Food and "Boo"ze - An October 2016 PTR/TR UPDATED 11/28/16 x3

[mindylee847]

Be Our Guest Pre-Order & Fright Fest!

Hi, everyone!

Yesterday we were able to put in our order for our Be Our Guest lunch. Mike was so confused. A whole month in advance to put in your lunch order??? Haha!

So here is what we decided on:
French Onion Soup
Potato Leek Soup
Vegetable Quiche
Quinoa Salad
Smart Water (2)
The Master's Cupcake
Lemon Meringue Cupcake

Hopefully that'll keep us nice and full throughout most of the first night of the party so that we can just snack the rest of the night.

So since I haven't posted a lot of crazy fun updates and they have all been severely lacking in pictures, I figured I should share some pictures from Saturday. We went to Six Flags Great America for Fright Fest. It was opening day for it and crazy busy. I'm used to it being pretty "dead" around this time of year.

We only got on three rides while we were here. We went on Goliath, Raging Bull, and the new DC 4D ride... Battle for Metropolis. We did get all six haunted houses done though!

This is a Snickers funnel cake!!

We also grabbed a few drinks. They had themed ones and I just can't resist. I had the blue one which was called Goliath.

They also had an attraction graveyard which I thought was a neat touch.

We did all six of the houses they had: Big Top Terror, Massacre Medical Center, Infestation, Manslaughter Manor, The Gates of Hell, and Zombie Apocalypse.

I stopped taking pictures after that apparently. Good thing it isn't a Disney related report!

We did Big Top Terror first since it was still light out and there was no roof so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, lol. I got a little freaked out by this guy dressed up in a neon green teddy bear costume, lol.

In Medical Massacre Center were were with a group of four teenage girls who literally could not stop running into us. They were SO terrified and it was hilarious.

We did Infestation third which also didn't have a top to it, so it was still kind of light when we went through. This one I got super freaked out in because this guy crab walked at me all crazy like and then stood up quietly behind me when I thought he was gone and screamed at me, lol!! I threw myself and Mike into the wall!!

Next we did Manslaughter Manor which I didn't like at all really as they have a scene with... **TRIGGER WARNING** a husband hanging. The whole point of the house is for a wife to get her revenge on him and really it just hits too close to home with me. **END TRIGGER WARNING** I'm not sure I'll walk through it when we go again.

This is where we took a break and rode Raging Bull. I love this ride and I really needed to go on it. It was the first time in a long time that I've felt really close to my dad. Soaring around on this with your arms up high it's like you can actually touch the skies beyond and I just felt... wonderful. I knew my dad was okay and I know he was having a blast with me on the ride.

After that we hit up the last two houses. The Gates of Hell was super lame and not themed well at all. They had those squishy black walls that they inflate to make you feel super claustrophobic and it works well on me. We had a plan in place though and Mike went first and my friend went after me so they both pushed out around me so that I wouldn't get squished at all. It was the longest maze though, but just... meh.

The last was Zombie Apocalypse which takes place in their raft ride area. They drain out the tunnels and you actually walk along the ride tracks. It's pretty neat. It was probably my favorite of the night. At first there weren't a lot of zombies so I said out loud "Where are all the people?" and this guy jumps down from the bushes up really high basically right on top of me and makes that zombie noise. lol I nearly peed myself! It was amazing!

I'll be back there again next weekend and the weekend prior to going to Disney too. We bought 2017 season passes and the season pass for the haunted houses. We'll be going through Infestation and Big Top at NIGHT next time. Wish me luck! lol

​

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a fun time! That funnel cake looks AMAZING!

 

[mindylee847]

Sounds like a fun time! That funnel cake looks AMAZING!

It was seriously so delicious!! I'll probably be dreaming about it.

 

[mindylee847]

Life Update - Out of Darkness Walk, October 2nd

Hi everyone! I'm finally in the teens until Disney and can officially say that we're going to Disney THIS month!! I can't believe how quickly it has come up and it almost doesn't feel real. I've been so busy and the busyness just keeps on going. I guess I'll put in here that you can follow me @mindylee847 on Instagram if you'd like to see any of my updates or my cats or my other goings on.

This weekend we went to Fright Fest again and while I don't have any pictures for you guys, I will tell you that it rained the ENTIRE time up until about 5:30. It was perfect timing - that's when the houses open and scare actors come out. With the rain, a lot of that would have been delayed or closed. My brother and his friend joined Mike and I and my other friend who went with us the week prior. The park was very empty and the longest line we waited in was for Big Top Terror. It wasn't too scary this time but I screamed in EVERY house. I'm always the target of the group as the blonde girl hanging tightly onto the guy in front of her. lol!!! We have one more trip to Fright Fest planned and if it's not raining, I'll try to take some more pictures to share with you all.

