Food & Wine & Friends, or 'Wishing a Year Away'. October 2012 PTR *NEW 11/18 TR link!

[annmarieda]

Looks like an amazing and relaxing time in PR!

Yay for booking airfare for your fall trip...

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Yay for having your flights booked!

Love the PR pictures! It looks like a very relaxing trip! I can't believe how tiny that plane was, though! I'm glad the flight went well!

 

[earthfaries]

HI! Just wanted to let you know I am reading along . Don't want to be a lurker .

I can't wait until the Food and Wine Festival, it's always so much fun!

 

[Joyciemc]

I know what you mean about True Blood. I actually don't think the show (more like the acting really) is all that great, but for some reason I am addicted to it. I do not like the actor that plays Bill--it's something about the way he talks that bothers me. Even so, I can't wait for the next season this summer! What season are you on right now?

I guess since you really want to be at BLT the whole week, then not getting a split stay at BWV is really no big deal.

Can't wait to see what ADR's you make!

Oh by the way, I forgot to ask. Was that you doing your best wave impression in your first PR picture on this update?

A lot of the acting on True Blood annoys me... and some of the storylines (Season 2 for starters..) bug. But I just love the show! And since I read the books, I keep watching to see what characters and stories will pop up in later seasons. We're halfway through Season 3 now.

Just got park hours for October, so I am really going to start nailing down park days and ADRs. Just a little over 200 days to go (haha, too long!)

And yes, I think I'm doing a pretty good wave impression there!

It sounds like things are coming along well for your October trip!! It makes sense that the Epcot resorts would be difficult to get around F&W - but it's good you'd rather stay at BLT instead!

Your beach pictures are so pretty! They make me long for somewhere tropical...

BLT is SO nice! And walking to MK will rock... plus, Epcot is not that hard to get to when you're on the monorail.

Your beach day in PR looks so relaxing! I can see why you flew in a tiny plane...totally worth that view!

So worth it- a gorgeous island!!

Looks like an amazing and relaxing time in PR!

Yay for booking airfare for your fall trip...

It's taking me so long to finish writing about PR... have had a VERY busy last couple of weeks!

Yay for having your flights booked!

Love the PR pictures! It looks like a very relaxing trip! I can't believe how tiny that plane was, though! I'm glad the flight went well!

The flight was really good- I was only nervous for the first few minutes, then just in awe of how cool the experience was!

HI! Just wanted to let you know I am reading along . Don't want to be a lurker .

I can't wait until the Food and Wine Festival, it's always so much fun!

Thanks for chiming in! I lurve hearing from readers

This will be our first F&W and I couldn't be more thrilled!!

 

[earthfaries]

Thanks for chiming in! I lurve hearing from readers

This will be our first F&W and I couldn't be more thrilled!!

Oh you'll love it, it's so much fun! I just love trying the different foods around the "world", there is nothing else like it.

 

[sophie832]

Just found this PTR, and I'm so glad I did! DH and I are also in our 30s, and we'll be at WDW in Oct. for our first F&W! We're not nearly as far into our planning, though. We haven't booked a resort yet (hoping for a pin, public discount that's not free dining, or AP discount), haven't decided which days at which parks, and haven't even decided on our ADRs (though we'll have to do that soon). Your enthusiasm is inspiring

Nice to see the Puerto Rico pics. We've never taken a sit-on-the-beach-and-relax vacation before. It always looks so nice. DH loves rum and Coke, too. The tiny baggage claim is even smaller than the one we have here at Long Beach (CA) airport, and that one is pretty laughable. It's always the little unexpected fun things that make the trip worthwhile.

Can't wait to read more! We'll be counting down with you

 

[Joyciemc]

Oh you'll love it, it's so much fun! I just love trying the different foods around the "world", there is nothing else like it.

I can hardly stand the anticipation! Whenever we are with our friends (the ones we are traveling with), we always eat a ton... what better trip than WDW during F&W!

Just found this PTR, and I'm so glad I did! DH and I are also in our 30s, and we'll be at WDW in Oct. for our first F&W! We're not nearly as far into our planning, though. We haven't booked a resort yet (hoping for a pin, public discount that's not free dining, or AP discount), haven't decided which days at which parks, and haven't even decided on our ADRs (though we'll have to do that soon). Your enthusiasm is inspiring

Nice to see the Puerto Rico pics. We've never taken a sit-on-the-beach-and-relax vacation before. It always looks so nice. DH loves rum and Coke, too. The tiny baggage claim is even smaller than the one we have here at Long Beach (CA) airport, and that one is pretty laughable. It's always the little unexpected fun things that make the trip worthwhile.

Can't wait to read more! We'll be counting down with you

Hey, welcome! Super glad to have you along reading!

