AAshleySEG
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Course by Course, One By One, 'Til You Shout "Enough I'm Done" Sept 2014 TR LINK!!!
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disney meema
DIS Veteran
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I know what you are thinking! Another Pre-Trip Report from AAshleySEG!! We just can't help ourselves, we are totally obsessively addicted to Disney World! So yes, you get another PTR! This trip is going to be centered around...can you guess from the title?? Food!!! You can't go to Disney World without at least sampling a few of the thousands of options they have!!
Don't get me wrong we are planning lots of other fun activities as well, but I'm not joking, when I say we are planning on eating...A LOT...on this one! So if you are brave enough to follow us along again, please do!! And hey, if you are lurking.. just say Hi! I love to talk to everyone!! So when is this trip you ask?? Well let me give you some details!
Wednesday September 17 - Sunday September 21, 2014
Who is going??? Well as usual, it will be myself, Andrea (hanging on to 29 with all of my might until October), and my Disney Husband Jeremy! Ths photo was from our 7th Anniversary Vacation in June of this year!
We are going to be staying at one of our favorite resorts on property! Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village, with our DVC Points! So, do you think you can handle it?? If you can stay tuned! All will be revealed with time! Hopefully, you won't have to shout, "Enough I'm Done!"
Wednesday September 17, 2014 - Preliminary Plans!
Thursday September 18, 2014 - Preliminary Plans!
Friday September 19, 2014 - Preliminary Plans!
Food & Wine Festival Food To Eat List!
Saturday September 20, 2014 - Preliminary Plans!
Interested in reading more about us or some of our other adventures? I have links in my signature and for those who can't see them on devices, I will add links here!! Thanks for reading along!!
Disney Wonder to Alaska Trip Report June 2012
7th Anniversary Trip to Walt Disney World June 2014
Harambe Nights, Frozen Summer Fun & More PTR July 2014!
So excited to see your trip tickers ect. On my iPad nothing shows up but when I followed the link from your TR ... I ended up on the cool dis area with smiley choices and your balloon picture & ticker. (( weird huh )) anyways following along
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
This post needs a Disclaimer! Warning: The opinions expressed below are completely Jeremy's and Myself's! We are HUGE fans of Disney World (If you have read any of my posts you would know that 
) This may not be like any of the other posts of mine you have read thus far. For us, this was not a Disney experience one should have again, and we will "probably" never go to a Villains Unleashed Event again, especially if it is planned the way this one was. Don't feel bad for us after you read this, everyone lives and learns and we learned big time from this one! I also don't want to discourage anyone else from attending anything. I have read lots of things where people had a great time! After this night, we seriously contemplated not going back to Disney for a while. However, we are still going on all of our trips we had planned! So with all of that in mind...I will begin this little Mini-TR!
Saturday, August 23, 2014 - 8:00am
The journey begins!!! We are so excited this morning! We planned a super quick spontaneous road trip to Disney World!! We had checked online and noticed that they were doing passholder discounts for hotel rooms and that the Villains Unleashed event still had tickets available! We purchased our tickets and so they were linked to our Magic Bands, and then we booked a one-night stay at Pop Century since we knew we would only be at the hotel to sleep!
The day before Jeremy had gotten a speeding ticket...naughty! So needless to say, I was going to be doing all of the driving down to Florida! A few stops and 9 and a half hours later, we made it to Pop Century, where it was raining!! Luckily, we had our Blue & Red Umbrellas with us! We checked in at Pop Century, and then went to the room to drop off our overnight bag! Then, we were headed to the bus stop! A few minutes later and it was pulling up!!
By this time I think it was around 6:30 when we arrived, so if you had tickets for the event you could get in at 5:00, so the signs for the event were already outside to greet us! It made us even more excited!
Normally at events of this nature, they give you a wristband, well this time we had a lanyard to wear, it also served as a Photopass Card, which included lots of candid photos of the Villains that were to be in attendance tonight!
Even though the park didn't actually close until 7:00, everything was definitely letting you know that you were there for something special!! They changed the Frozen Summer Fun Video Board to this one featuring Hades, the leader of the night so to speak!
We were not there to ride anything, so we walked over to Min & Bill's seating area, sat down and started trying to figure out which characters and shows we wanted to hit up tonight, and also which food we wanted to try! There were supposed to be over 50 Villains there! Our list was pretty small! We had Emperor Palpatine with Royals Guards, Bowler Hat Guy, Shan Yu, Captain Gantu, Maleficent, and The Witch/Hag. We knew we would have 5 hours to see them, even though we knew the waits would be "long" We figured it would be ok! Another thing we wanted to do was go to the 80's Awesome Mix Tape Party, Gamora and Starlord were supposed to be there! Like I said before, the attractions were open but we could ride those anytime, so we didn't want to stand in lines for those, we wanted more character time! Also, we have seen Fantasmic plenty of times, so we didn't really want to waste event time on something we have already seen! Jeremy wanted, if we had time to check out the Oogie Boogie show, and then We wanted to eat some food at Club Evil (Hollywood Brown Derby), A special event hot dog, there were a few to choose from, have some of the drinks, and lastly a Maleficent Cupcake!! For 5 hours, that didn't seem like it was going to be too bad at all!!
