Driving and Breweries and the DIS megameet ... oh my! *new Aug 3rd ... just back - a quick review*

[ninecrayons]

Howdy! Just bounced over here from the brewery thread on the DisUnplugged board. I saw the link in your signature and was curious to read about some other people attending the mega meet. Plus I love a good road trip - I just did the Florida to NYC and back after visiting my parents for three weeks. Thankfully, since we're only about 1.5 hours south, my trip to the mega meet will be much shorter.

Plan is to get to the park before opening (which is now 8am) to see the welcome show - which we have actually never seen! (I know, bad DISer) .. by the way, that usually happens about 15 minutes before park opening, right?

Plan is to head right to Peter Pan as we want to see the new queue (so didn't FP it this time) and try to get to what we can in Fantasyland - grabbing breakfast at some point (perhaps getting cinnamon rolls from Gaston's or go to Starbucks or something (unless other suggestions)

I love the welcome show, though I've only seen it two or three times. It always makes me tear up a bit. Last time I tried to catch it, it was raining, so they didn't do it. I'll have to add this to my list of things to do this trip.

Starbucks at the MK is often a bit crowded and slow for me. If it's doable, sending one person there and then meeting up might work best.

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We will look to be back by 4:30 as we have our FP for Frozen Ever After at 4:40 - 5:40pm .

(only seen concept art, trying to keep it somewhat of a surprise)​

DH and I just rode that for the first time this past weekend. I kept myself spoiler free as well and it was great. I'm sure your kids are going to love it. One of my friends said her daughter was in Frozen heaven on that ride.

Then we will head up into Liberty Square to get breakfast at Sleepy Hallow as the Fresh Fruit Waffle Sandwich with Chocolate Hazelnut Spread is something we haven't tried yet and I think that needs to be remedied (we've had the spicy chicken waffle sandwich but none of the sweet ones)

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Then we go back to Adventureland as we booked an ADR for Skipper's Canteen @ 11:45. (definitely a bit more back-and-forth than I would like but how it kinda worked out with what we wanted to FP and then when they added the advanced booking ADRs for Skippers). This is one place we really wanted to try, despite some less than stellar reviews - or at least mixed reviews. I am glad that it seems like other than adjusting the kids menu a little bit they haven't drastically changed the menu yet. Some of the appetizers look really good to me (the arepas and the fish collar) as well as some of the entrees (the pork and the duck noodle bowl). If anyone has any recommendations though, very open to it as I have read a lot of different (and sometimes conflicting) thoughts on this place

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Oh man, the waffle sandwiches. <3 Though I do miss the chicken one. DH and I would often split the chicken and the nutella for lunch.

I had to think about it, but I've been to Skipper Canteen three times. I've enjoyed it, but I do feel like they made some changes since the first time I went in January. We always get the SEA Shumai, but they're kind of just basic dumplings. I just love dumplings. The falafel is also yummy.

I had the noodle bowl in January and enjoyed it. Last time my BFF got it and the broth was very watered down. I'm not sure if it was a one time thing, but it almost seemed like they might be trying to "blanden" it. We've had the char siu pork, steak and sustainable fish and all have been good.

Of all the rooms, the mess hall is my least favorite. It's my goal to sit in the Tiki Bird section one day, but the library area is nice.

We aren't planning on doing a bunch of princess dresses this trip (though Peter has informed us that he too wants to wear a Snow White dress for that meet along with Olivia and Emma, so that should be fun) - but one thing we did get was dresses for Olivia and Emma for this meet and greet - plus they just look super cute anyway:

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That dress is seriously adorable. I think we may have to add meeting Joy and Sadness to the list of things for this trip!

Excited to read the rest of your PTR and eventual TR.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 14 - Saturday, July 30th -Athens, GA​

Friday night we will start our journey home and depending on what time we leave the parks will dictate how far we get ... I am thinking of getting to at least Gainesville but if up for it may try a bit further - depends also where we can find decent rate for a hotel to crash for that night.

The next stop will be Athens, Ga. I thought about hitting up Atlanta but with the traffic that can be there and really only having 1 day just seemed like it would be pushing it to much. Plus, Judi was born in Athens so we thought it would be neat to check it out.

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If we are doing good on time we may try to stop at Terrapin Beer Co as they have some cool stuff and are actually having a Jerry Garcia day this day. They do tours from 1- 7:30pm on Saturdays.

