Drinking Before Noon Everyday-An Oct F&W Adventure *COMPLETE!

[jerseytinkerbell]

Hi everyone!

Jerseytinkerbell back with you once again! I am a little late starting my DR this time, but I'm going to keep it moving quickly. Joining me as always is my hubby Rob and this trip we also have my awesome SIL Lindsay joining in on the fun.

A little backstory on this trip. After our 2 week January trip I thought for sure we wouldn't be back again this year. To my surprise and delight Rob mentioned in June that he thought he could hang on to enough vacation days to go for F&W and would I like to go. Uhhhh, duh! No sooner were the words out of his mouth, I booked our room. My SIL got married at the end of September and those of you who have read my past DRs know that hubby does not fly and passed on the opportunity to go to Jamaica for her wedding. Super bummer, but to make it up to her he offered to bring her and her new hubby with us on our trip as their wedding present. Sadly her hubby did not have enough vacation time to go but was totally fine with her going with us, so a trip for two became a trip for three. Yay! Lindsay is a very, go with the flow, type of person so she definitely fits in to our traveling style. Here are the three of us at all 4 parks this trip.

This trip was really all about F&W and down time. All we really wanted to do was eat at all the booths and enjoy the resort and if we get some rides in great, but if not, no big deal. I totally splurged and booked our room at the new Copper Creek Villas at Wilderness Lodge. Eek! I was super excited to stay here as I have not stayed here in almost 15 years and Rob has never stayed here.

Well lets get right to it! Here we go with day one!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

I took off the day we left for WDW and it did not start well. I planned to get my hair done that afternoon and woke up to find out my stylist cancelled my appointment. Ugh. So I booked with someone else and it was a nightmare. It took 5 hours, yes 5 HOURS, to get my hair done. I ended up getting home with no chance to nap as planned and had to do my last minute backing in a total rush. And to top it off I hated my hair, so I was a total panicky crazy mess to start the drive. Fortunately most of the packing was already done but I was in such a mad rush that I forgot our pillow and blanket for the car which did not make for a comfortable drive. I also had not eaten all day and stuffed a Wawa meatball hoagie in my face before we left town. Finally we picked up my SIL and at 8:45 pm we were on our way!

I took the first shift and drive the first 300 miles and got us almost all the way through Virginia stopping a couple of miles before we got into North Carolina.



Had to wear some LulaRoe for the drive. I'm obsessed! Anyone else addicted?



Rob took over and from there we went back and forth driving. I felt super sick to my stomach and felt like a hot mess from Georgia on and he had to finish out the drive. Other than me not feeling well the drive went very well. No major traffic issues and no bad weather, which is a blessing.

Finally at 11:45 am we arrived!









We got checked in right away and the girl at the front desk was super sweet and got us a room even though we were way early for check-in, which we were grateful for. Just look at this place!





Even the bar in the elevator had cute touches. Look!



I always do a super terrible job of photographing our room because we always arrive exhausted from the drive and all I can think about is putting our bags down and getting a hot shower and after that the room has our stuff all over the place, but I did get a couple of room pics.







After I put a bunch of stuff away we all took naps and then we got ready to head to Epcot for the night!!!

On the bus!


Almost there!


We made it!




First thing first, we need to upgrade our tickets to APs. We just officially became DVC members after being an associate on my mom's membership for 15 years. The only reason I cared about being added to the deed is for this reason, the perks. It was only $75 each to upgrade from our 7 day park hopper passes to a Gold Pass. Wow! Huge money saver! We went to Guest Relations to upgrade our passes and buy our TiW card and the girl there was super friendly and awesome. Yay! Now with all that out of the way let's eat!

Our first stop ended up being Thailand. I still felt super weird and wanted something that wouldn't be too tough on my stomach. I went with the Marinated Chicken with Peanut Sauce and Stir-Fried Vegetables.


This was not at all on my radar before coming here but it was delicious! Excellent start to F&W!

Rob got the Red Hot Spicy Thai Curry Beef.


He liked this, but was a little disappointed. He actually liked mine way better when he had a taste of mine. Lindsay got this and felt the same way.

