A Not So Scary Very Merry Wine and Dine Dashing TR *updated 12/27

[dancingtodisney]

NOT SO SCARY VERY MERRY WINE & DINE DASHING TR!!

WOW that’s a mouthful! Let’s get started!

Who: Karen, Rachel & Grumpy
When: 24th October 2014 – 11th November 2014
Where: 10 nights All Star Sports, 3 nights Animal Kingdom Lodge & 4 nights Art of Animation

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo HUMANS!!!

It is with deepest prideand greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight. And now we invite you to relax, let us pull up a chair as we proudly present –our trip report!
Can you guess my favourite movie yet?!

I’m Karen, mid(ish) twenties Irish girl from Dublin here to share my most recent Disney Adventure.

My fellow Disney obsessed companion is none other than my sister Rachel

Also joining us on this trip is Grumpy who will be the victim of my awesome editing skills...

Our plan for this trip originally was our typical two week vacation and our first trip staying exclusively in a Disney resort. Around the time we were booking I was reading lots of trip reports and one in particular included a RunDisney event. This was something I had never even heard of! Running in Disney! Well if I was ever going to run it ought to be at Disney! So I checked the events calendar luckily we could work our dates out to include the Wine and Dine Half Marathon.

And so the running began...

I had my first visit to Disney at the age of 9 with my family and have a few distinct memories:

1) Meeting Pocahontas
2) Deciding between the Monorail and the Boat to get to Magic Kingdom
3) Fireworks
4) Not liking Epcot
5) My Dad going on Tower of Terror and me trying my hardest to be brave and go with him but I was too scared

6) Going on Space Mountain – I remember being in the queue and seeing the lights of the cars going around the track, maybe this was before the major refurb?
7) ALIEN in Magic Kingdom (so much better than stitch)
8) My sister was only 4 so I had to re-ride any of the adult rides with the other parent. Why are scary things even more scary the second time round?

Me on Alien round 2

9) Rachel INSISTING we went on it’s a small world AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN
10) Loving every single minute of it and not wanting leave!

Since then I returned a few more times with my family, once with a boy and then again in 2013 with Rachel, Grumpy & my uncle.

Sooooooooooooooo… still with me??

Let’s get this show on the road! Please stand clear of the doors… Por favor mantengan se alejado de las puertas


​

 

[dancingtodisney]

​

Day 1 – This is the day your dreams come true
Travel Day & Arrival at DISNEY
Part 1 - To Infinity and BEYOND... Via Dublin Airport
Part 2 - Even miracles take a little time.

Day 2 – I want adventure in the great wide somewhere
Typhoon Lagoon, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train & 1900 Park Fare
Part 1 - "HAKUNA MATATA"...it means no worries
Part 2 - Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming
Part 3 - Look at this stuff. Isn't it neat?
Part 4 - Giving up is for rookies

Day 3 – I want so much more than they've got planned
MK, EP, Chef de France & California Grill
Part 1 - Gawrsh
Part 2 - What could be more important than a little something to eat?
Part 3 - I can't help myself, I like good food ok?

Day 4 – Positvely primeval
AK & DTD
Part 1 - What's a motto? Nothing. What's a motto with you?
Part 2 - I wanna eat eat eat and eat until I die
Part 3 - Forget about your worries and your strife
Part 4 - I don't like food. I LOVE it!

Day 5 – How can you read this? There's no pictures!
Universal, IOA & Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
Part 1 - I solemnly swear that I am up to no good
Part 2 - Today is my new favorite day
Part 3 - Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize

​

Day 6 – You.... You came back??
Crystal Palace, MK & Halloween Horror Night
Part 1 - It’s not much of a tail, but I’m sort of attached to it
Part 2 - What could be more important than a little something to eat?
Part 3 - Stop making Boo laugh!
Part 4 - Tie your napkin 'round your neck, cherie
Part 5 - If you can't say something nice... don't say nothing at all

Day 7 – Once upon a time, in a faraway land
Busch Gardens
Part 1 - You got a problem, buddy? DO YA?