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Then we will stop by where we are staying that night, which is the Hilton Garden Inn Athens, GA and then walk around the main downtown area (Terrapin is a few miles outside of the main downtwon area)

Within walking distance are two more breweries - Copper Creek and Creature Comforts. We then plan to eat dinner at the Trappeze Pub which looks really cool - they win awards for the area and have outside seating so should be nice:

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We will try to not be out too late as we want to get a bit of an early start the next day as we hit up the one stop I am most looking forward to - Asheville, NC!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 15 - Sunday, July 31st - Asheville, NC ... then driving home​

When thinking of places to stop at for brewery purposes but first choice was Asheville, NC - and we will get there this day! The plan is to stop about 2/3rd of the way there at Oskar Blues NC location - which is a very cool brewery - they open at 12 noon so goal will be to be there pretty close to opening. They have food trucks come by starting at 1pm on Sunday so that will be the plan for lunch

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We will then continue on to Asheville with the main goal of getting to Wicket Weed for the 3m tour of their Funkatorium - this is where they have their really interesting and barrel aged beers and just sounds right up my alley. They do sour and wild ales here and have 600+ barrels, so pretty big facility:

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After that, there are some other breweries in the area, but we will see how we are doing - might also look for a park or something for the kids to run around a bit. We are planning to then eat at the Wicked Weed Brew Pub:

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Again, lots of nice outside seating, so hopefully the weather is good.

We don't know where we are staying that night as the distance directly from Asheville back to Judi's parents is a bit further than we would like in one day so we are hoping to head north 1-2 hours and find somewhere to stop - at least to Johnson City, NC or Bristol, VA

We will then drive to Judi's Family's on Monday, spend the night there and then drive home on Tuesday, hoping to get there like Mid-day ... and then back to work on Wednesday, August 3rd (might work from home)

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So that is the trip ... and we leave tomorrow night!

Questions? Comments? Anything we are doing that looks nuts/stupid? Must dos along the way?

Thanks for following and for all of the comments so far!!!

TTFN

 

[nilla]

Wow, that's some trip! I'll be up near Scranton, PA too, but not until Friday

Looking forward to the Trip Report!

 

[rteetz]

Looks awesome Phil!

Some pretty cool stops on the way back. Can't believe mega meet weekend is almost here. I know I am not going but I am excited for everyone that is. I cant wait to hear all about it!

 

[ariane37]

I'm sure you guys are busy packing and wanted to make sure I stopped in to say safe travels and have a wonderful trip! I'll be on the lookout for your TR

 

[annie170]

Just found this. It looks like it'll be an awesome trip! Two and a half weeks is a pretty long trip. I see you're one of those people who goes back to work the day after arriving home. I usually need a day to catch up, but it doesn't always work out that way.

I love how organized you are and have your planning down to the minute. I try to do that, but my husband gives me so much grief. You pretty much have to at Disney with fast passes and adrs, but I was doing that long before those came into existence.

The DIS Unplugged Mega Meet will no doubt be a blast! Take lots of pics for those of us stuck at home.

Your food choices sound good. Tusker House is by far my favorite character meal. I love the unique options there. Smart move getting the bill right away. I can't tell you how many times we've gotten stuck sitting and waiting while precious park time is wasted.

Chef Mickey's was a reservation we had a terrible time getting. Couldn't get one in 2011, 12 or 13. Finally got one for our 2015 trip. My grandkids enjoyed the characters, as I'm sure your kids will love seeing the fab five. The food was just okay, but we may have been there on an off day.

I haven't heard about the character meals going up to two dining credits or large increases in the cost. I thought those were quite pricey as they were and we generally only go to places like that on the dining plan. Any word on when that may go into effect?

A co-worker recently tried Skipper Canteen and really enjoyed it. There are so many things I would like to try on that menu.

I hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip and the weather stays tolerable!

 

[Dugette]

Oh my gosh, you leave tomorrow! So exciting!

Love that Inside Out dress, by the way.

Hope you have a safe and enjoyable drive down and can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[ElenaJane]

I started listening to the WDW podcast yesterday. I so wish I would be there for the meet-up! It really sounds like it is going to be amazing. They also gave the Star Wars Dessert Part a great review and I thought of you guys! Sounds like each person gets to take home a Chewie cup, so that is a lot of cups for your family!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like some great stops planned on the way home! Going to work the next day will be tough, but hopefully you can work from home!