But anyways, the main reason I wanted to post today was to update you guys on the Out of Darkness Walk that I did yesterday for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I was incredibly nervous about going. I had been fine with the idea for months, but of course the day of I started freaking out about it. I wrapped myself up in about four layers, threw on a winter hat, and grabbed an umbrella because you guessed it - it was still raining and in the 50's.

The turn out was amazing though regardless of the weather. Our group had almost 15 people and it was reported that almost 1000 people were at the park that day. Our team raised over $2,200 for AFSP!! We're in the top 10, the numbers aren't officially done yet as donations can still come in for a little while longer, but I am so proud of my team!

After we walked around the park, at the end we were given flowers to place in the pond to honor our loved ones. It was really an amazing experience. Everyone wore honor beads to represent their link to the cause - each color meant something different. It was really, kind of nice??? I don't want to say nice, but I'm sure you know what I mean, to see others in our community who have gone through something similar. I didn't feel as alone as I have and today I've woken up excited and better and fresher than I have in a long time.

So thank you all for following along and supporting me through this experience. I've said it before, but I needed to say it again. Writing on the DisBoards about my trips and my life right now has been SUCH a huge help. I'm so happy that I've found this community and have been able to write to you all. <3

I should also update you on a dining change we've made for our October trip. I recently was able to make all of my March dining reservations and we have a total of four?? signature dining experiences so... I cut Jiko from this October trip. I KNOW!! My reason is that we were planning on driving there and back after our day in EPCOT, but I realized that we have a bourbon seminar right before we were going to head out. Being a responsible adult, I decided that we'll just continue eating and drinking around EPCOT that night instead of driving anywhere. I'm a little sad, but I really didn't want to drop the seminar as Mike has been really getting obsessed with bourbon and I know he was looking forward to it.

So, that's it for now!! TTFN! ​

 

[lauralynn0612]

We will be at Disney on the same dates! We fly in October 21 and fly out October 29! Enjoying reading your PTR and checking out your plans.

 

[mindylee847]

We will be at Disney on the same dates! We fly in October 21 and fly out October 29! Enjoying reading your PTR and checking out your plans.

So many people seem to be going at the same time!! Must be a great week to go. Thanks for reading along!

 

[missangelalexis]

I am SO happy to hear about the success of the walk! I'm glad it was a nice experience for you <3

 

[mindylee847]

Leaving THIS Weekend!!

Wow, this last week and a half has completely flown right past me. A lot has happened so I'm going to touch on some of that so everyone is up to speed.

Work has been completely busy. I haven't even been able to get away from my desk on lunch breaks or anything. This is the first day I've finally been able to breathe.

Anyways... on top of a busy workload, I've been really stressed out and worried about my brother's life choices and I need to stop. I know I can't control the path anyone goes down. I learned that very well through my dad so I need to just breathe and move on and know that we'll enjoy our day together at Universal.

My mom has made me three skirts for the trip too. I'm really excited about them. Two for the Halloween parties and one for our Universal day. I also ordered my Minnie Halloween ears online yesterday and express shipped them (like a crazy person) since I found out that people aren't really seeing them in the parks anymore. My two outfits for the Halloween party kind of depended on those so I had to order them - obviously. You'll all have to wait on pictures until when I get back! It's going to be a surprise.

ALSO - One of my best friends and I have booked a short weekend trip in December for her 30th birthday!! We just did it this morning. I'm freaking out!! I have only been to see the Osborne Lights but never to the Christmas party or the holidays around the world at Epcot! So excited!

For our October trip, I've cancelled our Wave breakfast for Sunday morning (and I have one booked for March now) so that we can do brunch at Narcoossee's!

We also picked up a bunch of gift cards from Target at 5% off to save on all the things and foods we charge to our room.

Okay and lastly... my cousin's step mom passed away unexpectedly this last weekend. I'm concerned it's suicide since the wording of things and the way the topic of how is being avoided. But maybe I'm just jumping to that conclusion. But the reason this is important for my report is that the service is on Friday from 4 PM - 6 PM which means it may delay us getting to bed. Which is totally fine and understandable but it does kink our plans a little bit for Saturday morning. We were planning to hit the road at 3 AM but we may need to delay that a bit depending on how much sleep we get. It's important to be safe.

And so that's it. That's all I've got for you guys! I'll be busy finishing up work and getting ready to leave so I probably won't be back on here with more updates or stories until after I'm back!

​

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm sorry to hear about some of the struggles you are going through I am sure you are very much looking forward to this trip, I can't believe you leave this weekend!!

How exciting that you have a mini trip planned in December too!