Day 8 – The dining room proudly presents... your dinner
Epcot & Halloween
Part 1 - 'YAWN'
Part 2 - My own personal flury

Day 9 – Shelter from the bitter cold
HS, Sci-Fi & MK
Part 1 - Cold cold cold cold cold cold
Part 2 - First, we've to create the mood
Part 3 - My tail's froze. And my nose is froze. And my ears are froze. And my toes are froze.

Day 10 – En garde, you... you overgrown pocket watch!
Polly, HS & 50's Prime Time
Part 1 - It makes me who I am. It makes me Grumpy.
Part 2 - Look at this stuff, isn't it neat?

Day 11 – Be our guest, oui our guest
S***orld, MK & Be our guest
Part 1 - He touched the butt
Part 2 - What's this? What's this? There's color everywhere
Part 3 - Try the grey stuff, it's delicious. Don't believe me? As the dishes
Part 4 - A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep

Day 12 – You might want to offer her a more comfortable room
AKL, EP & Ohana
Part 1 - Yes, hurry home, princess
Part 2 - You're always scraping for food
Part 3 - Don't just fly, soar
Part 4 - 'Ohana means "family." "Family" means no one gets left behind

​

Day 13 – But I’m not sleepy!
M, AKL & EP
Part 1 - That's no blizzard. That's my sister
Part 2 - Everything the light touches is our kingdom
Part 3 - When you’re the best of friends having so much fun together, you’re not even aware you’re such a funny pair
Part 4 - Dreaming about what I might feel like when those lights rise in the sky

​

Day 14 – Lefou, I'm afraid I've been thinking...
AKL, AK & Boma
Part 1 - Where we goin', Baloo?
Part 2 - If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff.

Day 15 – Well if you hadn't have run away, this wouldn't have happened.
Expo, Whispering Canyon & Orlando Magic
Part 1: Hey, buddy. You're one gutsy racer
Part 2: I look at you and I'm home
Part 3: I'll put it simple: if you're going hard enough left, you'll find yourself turning right.

Day 16 – Both a little scared, neither one prepared
WINE AND DINE HALF MARATHON!
Part 1: Sometimes's I feel like I don't really belong here
Part 2: I'm not fast

Day 17 – Needing so much more than dusting
Sore legs, golf & Epcot
Part 1: It still hurts
Part 2: If you're gonna name a food, you should give it a name that sounds delicious.

Day 18 – Who said anything about the castle being enchanted?
Universal, California Grill & MVMCP
Part 1: The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things
Part 2 - When I get home I shall write a book about this place
Part 3 - This has never happened before!
Part 4 - That's not *my* Christmas! *My* Christmas is filled with laughter, and joy

Day 19 – No, No! Please. Please... Please don't leave
Mk & Goodbye
Part 1: Time to say goodbye

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 1 - To Infinity and BEYOND... Via Dublin Airport

We woke up bright an early on a typical chilly October morning in Dublin, but this was not just any morning, today was the day we’d been planning/wishing/waiting for and it was FINALLY here. WE’RE GOING TO DISNEY!

We were flying from Dublin to Philadelphia and from there onto Orlando with US Airways. After checking in we went straight to immigration pre-clearance (if you fly direct from Ireland to the states you can complete immigration in the special preclearance facility staffed by U.S. Customs and Border protection – this is AWESOME and a huge time saver and benefit of flying with a stopover in the states as opposed to via the UK like we did last year) and chilled out with some very average airport food. We kept an eye on the flight information board and listened to the constant updates on the speakers about which planes were boarding. So our flight changes to ‘boarding’ and we gather our stuff to head to our gate. I check the screen again as we walk past and it’s changed to ‘Final Call’ HOLY CRAP!

I alerted Rachel right away

We realise our gate is up a level and they’ve not been broadcasting the boarding calls for that gate in the area we’ve been eating! OOOOOPS! We SPRINT to our gate where most passengers have already boarded. Thanking our fairy dust we settle in for the first leg of the journey.


US Airways btw has no entertainments systems which is a first for us on a long haul but luckily we had our laptops and books etc and didn’t mind.

Some pics from the journey:

WAKE UP RACHEL LOL

That's better...

We arrived in Philly on time and had a couple of hours to kill so we went exploring!

A Benefit vending machine! I’ve never seen one of these before...