I can't believe you leave tonight!! Have a wonderful trip, I really can't wait to hear all about it when you return! Safe travels!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wow, that's some trip! I'll be up near Scranton, PA too, but not until Friday

Looking forward to the Trip Report!

Well, we will be in PA on Friday as well - though more central PA near Harrisburg and Hershey vs Scranton ... then we head south early Saturday morning

Definitely feeling like this trip is either going to be amazing or a disaster - low probability of it being "just ok"

Looks awesome Phil!

Some pretty cool stops on the way back. Can't believe mega meet weekend is almost here. I know I am not going but I am excited for everyone that is. I cant wait to hear all about it!

Thanks Ryan! I know - it felt like it was taking a while to get here and then all of a sudden it was right here! I'll definitely be reporting out!

I'm sure you guys are busy packing and wanted to make sure I stopped in to say safe travels and have a wonderful trip! I'll be on the lookout for your TR

Thank you so much! We have gotten a lot of packing and last night Judi and I basically got everything into bags (we are trying to be efficient and have things packed by day and location rather than by person so we don't have to bring in everything at every stop ... we shall see). Judi is hoping to start packing the car today so we can leave shortly after I get home from work - and then we are off in a matter of hours at this point!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Just found this. It looks like it'll be an awesome trip! Two and a half weeks is a pretty long trip. I see you're one of those people who goes back to work the day after arriving home. I usually need a day to catch up, but it doesn't always work out that way.

I love how organized you are and have your planning down to the minute. I try to do that, but my husband gives me so much grief. You pretty much have to at Disney with fast passes and adrs, but I was doing that long before those came into existence.

The DIS Unplugged Mega Meet will no doubt be a blast! Take lots of pics for those of us stuck at home.

Your food choices sound good. Tusker House is by far my favorite character meal. I love the unique options there. Smart move getting the bill right away. I can't tell you how many times we've gotten stuck sitting and waiting while precious park time is wasted.

Chef Mickey's was a reservation we had a terrible time getting. Couldn't get one in 2011, 12 or 13. Finally got one for our 2015 trip. My grandkids enjoyed the characters, as I'm sure your kids will love seeing the fab five. The food was just okay, but we may have been there on an off day.

I haven't heard about the character meals going up to two dining credits or large increases in the cost. I thought those were quite pricey as they were and we generally only go to places like that on the dining plan. Any word on when that may go into effect?

A co-worker recently tried Skipper Canteen and really enjoyed it. There are so many things I would like to try on that menu.

I hope you have a safe and enjoyable trip and the weather stays tolerable!

Thanks for all the comments Annie!

I technically put in for Wednesday off as well so I will see how things go - maybe just work from home that day as well. My boss is out that first week or August so want to minimize time that both of us are out at the same time

Definitely will be taking pictures and will post some stuff ... if not here then via social media if you want to follow along with me! I'm going to have a post with more info on how to follow me

We love the breakfast at Tusker House - though we haven't done other meals there yet. I heard a good tip of booking the last seating for breakfast as they will be changing out the food for lunch so you can kinda get two meals in one ... that obviously doesn't fit with wanting a pre-park opening ADR though

I am definitely not expecting 5 star food at Chef Mickey's but at least enough stuff that is ok and everyone finds something they like and then definitely good interaction with the characters! I think Peter will like stopping by the Contemporary too and eating where the monorail goes through the building

There was a "bug" in the system where some meals were showing up as 2 credits but then when the 2017 dining plan details came out they were still at 1 credit. The podcast team reported they were hearing that significant price increases were coming for many character meals around the November timeframe but we shall see. Crowds are definitely down and some of their extra hours events weren't huge hits (as far as people signing up) so perhaps Disney is backing off some price increases

Glad to hear your co-worker liked Skipper Canteen. I am really looking forward to it - I am pretty sure Judi and I will like it, just hope the kids do as well ... sometimes they can be really open to trying things and some times less so - we shall see!

thank you very much! I too hope the weather isn't too bad. Two years ago we went the last week of August and got pretty lucky that the temps trended only around 90 or so whereas the previous week they were in the upper 90s. I hope we get lucky again!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Oh my gosh, you leave tomorrow! So exciting!

Love that Inside Out dress, by the way.

Hope you have a safe and enjoyable drive down and can't wait to hear all about it!

I know! And at this point we leave today when I get home from work for the first stretch out to Judi's parents' house! I am very excited but also a bit nervous. We got a ton done last night as far as packing so I think we are ready, but we shall see!