The opening kickoff show was supposed to start at 8:00, so we still had a little time and before 8:00 we would be able to check one thing off of our list!! The drink tent was open! So we headed over there to get in the first line of the night!
OMG $14.25 for a drink in a plastic cup!!! Well, we were here, we drove so long, we might as well get one!! Jeremy chose to get the Evil Elixir, which included Skyy Vodka, Myer's Platinum Rum, Chambord, Bols Blue Curacao, Sweet N Sour, Sprite, and a Fancy Dancy Glowing Skull Cube!
He said that they definitely gave you your money's worth of alcohol in that one! It tasted sort of like a REALLY strong Blue Raspberry something or other?
I had the non-alcoholic option, which was the Pain & Panic Punch! I love Pineapple Juice, so this was right up my alley! At $6.49, it was still a little on the pricey side for some pineapple juice, grenadine, and ginger ale. Oh wait, though I did get a skull glow cube too!
Once we had our drinks, we walked back around to the left side of the stage through a MASS of people in the direct center of the street, it was a little difficult to navigate over there, but we did make it with about 5 minutes to spare before the opening show at Hades Hangout started!
The opening show was almost 30 minutes long! Which took us down to 4 1/2 hours of party time to go! It felt like it went on forever, the only thing that happened in the show, was that Hades, Meg, Pain, and Panic, introduced ALL of the characters that were going to be out and about! Had we known that was what was going to be happening, we would have just gone to stand in a character line, but we didn't, so we watched.
We had planned on going down past the Commissary to get in line for Emperor Palpatine, the line stretched from Sci-Fi where it started, all the way down to the Commissary! He wasn't too high on our priority list so we decided to try and get him later, we knew the opening show had just let out and he was one of the first characters that we came to!
There were people everywhere!! My highest priority character on my list was the Bowler Hat Guy from Meet The Robinsons! I LOVE that movie! So we knew that we wanted him, and I was going to stand in line to get him! Here is a photo with my phone of that line after we had been in it for about 20 minutes!
It took us 40 minutes to see Bowler Hat Guy! (I will post the photo when I download them on September 16th!) It was now 9:10. We had 3 hours 50 minutes remaining for the rest of the event! I know you may be thinking, well you could have gone to get in a different line that wasn't as long...no...they were all that long...or longer. Every single character you came across had a line that seemed to stretch for miles! We were still in pretty good spirits at this point!!
Next we walked over to get in the line for Shan Yu! We never see him out, so thought this would be a great opportunity. Here is a really dark phone photo of his line when we got in it!!
By the time we made it through his line, it had taken us almost 1 hour 15 minutes to get to meet him! By this point, I think we were starving! It was after 10:00 and the night was leaving us fast! We knew we wanted to go over to Club Evil to get some food, so that is where we headed next!
We had to wait in a short line to get inside, then once we were inside it was all first come first serve seating. Of course there were no tables available, so we kind of had to stalk people seeing who was finished with their food so we could find a table to sit at! Once we finally found a table we were ready to order because we knew ahead of time what we were going to get! We chose to order the The Queen of Heart's Famous "Off With Their Heads"
Captain Hook and Mr. Smee Sliders!
and Maleficent's Loaded Staffs!
Club Evil was probably the highlight of our night! The food was delicious! the cabaret singer inside was great, every once in a while characters would randomly walk through albeit rather briskly! We finished up with our food and by now it was around 11:15-11:30! We still had an hour and a half to get stuff done! Or so we thought! This was where everything started to go downhill quickly...
We left Club Evil and headed over toward the 80's Mix Tape Dance Party! Once we arrived, there was No 80's music playing, only brand new stuff, and also Gamora and Starlord were nowhere to be seen! So basically, that was a waste of our time, because nothing was going on there.
Next we went over to try and get in line for Maleficent...her line was closed already. So there was nothing we could do about that but keep moving on. We decided to go back over to get in line for Captain Gantu. We passed by Toy Story Midway Mania and noticed that all of the attractions were closing already too. So even if someone did want to ride something, that wasn't going to be possible.
We got over to Gantu's line and it had also been closed off. Every character line we passed up the streets of America were already closed. We knew that we wanted to try one of the Maleficent cupcakes though, they were supposed to be at all of the Quick Service locations around everywhere. We had to walk all the way over to Fairfax Fare to find the cupcake! We did get it though! The hot dogs were all sold out...they had no more for the party at 11:30.
This cupcake was Awesome! It was Dark Chocolate Cake with Blackberry filling and Blackberry buttercream on top! Oh My was it good! The food was definitely a highlight of the night. After we finished our cupcake, we decided to see if the line for The Witch was still open. It was, but it was pretty long, so at 11:50 we got in line for her! We ended up speaking to the people behind us in line about their experience. We found out that they had run out of Event Maps by 7:00, the event didn't even start until 8! The merchandise line was about 2 hours long all night, but everything sold out anyway. I don't even know how I would have gotten to do anything had I wanted merchandise!