Mmmmmm airport food

Rachel is obsessed with dunkin’ donuts so this was a must

Finally we were on route to ORLANDO BABY!

We arrived as a domestic flight and there was a massive taxi journey to our gate… I thought the plane was taking us all the way to All Stars!​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 2 - Even miracles take time

Tram ride… totally counts as a ride

We collected the rental car keys and we were off! We arrived on property and I attempted to get a pic of the welcome sign…

I was super distracted and didn’t realise we’d taken the turn off for Hollywood Studios! We ended up going through the parking lot, out the other side and then in the complete wrong direction towards Downtown Disney. All we had to do was turn around but with the construction going on traffic was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!

It took us a good 30mins to get back around to All Stars…

Check in was a breeze, we picked up magic bands

We then made our way to our room, we were in building 7 Touchdown on the ground floor.

Mickey Towel!!

WE'RE IN DISNEY!!!!! But also really tired after all that traveling.... It was almost 1am at this point, time to get some Zzzzzzzz's​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 1 - "HAKUNA MATATA"...it means no worries

So the plan for today was to go to Typhoon Lagoon, it was due to close the next day and we had missed it last year so although I wouldn't pick a water park as my day 1 park this time we made an exception.

Now... considering we'd had a long day traveling, gotten into bed at 1am (which was 6am Irish time so we'd been up a full day) you'd think we would have tried to sleep in a bit and arrive at Typhoon Lagoon for opening... right? RIGHT?!! HELL NO! Hollywood Studios had extra magic hours starting at 8am... ToT was calling!

Myself and Rachel got up early and made our way to the newly refurbished food courts at All Star Sports.

What else were we going get??? Has to be MICKEY WAFFLES!

We left Grumpy in bed and hopped on the bus to HS arriving just as the park opened.

We headed straight down Sunset Boulevard to this beautiful site

ToT is probably my favourite ride... I love that it is both a thrill ride and really well themed and then you have the super creepy cast members too!

I was scared I grew a double chin!

We took note of the fast pass plus location between ToT and RnR

Next up..

So we get a text about this point from our Dad "You guys up and about yet? C'mon, I'm a little disappointed in you. You sure you're mine!" so we replied with a pic of Rachel in the RnR pre show!

Granted it looks like Rachel is just pointing at this random dude but Dad came back with " Guess you guys might be mine after all "

"Hey Chris... Can you grab my black les paul???"

5.....4.....3.....2.....1.....

Unfortunately the ride photo was down on RnR so we didn't get one :cry:

We decided to have a wander round the park while it was quiet and headed straight for Wandering Oaken's Trading Post..

We were hoping to get an Olaf Cupcake but they didn't have them available until the normal park opening time :banghead:

We had a quick browse and then strolled back towards the exit via the Streets of America

You can see the Osborne lights are all up and I was SO EXCITED to run down here during our W&D half marathon later in the trip...

It was already SUPER sunny out but still pretty chilly in the cold, it was only 8.45AM! I LOVE Florida weather!

We continued our ramble towards the exit and came across this shy squirrel.. we don't see that many of squirrels out and about in Dublin..

From there we went out to the bus stop to get a bus back to All Star Sports but there was just no sign of one coming! I gave Grumpy a text and asked him to pick us up so we could head straight to Typhoon Lagoon.. THAT didn't work out too good as he was GRUMPY and took AGES, there was quite a bit of traffic too coming into HS... It really surprises me that people show up to a park that has morning EMH at 9am... The park is going to be super busy with resort guests that have arrived early to take advantage of the extra hour so it just doesn't make sense to me... ​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 2 - Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming​

We arrived at Typhoon Lagoon

We made our way into the park and got a nice spot close to the wave pool. We headed straight for the slides with Crush 'n' Gusher being our first choice, it was SO MUCH FUN! We rode a couple of times, 3 people is NOT a good number for a water park BTW!

Now earlier we thought it was quite warm but these water parks are designed to help you shade from the sun and cool you down with COLD water sprays which is great on a hot day... today we were FREEZING! We had great fun dipping and jumping around all the random cold water sprays in queues (this then became a bit of a fun game where we'd try hide some by blocking them with our hands and then letting go when one of us was right in it's path... mwahahahahaha!)