Am I reading your tickers right- a trip to Europe immediately followed by a trip to WDW? Holy lucky!!

 

[sophie832]

Hey, welcome! Super glad to have you along reading!

Am I reading your tickers right- a trip to Europe immediately followed by a trip to WDW? Holy lucky!!

Thanks for the welcome

Yes, you are reading it right. We'll be touring Europe (mainly Italy and Paris) from Oct. 5-23, then WDW on the way home. I like to think it was a clever way to squeeze in F&W without as much additional airfare cost, but really I couldn't imagine flying so far from home and not stopping there on the way back. A true symptom of an addict, right? I actually even wanted to spend more time at WDW and a little less in Europe, but since Europe is kind of once-in-a-lifetime at this point, I had to concede that we should spend more time there.

 

[Joyciemc]

Hellooooooo out there! I did not fall off the face of the planet, but it does feel like maybe I took a trip to the moon for a little bit or something

I've had an insane past couple of weeks, but that is all behind me now and I have my life back! Luckily, it's been all good things that have kept me busy: mostly my friend's wedding... my duties as Matron of Honor got a little bit more involved than I could have anticipated But it's all good; she had a lovely wedding and is now safely on her honeymoon in Ireland.

Last weekend was the bachelorette party, which I pretty much had to plan on my own (though there were plenty of 'helpful' suggestions made after everything had been planned...) Luckily, it went off wonderfully and a good time was had by all. There are not many pictures that are appropriate to post, but here are a few:

The absolutely amazing crown one of my co-bridesmaids found... it is from a pageant supply website. Can you tell?

We surprised the bride by showing up at her house in a limo!
Then we tricked her by pulling up to the local dive bar we go to near my house. We walked in to many stares and she got lots of attention- just what we wanted! After a drink here, we piled back into the limo for the real party- headed to Boston where we checked into the beautiful Eliot Hotel, followed by dinner. We ended the night with drunken tomfoolery at Storyville, a club in Back Bay.

I have no idea why I was doing this, but it was pretty early on so I don't blame alcohol:

This weekend was the big day, and between rehearsal dinner, the wedding, and recovering the day after- my weekend was a blur! Most of the pics I have are of my friends being nutty, but here are a few that may be of interest:

Goofing around a little after the ceremony, while waiting to be introduced at the reception.

Mark, Ben and I. Can I mention here that Mark and I will be in WDW in 48 days?!?!?!

Today was the day that things went back to normal. And it was made even more awesome when I found out that October's park hours are out! The email update from Touring Plans got me all excited! Now I get to do some tweaking of my plans to get ready for ADRs next month!!

Stay tuned for my next PR update, coming right up!

 

[Joyciemc]

See? I told you this would be coming right up!

Our 4th day in Vieques was a busy one: it started with an awesome trail ride through some beautiful scenery. And I got to ride the best horse! His name was Cerrajero (Spanish for 'locksmith') and he is a gorgeous Paso Fino. All of the horses used by the company are native to the island... and there are a LOT of horses roaming free. The ones owned by Esperanza Riding Company were all very well loved and cared for and were a lot of fun!

That's a day old foal! This is just one of the many groups of sorta-feral horses on Vieques. While they are all actually owned by someone, they are mostly allowed to run free and breed. It's kind of sad because many of them don't receive adequate care and look a bit rough. This little herd was pretty neat to run into, though.

Once done with our ride (and I was really sore... 2 hours on a horse having not been riding for over 2 years was tough!), we headed back to the house and met the others at the beach. I think we went to Hidden Beach this day.

We did some more snorkeling and found lots of scary spiky urchins!:

And where around here we have seagulls, in Vieques we had a chicken! Do you see her next to my chair?

Later that night, we went to a restaurant in Isabel Segunda (one of only two 'towns'... I use that word loosely) on the island. We went on the recommendation of the car rental guy. When we walked in, the waitress informed us that this was her first night and to bear with her. We assured her we'd be nice and we all settled in to order. After we did, we waited about 2 hours to be served. The poor waitress kept going into the kitchen, but apparently there were some problems back there. Finally the owner of the restaurant showed up and food started coming out, one plate at a time.
We were all a bit stressed, because our Bioluminescent Bay tour was this evening and we were slowly running out of time.

After a million years, we gulped down our food (which was actually very tasty) and headed out to meet up with our tour. The road to the bay was washed out by Hurricane Irene, and riding in the vans that drove us up it felt exactly like riding on Dinosaur at AK! It was an adventure!

Photographing the glowing water is pretty much impossible, but you can find some if you do a Google image search. We kayaked around for a while and it was really awesome to see (though having done it before, it lost some of the 'wow factor' for Ben and I). But my sore legs and bum were very much protesting being in a kayak, so I didn't get to fully enjoy our time out there.