HAVE AN AMAZING TRIP!!! I can't wait to hear all about it (and see your outfits) when you get back!

 

[mindylee847]

Hi fellow, Disers!! We are BACK from our amazing trip and I cannot wait to tell you guys all about it! I don't want to spoil anything about what happened so I'm going to jump right into it with the boring portion...

Day 0: Travel Day

The plan was to leave on Saturday, October 22nd by 3 AM CT. I was a bit nervous about this goal as a lot had happened the week prior to heading out. My cousin's step-mother had passed away and we had to go to the services on Friday night after work. Because that dampened my spirits, I also hadn't packed at ALL prior to Friday and we also bought the wrong fake meat for our sandwiches for the drive down. However, everything sorted itself out and we were able to get into bed by 9:30 PM... and we actually woke up at 2 AM as planned and were in the car by 2:45 AM CT!

I took notes about when we took breaks and funny things that happened on the way down.

"Butt Cheese"
"SkeleTONS of Fun"
"These hills are starting to look pretty mountainous."
"YAAAS! Butts!"
"The dog is judging me."

I feel like without the context, these are even more funny! I drove twice on the way down and refused to drive through Chicago, the mountains, and Atlanta. We ended up getting off at the rest stop JUST before the mountains really started and switching over... hence my comments about it getting mountainous. Also, Mike had to help feed me one of my sandwiches and we were driving in front of a K9 unit car and I just started cryinnnng about how the dog was judging me and all this ridiculousness. Probably from being overtired but also because we were driving in Kentucky at the time.

Side note - my dad actually moved to Kentucky for a while for work after my parents divorced. We were planning a trip to come down and see him... but he had not told us he lost his job and was back in Wisconsin... it's more complicated than that, but I was just upset because I knew my dad would have loved to show me all of the sights and fun things we were driving by.

Anyways, we made it all the way to Orlando and stayed at a Best Western for the night. We arrived by 11:19 PM ET. We made it down there in a record 20.5 hours!

I felt really on edge here the entire time. I just felt uncomfortable. There was a huge police presence outside for some reason for a long period of time. The fire alarm went off randomly at 4 AM for a few seconds. We didn't sleep well and were back on the road by 6:45 AM ET. I should mention that the water here in the shower smelled EXACTLY like Pirates of the Caribbean water. As if I literally took a dip in the river. In a very weird way, I loved it... but I also felt disgusting at the same time. We grabbed some awful coffee and some bad muffins from the breakfast available and hit the road. We didn't want to eat too much as we had brunch planned at Narcoossee's at 9:45 AM.

With little to no traffic, we were at Old Key West by 7:15 AM. We checked in and our room wasn't ready yet. We received anniversary pins as Mike and I were celebrating being together for over 14 years now! Next year we will have been together for half of our lives... 15 years together at 30 years old.

We left our luggage in the car and decided to pack up our backpack and head out for the day. As we were packing up, the Magic Kingdom bus pulled up so we ran over and hopped on.

It was only about 8:10 AM by the time we caught our bus and were on our way... so, do we head straight for the Grand Floridian to walk around and check in for brunch... OR do we spice it up a bit??

Coming up, our official start to our vacation! ​

 

[gorkt]

Your organization level is...impressive. I thought I was bad with my color coded spreadsheet!

 

[mindylee847]

Your organization level is...impressive. I thought I was bad with my color coded spreadsheet!

I'll take it as a compliment! I also created a travel log for our road trip down and back and my husband got very obsessed with it. He loved knowing exactly how long we were off the road and when we crossed state lines and all of those things. I may have created a monster.

 

[missangelalexis]

Welcome back! I'm so glad to hear it was an amazing trip and I look forward to reading about it

I'm glad the drive down went relatively smooth, apart from the crappy hotel room.

 

[mindylee847]

Day 1: A Grand Morning

We hopped off the bus at Magic Kingdom just a bit after the 8 AM opening of the park. We still had over an hour to get to our brunch reservations at Narcoossee's so we decided, why not take a few pictures on Main Street and hit one of our favorite rides? We were both selected to go through security, but it was quick and painless. There was basically no one here yet!

I absolutely adored all of the Halloween decorations around Main Street. It was a beautiful morning and such a welcoming sight!

I loved all of the themed pumpkins. Each store/building had their own specific types of pumpkins. For instance, the fire station above had dalmatians and fire hydrants and even had white pumpkins with dalmatian spots!!

We stopped for a picture on Main Street with the castle - an absolute must! And came out with one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

After that, we made our way... to Adventureland!

We headed straight for one of my favorite rides! (Had Big Thunder Mountain been open, that's probably where we would have ended up... but this is a classic!) Pirates had a "5 minute" wait which of course meant it was a walk on.