We made it to the witch by 12:35! The fireworks were scheduled to start at 12:45, so we hurried our way back to the street which was filled over capacity I am sure. Instead of trying to squish into the mass of people on the street, we just went outside to the front of the park by the topiary to watch them!
It turned out to be a pretty decent spot though, except we couldn't really hear the music all that well. As soon as the fireworks ended we waled quickly back to the bus to go back to Pop Century. We were in bed trying to fall asleep by 1:23!
So, here is how I am going to wrap this up! We got to meet 3...only 3...of the over 50 characters at this event. We paid $67 per person to get in to see 3 characters. Then on top of that, we purchased food and drinks, so basically we paid to get in, to give them more money...LOL I know, and have always known that Disney is a business and they are pretty much making tons of money from people like me anyway who go all the time. The difference with this time for me though was what I got for the money that we spent. For the first time EVER, I felt like nothing more than a walking dollar sign. Hour plus lines for characters, closed lines at 11:30, sold out food and merchandise, ran out of event maps, WAY overfilled park, it was like a 5 hour mess. Yes at Magic Kingdom Anna & Elsa have really long waits, but one, you can get a Fastpass for them, and two, you have the ENTIRE rest of the day there. This was only a 5 hour event! One of the best quotes I saw on twitter all night was this:
"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse, and ended with Villains Unleashed"
We really discussed abandoning some of our trips, then we remembered all of the wonderful things we do love about Disney World! Especially the things coming up, Food & Wine Festival, Victoria & Albert's, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, etc.! Yes most of those will cost more money too, but we enjoy them, and that is the biggest difference here! We were so excited to take a road trip to do this! We drove 18 hours total for this 5 hour Villainous Event. We left being disappointed, and we couldn't wait to go home...that has never happened before, after a trip at Walt Disney World. Ever. Like I said though, please don't feel bad for us, I am mostly just going to try to forget about this night.
It was so funny watching all of the "media" coverage o the event. A bunch of them only posted the great stuff about it, I watched one video which was an overview, someone just videoing everyone else with the characters making it look like they were just everywhere and easy to walk up to...no...not so. I don't think that person could have actually done anything themselves. Lots of other people commented that "people just need something to complain about" or that the people who were upset at the event were "greedy" I totally disagree with those people. Then I found out that they had a great time! They said we got to ride 6 attractions with little to no wait, and they saw Fantasmic and it was awesome...so basically they paid to go to an event to do things they could do during the day? Ok?
If I am greedy or if you have a different opinion than I do, please let me know, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I didn't feel like I was being greedy at all...maybe I was, who knows. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this little Villains Unleashed Post, I know it is a bit of a downer. It is so different than the usual posts I make. Even sitting here typing it out makes me want to sugar coat it some. Because I really and truly do love Disney.
) This may not be like any of the other posts of mine you have read thus far. For us, this was not a Disney experience one should have again, and we will "probably" never go to a Villains Unleashed Event again, especially if it is planned the way this one was. Don't feel bad for us after you read this, everyone lives and learns and we learned big time from this one! I also don't want to discourage anyone else from attending anything. I have read lots of things where people had a great time! After this night, we seriously contemplated not going back to Disney for a while. However, we are still going on all of our trips we had planned! So with all of that in mind...I will begin this little Mini-TR! Saturday, August 23, 2014 - 8:00am
The journey begins!!! We are so excited this morning! We planned a super quick spontaneous road trip to Disney World!! We had checked online and noticed that they were doing passholder discounts for hotel rooms and that the Villains Unleashed event still had tickets available! We purchased our tickets and so they were linked to our Magic Bands, and then we booked a one-night stay at Pop Century since we knew we would only be at the hotel to sleep!
The day before Jeremy had gotten a speeding ticket...naughty! So needless to say, I was going to be doing all of the driving down to Florida! A few stops and 9 and a half hours later, we made it to Pop Century, where it was raining!! Luckily, we had our Blue & Red Umbrellas with us! We checked in at Pop Century, and then went to the room to drop off our overnight bag! Then, we were headed to the bus stop! A few minutes later and it was pulling up!!
By this time I think it was around 6:30 when we arrived, so if you had tickets for the event you could get in at 5:00, so the signs for the event were already outside to greet us! It made us even more excited!
Normally at events of this nature, they give you a wristband, well this time we had a lanyard to wear, it also served as a Photopass Card, which included lots of candid photos of the Villains that were to be in attendance tonight!
Even though the park didn't actually close until 7:00, everything was definitely letting you know that you were there for something special!! They changed the Frozen Summer Fun Video Board to this one featuring Hades, the leader of the night so to speak!