Next we went to the Epcot Legacy Showplace in the Odyssey building.


We all got the Zesty Cheeseburger and Cheddar Cheese Macaroni Handwich.





This was really good! The mac and cheese was very quality and there was nice flavor to this overall and I liked that the cone was sturdy and not messy to eat.

Rob and Lindsay both got beer flights. Rob got the Western Flight and very much enjoyed it. I had a sip of one of the beers and it was pretty good.


After that we had Frozen Fastpasses which I was not missing, so it was off to Norway!



After the ride Rob and Lindsay stopped for wine in India, which I did not get a picture of. Then they stopped at a little side booth serving just alcohol in Italy and got drinks.

Cheers!


Lines were getting really massive at a lot of the booths so we skipped some booths we wanted to stop at. Eventually we stopped at Hops & Barley, which was a long line but always worth it. We could also hear Toad the Wet Sprocket's first set going on which was a bonus. Lindsay and I both ordered the New England Lobster Roll.


Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum!!! I could eat these all day. The lobster portion was excellent and the roll was fresh and tasty. Loved it as always!

Rob got the beer flight.


Next we stopped in Japan and Rob got the item he was most looking forward to, the Wasabi Shumai Steamed Pork Dumplings.


He really liked them, but I think he built them up too much in his mind and was slightly disappointed. He said they had nice flavor and were not spicy.

Rob wanted to press on but the crowds were so massive you could barely move at this point and we were going to the next set for Toad the Wet Sprocket's Eat To The Beat show, so we just went back towards the Americas pavilion. I grabbed seats for us while the two of them got drinks and for just walking up I thought our seats were fairly decent.





Enjoying the show with my hubs.


I'm not going to lie. The entire reason why we picked this week was so that I could see these guys. I have loved them since I was a kid and I was dying to see them here. This was a huge thrill for me. I really enjoyed the show. And they did different songs from the first set which was pretty cool and unexpected. I got to hear a few of my favorites. Eat To The Beat is so awesome and is definitely one of the best things about F&W.

After the show was over we made our way further around World Showcase.


Every booth had an insane line and when we wanted to stop in Rose & Crown for a drink at the bar that had the worst line of all. We made our way closer to the front and Islands of the Caribbean had virtually no line so we stopped there. Rob got the Mojo Pork, which he had last year as well and enjoyed once again.


I got the Jamaican Beef Patty with Mango Salsa.


Beef Patties and not Patty actually, so that was a nice surprise. This had nice flavor and I loved the mango salsa it was paired with.

After that we decided to head back to the resort in search of other treats as Epcot was just too packed for our liking. Spaceship Earth had a huge line, and I couldn't change our Fastpass times to mesh with when we were leaving so it was just the one ride for today, but that's okay.

And speaking of Spaceship Earth, just look at this view. It never gets old, does it?

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

After a fun first evening at F&W we left Epcot and fortunately a bus pulled up right as we got to the bus stop. We went back to the resort and decided to check out the new Geyser Point Bar and Grill.

(These pics were taken during the day another day. It was totally dark out at this point and my pics were pretty bad.)




It was pretty packed out there so we ended up at three seats that finally opened up at the bar, but were a little lower than the rest of the bar. No biggie, a seat was a seat at that point.

We were given menus and decided on drinks. Before the trip I decided that I was only drinking rum or tequila based drinks as vodka seems to give me problems. And I actually stuck to this. Yay me having weird willpower! Tonight I had a Banana Cabana. This had Cruzan mango rum, Coruba coconut rum, Bols creme de banana, with ornage and pineapple juices and Grenadine. This was my first drink of the trip as my stomach had finally settled down.


This was excellent! I mean, you can't really go wrong with rum and fruit juices.

Here is another picture for perspective on how much lower our seats were then the top of the bar.


Rob got a Man Tai but I never got a pic of it because it looked pretty similar to mine.

Lindsay had a Cascadia Sangria Cocktail which was Zodiac black cherry vodka, fresh lime juice, and orange juice topped with Columbia Crest H3 merlot.


This looked awesome and she really liked it, but vodka was a no no for me.

