A Tall Food and Wine Festival Mixed with MNSSHP; Oct 13-20th: ~~COMPLETED~~

[10_Kyle_10]

Bump?

 

[SoScary'09]

Total bump!~

Sorry I've been lurking around your thread for awhile but I have been reading!
To answer your question about the dream fastpasses:

...Yes dude. I would totally use them!! (that is, if it was a super crowded day and there were huge wait times everywhere)

 

[PrincessNewsie]

I hate seeing ANY fastpasses go to waste, so yes I would totally use them. You didn't use every last one?

 

[10_Kyle_10]

I just finished reading your report and it's really great. All of the pictures was awesome and food are yummy.

Have a nice day everyone.

Thanks For joining us! I'm glad your enjoying it! Don't be a stranger and come back real soon!

Total bump!~

Sorry I've been lurking around your thread for awhile but I have been reading!
To answer your question about the dream fastpasses:

...Yes dude. I would totally use them!! (that is, if it was a super crowded day and there were huge wait times everywhere)

Glad to see you posting again! Our wait times weren't bad at all but we decided to use them. I had a silly thought of keeping it fully intact as a great piece of memorabilia.

I hate seeing ANY fastpasses go to waste, so yes I would totally use them. You didn't use every last one?

Well as I reported above we had been on Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania and Rock n Roller-coaster once before we got the dream fastpasses. We then went back and went on all three of them again using the dream fastpasses. The remaining fast passes were for both the shows (we knew we didn't have time for them nor did the schedule work with ours), voyage of the little mermaid, and star tours. Voyage of the little Mermaid didn't have a wait time for it so we didn't need to use it, in fact they didn't even have fast passes for it this day. Star Tours is a ride Ive honestly never been on! I know I know its a shocker. I Don't get Motion Sickness but I would hate to get it in the middle of my day/vacation. Add that to not being a Star Wars fan I just skip it. But don't worry we did use the important ones!

Thanks for reading everyone! Look for another chapter tomorrow as today we got hit with yet another snow storm! Yesterday I was wearing short sleeves and temps were in the high 50's and today its a bizzard....ah new england!

 

[disneydreamin247]

Okay I have NO idea how I missed out on your trippe but I'm sure glad I found it! I can't believe we didn't run into each other even once since we were there the same time. It looks like you guys had a great trip though. I can't wait to read the rest. You guys looked adorable in your costumes!!!

Sorry to hear about your job. Keep your head up, you'll find something eventually. Does this mean you won't be back this October?

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Good Morning everyone I know ive been a terrible trip reporter BUT Im going to finish this thing...today is the day I bang out all three of my last entries. I hope we can grab a few new people on board as well as my old freinds who have stuck it out waiting for my MNSSHP post! Thanks everyone...Look for it early afternoon!!!

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Ok so again I'm so sorry Ive been a major slacker in completing this thing but a lot has gone on and most of it for the better. As some of you know Ive been out of work now since last October and I'm happy to say Ive finally found another job! Ive now been with the company for 3 weeks and everything is going well.

In other good news we have officially book our next vacation for September 14th – 21st. This will be our 3rd consecutive trip to Disney together and couldn't be more excited. Ill leave an explanation as to why we switched from October to September in my last post.

Ok back on track!

If you recall my last post of Hollywood Studios we won Dream Fastpasses coming of Toy Story Mania. This allowed us to do everything we wanted at in such a short amount of time. We called it an early day and spent the rest of the day relaxing. At night we had a great meal at Raglan Road before heading over to Jelly Rolls for a fun filled night.

Given our late night out we figured we would sleep in. Haha that didn't happen! I think we were woken up by Mousekeeping wheeling their carts over the little spacers outside on the walkway. I know they were only doing their job but I was just shocked at the amount of noise that was coming through our front door. As we layed around in bed being super lazy I started singing to the songs that were being played out by the pool. No I'm not joking I could honestly hear the music loud and clear. Oh well who needs sleep on vacation! We made our way down to Everything POP and decided to grab a bite to eat. We were both craving something grease as we knew we were in for another day of drinking at Epcot around the world!