We were not there to ride anything, so we walked over to Min & Bill's seating area, sat down and started trying to figure out which characters and shows we wanted to hit up tonight, and also which food we wanted to try! There were supposed to be over 50 Villains there! Our list was pretty small! We had Emperor Palpatine with Royals Guards, Bowler Hat Guy, Shan Yu, Captain Gantu, Maleficent, and The Witch/Hag. We knew we would have 5 hours to see them, even though we knew the waits would be "long" We figured it would be ok! Another thing we wanted to do was go to the 80's Awesome Mix Tape Party, Gamora and Starlord were supposed to be there! Like I said before, the attractions were open but we could ride those anytime, so we didn't want to stand in lines for those, we wanted more character time! Also, we have seen Fantasmic plenty of times, so we didn't really want to waste event time on something we have already seen! Jeremy wanted, if we had time to check out the Oogie Boogie show, and then We wanted to eat some food at Club Evil (Hollywood Brown Derby), A special event hot dog, there were a few to choose from, have some of the drinks, and lastly a Maleficent Cupcake!! For 5 hours, that didn't seem like it was going to be too bad at all!!
The opening kickoff show was supposed to start at 8:00, so we still had a little time and before 8:00 we would be able to check one thing off of our list!! The drink tent was open! So we headed over there to get in the first line of the night!
OMG $14.25 for a drink in a plastic cup!!! Well, we were here, we drove so long, we might as well get one!! Jeremy chose to get the Evil Elixir, which included Skyy Vodka, Myer's Platinum Rum, Chambord, Bols Blue Curacao, Sweet N Sour, Sprite, and a Fancy Dancy Glowing Skull Cube!
He said that they definitely gave you your money's worth of alcohol in that one! It tasted sort of like a REALLY strong Blue Raspberry something or other?
I had the non-alcoholic option, which was the Pain & Panic Punch! I love Pineapple Juice, so this was right up my alley! At $6.49, it was still a little on the pricey side for some pineapple juice, grenadine, and ginger ale. Oh wait, though I did get a skull glow cube too!
Once we had our drinks, we walked back around to the left side of the stage through a MASS of people in the direct center of the street, it was a little difficult to navigate over there, but we did make it with about 5 minutes to spare before the opening show at Hades Hangout started!
The opening show was almost 30 minutes long! Which took us down to 4 1/2 hours of party time to go! It felt like it went on forever, the only thing that happened in the show, was that Hades, Meg, Pain, and Panic, introduced ALL of the characters that were going to be out and about! Had we known that was what was going to be happening, we would have just gone to stand in a character line, but we didn't, so we watched.
We had planned on going down past the Commissary to get in line for Emperor Palpatine, the line stretched from Sci-Fi where it started, all the way down to the Commissary! He wasn't too high on our priority list so we decided to try and get him later, we knew the opening show had just let out and he was one of the first characters that we came to!
There were people everywhere!! My highest priority character on my list was the Bowler Hat Guy from Meet The Robinsons! I LOVE that movie! So we knew that we wanted him, and I was going to stand in line to get him! Here is a photo with my phone of that line after we had been in it for about 20 minutes!
It took us 40 minutes to see Bowler Hat Guy! (I will post the photo when I download them on September 16th!) It was now 9:10. We had 3 hours 50 minutes remaining for the rest of the event! I know you may be thinking, well you could have gone to get in a different line that wasn't as long...no...they were all that long...or longer. Every single character you came across had a line that seemed to stretch for miles! We were still in pretty good spirits at this point!!
Next we walked over to get in the line for Shan Yu! We never see him out, so thought this would be a great opportunity. Here is a really dark phone photo of his line when we got in it!!
By the time we made it through his line, it had taken us almost 1 hour 15 minutes to get to meet him! By this point, I think we were starving! It was after 10:00 and the night was leaving us fast! We knew we wanted to go over to Club Evil to get some food, so that is where we headed next!
We had to wait in a short line to get inside, then once we were inside it was all first come first serve seating. Of course there were no tables available, so we kind of had to stalk people seeing who was finished with their food so we could find a table to sit at! Once we finally found a table we were ready to order because we knew ahead of time what we were going to get! We chose to order the The Queen of Heart's Famous "Off With Their Heads"
Captain Hook and Mr. Smee Sliders!
and Maleficent's Loaded Staffs!
Club Evil was probably the highlight of our night! The food was delicious! the cabaret singer inside was great, every once in a while characters would randomly walk through albeit rather briskly! We finished up with our food and by now it was around 11:15-11:30! We still had an hour and a half to get stuff done! Or so we thought! This was where everything started to go downhill quickly...
We left Club Evil and headed over toward the 80's Mix Tape Dance Party! Once we arrived, there was No 80's music playing, only brand new stuff, and also Gamora and Starlord were nowhere to be seen! So basically, that was a waste of our time, because nothing was going on there.
Next we went over to try and get in line for Maleficent...her line was closed already. So there was nothing we could do about that but keep moving on. We decided to go back over to get in line for Captain Gantu. We passed by Toy Story Midway Mania and noticed that all of the attractions were closing already too. So even if someone did want to ride something, that wasn't going to be possible.