Pirates of the Caribbean was perfection as normal. We noticed a few changes had been made... like, we're pretty sure they've moved the chickens around. We didn't have too much time after our ride, so we headed back over to Main Street to explore a bit of the hub area.

We headed over to one other photopass photographer who asked Mike to give me a twirl... it didn't turn out too well. We were pretty confused on how to do it as Mike and I usually avoid twirling/dipping me as it tends to set off migraines. We did a weird slow motion type of twirl... as you can see...

After a wonderful, brief hour in Magic Kingdom, we headed to the monorail to get to our brunch destination.

In no time, we were entering the Grand Floridian. I adore this place and definitely love the new carpet they put in.

We made our way through the grounds to Narcoossee's.

We checked in about 10 minutes early and waited less than 5 minutes to be seated.

Cool candy/chocolate display in the breezeway

Narcoossee's Brunch Menu

We had a great server who asked if we were headed anywhere quick or if we could take a more leisurely approach to lunch. It was only about 9:45 AM and our first fastpass wasn't until 2:15 PM so we had plenty of time! She took the time to explain the menu to us. Mimosas and presseco was bottomless, but not the bloodies. We also could have multiple entrees and appetizers - whatever we wanted, however much we wanted!

We didn't have the greatest of views... and I realize now I should have asked to be seated right next to a window.

Mike faced this mural.

This was my view.

We placed our drink orders - press pot coffee, a mimosa for Mike, a bloody for me, and waters for both!

Narcoossee's Press Pot of Signature Coffee

Blood Mary - Extra olives and celery, minus the crab leg and bacon

Mike's first mimosa...

We were given our complimentary pastries.

Cheese Danish, Cinnamon Twists, Croissants with Lincolnberry Jam and Cranberry Dusted Butter

The pastries were all really good. I only didn't care much for the twists, but that's because I don't like overly sweet things in the morning first thing.

For appetizers, Mike ordered the cheese plate. I remember mentioning to the server that I was vegetarian... but I don't believe we said anything about Mike being vegetarian except for the very occasional fish.

Cheese Selection

One of the cheeses had bacon in it and only one of the cheeses was actually full vegetarian. A lot of cheese actually uses animal enzymes which make the cheese not veggie. We usually aren't THAT picky, but we didn't expect to see meat in the cheese or... the cheese on meat!

Mike's favorite cheese ended up being the one with bacon in it - the Rouge River Blue "Special Reserve". My favorite was the Midnight Moon. I loved how creamy it was!

I had ordered the Romaine Salad with oil and vinegar as the dressing instead of the Cesar... but for some reason, they pulled everything off my salad!

Literally just lettuce

I waited a bit for our server to check in and I asked for the rest of my salad. Haha!

Romaine Salad

I enjoyed my salad once it was actually a full salad! Mike ended up helping me with it because I wanted to make sure I had room for our entrees and dessert!

We both ordered omelets made to order for our entrees. Mine had all the veggies with cheddar cheese and Mike's had all the cheeses plus tofu.

Veggie Omelet w/ Cheddar and Side of Potatoes

Cheese Omelet w/ tofu and Side of Potatoes

Both of these were good! Mike mentioned that the potatoes weren't what he expected, but that's because this was brunch! Not breakfast, silly. I loved the potatoes and so this is when something happened that bothered me a lot. Mike likes pepper. An unusual amount of pepper... and I usually suggest he puts on less but the two older women next to us literally started talking about his pepper habits as if we couldn't hear them! Aca-scuseeee you! I tried to not let it bother me... but I'm still irked by them.

Anyways... Mike was on his third mimosa when this gorgeous plate came out to us.

Trio of Desserts - Valencia Blood Orange Bar, Triple Chocolate Cake, Lemon-Blueberry Timbale

HEAVEN ON A PLATE!! This is probably the best dessert I've ever had on Disney property. I ate the full orange bar and Mike ate up the lemon-blueberry. The chocolate cake was SO rich but it was so good. We attempted to eat that too but made it only about halfway through. The Minnie is also edible and made of white chocolate. I think I'd go back to Narcoossee's just for this dish and I am not normally a sweets person.

After paying for our meal (Tables in Wonderland was accepted here), we headed out to look over the water on the patio that runs around the restaurant.

After that, we made our way back to the main lobby.

Once in the lobby, we stopped quick in Basin as I thought I had forgotten my lip balm. They had an Earl Grey flavor!! WHATTTT??? That was awesome. I wish we had bought more... I'll just need to add that to my list for my quick trip in December!

I just love going to the Grand Floridian. Mike isn't too big of a fan of it. He just doesn't get it. He loves eating and visiting there but has no intentions of ever staying there... one day though! It's for sure on my Disney Bucket List.

