F&W Seminars into my itinerary??

[kristenrice]

I'm traveling with DSiL (who has never been to WDW) for 4 days in October. One of the purposes of the trip is to make sure that DSiL gets a "comprehensive sampling" of each park so that she can help us plan for the Grand Gathering in June. We also want to have a more "adult" experience since we are leaving the kids (and husbands...well, they're like kids too) at home.

Here's my rough itinerary for Saturday, which is our Epcot day...

Breakfast at 7:30am at The Wave (we're checking out of BLT that morning)
Go to Epcot and tour Future World until 11am, then hit WS for F&W samplings.
No later than 2pm, I want to pop over to BWV and check in to our 1BR. (Are you able to get to the IG before 11am? If so, perhaps we'll get FP's for Soarin' and then go and check in before returning to Future World). We have no actual lunch planned since we'll probably do a lot of snacking. I'd like to do the 4pm beverage seminar and then the 5pm culinary demonstration. Are these 45-minutes each? I can't remember...would we be able to do them back-to-back? We'd want to leave the seminar and beat cheeks back to the BWV to get ready for dinner. At 8pm, we have the luau dinner show at the Poly. I'm assuming that if we take the monorail from Epcot to the TTC and walk to the Poly, we'll be OK leaving Epcot at 7pm.

So, in a nutshell, my main question is whether or not I should book the two F&W demonstrations when they open on Tuesday. I need to know if I can do them back-to-back AND if I will be leaving myself enough time to get from the demo, back to BWV to change for dinner and then over to the Poly.

 

[mama03]

Sounds like a full day!!! Believe me that is allot of walking. Plus, who is to say your room at the boardwalk will even be ready by 3pm. I would say yes you could do back to back seminars. But, with the second seminar ending say 5:50 its still a long walk back to boardwalk. Believe me I did it many times. You will be pooped and when you are ready for dinner will not want to walk back to the monorail. So I would say get ready for dinner prior to seminars then get on monorail to poly and unwind there prior to dinner.

 

[kristenrice]

Sounds like a full day!!! Believe me that is allot of walking. Plus, who is to say your room at the boardwalk will even be ready by 3pm.
I'm not too concerned with whether it is ready or not. I just wanted to check in at my earliest convenience to try and maximize the chance that I get my requested upper-floor room.
I would say yes you could do back to back seminars. But, with the second seminar ending say 5:50 its still a long walk back to boardwalk. Believe me I did it many times. You will be pooped and when you are ready for dinner will not want to walk back to the monorail. So I would say get ready for dinner prior to seminars then get on monorail to poly and unwind there prior to dinner.

THAT is a great idea! I forgot about the cocktail that they serve in a pineapple at the Tambu Lounge! I haven't had one of those since my honeymoon in 2002!

My SiL is the type of person who will want to change for dinner. She has already commented to me about how "light" I pack. She said that she could NEVER travel with just a carry on because she has to change her outfit at least once a day. I was trying to figure out if that could be achieved if we book the 5pm culinary demo.

On a related note, does anyone know if the tickets are refundable? If I pay for them now and then decide in a month or so that we don't want to do them, can I cancel?

 

[bobbiwoz]

When I bought tickets for the culinary demo on Friday, the CM said the tickets were non-transferabe and non-refundable.

 

[kristenrice]

When I bought tickets for the culinary demo on Friday, the CM said the tickets were non-transferabe and non-refundable.

Thanks for the update.

I think I will go ahead and book both events. I will plan on going to the BWV around 2pm to check in and change. Hopefully, our luggage will have arrived by then so that, even if our room isn't ready, DSiL will be able to change her clothes if she so desires. That way, we can head straight from the culinary demo to the Polynesian.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Fair warning..

Plan for EXTRA time. Saturdays at Epcot during Food and Wine are PACKED! It will not be easy to do all that walking you have planned.

Personally I would skip the seminars since it's thier first time.

I don't think you have allowed enough time between the end of the seminar and your dinner to go back to the resort, clean up change and walk back to the front of Epcot on a packed day!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Disney will be indefinitely discontinuing these Grand Gathering experiences as of January 28th, 2012.

Are you aware of the above? I read it on the home Disboard page.

 

[wdwfan1]

We own at BWV and have stayed there many times. I don't think we ever got into our room before 4pm. However, we usually check in on weekends.

Enjoy!

 

[kristenrice]

Thanks for all your advice!

I made a slight adjustment in my plan. I booked the 3pm culinary demo and the 4pm beverage seminar. This way, we will have an extra hour to get to the BWV and get ready for dinner. I have to believe that leaving the Festival Welcome Center at 5pm will give us time to get to the BWV, changed and then back through Epcot to the monorail and then to the Poly, yes? Or am I still cutting it too close? FWIW, we are both fast walkers and we will not have strollers to slow us down this time.