We got over to Gantu's line and it had also been closed off. Every character line we passed up the streets of America were already closed. We knew that we wanted to try one of the Maleficent cupcakes though, they were supposed to be at all of the Quick Service locations around everywhere. We had to walk all the way over to Fairfax Fare to find the cupcake! We did get it though! The hot dogs were all sold out...they had no more for the party at 11:30.
This cupcake was Awesome! It was Dark Chocolate Cake with Blackberry filling and Blackberry buttercream on top! Oh My was it good! The food was definitely a highlight of the night. After we finished our cupcake, we decided to see if the line for The Witch was still open. It was, but it was pretty long, so at 11:50 we got in line for her! We ended up speaking to the people behind us in line about their experience. We found out that they had run out of Event Maps by 7:00, the event didn't even start until 8! The merchandise line was about 2 hours long all night, but everything sold out anyway. I don't even know how I would have gotten to do anything had I wanted merchandise!
We made it to the witch by 12:35! The fireworks were scheduled to start at 12:45, so we hurried our way back to the street which was filled over capacity I am sure. Instead of trying to squish into the mass of people on the street, we just went outside to the front of the park by the topiary to watch them!
It turned out to be a pretty decent spot though, except we couldn't really hear the music all that well. As soon as the fireworks ended we waled quickly back to the bus to go back to Pop Century. We were in bed trying to fall asleep by 1:23!
So, here is how I am going to wrap this up! We got to meet 3...only 3...of the over 50 characters at this event. We paid $67 per person to get in to see 3 characters. Then on top of that, we purchased food and drinks, so basically we paid to get in, to give them more money...LOL I know, and have always known that Disney is a business and they are pretty much making tons of money from people like me anyway who go all the time. The difference with this time for me though was what I got for the money that we spent. For the first time EVER, I felt like nothing more than a walking dollar sign. Hour plus lines for characters, closed lines at 11:30, sold out food and merchandise, ran out of event maps, WAY overfilled park, it was like a 5 hour mess. Yes at Magic Kingdom Anna & Elsa have really long waits, but one, you can get a Fastpass for them, and two, you have the ENTIRE rest of the day there. This was only a 5 hour event! One of the best quotes I saw on twitter all night was this:
"I only hope that we don't lose sight of one thing - that it was all started by a mouse, and ended with Villains Unleashed"
We really discussed abandoning some of our trips, then we remembered all of the wonderful things we do love about Disney World! Especially the things coming up, Food & Wine Festival, Victoria & Albert's, Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, etc.! Yes most of those will cost more money too, but we enjoy them, and that is the biggest difference here! We were so excited to take a road trip to do this! We drove 18 hours total for this 5 hour Villainous Event. We left being disappointed, and we couldn't wait to go home...that has never happened before, after a trip at Walt Disney World. Ever. Like I said though, please don't feel bad for us, I am mostly just going to try to forget about this night.
It was so funny watching all of the "media" coverage o the event. A bunch of them only posted the great stuff about it, I watched one video which was an overview, someone just videoing everyone else with the characters making it look like they were just everywhere and easy to walk up to...no...not so. I don't think that person could have actually done anything themselves. Lots of other people commented that "people just need something to complain about" or that the people who were upset at the event were "greedy" I totally disagree with those people. Then I found out that they had a great time! They said we got to ride 6 attractions with little to no wait, and they saw Fantasmic and it was awesome...so basically they paid to go to an event to do things they could do during the day? Ok?
If I am greedy or if you have a different opinion than I do, please let me know, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I didn't feel like I was being greedy at all...maybe I was, who knows. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this little Villains Unleashed Post, I know it is a bit of a downer. It is so different than the usual posts I make. Even sitting here typing it out makes me want to sugar coat it some. Because I really and truly do love Disney.
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
That is pretty strange! It is great to have you over here with me!! Thanks for coming over!!
I can't wait to get everything rolling on this PTR!
disney meema
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2014
- Messages
- 1,263
Disney must of over sold the tickets for this event ... It must of been that since you didn't ride or see fantasmic and your reason to go was the villains unleashed character and shows and saw 3 characters yikes! Yeah I'm with you if that happened to me I would be doing the sad I'm leaving WDW face but for another reason feeling like I was ripped off and it was a cash grab ; (
Sure hope you sent disney feedback ... And no your not greedy lol that's just silly anyone would think or write that about people not enjoying an event because it was so over crowded & possibly way over sold. I mean you went to see the villains unleashed and it sounds like all the guest were leashed instead to the long line! (( sad ))
Sure hope you sent disney feedback ... And no your not greedy lol that's just silly anyone would think or write that about people not enjoying an event because it was so over crowded & possibly way over sold. I mean you went to see the villains unleashed and it sounds like all the guest were leashed instead to the long line! (( sad ))
I'm sorry Villians Unleashed was a disappointment. Obviously, they oversold the event. You are entitled to feel the way you do. We had a similar experience in 1995 at the Magic Kingdom. There was a record capacity crowd and it was before the days of fastpasses. Seven hours in the park and we only rode three rides. I wish I were kidding. We proceeded to take a hiatus from WDW, but are back once again.