We were sufficiently stuffed and ready to head to our first "official" park of the trip - Hollywood Studios! It was already around 12:30/1:00 PM at this point. We hopped on the monorail and then got right onto a bus to Hollywood Studios from Magic Kingdom! Pixie dust in the air and on our way!

Coming up... what do we do in the most closed/construction filled park of them all?​

 

[missangelalexis]

So awesome that you were still able to get to the park right near park opening! Seeing the castle and Main Street is the perfect way to start the trip. That PP picture is perfect, so adorable!

Glad you got to sneak in a ride on Pirates, and I love your hub photos.

OoOoOh bottomless brunch? Nice! The food sounds delicious, especially when you can sample more than a few things if you want! Your naked salad looks so funny Glad it was an enjoyable meal!

 

[mindylee847]

So awesome that you were still able to get to the park right near park opening! Seeing the castle and Main Street is the perfect way to start the trip. That PP picture is perfect, so adorable!

Glad you got to sneak in a ride on Pirates, and I love your hub photos.

OoOoOh bottomless brunch? Nice! The food sounds delicious, especially when you can sample more than a few things if you want! Your naked salad looks so funny Glad it was an enjoyable meal!

Thank you!! And yes - I loved how you could eat forever at brunch! I wish I could fit more into myself because the french toast they had on the menu sounded great. Had there not been a dessert I probably would have asked for a small portion of it to try it. I'm regretting not trying to stuff it into my face right now. Luckily, I'll be trying out the California Grill brunch in March so maybe I won't make the same mistake again! lol And my salad - seriously!! I couldn't believe it. They put it down and walked away and I just looked into it like... is it underneath? I actually pushed around the lettuce looking for it. I felt ridiculous!

 

[mindylee847]

Day 1: Hooray for Hollywood (Studios)!

While we were on the bus over to Hollywood Studios, we received a text update that our room was ready at Old Key West. We were in building 28 on Peninsular Road which was the first bus stop and within walking distance of the main lobby/gift shop/Olivia's! Perfect!

We didn't really have too much planned for our afternoon at Hollywood since a lot of it's closed and we had our fastpasses already picked out. I just love being in this park in general so I didn't really care what we did! Our fastpasses for the day were as follows:

2:25 PM - 3:25 The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM Star Tours - The Adventure Continues
5:25 PM - 6:25 PM Toy Story Mania!

The first thing we did when we entered the park was stop for a photopass picture!

Then we made our way over to One Man's Dream to check out the preview of Doctor Strange. I also took a peek to see if they were magically doing meet and greets with him early, but there were just construction walls up. Aw shoot.

The preview was shown in standard 2D but still felt very immersive and got me really pumped to see the movie this coming weekend! Mike and I will hopefully be going on Sunday and I can't wait!

After that, we made our way into Pixar Studios.

We walked by a drink stand and then ran into more construction walls.

We found a bench in the shade here and decided to put on some sunscreen. The sun was hot and fierce!... compared to what we normally experience here in Wisconsin at the end of October!

We decided to swing back by the drink cart that we had passed and order some themed Toy Story drinks because we are adults and we were on vacation!

I ordered the Deep Space Odyssey and Mike had the Prospector's Punch. Mine was the perfect mix of sweet but sour while Mike's was overly sweet. He enjoyed it though enough. Both came with glow cubes.

Prospector's Punch and Deep Space Odyssey Cocktails

We stopped for a photopass picture, of course.

We made our way towards the Star Wars gift shop to look around and enjoy our drinks. On the way, we found more construction walls where Writer's Stop used to be.

The Star Wars shop was packed so we headed to the Muppets area to peruse the Muppets store and the Christmas shop.

We finished up our drinks and headed for a viewing of Muppets 3D. They added some new screens here too that included some made up Muppets movie posters and the fireworks were no longer those light up things on the walls but were on actual screens on the ceiling.

After that, it was time for our first fastpass - Tower of Terror! For some reason they were ONLY accepting people in line with a fastpass. The stand by line was completely closed off and gated. The FP line was kind of long, about 20 minutes deep but it didn't seem that an elevator was down or anything unusual. I'm not really sure what was going on. But at least I got to ride!

Our photo didn't turn out too great as a very tall man in the front had his hands up... it doesn't bother me too much as I've been multiple times, but I try to be courteous on rides when there are photos so that if someone is going with their kid for the first time, they will have a clear shot.

After our trip to the twilight zone, we decided to grab a late lunch/early dinner at Rosie's All American Cafe. There aren't a lot of veggie options at Hollywood Studios so I was really looking forward to trying their new-ish sandwich!

