ride…and for the first time EVER I got the red card! Actually, my mom got it, but not understanding what it was she made me carry it. Haha.

After Space Mountain we headed over to the People Mover for a more relaxed ride for my mom. She doesn’t really like Space Mountain so wanted to hop on something a bit tamer.

Next up…more photopass photos! See, we really are obsessed.

Once we were able to tear ourselves away from the photographers, we strolled through frontierland checking out the Halloween decorations and taking pictures. We made our way back to Fantasyland where we decided to hop on It’s a Small World for a quick ride before dinner.

We hit a little snag here. Our dinner reservations were at 6:30, and we got on Small World just before 6:00, so I figured we had plenty of time. Until…Small World stopped moving. After sitting there for a while my mom started getting very worried since she HATES being late to things so started asking me every 30 seconds what time it was. I fibbed a bit to keep her calm and told her it was only 6:10 when in reality it was after 6:20! We did eventually move and got off the ride at 6:25. Good thing the restaurant was right around the corner!

We quickly made our way over to dinner at Be Our Guest! We got to the check in right at 6:30 and they took my cell # and told us to go wait on the bridge for a text to tell us it was time to be seated. It took a while for that text to come in, and we weren’t seated until after 7:00.

I was surprised how few people that were being seated had party wristbands, I had read on these boards that only people who had party tickets could have reservations that late, but it seems that wasn’t the case that night. The people at the table next to us did get escorted out of the park when they wrapped up their meal, so Disney was good about keeping non party people out.

I ended up getting the chicken and my mom got the ratatouille. We both enjoyed our meals, and then for dessert we got the special pumpkin cupcake and of course we had to try the grey stuff! We both ended up liking the pumpkin cupcake a lot better than the grey stuff!

Here's the pumpkin cupcake:

By the time we wrapped up dinner it was almost 8, we had planned on being done by 7:30 so as not to miss a whole hour of the party, but due to the delay in getting seated we did end up missing the first hour. No worries though, as you’ll soon see we had more than enough time to do everything we wanted to do! Of course on the way out we had to get a picture with the Master

From dinner we headed over to the Haunted Mansion, we figured it was the perfect way to get in the mood for a spooktacular evening! The cast member costumes were so great! We loved it all! Of course after the ride we had to stop by the photopass photographer!

Next up was Splash Mountain! Now this is my mom’s favorite MK ride, and I love it too. So we were thrilled to discover there was NO ONE, and I mean absolutely no one there! We had the log all to ourselves, and all the logs around us were empty. I’ve never seen it like this, it was fantastic!

Here’s our first Splash Mountain Picture of the night:

We had hoped that after the ride the cast member would let us stay in our log and go for another ride, but right as we returned there was one, seriously, only one person waiting, so the cast member told us we had to get out to let this one guy ride. We were bummed, it was a long walk to get back on! That guy could have gotten into the log behind us, or joined us in our almost empty log, there was still absolutely no one else around! Oh well, done with my first world problem rant.

So we begrudgingly got out and made our way back through the queue to ride again…but this time oh no, the horror! There were people there! Apparently one of the shows had just wrapped up so people had made their way over to Splash. I can’t really complain though since we didn’t actually have to wait, we just had to share a log, which I guess wasn’t too horrible. (totally being sarcastic btw!)

After riding Splash again, we rode it again…and again, and again. We never once had to wait, it was great!

Here are some of our Splash pictures:

After about six rounds on Splash we were sufficiently drenched, so decided to try out a different ride to dry off a bit. We ended up heading over to ride Space Mountain again, this time there was zero wait. We really loved being able to walk on to all these rides!

Next up we decided to go play a round on Buzz, and for the first time ever I won! My mom always wins, so this was pretty exciting!

By the time I was done celebrating my win, the fireworks were starting in about 20 minutes, so we went over to the Hub to see if we could find an ok viewing spot (we figured being that late an OK view was the best we could expect).

After making our way around the Hub I saw an empty spot at the fence along the walking path on the way to frontierland. I asked the woman there if she was saving it for anyone and she said no, yay! So I stood there and waiting for my mom to join since she had fallen a bit behind me. Unfortunately, just before she arrived, this other woman showed up and actually pushed me over to shove her family in the spot I was saving for my mom! When I told her I was saving that spot for my mom she just ignored me. Ugh, people these days.

