Eat, Drink, and be Married -- F&W Anniversary Trip 2010

[DEA]

Hello! And welcome...

Part 0: How this came about...

Do you know those Bounceback offers you get in your hotel rooms when you stay at a Disney Resort? And do you know how having an Annual Pass makes you feel like, "Hey! No matter how many times we visit WDW this year, it won't cost us any more for tickets -- we're wasting money NOT going!"? Have you ever thought it would be pretty cool to visit the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot, because, hey, Food AND Wine? Do you and your also-Disney-loving spouse think that the best place to go for a celebration, even without the kids, is WDW?

If so, then you will have an inkling about how my wife and I ended up at the Beach Club for our 7th anniversary at the tail end of the 2010 Food and Wine Festival.

I'm Eric. I got really hooked by Disney after planning our first family vacation a few years ago. It was a truly magical experience, as clichéd as that phrase seems. After that trip, we went back as a family for a couple more years.

The other party involved in this trip is my DW, Liz. She goes by the name of "myweegirls" on the boards here. She took to Disney and WDW just as much as I have over the past few years. We occasionally try to blame it on our daughters, but we know the truth.

We have conversations like "We should do X at Disney at some point" a lot. Especially when new things are announced, or something gets reviewed on the DIS Unplugged podcast, or somebody else does X at Disney... you know how it is. One of those Thing Xs was the Food and Wine Festival. As it turns out, it was ending the day before our seventh wedding anniversary. As you all know, the seventh wedding anniversary's traditional gift is: Trip for you and your spouse to WDW. It's not? Maybe it's the eighth or ninth, then...

So, while staying on property earlier in the year, we called to see what was available around the last weekend of Food and Wine at an Epcot-adjacent resort with the Bounceback discount. Beach Club... that's excellent... two room choices... water view standard room, or club level garden view...

After a brief consultation, we went with the water view room.

It took me about an hour and a half for my buyer's remorse to kick in. I conducted a quick psychological operation on my DW to try to talk her into the Club Level room. She fell for it! I mean, she thought it might be a good idea, too. It's a short trip, the rates were not THAT much higher for Club Level, and, hey, it's another one of those Thing Xs that we'd talked about doing. The reservations line was quite happy to put us into a CL room. And, later, add on a night.

Contents

0: This post
1: Pre-trip Logistical Concerns
2: Getting There

 

[OhMari]

Love the Beach Club.
You should of held out for an upgrade-
though it is really hard to come by at the Beach Club,
that is why I was so shocked when I got it.
She explained that it was ESPN weekend, and most of the regular rooms were booked off in blocks, and they needed to put us somewhere.
That somewhere made me happy.
I'm convinced it is the best Club Level in all the resorts.

 

[DEA]

Part 1: Pre-trip Logistical Concerns

We had heard that those handy little wristlet gift cards that you can use at the Food and Wine Festival might run out, and as we were going to be there so late in the festival's run, so I thought it would be a good test of the Concierge Level service to see if they might be able to procure a couple of those. They were amazingly accommodating and said that they would put aside a couple of blank gift card wristlets for us that we would get upon checking in. Very cool. One less thing to worry about.

We played around with our ADRs a bit over the course of pre-trip planning. Based on a good review on the DIS Unplugged podcast, we picked up a reservation for Cape May Cafe (to do this, we had to drop a Flying Fish ADR ). We also booked Bistro de Paris (first time there), Yachtsman Steakhouse, and Narcoosee's for dinners. With the Club Level snacks and grazing through Epcot, we figured we would eat pretty well during the day. We had our annual passes and were armed with a TiW card, which helps to offset some of the cost.

After that, it was just a matter of... Wait, what's that? Disney's Decadent Dessert party? And a nice spot staked out for Illuminations after? Sold! I had yet to see Illuminations beyond a simple walk-by as we were leaving Epcot on previous trips, so I thought this would be a nice way to see it, and devour a lot of good dessert-y foods.

This was shaping up to be a pretty decadent trip all around.

 

[DEA]

Love the Beach Club.
You should of held out for an upgrade-
though it is really hard to come by at the Beach Club,
that is why I was so shocked when I got it.
She explained that it was ESPN weekend, and most of the regular rooms were booked off in blocks, and they needed to put us somewhere.
That somewhere made me happy.
I'm convinced it is the best Club Level in all the resorts.