On a high note, your food looked really yummY!
On a high note, your food looked really yummY!
AAshleySEG
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I feel like the event was probably way oversold too! I felt so bad for the roaming characters and their CMs! They kept getting mobbed and really it was like chaos around them! All of the characters could have had lines, that may have helped a little too? I dunno. I didn't send Disney any feedback, I think they probably got tons of it already, everyone seemed pretty angry about the whole night. They were even giving refunds and free tickets to MNSSHP. I already had tickets to that though and the line for the refunds was longer than the characters lines were!
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
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AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
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Yuck, seven hours 3 rides!! I can't even imagine not having fastpasses anymore! It would be like not having a cell phone I guess!
The food was great!! Definitely the highlight of the night! Club Evil was a huge success I think! And mmm that cupcake, delish!
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
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20 Days!! Time for a little budget post!! Everything is in the savings account already and so now we just have to keep within our budget! We also got to bring over $100 from the July trip to the September one!
There are a few things we already have, so I am going to list those out as things we DO NOT have to pay for on this trip!
Memory Maker
Premium Annual Park Passes (DVC Discounted)
Stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village (DVC)
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party Tickets (DVC Discounted)
Tables In Wonderland (Won't be Using It Though)
Budgeted Amounts!
Wednesday September 17, 2014:
Gas #1 - $50.00
Lunch at Landolfi's Italian Bakery - $30.00
Dinner at Jerk Shack - $30.00
Thursday September 18, 2014:
Gas #2 - $50.00
Breakfast at Panera Bread - $20.00
Lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express - $20.00
Dessert at Ghirardelli or Cupcake at Food Quest - $10.00
Dinner at Smokehouse or Food Trucks - $40.00
Friday September 19, 2014:
Breakfast at Seasons - $20.00
Food & Wine Festival - $75.00
Snacks at MNSSHP - $40.00
Saturday September 20, 2014:
Breakfast at Mara/McDonald's/Boardwalk Bakery - $20.00
Mini-Golf Tournament - $48.00 (I think with Passholder Discount)
Snacks at the Courses - $20.00
Chef's Table at Victoria & Albert's - $700.00 or less
Sunday September 21, 2014:
Breakfast at Main Street Bakery - $20.00
Popcorn Buckets! - $11.00
Lunch on The Road - $20.00
Dinner on The Road - $20.00
Gas #3 - $50.00
Gas #4 - $50.00
Snacks & Souvenirs - $150.00
Total Budget for This Trip - $1500
Memory Maker
Premium Annual Park Passes (DVC Discounted)
Stay at Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village (DVC)
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party Tickets (DVC Discounted)
Tables In Wonderland (Won't be Using It Though)
Budgeted Amounts!
Wednesday September 17, 2014:
Gas #1 - $50.00
Lunch at Landolfi's Italian Bakery - $30.00
Dinner at Jerk Shack - $30.00
Thursday September 18, 2014:
Gas #2 - $50.00
Breakfast at Panera Bread - $20.00
Lunch at Wolfgang Puck Express - $20.00
Dessert at Ghirardelli or Cupcake at Food Quest - $10.00
Dinner at Smokehouse or Food Trucks - $40.00
Friday September 19, 2014:
Breakfast at Seasons - $20.00
Food & Wine Festival - $75.00
Snacks at MNSSHP - $40.00
Saturday September 20, 2014:
Breakfast at Mara/McDonald's/Boardwalk Bakery - $20.00
Mini-Golf Tournament - $48.00 (I think with Passholder Discount)
Snacks at the Courses - $20.00
Chef's Table at Victoria & Albert's - $700.00 or less
Sunday September 21, 2014:
Breakfast at Main Street Bakery - $20.00
Popcorn Buckets! - $11.00
Lunch on The Road - $20.00
Dinner on The Road - $20.00
Gas #3 - $50.00
Gas #4 - $50.00
Snacks & Souvenirs - $150.00
Total Budget for This Trip - $1500
MidnightParade
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 1,022
I know you said not too but I do feel bad that you had to experience that, should have never happened!! Disney didn't oversell the event, they never put a cap on tickets to start with! I don't know if it was inexperience or greed on their part. Probably both! I hope they learned from it and will change it going forward.
And no, you aren't greedy!! Those events are about the characters, thats why its Villains Unleashed, its about the Villains. I would have been raging if I only got to meet 3 characters! I heard the Oogie show was....not really in the Disney tone, even if this was an adult event. I actually haven't heard any of these good reviews(not that I went looking for them).
You got some delicious food though! And you know meeting the Witch is pretty awesome!
Happy it didn't completely sour you on Disney. You have some fantastic trips coming up! Just think Chef's Table at V&A's!!! weeeeee!! 
. And Jeremy has some "okay" things planned for your birthday 
And no, you aren't greedy!! Those events are about the characters, thats why its Villains Unleashed, its about the Villains. I would have been raging if I only got to meet 3 characters! I heard the Oogie show was....not really in the Disney tone, even if this was an adult event. I actually haven't heard any of these good reviews(not that I went looking for them).