The food was good but what you would expect out of a Quick Service burger. For our deserts I choose the cup of dirt and Jess choose apple slices with caramel dipping sauce. I don't think we made it to our desserts...
Next we are off to Epcot and tour just the world showcase! The first thing I wanted to do was the Sam Adams Beer Tasting. The previous year sadly we had a limited amount of time and couldn't fit this in so today it was a must. Sam Adams beer was founded here in Boston where we live (though they make most of it elsewhere) so we figured it would be cool to take advantage of this free event.

It lasted about 30mins and was very well done. There is a good amount of seating but I suggest anyone going to get their early as our session was full. They do give you a free metal key chain that is very good quality so even if beer isn't your thing at least your getting something out of it!
After the seminar I had to go and get a beer obviously such a marketing ploy! Jess wasn't falling into the trap and was craving a Margarita so we headed for Mexico!

While walking around we stopped and watched the Illumination globe being moved onto the lake. I hadn't seen this before and thought it would provide for a cool picture opportunity.

Next up was round 2 (or was it 3)...I got a Hogarden beer (so good) and jess got a Grey Goose Lemonade!

We had an early dinner planed for today at coral reef so we slowly made our way over in that direction. This ADR was almost of must do as Jess loves any type of animals and I thought it would be a once in a lifetime type of atmosphere to eat at. All the reviews we read were not very good but as I said we were willing to give it a try regardless what anyone said. We arrived about 15minutes before our ADR time and by now we were both feeling pretty good. I asked if we could wait for a table to open up down in front of the tank. She said sure we will see what opens up and go from there. Well within 10 mins we were down in second row front of the tank on a table for two! For the majority of the meal we didn't have anyone sitting in front of the glass but even when they were there it wasn't an issue at all.

The food was very good! Going in I was expecting it to be mediocre but thinking this way only made this meal that much better as it exceeded our expectations! Jess got the New York Strip and I got the Chicken Breast! We both agreed this could have been one of the more underrated meals all trip.

This guy was our buddy the whole meal!

For the rest of the afternoon we walked around and took various pictures with some our Photopass. At night we figure we would sit and watch an eat to the beat concert put on by John Secada. The show was good to just sit and relax and do something completely different from your everyday Disney activity. We didn't know too many of his songs but I did recognize a few from the mid-late 90's.

We continued walking around the world showcase and had to stop for another Margarita before illuminations. Jess got a strawberry one while I went with half strawberry half lime.

Well that does it for this chapter, up next is Animal Kingdom! We had a great plan of attack for today and couldn't wait to enjoy our first breakfast ADR at BOMA! Hope this chapter was worth the wait!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

We woke up early and made sure we got to animal kingdom before rope drop. While planing this trip we came across a great strategy that worked out great and we will be doing it again this coming trip. First you must get to AK for rope drop. We took others suggestions of walking into Rainforest Cafe and go through their hidden entrance. This worked out great as their wasn't one person waiting to go through the gates with us. We managed to get basically in front of everyone as they let you in through here a few minutes earlier than the rest. We headed straight to Kilimanjaro safari! Though this isn't a traditional Disney style ride it truly is a special attraction that one can only experience at Disney.
We first waited in standby for the Safari then got fast passes (plan was to get them before the ride but they weren't ready yet) went straight for Everest and waited in the standby line. From Everest we exited the park and jumped on a bus to AKL where we had ADR's at Boma.

Here's pictures from the first Safari:

Due to all the pictures I will move the second half of this chapter to another post.

 

[10_Kyle_10]

As I said before we went straight to Everest after the Safari and rode it before heading off to boma.
Boma was fantastic and had such a huge variety to choose from especially items that weren't traditional breakfast items. The service was great and we couldn't have been happier with this choice. Just if anyone was wondering we made a 10:45am ADR and didn't have a problem at all with any food being cold or a shortage of what was left. Heres the pictures:

Then also brought this out to me for my Birthday:

We went back to AK and figured we would try and work off some of breakfast by doing the jungle trek. Again I highly recommend this as its a nice change of pace from waiting in lines etc. I don't know how busy it gets back there during peak times but during the month of October is very nice and quiet. Heres some pictures:

After that we walked around and rode a few more rides and attractions including everest twice, the safari (again), its tough to be a bug, dinosaur, and a few more. We called it a day and went back to the resort before heading off to dinner at Whispering Canyon!
~~Bonus Pictures~~~

Whispering Canyon time! We arrived at the wilderness lodge and was seated fairly quickly even though there was a line a mile long and lots of angry people getting turned away cause they didn't have reservation. We were seated in the back of the restaurant away from the main dinning away which was fine with us as we didn't really care for all the stuff they do there to entertain the kids...but for families going I wouldn't want to sit back there as they didn't involve anyone in our area in the “show”. We both love BBQ and had to go with the canyon skillet. It was good but defenitly not up to the rest of the meals we had through our trip. It wasn't a let down by any means, it just wasn't top quality BBQ.

Demolished Salad! Sorry, haha.

To finish the night off we went out and walk around the ground of the Wilderness Lodge. We were planing on staying for the water light parade but it started to drizzle and we didn't want to get caught in a rain storm so we opted to call it a night!

Up next is our last full day at WDW. We make a quick trip out to Epcot to Tuttio Itallia then its off To MNNSHP!!!

 

[lucky13]

I'm in. Look foward to reading the rest.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I'm glad you're back and congratulations on finding a new job! And congrats on booking your next trip - it's always a good feeling when you know when you're going back. Great couple of updates. I'm going to have to try the Sam Adams beer tasting next time - that looks like fun! Love the safari pics. Looks like yawns are contagious in the lion species too!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

I'm glad you're back and congratulations on finding a new job! And congrats on booking your next trip - it's always a good feeling when you know when you're going back. Great couple of updates. I'm going to have to try the Sam Adams beer tasting next time - that looks like fun! Love the safari pics. Looks like yawns are contagious in the lion species too!

Thank you! Yes we are excited and cant wait to see what September and free dinning have to offer. The sam adams tasting was well worth the 30-45 mins it took to complete, just remeber that its only there during food and wine fest.

 

[All7OfUs]

Been lurking on your report for a while, and have been loving it. But just had to come out of hiding to say how much I am enjoying your photos! I especially liked your safari pics! Way to go!

Looking forward to more!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

Been lurking on your report for a while, and have been loving it. But just had to come out of hiding to say how much I am enjoying your photos! I especially liked your safari pics! Way to go!

Looking forward to more!

Thank you for reading and the compliments on my photos! Yes I was very happy with the way allot of my safari pictures came out.

FYI to all...I should have my MNSSHP post should be up sometime this week!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

So here it is the day I imagine most of you were looking forward to. MNSSHP!

The day started out with us sleeping in; aka 9:30ish. We weren't in any rush considering this was out last full day at WDW and the Halloween party would keep us out late into the night. The only real plans we had for today was our ADR's at Tutto Italia Ristorante.

We made our way to everything POP for a late breakfast. Sorry I didn't remember to bring my camera to this meal but I can tell you I was very impressed with their selections. The food was again what you would expect at the Value level food court (not great but not terrible). I think I had French toast while Jess had some Scrabbled eggs. Again sorry for the lack of pics. (ill make up for them later trust me)

After this we were off to Epcot to walk around the world and try some of the foods at the different Food and Wine Festival booths.

Here are the Pot stickers from I believe China. They were OK at best, I thought they were pretty Blah if you ask me.

Here is an empanada from Puerto Rico I believe This was very good and had a very long line with people waiting to get one.

Soon after this we were off to our ADR at Tutto Italia Ristorante. We kinda were throwing this ADR back and forth as we have Italian food often and though there is good Italian food and bad, typically the menus are all very similar. Anyway, we opted to stick with them as we thought the pictures of this restaurant were beautiful and from looking at the menu it would end up being a good value considering some of the prices were the highest of any 1 credit restaurant.

We both stayed pretty simple and wanted something to hold us over into the early part of the evening. First they started us off with some bread:

Jess got the Lasagna "Al Forno"...its HUGE! She liked it but clearly couldn't finish it as we made the stupid mistake of sampling around the world just an hour earlier.

I got the Tagliatelle Egg Pasta which was very good. The portion was also huge and I think I came close to finishing it. This was a mistake as you will soon see.