We almost missed finding Rosie's as it's located behind Fairfax Fare. You wouldn't even know it was there if you didn't go out of your way for it.

We ordered two fried green tomato sandwiches, two waters, and a Jack Skellington cupcake. The CM was all "Good choice on the cupcake! It'll be gone next week!" and I was kind of confused like... so will we! Haha! I guess we just really look like we know what we're doing and should just become locals!

Fried Green Tomato Sandwich with Fries

Halloween "Carrot Cake" Cupcake

The sandwich was AWESOME!! We will definitely be getting this again. The carrot cake cupcake actually tasted like pumpkin... so we were pretty confused but it was still really good. Some of the best cream cheese frosting I've had! Jack was also fully edible and wasn't ridiculously hard like you sometimes find decorations on Disney desserts to be. He was made of white chocolate and had a milk chocolate design.

We made our way over to the Great Movie Ride after perusing a few more shops.

We ended up getting the cowboy scene this time around. I love the cowboy scene and rarely get it. I love the fire effect and everything!

After that, we headed to Star Tours for our fastpass. We went to Jakku, received a transmission from BB-8, and then headed to Coruscant for our mission. We love that ending and having all the droid bugs. It's so fun!

We then made our way to Toy Story Midway Mania where Mike and I actually worked together on the alien one and got the big Zurg where you just throw the rings into his mouth for a ton of points! Mike was best in vehicle but I didn't do too bad this time around.

We ended up catching a show of Little Mermaid next and Ariel looked and sounded just like Kirsten Dunst! I could barely not keep noticing it the entire time we sat there and watched. Haha! It's been years since I've seen the Little Mermaid show at Hollywood so I was really happy to go.

We then decided to head out for the night so we could unpack, grab some drinks, and watch Walking Dead without spoilers for Mike!

While waiting for our bus, we saw this awesome bus with Doctor Strange on it!

We made it back to Old Key West by about 7 PM. We moved our car to our building and we were on the ground floor in the corner.

For some reason, we had been given a handicap room. I'm assuming it wasn't needed by anyone else that week but I felt a little weird taking it. I really hoped that no one showed up that would need it while we were using it that week.

The sheets had little bubbles all over them. The beds were super comfy and I loved the little Mickeys that were all over the poles outside! There were so many small details here.

After dropping off our stuff, we headed over to the Gurgling Suitcase. This lounge is SMALL. There's only about six seats at the bar and then a few chairs lined up against the wall. We decided to take our drinks onto the patio area that is also used for Good's to Go customers.

I ordered the Sultry Seahorse and Mike had the Agave Nectar Margarita. This was his first ever margarita and he was in love.

Agave Nectar Margarita and Sultry Seahorse

We checked out the menu at Good's and found nothing for us vegetarians other than a veggie burger and some sides. We decided to check out the gift shop for something to snack on or heat up in the microwave.

It was already Christmas in there! We found some Stouffer's mac n cheese so I purchased that while Mike went to get us more drinks for our room. He got another margarita and I got the Turtle Krawl. This was good but not as good as the Sultry Seahorse.

Turtle Krawl and Agave Nectar Margarita

Then we headed back to the room while Mike watched Walking Dead and I covered my eyes and unpacked our stuff for the week.

Coming up, we visit Food and Wine for the very first time! ​

 

[missangelalexis]

What a nice afternoon at Hollywood Studios! You've inspired me to look up some Toy Story ride tips for my trip!

I'm glad you were happy with your room. Sounds like a nice evening relaxing with some drinks

 

[mindylee847]

Day 2: Our First Epcot Morning

Today was our first full official day on Disney property. We woke up about an hour before our breakfast reservation as it was only a short 6 - 8 minute walk over to Olivia's from our building. This was our first of three breakfasts there. Mike was hoping to crush my love of Olivia's by having too many breakfasts there in one week so that we didn't have to have the hassle of getting there from a different resort. Old Key West is a huge resort - really pretty much too big. We were very lucky to be placed in such a convenient room. I doubt I could stay there again if we were placed elsewhere.

We got to breakfast just about at 7:45 AM and were seated immediately. We ordered coffees and waters to drink.

Olivia's Breakfast Menu

We both put in orders for omelets. Mike ordered the Monroe Egg White Omelet add avocado. I ordered the Sombrero Beach Omelet without ham and add avocado.

Monroe Egg White Omelet

Sombrero Beach Omelet

These were both very good! I'd say it was our second best breakfast of the trip. Our server even gave us some coffee into to go cups.

We went outside to the bus stop out front. The main lobby bus stop is the final pick up location before heading off to the parks so this morning was probably our longest wait - about 15 minutes. The bus was pretty full and we had to stand on our way there. I don't remember often having to stand on a bus to get to a park. We got to Epcot in no time though and I believe Mike had to go through security. Easy peasy.