You got some delicious food though! And you know meeting the Witch is pretty awesome!
Happy it didn't completely sour you on Disney. You have some fantastic trips coming up! Just think Chef's Table at V&A's!!! weeeeee!! . And Jeremy has some "okay" things planned for your birthday
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
I know you said not too but I do feel bad that you had to experience that, should have never happened!! Disney didn't oversell the event, they never put a cap on tickets to start with! I don't know if it was inexperience or greed on their part. Probably both! I hope they learned from it and will change it going forward.
And no, you aren't greedy!! Those events are about the characters, thats why its Villains Unleashed, its about the Villains. I would have been raging if I only got to meet 3 characters! I heard the Oogie show was....not really in the Disney tone, even if this was an adult event. I actually haven't heard any of these good reviews(not that I went looking for them).
You got some delicious food though! And you know meeting the Witch is pretty awesome!
I seriously had to keep reminding myself that I actually do love Disney, it was really hard to see it while we were there though, except for the food, which I hardly ever seem to have a problem with...LOL
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
I completely understand why, I have finally finished licking my wounds from that night, so to speak, and made peace with what it was. I can only hope that everything I am looking forward to in 2 weeks with all be worth it and I can forget about that night...LOL
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
15 Days!! I am so excited about our costumes for the Not So Scary Halloween Party!! They are turning out so well!! I can tell you a little about them, see if anyone has any guesses, but I will leave out some of the most important parts because I do want them to be a little of a surprise!!
Ok, so yesterday, I ordered both Jeremy and I "special" hats to wear with them!
We are having to dye pieces of our costumes dark brown! We tried using the washing machine method and they came out really light brown, so we are going to have to try a different method for round 2 of dying!
Accessories of our costumes feature LED lights! I also had to use Frosted Glass spray paint to decorate some portions!
Jeremy is going to be wearing faux facial hair for his costume!
I am now in the process of making another accessory out of some rope!
Anyone have any guesses??? But keep in mind, you will have to wait and see what they are going to be until the Trip Report!! Yay!!
Disney9.9.10
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2010
- Messages
- 2,753
Woop 15 days!!
I love how organized you are with your budgets.
Your costumes sound like they are going to be great, I don't have any guesses right now but I will post again if I think of something good!
I love how organized you are with your budgets.
Your costumes sound like they are going to be great, I don't have any guesses right now but I will post again if I think of something good!
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
I am just actually proud that 1, I have made budgets this year...and 2, we are actually sticking to them and/or coming under budget!
So happy with the way the costumes are coming out! I did Dye take 2, and this time around the first thing I did, came out much better than before!! I used a big 5 gallon bucket and a giant whisk and just poured the hot water and a whole bottle of dye in! So something is working out right!
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
We decided that since we only have 15 days to go, we needed to do something to start getting us in the spirit, not necessarily a countdown, just something to do to pass the time while we are waiting for all of that awesome food!!! So this afternoon I pulled out one of my old Food & Wine Festival cookbooks and started looking through it!
I flipped around a little bit until I landed here! Mexico is one of our favorites at the festival, Jeremy loves the Dos Equis beer, and I love the shrimp tacos!! This year they are going to be a little different, and since we can't have the ones that are in this book, I decided to make them for dinner tonight!
So I sent Jeremy a little text grocery list, and on his way home from work he picked up the few things I needed to make them! It is actually really easy, and if anyone else wants the recipe I am going to put it in here at the bottom of the post, so you can make them too!
I made the chipotle mayonnaise, we used light mayo! Then I cut up a little bit of red cabbage, limes, we peeled the shrimp, I made the tempura mixture, heated up the oil on the stove, and in a short time, we had a taco buffet ready to go!
I think I put on each taco, about 1 tbsp. of the mayo, 4 shrimp, a spoonful of salsa verde, sprinkled on some red cabbage, squeezed on some lime juice and we were all set!
Nothing like a little piece of the Food & Wine Festival at home!! I was so sad recently, my 2009 festival book was ripped to shreds by some little doggies...oh well, maybe I will find one on Ebay one day...I can't wait to see what recipes are in the 2014 one!! Really looking forward to it!
Shrimp Tacos from the Mexico Marketplace 2011 Epcot F&W Festival:
Chipotle Mayonnaise
2/3 cups mayonnaise (we used Light Mayo)
7.5 oz can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, pureed (use to taste, can get REALLY spicy!)
Shrimp Tempura
1 egg white
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup water
1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined, with tails removed (approx 30-35 shrimp)
Shrimp Tacos
10 (6-inch) flour torillas
3 cups shredded red cabbage
Favorite Salsa Verde
Limes
For Chipotle Mayonnaise:
Mix mayonnaise and pureed chipotle peppers in a medium bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate!