Fortunately, a family that was standing on the other side saw what happen and was so amazing and told me they were leaving so offered up their spot. Love people like that, thank you unknown family! We gladly took it and got ready for the show. Soon after the fireworks started and it was AMAZING. Oh my goodness, I could watch those every night of the year.

After the fireworks we headed over to Pirates, and walked right on yet again! We had a boat completely to ourselves too. I have never experience such empty rides at MK before!

Once we finished up on Pirates we knew where we had to head next….Splash Mountain! (Yes, again)

On the way we of course had to stop for a photopass photographer!

When we got to Splash Mountain it was completely empty again, and even better, when we came to the unload area the cast member actually asked us if we wanted to stay on and ride again! Um, do you even have to ask? Of course we do!

Some more Splash Pictures:

We rode it a few more times without getting off which was amazing, but finally it was coming up on the time for the second parade, so as hard as it was to pass on another Splash trip, we decided to get off and find a spot for the parade.

When we got off Splash, the parade was scheduled to start in about 10 minutes. We somehow ended up with a great viewing spot though. We were right in front of Splash, behind a family who were all sitting down and right next to a rope they had put up to keep the crowds out of a cast member area. So no one was standing in front of us or next to us, and it was right at the beginning of the parade! Such a great spot.

I do have to admit, I feel horrible about what happened next. We were standing just behind this family sitting on the ground who clearly had been waiting for some time. Well, just after the parade started these teenagers came from behind us and squeezed in between us and the sitting down family and filed in next to the rope completely blocking the sitting families view of the oncoming parade. Since the sitting family was right up next to the rope, these newcomers had to actually push the rope over to stand there. It was kind of ridiculous, and I was a bit annoyed at the ten or so cast members standing there who didn’t say anything. We had unfortunately thought when these people pushed up that they were with the sitting family, but we realized too late they were not. They didn’t ruin our view, but I really wish we did stop them from pushing through and ruining that other families view! One of the guys on the ground looked so upset throughout the parade, I felt horrible for him!

The parade was fun, but I did prefer the fireworks. After the parade finished instead of fighting the crowds we decided to ride Splash Mountain, yet again. I think that was our last ride though, by then we were soaking wet and exhausted. We decided before the party ended though we should try some trick or treating! Our first stop was right there by Splash mountain. It was about 11:45 at that point, and when we got there we were the only ones in line. The cast member giving out candy says to us “I’m going to make sure you get your money’s worth” and then proceeds to put about 5 full handfuls of candy in our bags! That one stop almost filled up the whole bag!

We decided to slowly make our way to the exit and stop by any trick or treating places we saw on the way out. We ended up stopping at 3 more, and by the time we left our bags were overflowing. Seriously, if you can, go at the end of the night, they give out so much candy! At one stop just as we arrived a cast member was dumping a big box of candy in the bucket and another cast member who was handing out the candy commented “Challenge accepted, hand out ALL this candy in less than ten minutes!” Ha!

We finally made it to the front of the park, took one more photopass picture (of course). Notice we're soaking wet from all those Splash rides! Haha!

We finally made our way to the bus stop. This was the only time this trip we actually had to wait more than a minute or two for a bus. It ended up taking about 35 minutes. We were pretty exhausted by the time the bus came and my mom ended up falling asleep on the way back to the hotel. I have no idea what time we finally made it back to our room, but I’m guessing it was around 1AM. It was a long but awesome day!

Next up, Day Three Part 1!

 

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Day 3, Part 1 – Friday September 30th
That's a Lot of Tequila...

After the late night, we were happy to sleep in this morning, we didn’t wake up until almost 9 AM! Once up, we ate some of the chocolate croissant we got from France the previous day then got ready for a day full of food! We were of course heading back to Epcot to eat as much as we could!

We made our way over to Epcot close to 10, and of course had to take pictures along the way!

So Pretty!

Once we got to Epcot we of course took more pictures including photopass!

Since it was still pre-food time, we made our way over to the Living Seas, well I guess now it's The Seas with Nemo and Friends, but I will always call it the Living Seas!

We rode the Nemo ride for the first time ever! It was cute, but we really were there to see the bigger fish! I love aquariums and could spend the whole day there if I could.

After getting off the ride, we went to check out the manatees, then made our way to see the big tanks! First stop was the dolphins! I love dolphins, we did the Dolpins in Depth last trip, and it was so great. My picture with the dolphin is one of my all time favorite Disney trip photos! The viewing area for the dolphins was empty, so the following bad parent interaction completely blew my mind.