We went on pretty much all the slides and also tried out the shark reef which was really good fun! I love how they had fish that looked just like Dory.

We went for a lap around the park in castaway creek and again had great fun trying to avoid/push other people into the really cold water sprays!

After our little journey me and Rachel had one very important snack on our minds..

FUNNEL CAKE!!!!

While Rachel got this I popped back to the locker for my camera and took a couple of snaps...

She told me when I came back that loads of people had come up to her asking what this was and where to get it! It did not disappoint! SO YUMMY!

Rachel chilled out on the sunbeds as me and I decided to swim right out to were the waves start and 'surf' back in on them.. .This was lots of fun!

Around 1pm we were feeling pretty hungry and cold so decided to head to DTD. After a quick shower on our way out we got some pics!

​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 3 - Look at this stuff. Isn't it neat?

Next stop was DTD! Now.. I didn't realise that there were two Wolfgang Puck Express restaurants so we parked close to the World of Disney Store and walked the whole way over to West Side for food... DOH!
We got a pizza and a pasta dish and shared between the three of us​

It was nice and hit the spot but nothing really special and I wouldn't be rushing back...
We headed over to Goofys Candy Store... (and walked by the other Wolfgang Puck RIGHT BESIDE IT :banghead
Mmmmmmm Candy... I love the Goofy's Glaciers so we tasted a few...​

Aw Goofy my favourite!!​

We both decided on the apple glacier (after trying almost all flavours!)​

They were so nice!!! Next stop was the World of Disney Store... we both wanted a tiara for our dinner that night at 1900 Park Fare..

We had a little trouble collecting our $150 voucher that came with our UK reservation but eventually all was sorted and I decided on Belle's crown as she is my favourite princess! Rachel's favourite is Jasmine but her crown was a wrap around and it didn't fit! Rachel picked up the Jasmine bow clips instead.
Time to head back to the room and get ready! SDMT & 1900 Park Fare coming up!​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 4 - Giving up is for rookies


We got back to our room, showered and got dressed up as we had BIG plans for our first proper night. Our plan was to head to MK before our dinner reservation at 1900 Park Fare where we would meet up with some friends, I had three fast passes booked, they were to meet Cinderella and Rapunzel, the seven dwarfs mine train and Space Mountain. The only one we HAD to make was the mine train. We realised while getting ready that we were probably only going to make the mine train but we had plenty of time to do the others another day…

We waited a bit for the bus to MK as it was EMH so there was quite the queue. We eventually arrived at MK just after 7pm which gave us under an hour to get in, ride the mine train and get to our reservation at 1900 Park Fare. We contemplated giving up our fast pass and just heading straight to the Grand Floridian....

NAH!

FIRST LOOK AT MAIN STREET

I know we’d been in Disney for almost a day at this stage but getting into our first proper park was really the ‘we’re here’ moment for me… Unfortunately we didn’t have too long to savor the moment and had to duck and dive our way over to the Mine Train.

A NEW RIDE!!!!!! I love going new rides!

Rachel excited to ride...

I was SO EXCITED at this point…

I tried but failed to get a good photo of the boarding area

Now I had read a LOT of trip reports before coming on the this trip and most people seemed disappointed with this ride. I wasn’t expecting an amazing ride…
Well we got in and took off on our mine train adventure… there was a brilliant atmosphere in our train, I think it might have been a lot of people’s first time riding but the energy was great and it was dark at this point too which I liked. The rocking motion is pretty cool and makes the turns feel really odd!

Ride Photo

Also I didn’t know at the time that they take a video! That’s really cool!

We enter into the mine itself and I’m blown away. The dwarfs look INCREDIBLE! So life like! I wanted to give dopey a big hug but I don’t think that would have been appreciated!

The next bit though was my favourite… We’re climbing up to exit the mine and the final dwarf (I don’t know which one? I was just so overwhelmed with everything I was seeing at the time!) shouts out ‘HEIGH-HO’ and everyone in the train shouts back ‘HEIGH-HO’ it was one of those moments that just gives you butterflies in your tummy and you really feel the magic of Disney! I was bouncing around in my seat at this point singing along as we climbed.