Upgrades are few and far enough between that I try not to count on them. I got an upgrade to an TPV room at the Poly on our first family trip, so I feel like I have used up a lot of my upgrade luck. The difference in price was only $40 a night, so I felt like it was, within the bounds of the bounceback offer, a reasonable price to try out a new experience.

And, I absolutely agree with you about the Beach Club being a great resort. The proximity to Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival was an incredible benefit, although I could have used some more walking just to burn off the calories...

 

[DEA]

Part 2: Getting there

Although we live close enough to Dulles International Airport to throw a rock over the fence (not that we'd do that), we ended up flying SWA out of BWI, which meant getting up earlier than we normally would for one of these trips. The drive up was smooth, so we were there in plenty of time for the flight. The SWA online check-in went smoothly, and a few hours later we were on the ground at MCO waiting for Magical Express. Or, rather, walking right on to our bus as we moved through a very light line. This was a very promising beginning.

Upon arrival at the Beach Club, we were greeted by a CM and whisked up to the Club Level. Where they had salt water taffy. Even better! And then, things started to get a little sideways.

I asked the CM checking us in about the gift card wristlets that the Concierge folks said would be no problem to have waiting for us. The CM looked over everything and said, "Nope, nothing here about that. Just get them at the park. We don't do that here." I explained that I had made the request months ago, and could she please check to see if there was any note. She just reiterated that we should go get them at the park. Harumph.

Next up, she showed us to the room. Now, I think that she was trying to be nice, but the room she gave us, while being a Water View room rather than the paid-for Garden View room, was set up to be wheelchair accessible. We weren't really comfortable with taking that room, as neither of us was in a wheelchair. Having worked in the hotel industry (albeit briefly), I feel like as soon as you give a scarce type of room away, you are going to need it.

Again, the CM was accommodating, but not particularly cheery about finding another room for us. It was not a big deal, really, but with her being the person with whom we first dealt with for any appreciable length of time, our view of Concierge Level service was pegged lower than we would have expected. Too bad.

So, we decided to drown our disappointment in Food and Wine, at the Festival of the same name. This was our first time through this Festival. I understand that it has slipped from previous years, based on the opinions of those who have attended before, but I thought that they did a nice job. The highlights of the first day for me were the kielbasa and pierogies at the Poland stand, the sea scallop at the New Zealand stand, and cheese at the Ireland stand.

Dinner that night was at the Cape May Cafe. After all of the good stuff I had heard about it, I will admit to a bit of disappointment at the offerings. The Clam Chowder was not good at all, and our server suggested that I was not the only person who felt that way. I also thought that the ribs on the buffet were far too sweet. Most of the seafood was okay, but I will have to say that it is pretty low even on my list of buffets at WDW.

Also, over the course of the day, we visited the Concierge Level lounge. We probably drank enough diet Cokes and bottled water from the lounge to justify the difference in price from the regular room. Okay, maybe not quite that much, but the drinks came in handy, and the other snacks were welcome. Breakfast came from there on subsequent days, so I feel like while we may not have optimized our Concierge stay, we definitely made good use of the resources there.

 

[DEA]

Part 3: Ay, there's the rub...

For our first full day at WDW, we arranged massages for the morning over at the Mandara Spa at the Dolphin. Compared to the Spa at the Grand Floridian, it is a bit more of an immersive and relaxing experience, I thought. The massage was great, and after I showered and got dressed, I went to throw my robe in the hamper.

But then it crinkled.

I checked the pocket, which contained a cloth folded around a few $20 bills. Now, while I was happy for this added amenity, I thought that I should probably give it back. However, the first thing I did after dropping the money off with the manager was to post here. It was a longshot, but getting in touch with tens of thousands of Disney-goers with a couple of posts seemed like a worthwhile investment. The manager had said he hadn't heard of anyone losing the money, which made me less hopeful about finding the real owner. So, the DisBoards post.

Later, the manager found me on my way out and told me that although he had not heard anything about the lost money, HIS manager had, and the money was wending its way back to its rightful owner.

We had a few more indulgent activities planned for the day. We once again ventured over to Epcot for Food and Wine, then had dinner at Bistro de Paris, and then headed over to the Disney Decadent Dessert Party. That last one was a little like the Wishes Dessert Party, except with roughly 9 times the calories. And alcoholic beverages. And a reserved viewing section for Illuminations. It was a really good time. We also got to meet Skip Potter (Justin Jett on the boards here), which was awesome.

Going back to Bistro de Paris, it was a pretty good meal. It's probably my least favorite food of any Signature Restaurants I've tried, but the atmosphere and the view from our window table was wonderful and very romantic.