We made it in and saw a huge line for the front photopass photographers so we decided to grab our passports and be on our way.

We had a very full day planned ahead of us.

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM The Seas with Nemo and Friends
12:00 PM Gardein Culinary Demonstration
2:00 PM Cake Love Pastry Demonstration
4:00 PM Mix It! Make It! Pumpkin Decorating Demonstration
6:05 PM - 7:05 PM Frozen Ever After
7:05 PM - 8:05 PM Spaceship Earth
8:15 PM Coral Reef Dinner Reservation

I had packed our day like crazy! I'm glad we had though as I thought this may be more of our down day so that we could relax in the AC and get our feet ready for the week while we were in the Festival Center all day... well, we'll see how well that worked!

We made our way to our first ride of the day - Test Track!

We went into the single rider line as it was only a 5 minute wait compared to the over 30 I believe it already was that morning. I'm not going to post a picture of the car I was in because I was with a family of 5. They had 3 small kids and this was their first time to Disney and first ever "big" ride. They laughed and screamed and it was actually really amazing getting to experience the ride with a whole bunch of first timers! It really made the ride a really fun time for me compared to normal. I love Test Track so I go on in constantly... I've basically forgotten what it's like to be surprised by it! It was so fun and I actually thanked them and told them it was so fun and I wished them all a fun trip.

After that, we headed over to our first fastpass of the day - The Seas! I'm unusually obsessed with this ride. It's one of my very favorites. There was actually a night Mike and I went on it six times in a row during Illuminations a few years ago. The CM working actually told us there was something wrong with us when we went on for that sixth and final time. He just doesn't get it!

We were finally able to explore The Seas without tons of kids around so we took some fun pictures in the shark area.

We then made our way over to Figment as there was no line for this ride either.

It was just as fun as ever! At this point, we were able to find a photopass photographer in front of the Food and Wine signs. We obviously had to stop since there wasn't much of a line.

I believe it was a bit after 10 at this point and I wanted to check out the Festival Center, grab a snack, do some shopping... all before our first demonstration started.

On the way to the center, we picked up our Remy's Hide and Squeak Map at the pin booth.

We grabbed a snack of hummus and veggies from the Festival Center's booth.

This was nothing to write home about. The hummus didn't have much flavor and the veggies were fine.

After our snack, we shopped! I snapped this pic of Mike's awesome new hat that actually has a beer bottle opener attached to it. He had lost his MU hat on our last trip and it was never recovered.

We came across the sign posted for the demos being done at the Chef's Showcase... and we were seeing all three today!

We scoped out The Chocolate Experience - From Bean to Bar next.

We were given free chocolate upon entering - it was a milk chocolate caramel square.

The displays in here were awesome!

We still had a bit of time before our demonstration and didn't see a line so we headed out of the Festival Center to grab some coffee from the nearby Joffrey's stand.

This was my first interaction with a completely rude guest. She was blocking up the entire way to get to the next register with a huge backpack. Probably the hugest I've ever seen. She was at the first register and the CM asked for the next people to go over so I tried to squeeze by as she was ordering and of course had to say "Excuse me" and she just gave me the WORST death glare. Lady seriously needed that coffee, I think. WOW! I mean, i could have just pushed you but I didn't! Yikes.

Anyways, we ordered the Pumpkin Chai Tea Latte... and I forgot to ask for soy or almond milk. Ugh! Apparently I also forgot to take a picture of it. So, I couldn't drink too much with my lactose intolerance (I didn't feel like taking a pill when I knew I'd have to take a few throughout the day). Luckily, Mike and I were sharing so he had most of it and he was the one who mentioned wanting caffeine anyways.

So, I'm going to leave you there on my junky experience with a guest and my poor lack of ordering/picture taking skills when it comes to coffee! We decided to sit outside for a bit and wait before heading back into the Festival Center for our first demonstration.

Next up, our Gardein demo! ​

 

[mindylee847]

Day 2: Off to a Culinary Adventure or Two

After relaxing for a bit outside and finishing off our latte, we headed back into the Festival Center. We were about 30 minutes early to our presentation but there was a large line forming already. We snagged a spot and realized we didn't have the paper tickets that everyone else was holding so I ran up to the front information center to get ours.

We were let in about 15 minutes before noon and we sat with three women who were quite a bit tipsy already. We were the only vegetarians at the table and they asked us a few questions about our choices but apparently one of them was familiar with a lot of the Gardien products and had been using them as their meatless Mondays.

Here is our setting.

And here is the recipe for the Sage and Pumpkin Seed Encrusted Gardein Chick'n with Cranberry Cabernet Sauce.