The scene in the house towards the end is really cute too! I really enjoyed this ride and I’m so glad we made it in for our fastpass.

I think it was around 7.20 at this point so we walked briskly back to the exit stopping for a quick photopass on the way as we’d all made an effort to look nice!

We left the park and made our way to the monorail… Now here’s where I was a bit silly. I was thinking the Grand Floridian is right next to MK it won’t take long, only one stop…. BUT IT TOOK AGES!!!! I forgot the monorail goes in the opposite direction so actually it was the LAST stop AND because it was EMH in MK there were loads of people getting on and off at every stop. I was starting to get nervous at this point… we were still on the monorail at the time that our reservation was booked for and our friends were already waiting on us…. Would we make it????​

​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 5 - And, by royal command, every eligible maiden is to attend.

We finally got off at the Grand Floridan about 5mins late for our reservation. We met our friends and I quickly went over to check in. I was given a pager and told it was no problem to seat us at one table (we had separate reservations). We waiting in the fabulous lobby.

Even if you don't have a reservation here I would recommend a visit. ​

After a short wait they were ready for us​

We got a lovely picture on the way in that was included in our memory maker package​

Our waitress Karen was lovely and she came over to us right away.
I love the decor inside​

Drizella was our first visitor and she was HILARIOUS!!! So funny I loved her... she was slagging off cinderella and flirting with the two boys.

Prince Charming was over right after... so.... how do I put this... he was a bit of a square! Probably the worst character interaction I've ever had, he literally had no personality and just responded with 'yes' and 'no' and then stood there posing waiting for us to stand beside him for a photo

This was my starter... it was yummy! I was really looking forward to trying the famous strawberry soup.. to me it was just like a smoothie in a bowl but I liked it! ​

Around this point Lady Termaine came over and was SO DRAMATIC as she stopped at our table. She demanded that we compliment her so Grumpy said she had nice hair, she then looked to me and I said 'That's all we got'

WELL, she did not like this and made a horrible face at me and stormed off...

It was SO FUNNY and everytime she came by our table for the rest of the night she made a nasty face at me and gave me evil eyes. I loved the interaction but was disappointed we didn't get a photo!
Next up was Cinderella and she was sweet as always and complimented our crowns​

We had a great interaction with Anastasia as well but I don't have a photo... We really enjoyed the interaction with the ugly sisters and step mother. They came back over to us regularly as they were passing by too. The boys said the ugly sisters weren't very ugly which was true!
We were one of the last groups to finish up and unfortunately they didn't have much of a desert selection and we missed some things we really wanted to try.

Empty Restaurant​

I have to say... My initial reaction after eating here was that I wasn't blown away by the food and my favourite part was the interaction but I just didn't think it was worth the price for what we ate. In saying that we were with friends and didn't get the most of the characters with photos and we also missed a lot of the deserts.
And just like that our first big reservation was over! We got a cab to DTD and had a drink with our friends. Back to bed at a reasonable hour as tomorrow we were going to MK!​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 1 - Gawrsh

Busy day today! We were up early and made it to MK for the opening show but with the railroad out of action it wasn’t the same! I love seeing the characters coming in on the stream train…

The crowds were pretty light which is always nice!

Our first ride of the day was Space Mountain! I LOVE THIS RIDE!!
There was no queue at all, don’t you just love it when the parks are quiet!

Ready to board… Almost time to BLAST OFF into Space

Check out our ride photo... all smiles!

I also love the exit to this ride, that really long bouncy walkway & the cool screens you appear in... SO MUCH FUN!

Next up we headed to shoot some Z’s!

I am normally really bad at this ride but this time I got the highest score… WHOOOP!

Next up headed over to meet Ariel… There was pretty much no wait. I love this photo, mid hair flick, you gotta try blend in with these princesses

SMILE FOR THE CAMERA

After our adventures under the sea we went to new fantasyland for one of my favourite character meet and greets... Can you guess who???

This whole area is really cool with lots of theming, my favourite was inside but it always has to be ladies first!

There was a girl dressed like Rapunzel in front of us, she was VERY into her character... she talked for quite some time

FINALLY it was our turn

Big hugs all round..