Once we got back to the house, I was exhausted and went right to sleep.
Since everyone was a little pooped by now, we had all decided to have a pool party the next day!

 

[ronnmel]

A bachelorette with not too many pictures fit for public posting is the best kind of bachelorette. I'm sure the bride had lots of fun.

 

[klacey1]

Glad you had fun at your friend's bachelorette/wedding! Her dress is gorgeous-- very classy!
That horse is adorable! Aww, only a day old and standing up! Augh-- new waitress or not, it shouldn't have taken two hours to get get food unless they were going out and catching the fish fresh! Sounds like major kitchen problems!

 

[annmarieda]

The bachelorette party sounds fun. Way to be tricky!!! I bet she loved it.

The wedding looks like it was nice. You look very nice in your matron of honor dress. Sometimes...that isn't something that one can do (the looking nice in a bridesmaid dresses)

You day with the horses sounds amazing! How cool to see some "sorta feral" horses.

Glad your meal turned out ok...but that poor waitress though.. and what an ordeal for you to have to wait for your food that long!!! I think I would have began gnawing at the table legs..or something.

The picture of the chicken... it made me laugh.

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Glad you guys had fun at the bachelorette party and wedding!!

The horseback riding along the beach looks like such a fun activity! The day-old one is so cute!!

 

[SoNotAPrincess]

Sounds like the bachelorette party was a rousing success...any time you can't share the photos, you can be sure of it!

The horses are beautiful, and the baby, so cute!

 

[amazingact21]

From the lack of pictures, I'm going to say you all had a great time at the bachelorette party.


Ugh, 2 hours for dinner...I would've gnawed my arm off by then! But alls well that ends well, I suppose, and it sounds like you guys had an enjoyable day.

 

[Imagineer5]

Vieques looks like it was so much fun, love the trail ride! Cute foal! I hope you guys weren't charged for the full meal for that wait! Ugh, but at least the food was good.

The October hours are out? I can't find them anywhere!?

 

[Joyciemc]

Vieques looks like it was so much fun, love the trail ride! Cute foal! I hope you guys weren't charged for the full meal for that wait! Ugh, but at least the food was good.

The October hours are out? I can't find them anywhere!?

Here ya go:

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/StaticFiles/DTA-Domestic/pdf/ParkHours/WDW_Operating_Calendar_oct.pdf

 

[Joyciemc]

A bachelorette with not too many pictures fit for public posting is the best kind of bachelorette. I'm sure the bride had lots of fun.

It was LOTS of fun. Though most of them were sick the next day (not me though! )

Glad you had fun at your friend's bachelorette/wedding! Her dress is gorgeous-- very classy!
That horse is adorable! Aww, only a day old and standing up! Augh-- new waitress or not, it shouldn't have taken two hours to get get food unless they were going out and catching the fish fresh! Sounds like major kitchen problems!

I don't know WHAT was happening at that restaurant, but it was not cool. Not cool at all.

The bachelorette party sounds fun. Way to be tricky!!! I bet she loved it.

The wedding looks like it was nice. You look very nice in your matron of honor dress. Sometimes...that isn't something that one can do (the looking nice in a bridesmaid dresses)

You day with the horses sounds amazing! How cool to see some "sorta feral" horses.

Glad your meal turned out ok...but that poor waitress though.. and what an ordeal for you to have to wait for your food that long!!! I think I would have began gnawing at the table legs..or something.

The picture of the chicken... it made me laugh.

We were sooooo hungry by the time we ate! And stressed about being late for the tour that night.

Glad you guys had fun at the bachelorette party and wedding!!

The horseback riding along the beach looks like such a fun activity! The day-old one is so cute!!

The scenery on the ride was beautiful! And we got to see parts of the island we never would have otherwise.

Sounds like the bachelorette party was a rousing success...any time you can't share the photos, you can be sure of it!

The horses are beautiful, and the baby, so cute!

Seriously- I have blackmail pictures to last a lifetime

From the lack of pictures, I'm going to say you all had a great time at the bachelorette party.


Ugh, 2 hours for dinner...I would've gnawed my arm off by then! But alls well that ends well, I suppose, and it sounds like you guys had an enjoyable day.

Overall, it was a good day! And the wait for dinner wasn't so bad at first because we were enjoying each other's company. But after the first hour, we were all ready to kill each other!

 

[oboedm]

Sounds like you were an awesome Matron of Honor! BTW... I love that picture of your DH... he looks cute in a tux. Like a little kid playing dress up, with a grin like that on his face, LOL!

Love that you can plan more now that park hours are out. Super excited to here your day to day plans!