Thanks - I thought the dresses were really cute and looked like things they could wear outside of Disney no problem as well!

Thanks! I'll be posting some on social media so I am sure you will see some and definitely plan to do a Trip Report

I started listening to the WDW podcast yesterday. I so wish I would be there for the meet-up! It really sounds like it is going to be amazing. They also gave the Star Wars Dessert Part a great review and I thought of you guys! Sounds like each person gets to take home a Chewie cup, so that is a lot of cups for your family!

I think the meetup will be amazing. We weren't able to do some of the smaller meetup things but hoping we will get to see a number of DISers and meet the team at least a little bit. Hoping a few come to the Poly Fireworks event Friday night as that will be pretty casual.

Very excited for the dessert party and I know about those Chewie Steins! I kinda wish they had a couple of character options rather than us getting 4 of the same, but don't really want to complain about a "freebie"

Sounds like some great stops planned on the way home! Going to work the next day will be tough, but hopefully you can work from home!

I can't believe you leave tonight!! Have a wonderful trip, I really can't wait to hear all about it when you return! Safe travels!!

Thanks - I am really looking forward to the stops on the way home ... although we don't have as much planned specifically for the kids so we will probably have to find something at one of the stops at least.

Thank you so much Alexis!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Part 16 - Social Media Contacts for Live Reports​

Hi everyone - thank you so much for all the comments and best wishes! I can't believe we leave tonight and I am super excited but also a bit nervous. I have it in my head that this trip with either be amazing or a disaster with no chance of it being "just ok"

With the traveling and how busy we are likely to be I am not sure how much I will be able to post things here so just wanted to make note of my social media contacts as I will look to post some quick updates there.

For me, Phil:
- feel free to look for me on Facebook and send a friend request (PM me if you want more information)
- Also, you can follow me on twitter @IAAOT

For my beer persona, that is The Beerlinguist:
- Give a follow to my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/beerlinguist/
- follow on twitter @beerlinguist


Thanks!

TTFN

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

For some reason, I didn't even make the connection that we'd be going on road trips at the same time! We're leaving for a road trip of the Southwest on Saturday!

I hope you have safe travels throughout and that everything goes well for you-can't wait to read the TR once you're back!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

For some reason, I didn't even make the connection that we'd be going on road trips at the same time! We're leaving for a road trip of the Southwest on Saturday!

I hope you have safe travels throughout and that everything goes well for you-can't wait to read the TR once you're back!

I hope you have safe travels as well. Not sure where you are going exactly but when I was a kid we drove out from Albuquerque to the Grand Canyon and it was a neat experience in how far you could see and see lightening in the distance, etc.

And as I type this a major storm has rolled in - should make the drive tonight fun :|

 

[cindianne320]

Wow! Just read your whole PTR during naptime. How fun to have a bonus trip to FL, and breweries along the way. My DH is a beer fanatic, so he would love that part of the trip! Looking forward to hearing about your travels and the Trip Report when you get home! I'm drooling over the food options, specifically the macadamia nut pancakes (I missed our breakfast there in March), Nutella waffle and dole whip with rum (Which I did try at F+G). Good luck with all the driving- I hope it goes very smoothly!

 

[Imagineer5]

I missed the send off, but hope you're having an amazing time!!

 

[Leshaface]

Hope you're having a great trip Phil and fam!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wow! Just read your whole PTR during naptime. How fun to have a bonus trip to FL, and breweries along the way. My DH is a beer fanatic, so he would love that part of the trip! Looking forward to hearing about your travels and the Trip Report when you get home! I'm drooling over the food options, specifically the macadamia nut pancakes (I missed our breakfast there in March), Nutella waffle and dole whip with rum (Which I did try at F+G). Good luck with all the driving- I hope it goes very smoothly!

Thanks for reading up on everything- definitely plan to do a full TR and have already had some good food and haven't even made it to Disney yet!

I missed the send off, but hope you're having an amazing time!!

Hope you're having a great trip Phil and fam!

Thanks!

So far things are going fairly well. We have been spending time with family in Boca the past few days and we get to Disney tomorrow!

Made it to 6 breweries so far with most being quite good but Fullsteam and Funky Buddha standing out with the variety of beer

Tomorrow we will get our first look at Dusney Speings and Trader Sam's Grog Grotto - plus have the DIS Poly firework meetup which should be fun

Hope everyone is having a good summer