I think Daisy's post in this one is super cute...

Next up was Rachel's favourite...

We tried to keep up with the girls and their awesome poses!

This shot from my camera turned out nice too

We got straight back in the queue to meet Goofy and Donald.

First up was MY FAVOURITE!! We double high fived

Then we danced..

And finally we eskimo kissed....... swooooon

I decided to spread the love and let Rachel get some pics...

We had quite a long interaction with Goofy so Donald by this point was free and started taunting Goofy doing his usual Donald is number 1 pose... Well Goofy was not impressed and marched right over to tell him off. Donald was quick to react though and hypnotised Goofy! Goofy stayed still for ages in a complete trance... The cast members told us we needed to help him snap out of it by shouting his name so we did just that.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFFFFFYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

He snapped right out of it and gave Donald a telling off before coming back over to his spot. It was so much fun, I tried to snap a few photos but well, they weren't that great...

Next up was Donald... time for more hugs

Making sure the camera gets my good side...

We told Donald that we were impressed with how he hypnotised Goofy and he decided to have us all give it a go...

We've always had great character interaction at this meet and greet, so much fun!
​

 

[TXMNie]

Following along! Sounds like a great trip! I am excited to hear about the race - it's definitely on my bucket list!

 

[Cando86]

Love your TR!! Your trip has a lot of similarities to what ours will be in September - around the same time and staying at both All-Star Sports and AKL!

I had the exact same reaction to SDMT! I had heard so many negative reviews that I wasn't expecting much. We ended up loving it and it quickly became a new fav!

Looking forward to reading more !

 

[dancingtodisney]

Following along! Sounds like a great trip! I am excited to hear about the race - it's definitely on my bucket list!

Thanks for following!
You should definitely go for it! If you've not run a half before like we hadn't then where better to do your first than Disney??!!

Love your TR!! Your trip has a lot of similarities to what ours will be in September - around the same time and staying at both All-Star Sports and AKL!

Oh how exciting! Both resorts are great! I fell in LOVE with AKL though, you'll see as the TR goes on!

I had the exact same reaction to SDMT! I had heard so many negative reviews that I wasn't expecting much. We ended up loving it and it quickly became a new fav!

Exactly, I didn't really get all the negative reviews TBH I really like it and I know it's not a thrill ride but it really captures the magic you expect in Magic Kingdom...

Looking forward to reading more !

Thank you

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 2 - What could be more important than a little something to eat?

After our fun at the meet and greet we explored Big Top Souvenirs...

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I want it ALL! I WISH I was back here right now!

I love watching them making all the yummy treats

Doesn't Olaf look DELICIOUS!

Me and Rachel went for macaroons

Disney treat!

Unfortunately they were not very nice, maybe macaroons are different in the states than at home but the texture was really weird and dry…

We had a fast pass to ride the mine train so we did that next. I LOVED it again but I think our first experience at night was better, not everyone shouted Heigh-Ho this time!

Random light in the queue

There's our train

Mine train pic!

Ride photo!

as @TXMNie so kindly pointed out... LOOK AT THAT LITTLE GIRLS FACE

Ride photo number 2

Motion mine train selfie

Twas getting a bit sunny for us Irish/UK folk

Snapped a quick photo on the way out of the ride

We decided with the sun out it was time to cool down with arguably my favourite 3D show

We were really taking it easy this morning and trying to just soak it all in instead of running from ride to ride like did last year.We got some photopass photos by the Beauty and the Beast castle...

Look who it is

Me and Rachel were feeling pretty thirsty after our dry macaroons so we grabbed a LeFou’s Brew from Gaston’s Tavern, it was really refreshing and a nice way to cool off as we wandered around.

We stumbled upon this performance right as it was ending, I can't remember the name of the band (and tried to google it!) does anyone know??! They were AWESOME!

It was really nice taking the time to stroll around and just take it all in. Next we came across the castle show

I LOVE this statue.... I get goosebumps everytime I see it!

"partners"

Our fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain was ready to use so we wandered in that direction...

Fastpass plus was working out well for us, the standby at this time was about 40mins but we were on in 10.