Shortly after everyone was seated, we were provided our complimentary wine - Heitz Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.

I didn't care too much for this wine on its own but it did pair very well with the dish we received later. But first... Daniel Vu from the winery came out to talk about the wine and how it was made.

After that, Jason Stefanko came out to make the dish and talk about being vegetarian and all the pros. He had switched to being vegetarian a few years ago for health reasons and lost a lot of weight, but also he talked about the environmental impacts. Apparently, one burger uses up to six months of water (for a single person) in the state of California to produce. His knowledge was really impressive and he talked about becoming "flexatarian" as well - that's when people incorporate things like Meatless Mondays and what not into their routines.

It was really interesting and I learned a lot. We watched him prepare the dish and then were given our own plate to eat!

Sage and Pumpkin Seed Encrusted Gardein Chick'n with Cranberry Cabernet Sauce w/ Side of Cashew Milk Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans

I was really excited that this was a full vegan meal. Being lactose intolerant means that I have to be careful of creams and milks... butters and more made into the meals. This meal I could just eat without any issue!... AND IT WAS DELICIOUS! I'm telling you, I don't really remember what chicken tastes like... but this is definitely what it SHOULD taste like! Haha! I absolutely loved this dish and hope that Mike and I can try to whip it up together at home over Thanksgiving weekend.

We really enjoyed our first seminar, but we wanted to explore a bit of the Food and Wine Festival before our next one started at 2. We headed out and snapped a quick photopass on our way to our first booth!

We then swung over and headed to the Craft Beers booth in They Odyssey building.

We ordered a flight of beer and a snack. While we ate, a Disney CM came over and asked if we would do a survey. So we chatted and found out she was also from Wisconsin. That was fun! We were told we'd get a $15 Amazon gift card for our answers, but I have yet to receive an email or anything about it... oh well!

Pimento Cheese Dip w/ Pretzel Crisps

Mike ate most of this. It was too cheesy for me but it was really delicious! I had hoped it would have been a warmer dipping sauce though, but it was kind of cold.

We also ordered Beer Flight #1. They had two options, each with three beers.

Beer Flight #1

I enjoyed the one that was blueberry-vanilla! It was so unique. The other two were fine, but neither Mike nor I really cared too much for them. I'm more of an IPA person and he's more of a coffee/chocolate stout drinker. The other flight did have a milk stout option, but Mike's not really a fan of those.

We really loved this area because there were tons of tables and air conditioning inside this building!

We headed back over to the Festival Center and got in line for our next demonstration that started at 2 PM. This one was with Warren Brown from Cake Love.

Here's the recipe for the energy bars we were going to be making. He actually didn't really follow this for the ones we were given and he said it was something you could tweak to make it your own. There were a lot of ingredients!

Warren Brown's family was at the demonstration and he was there for the week enjoying the parks. We actually ran into him later that day.

We were given a glass of complimentary Zonin Prosecco.

This was fine... it didn't enhance the flavors of our energy bars or anything.

This presentation was very entertaining. It was lively and just great to watch.

We were then given two energy bars (without nuts for allergies in the audience) and a surprise cake in a cup! The cake was a cinnamon spice cake with cream cheese frosting.

Energy Bars and Cake in a Jar

The energy bars were delicious and actually had a bit of a kick. I don't think my mom would have liked them. She avoids anything with a bit of heat. They were more like cookies than energy bars in consistency. Without the nuts, they were also a bit low in protein. I did really love them though. Don't know if I'll ever have it in me to make something with so many ingredients!

The cake in a jar was really good too. No wonder these sell so well! Mike ended up swiping the two little jars we got. Not sure what he plans to do with them, but i made him take them to work so they didn't just get dusty in our pantry, lol!

After that, we wanted to try a bit more food from another sort of nearby booth so we ran out to the Next Eats area.

We ordered the Ricotta and Zucchini Ravioli from The Chew. We both loved this. It was packed full of zucchini! Yum.

Ricotta and Zucchini Ravioli

In the Next Eats area, they also had the Greenhouse Guru booth.

I really loved all the decorations in this area.

We ordered the Heirloom Tomato Salad from Greenhouse Guru. This was probably my favorite thing I ate from the festival while we were there. It was so incredibly fresh and the ingredients tasted like HEAVEN together.

Heirloom Tomato Salad

Look at that magical pile of food right there. Yummmmmmmmm!

We had a little bit of time before we needed to be back at the Festival Center, so we walked around a little bit.

We made our way just a bit into World Showcase and found our first Remy in Mexico!

After just a bit of a stroll, we made our way back to the Festival Center to get in line for our next demonstration!

Coming up, we decorate pumpkins in Disney World with the Picasso of Pumpkins!​