I was the only one that decided to get food. I really wanted to try the bison cheeseburger here but didn't want anything that big. I decided on the specialty cheese fries they had on their seasonal insert menu.



These were amazing! And the fries stayed nice and crispy and never got soggy. Yum! And part way through eating them my SIL pointed out the button I was wearing that day.


I wasn't even thinking about this when I ordered them. How fitting!

While we were at the bar Happily Ever After began and they had the music from the fireworks show playing in the bar area. If I had gotten up and walked around the outside a bit I would have been able to see them. That is my only real regret this trip is that we never got to watch the new fireworks show. Oh well, at least we will be back in January.

Geyser Point was nice, but on this night there was a real issue. The bugs. We were getting eaten alive. I have never had an issue with bugs like this on Disney property before. I mean, I know its Florida, but its odd because its not usually an issue at the resort. This was bad and actually pretty gross. Look at the lights on the bar.


After we finished our drinks the bugs kept us from staying for another. No TiW discount here but we did get 20% off the food with our AP. The atmosphere here is great and if we stay at WL again we would definitely come back and give it another try. Minus the bugs hopefully.

Everyone wanted a dessert treat and I was dying to try a few things at Roaring Fork so we walked over to the main building to see what they had. Nothing. They had no desserts in the case at all. Big time bummer. Oh well, back to the room we went. We watched Goonies on tv and one by one we all fell asleep.

Great start to the trip! Tomorrow is relaxation and our first look at Pandora!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Hurrah!! Love your reports! I will be back to read and comment but marking my spot for now!

 

[Niki Andiokno]

WOW! We were also there do Toad the Wet Sprocket!! I love that band.Eat to the Beat is awesome. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[sleepydog25]

You stayed at our home resort! We really enjoy GP, though the two best dishes when they first opened are now MIA: the salmon BLT and the eggs benedict for breakfast. Sigh. Still, I will say that I'm glad to hear the waffle fries are still excellent. They were a side with the salmon BLT, and they're the best waffle fries I've found. . .crispy, didn't get soggy, and perfectly seasoned. The crowds at F&W have become increasingly heavy, so we tend to avoid it much anymore.

 

[Mich123]

Great start! Can’t wait to read your report!

 

[princess aleya]

Yay!!! I love your reports! Looking forward to reading more.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

All caught up! Those cheese fries had me wanting to go to Geyser Point ASAP... until I saw the bugs. Ewwwww. Hope they can do something about that.

Love Wilderness Lodge. I always seem to end up at Beach Club or Boardwalk given my love of Epcot and World Showcase but I may need to switch things up.

Your trip looks to be off to a good start. How fun to have your SIL join too! You tried a bunch of things I didn’t even see. Never enough time (or appetite) for F&W.

 

[ncc1701]

Happy to see a new review from a fellow South Jersey traveler. Your reviews have been one of several that have inspired me to do one so thanks.

 

[kastoney]

Awesome start to the trip!!!! I can't believe how you make the overnight trek and then accomplish so much in one day.

So glad to see you are staying at my favorite Wilderness Lodge. We haven't been able to stay there in a few trips so it will be good to live vicariously through you. We almost did Geyser point, but ended up at Whispering Canyon instead just so I could get some WL time in. Your fries look divine! Sorry I missed out on those.

And I think your hair looks great by the way

 

[manicstreet]

Love your reports!

 

[Texans_loyal]

yaaay LOVE LOVE LOVE your reports! your hubby must be excited about the eagles doing so well!

 

[Nohal]

I'm in. How long does it take you to drive?

 

[FSU Girl]

Joining in. Your food at the Food and Wine looked really good. I love peanut sauce so that chicken dish looks amazing to me. It's great seeing your pictures of Wilderness Lodge since I'll be staying there soon. Those cheese fries look so good. The bug problem is concerning though. Mosquitos love me and I feel like I'll be eaten alive with that many hanging around.

Can't wait to read more.

 

[disneymomof1]

I love all your reports !!! So excited you are starting another one. I followed along on Instagram but still love coming to the dis

 

[disneyAndi14]

Happy to see a new report from you, always love your Dining reports. Epcot sounded like it was really busy the first day, you did get some good choices at FW and your loaded fries at GP look delicious, sorry about all the bugs!