For tempura shrimp:
1. Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil to 375 degrees in a deep fryer. (We used a cast iron pot and digital thermometer on the stove top)
2. Beat egg white in a small bowl until frothy and light. Do not overbeat. Set aside.
3. Mix together flour, cornstarch, salt, parsley, paprika, baking powder, garlic powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Add water and egg white; mix until smooth.
4. Add shrimp and toss until fully covered with batter.
5. Drop 6 to 8 shrimp at a time in hot oil. Do not overcrowd. Fry 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels.
To serve:
Spread 1 heaping tablespoon of chipotle mayonnaise on flour tortilla and place 3 shrimp down the middle. Top with small handful of cabbage, drizzle with salsa verde, and spritz with lime juice!
Here is a video from Disney on youtube if you want to see it being made in live action! Mexico Shrimp Taco Video by Disney!
I flipped around a little bit until I landed here! Mexico is one of our favorites at the festival, Jeremy loves the Dos Equis beer, and I love the shrimp tacos!! This year they are going to be a little different, and since we can't have the ones that are in this book, I decided to make them for dinner tonight!
So I sent Jeremy a little text grocery list, and on his way home from work he picked up the few things I needed to make them! It is actually really easy, and if anyone else wants the recipe I am going to put it in here at the bottom of the post, so you can make them too!
I made the chipotle mayonnaise, we used light mayo! Then I cut up a little bit of red cabbage, limes, we peeled the shrimp, I made the tempura mixture, heated up the oil on the stove, and in a short time, we had a taco buffet ready to go!
I think I put on each taco, about 1 tbsp. of the mayo, 4 shrimp, a spoonful of salsa verde, sprinkled on some red cabbage, squeezed on some lime juice and we were all set!
Nothing like a little piece of the Food & Wine Festival at home!! I was so sad recently, my 2009 festival book was ripped to shreds by some little doggies...oh well, maybe I will find one on Ebay one day...I can't wait to see what recipes are in the 2014 one!! Really looking forward to it!
Shrimp Tacos from the Mexico Marketplace 2011 Epcot F&W Festival:
Chipotle Mayonnaise
2/3 cups mayonnaise (we used Light Mayo)
7.5 oz can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, pureed (use to taste, can get REALLY spicy!)
Shrimp Tempura
1 egg white
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup water
1 pound large shrimp, peeled, deveined, with tails removed (approx 30-35 shrimp)
Shrimp Tacos
10 (6-inch) flour torillas
3 cups shredded red cabbage
Favorite Salsa Verde
Limes
For Chipotle Mayonnaise:
Mix mayonnaise and pureed chipotle peppers in a medium bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate!
For tempura shrimp:
1. Heat about 2 inches of vegetable oil to 375 degrees in a deep fryer. (We used a cast iron pot and digital thermometer on the stove top)
2. Beat egg white in a small bowl until frothy and light. Do not overbeat. Set aside.
3. Mix together flour, cornstarch, salt, parsley, paprika, baking powder, garlic powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. Add water and egg white; mix until smooth.
4. Add shrimp and toss until fully covered with batter.
5. Drop 6 to 8 shrimp at a time in hot oil. Do not overcrowd. Fry 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towels.
To serve:
Spread 1 heaping tablespoon of chipotle mayonnaise on flour tortilla and place 3 shrimp down the middle. Top with small handful of cabbage, drizzle with salsa verde, and spritz with lime juice!
Here is a video from Disney on youtube if you want to see it being made in live action! Mexico Shrimp Taco Video by Disney!
AAshleySEG
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2012
- Messages
- 1,256
14 Days To Go!! Today for dinner, I chose to make another dish or rather, my take on a dish we really liked from the Food & Wine Festival in previous years! The Argentina booth, which will not be at the festival this year, however, the dish from the booth will be at the new Patagonia marketplace! I wanted to do my take on the Beef skewer with chimichurri and boniato puree!
Ok, now, first off, boniato is a white sweet potato, and I only happened to grow purple and orange sweet potatoes in my garden this year, so I did not have any, neither did my local grocer. So I just went with regular old russet potato mashed potatoes. The recipe also called for heavy cream, I didn't use heavy cream, instead I used Fat Free Milk, and a splash of buttermilk.
For the steak I used a sirloin, seasoned it up with salt and pepper, and we put it on our Weber Charcoal Grill, for us, there is nothing like a nice charcoal grill out in the summertime! Earlier in the day I made the Epcot recipe for chimichurri. I am going to have to tinker with this one...something just seems wrong about it, I looked up some other ones and will fiddle around with it until I get it the way I want it to be! I think this one had too much onion and vinegar, and not enough parsley! Don't get me wrong it was still good though!
Once the steak came off the grill, and we let it rest, Jeremy carved it up for us!
I put some mashed potatoes on the plate, layered on some beef, and spooned over the homemade chimichurri!! Its like having the Argentina Booth right in our kitchen!! We really enjoyed it too!!
Have any of you had the Beef Skewer with Chimichurri and Boniato puree from the Argentina Booth?? It is one of my favorites! My homemade version turned out really well and it will definitely be something I make again in the future!! I wonder if I will make any more Disney dishes before we go??
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