Here comes our ride

After the wildest ride in the wilderness we trecked towards the exit via adventureland

The Sun was beating down at this point so we stopped off at the Adventureland Tikis for a bit of a cool down. The cool mist here is such a relief on a hot day

Aladdin and Jasmine were meeting in the area but we didn't have time to queue

We had a quick browse in the little shop beside the meet and greet area and I got a cool hat I thought would be nice to wear in AK

SELFIE!!!

Excuse the weird face not sure where that came from!

We left and headed over to the monorail, we had a reservation in EPCOT

Monorail Red came to pick us up

Next stop.. EPCOT ​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Fastpass plus was working out well for us, the standby at this time was about 40mins but we were on in 10.

Here comes our ride

After the wildest ride in the wilderness we trecked towards the exit via adventureland

The Sun was beating down at this point so we stopped off at the Adventureland Tikis for a bit of a cool down. The cool mist here is such a relief on a hot day

Aladdin and Jasmine were meeting in the area but we didn't have time to queue

We had a quick browse in the little shop beside the meet and greet area and I got a cool hat I thought would be nice to wear in AK

SELFIE!!!

Excuse the weird face not sure where that came from!

We left and headed over to the monorail, we had a reservation in EPCOT

Monorail Red came to pick us up

Next stop.. EPCOT ​

 

[dancingtodisney]

Part 3 - I can't help myself, I like good food ok?

Helloooooooo EPCOT... I have missed you soooooo much!

As you can see the food & wine festival was on while we were there but on this occassion we had no time to dabble in the wonderful offerings as we were headed to a reservation I was very much looking forward to. Our reservation was 2pm and we were right on time.

Eeeeeeeeek SO EXCITING!!! I OBSESSED over different restaurants for months leading up to our trip and it's so surreal getting to actually eat in them!

We went for the prix fix menu which is extremely good value

First up... DRINKS!!! CHEEEEEERS!

Now for the starter I was torn... The french union soup or the lobster bisque? How was a girl to choose??? So we decided collectively to get one french onion as it was supposedly very filling and two of the lobster bisque and share.

Look at this beauty

It was so YUMMY but it is definitely a meal in itself! So filling! I was glad I was sharing.

The bisque was incredible

I think for me the french onion was amazing and I'm really glad I tried both but if I had to choose only one it would be the lobster bisque!

We decided between the three of us to order all three mains so we could taste them all! This was working out nicely!

Grumpy got the quiche

Rachel went for the gratin de macaroni

And I chose the croque monsieur

All three were delicious!!

We did the same thing with the desert menu and all ordered different items

The chocolate mouse didn't blow me away and even though I'm a big profiterole fan the creme brûlée was definitely the winner!

I was SO FULL after that massive lunch! We waddled out to the fountain for a photopass shot

We decided we were way too full to walk and caught the next boat!

Out of Epcot we went and off for a spot of shopping...

Our shopping trip took us to the Florida Mall and I picked up a new dress for a our VERY special dinner that night. This restaurant has been on my list FOREVER and I've made reservations before but cancelled because I thought it was too expensive.

FINALLY I was going to the restaurant with arguably the best view in Disneyworld.
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[Jenna319]

Enjoying your trip report! We are going at the same time this year, 10/31 - 11/7.

 

[TXMNie]

Looks like a fun time! Love Chefs!

Ride photo!

Ride photo number 2

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But can we just talk about that little girl in front of you in these photos?? PRICELESS. Poor thing looks she stared the Evil Queen in the eyes on the Mine Train.

 

[dancingtodisney]

Enjoying your trip report! We are going at the same time this year, 10/31 - 11/7.

Oh how exciting!! I wish I was going back this year but I am back the 1st of January which is close as possible to this year!! Where are you staying? I bet you're so EXCITED!

Looks like a fun time! Love Chefs!



But can we just talk about that little girl in front of you in these photos?? PRICELESS. Poor thing looks she stared the Evil Queen in the eyes on the Mine Train.

OMG how did I miss this!!! I love random scared people in my ride photos... She looks TERRIFIED!

Chef de France was amazing we've book to go back again in January

 

[Jenna319]

We are renting points at the Grand Floridian! First time staying there, I am SO excited!!!!