For dessert Jess got a canolli and see loved it!

I got the Gianduja-Chocolate Torta and man was it very rich but very good.

After about my second bite I heard singing heading our way and yea you guessed it, I got a second dessert for it being my birthday trip.

These were little puffs filled with vanilla ice cream with warm chocolate sauce on top. Even though I think I only had 1 of these they were fantastic and I secretly wished I got them as my first dessert choice (doesn't look like this is on the menu anymore).

After this HUGE meal we somehow stumbled back to our resort to rest and get dressed for MNSSHP!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

This being our second trip in October we knew about MNSSHP. Last year (our 07' trip) we took the boat from MK to Fort wilderness (we were headed to Hoop DD) and noticed all the music, colors, and smoke. Right there we knew would be making the party part of our next trip. When we were planning for the trip a large amount of time went into trying to figure out what we were going to be. We knew one thing for sure was that we were dressing up and we wanted to match in some way. We tossed around a lot of ideas and settled on Mickey and Minnie after a lot of research and debate. Before I get into the pictures I guess I throw my thoughts out there on the party.
The party was awesome! We got there pretty early as they allow the party guest to enter the park at 4:00pm even though the party started at 7:00pm. This was a good idea as we were able to walk around and get a bunch of pictures taken before it got dark outside. Here's some pictures:

We made our way back to Mickey's tune town to grab a picture with mickey and Minnie before the party officially got underway. Here is the result:

We started walking around the park a little bit to see what else we could come across before it got dark. We ran into a large group of cast members and thought it would be a cool picture to get with all of them before they ran off to do their duty's. Heres that picture:

We next made our way over to Cinderellas Coach as I heard this spot get extremely popular with long waits throughout the night. We waited roughly 20mins in line before they finally opened up the spot for pictures. Here are some from this particular spot:

By now the park was officially closed and the party has started. The music completely changed throughout the part and the light poles turned to green. All over the park there were “gobo” lights like these:

Around the corner was the Haunted Manson and that too was all lit up in cool colors:

At this point in the night we figured we should start Trick or treating because we didn't want to miss the parade or the fireworks. Heres some random pictures from trick or treating:

At this point it was getting later in the evening and we figured we should probably stop to grab a bite to eat just so we didn't get Hungary at mid night. We were so happy with cosmic rays the first time we decided to go back. The food was very good again. I cant remember who got what but we got a pulled pork sandwich and a grilled chicken sandwich.

Up next was the fireworks...The show was very good and different from the regular wishes show.

~~Continue's on the next post!~~

 

[10_Kyle_10]

The other event of the night is the Boo to you parade. We are both not huge parade kinda people but figured because we spent the money and heard only good things about it we would stick it out and watch it. Overall the parade was very good and as mentioned you must get there early as practically everyone watches this parade. Heres some pictures:

After the parade we started to feel pretty tiered and took it easy walking around. In total I think we went on about 3 rides all night long. There is just so much to see and do that the rides weren't even a thought. Lines were very short but just walking around taking it the atmosphere was like no other Disney experience Ive ever had. We finished the night off with some more pictures:

Well that does it! One trip done and another to start planning for. As I said we recently booked a trip for September 14-21 of 2009! We are very excited.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

I just read your TR from beginning to end in one sitting. We are going this October 16-23rd, and we're doing MNSSHP on the 18th. We are very excited. I think DH & I will also be Mickey & Minnie. I think all I'll be able to get him to do is put on Mickey ears, though.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Thanks for a great report. MNSSHP is terrific, isn't it? Your costumes were adorable!

 

[10_Kyle_10]

I just read your TR from beginning to end in one sitting. We are going this October 16-23rd, and we're doing MNSSHP on the 18th. We are very excited. I think DH & I will also be Mickey & Minnie. I think all I'll be able to get him to do is put on Mickey ears, though.

Thanks for reading! MNNSHP was a great time. Regardless how you dress up you wont feel left out you will see anything and everything; ages young to old.

Thanks for a great report. MNSSHP is terrific, isn't it? Your costumes were adorable!

Is was better than I ever imagined! Thanks for the compliments on the costumes!