My mom and I were over to one side of the window, and there was no one else there, until a father showed up with his daughter. Plenty of room for them, they had probably a good 15’ to choose from. Well, the father tells his daughter to go stand in front of my mom and I because as he put it “they’re adults, they don’t need to see anything.”

Mind Blown.

I’ve encountered my fair share of bad behavior at Disney, but I could not believe that this man would say that and encourage his daughter to ruin our experience!

After a few deep breaths we decided to move on instead of make a scene, but boy was that hard to do!

We ended up upstairs at the big viewing area where we met this fantastic cast member. We ended up chatting with here for a solid 30 minutes, she told us all about the special programs and of course all the animals in the tank. I love cast members like this!

We finally had enough of looking at fish, but it was still a bit before the food booths opened, so we headed towards the front of the park to get some pictures there.

It was finally getting close to 11, so we started making out way back to the one booth we wanted to try before our special lunch…France!

I ended up having the short ribs and the La Passion Martini Slush. It was AMAZING! The short ribs were delicious, and may actually have beat out the fillet at Canada for my favorite dish. It was so good that the following days we decided we should make a point to get back to France just to have them again!

Of course we took pictures!

The short ribs...so amazing!

The Slush:

My mom ended up getting the Gruyere and Cognac Onion Soup. We of course shared our dishes and both were fantastic.

Here’s a picture of her soup:

When we wrapped up at France, we decided to check out the Chase lounge since we’ve never seen it before. We decided to take the stairs…I don’t know why. It was a bad idea. By the time we got to the top we were sweating bad! Fortunately they had nice cold water up there so we grab our glasses and rested for a bit since we still had some time before our special lunch.

After a nice break at the Chase lounge we started to make our way to Mexico for the Tequilla lunch!

We got to Mexico about 20 minutes early, apparently when we’re hungry we walk fast. Haha. We decided to see if we could check in, and we could! The cast member brought us back into the restaurant and told us to take a seat and closer to the lunch someone would be out to escort us back to the tasting. Over the next few minutes the seating area got pretty full, and finally they called us in to the tasting room! As we entered they gave each of us a margarita, and then showed us to our seats. We had assigned seats, and my mom and I were put at the end of the table. We ended up sitting next to a couple from Connecticut who were so much fun! We had such a great time sitting next to them!

Here are the pictures of the tasting setting with the drinks:

You can see the size of the margarita we got here:

Each setting had the three tequilas, a vodka shot to cleanse our palates between tastings, and an aperitif. That plus the margarita on the way in ended up being a lot to drink!

The tasting started off with a bar tender from La Cava del Tequila demonstrating how to make a margarita, and then offered it to one lucky soul at the tasting! It was shocking how much tequila he put in it. He said he was just adding a shot, but then he turned the bottle upside down and a few glug glug glugs later he turned it right side up. My mom and I were joking it was more like a cup of tequila!

Next up they called for a volunteer to come try to make one. The wife of the Connecticut couple ended up being picked, and she did awesome! She actually knew a lot about tequila already, so during the lunch she actually ended up teaching me a lot of extra stuff. She was a blast to sit next to!

After the margarita demonstration, our host went into depth about tequila and how to properly taste it. Next up was the smell test! They had small plates on the table with coffee beans, cinnamon, and lime peels. The host had us smell each of the three tequilas on the three areas of the glass opening, then had us smell the corresponding of the items on the small plates and then smell the tequila again. It was amazing how the smell changed!

Next up it was food time! Now I remember taking picture of each dish, but I cannot for the life of me find those pictures! So I’ll have to describe them for now and hopefully post pictures later!

The first course, to be paired with the blanco tequila, was a black bean soup. It was really good but super spicy! The second course was a scallop to be paired with the reposado tequila, and it was delicious. The last course was a duel plate with a white fish on one side and beef on the other which was to pair with the anejo tequila. Each dish was really good and paired really well with the tequila. It wrapped up with a dessert, some kind of pudding, I apparently forgot to write down what it was. Oops!

Overall it was a great experience and definitely caused me to buy a bottle of tequila when I got home from the trip! I highly recommend it!

By the time the lunch wrapped up we were feeling all that alcohol, so decided the best thing to do was to swim. Ha! Seriously though, we actually did head back to the resort for our afternoon swim. Maybe not the best idea, but we love our afternoon swims!

It was a nice break, and we needed to rest up and sober up before our next special event of the day!

Next up, Day 3, Part 2!