 

[JerseyJanice]

Great report so far!

Looking forward to reading the rest and especially your reviews of the F&W.

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

WOW! We were also there do Toad the Wet Sprocket!! I love that band.Eat to the Beat is awesome. Can't wait to hear more!

That's awesome! They were so good, right?

You stayed at our home resort! We really enjoy GP, though the two best dishes when they first opened are now MIA: the salmon BLT and the eggs benedict for breakfast. Sigh. Still, I will say that I'm glad to hear the waffle fries are still excellent. They were a side with the salmon BLT, and they're the best waffle fries I've found. . .crispy, didn't get soggy, and perfectly seasoned. The crowds at F&W have become increasingly heavy, so we tend to avoid it much anymore.

Yay for WL! It is seriously gorgeous there. I wish we had the chance to go back to GP because everything sounded delicious. We popped over for breakfast one morning but nothing was jumping out at us. The Saturday night crowd was insane at F&W! We hear talk of crowds and of drunks and thought people were crazy... until now. We saw a girl being carried by two of her friends because she couldn't stand, rowdy people and then it was shoulder to shoulder to top it off. Nope! It is not that way during the week, especially early in the day. I will stick to weekdays at 11am from now on with F&W. Lesson learned!

Great start! Can’t wait to read your report!

Thanks for joining in!

Yay!!! I love your reports! Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you! More coming up!

All caught up! Those cheese fries had me wanting to go to Geyser Point ASAP... until I saw the bugs. Ewwwww. Hope they can do something about that.

Love Wilderness Lodge. I always seem to end up at Beach Club or Boardwalk given my love of Epcot and World Showcase but I may need to switch things up.

Your trip looks to be off to a good start. How fun to have your SIL join too! You tried a bunch of things I didn’t even see. Never enough time (or appetite) for F&W.

Thanks for joining in with me as always! I will say, Rob went back later in the trip for drinks at the bar one night and said there were no bugs at all, so I guess this time was a fluke?

I don't blame you, I love that area. That would always be my top choice, but Rob's is always SSR, so I generally accommodate since he does go for three weeks out of the year with me.

Happy to see a new review from a fellow South Jersey traveler. Your reviews have been one of several that have inspired me to do one so thanks.

That's awesome to hear! Thanks so much for reading!

Awesome start to the trip!!!! I can't believe how you make the overnight trek and then accomplish so much in one day.

So glad to see you are staying at my favorite Wilderness Lodge. We haven't been able to stay there in a few trips so it will be good to live vicariously through you. We almost did Geyser point, but ended up at Whispering Canyon instead just so I could get some WL time in. Your fries look divine! Sorry I missed out on those.

And I think your hair looks great by the way

Hey there! Welcome! Ugh, I know, right? I don't know how we do it either. I always plan on us not really doing anything the first day, but we are never able to help ourselves. We always hit the parks hard the first day.

WL is so beautiful. It was nice to be back there after a very long time away. I was very tempted by Whispering Canyon and we almost ate there a couple different times. One day!

Thank you! It grew on me... so to speak. It was one of those things where it was not at all what I asked for, so I was upset, but now I like it for the most part.

Love your reports!

Thank you so much!

yaaay LOVE LOVE LOVE your reports! your hubby must be excited about the eagles doing so well!

Awesome! Thank you! Oh my gosh, it has been a happy happy football season this year for a change. And the best part is that we will be in WDW for Eagles playoff games depending on how far they get which will be awesome!

I'm in. How long does it take you to drive?

Thanks for joining in! It takes about 15 hours straight through for us. We only stop for gas/bathroom breaks and one fast food stop. It's arduous but worth it once we are down there with our own car.

Joining in. Your food at the Food and Wine looked really good. I love peanut sauce so that chicken dish looks amazing to me. It's great seeing your pictures of Wilderness Lodge since I'll be staying there soon. Those cheese fries look so good. The bug problem is concerning though. Mosquitos love me and I feel like I'll be eaten alive with that many hanging around.

Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for joining in! That peanut sauce was delicious. I was actually craving it the other day. Oh, so fun! WL is beautiful! I will say, the bugs were bad, but my hubby went back for drinks with a friend a few nights later and said there were no bugs at all, so maybe we just hit it on an off night. Mosquitos love me also and I'm allergic to them, so I totally understand where you are coming from. Fingers crossed for now bugs on your trip!

I love all your reports !!! So excited you are starting another one. I followed along on Instagram but still love coming to the dis

Thanks for joining in with me again this report! I love posting on IG, but its nice to get on here and talk about our trip more in depth, so I'm glad you come on here too.

Happy to see a new report from you, always love your Dining reports. Epcot sounded like it was really busy the first day, you did get some good choices at FW and your loaded fries at GP look delicious, sorry about all the bugs!

Thanks so much for joining in with me again! For being so crowded and it being our first day we did a lot, so I was pleased. The fries were awesome, but yeah the bugs were unfortunate.

Great report so far!

Looking forward to reading the rest and especially your reviews of the F&W.

Thanks for joining in! More reviews coming up!

 

[jerseytinkerbell]

Since I anticipated that we would have a very full first day I planned an evening park visit for our second day and left the morning and afternoon open for food, movies and sleeping in. When we got up we all decided that a big breakfast sounded ideal and my SIL had never done Trail's End before, so I got on the app and was able to book it with no problem. Yay!

I don't know what I was missing, but I could have sworn that I've read on here a ton of times that you can walk from WL to Trail's End, but I could not figure it out and my map app told me it would take hours to walk there, so I gave up and we went out to wait for the bus. Does anyone know if you can? Did I make this up in my mind? I dunno, but first, look at this view from the Lodge.



I was willing to drive, but we figured an internal bus over to FW would be along shortly, so we decided to wait it out. Check out my Nightmare Before Christmas inspired outfit for the day.



There was a CM at the bus stop this morning and I asked if one of the buses would stop at FW next other than the internal bus as it had done so on our way to Epcot the day before, but he said no, so back we went to waiting for the internal bus. And wait, and wait, and wait. Then he yelled for us to run down to the end as our bus was there... but it said Disney Springs. We went with it and went down only to be told, oops my bad, not your bus. Back we go to wait again. It was getting very close to our reservation time and I was really about to just get in the car and drive over when a bus pulled up. And the lovely CM felt bad about making us run for the wrong bus, so he gave us a Fastpass for the park that night, which was really sweet!



This was especially great since I was unable to book the safari for AK that night because I used our Fastpasses for Na'vi River Journey, Everest and River of Lights. Score! Thanks Henry!

The bus to FW from WL only had the three of us on it and took us right to where we needed to go with no other stops, so we made it right on time for our reservation. Perfect!



One of our favorite breakfast spots.

We checked in and got our pager and waited outside to be seated. Selfie time!



After only a couple of minutes we were seated and drink orders were taken and we were off to the buffet! The best part was that it was Sunday and it was the brunch buffet, which we had not done before. It was essentially all the best parts of breakfast and lunch combined. Mickey waffles and fried chicken? Yes please!



My first plate.



A Mickey waffle (obviously), breakfast potatoes, seasonal pasta, breakfast pizza, tater tots, French toast bread pudding and a cinnamon roll.

Their breakfast potatoes have big chunks of beef in them and are the absolute best potatoes ever. Everything else was super yummy, but the real stand out for me was the season pasta which was penne pasta with spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes and goat cheese cream sauce. I couldn't get enough of it!

Rob's massive first plate complete with gigantic omelet and every meat known to man.



He was RAVING about the chicken, so I had to save room for some.

My smaller second plate.



More pasta (YUM!) and a small piece of chicken with some mashed potatoes and gravy.

I have had their chicken before and loved it, but I forgot how good it was. Delicious!

And of course we had to get the Moonshine to drink, which is the awesome fruit blend they serve at a number of spots throughout WDW.



Brunch at Trail's End was a total success! My SIL loved it too. I would absolutely do brunch again over breakfast. This was the best of both worlds and everything was fresh and tasty. I highly recommend!

We were all super full and ready to sit in a movie. Off to Disney Springs we go!