Just Slap a Band-Aid on it and Everything Will be Fine! 2025 Food and Wine Trip Report! (Updated 11/10!)

[Wood Nymph]

We stayed for three of the shows, and I’m happy one of them was the F&W Be Our Guest one since I haven’t seen that one before. We also got the one from Wish, which I also hadn’t seen. I really liked that one!

We've never seen the shows. As you know, you can't see Spaceship Earth from the area near the International Gateway. You have a "long" walk over to the front of the park. And I don't know when the shows begin and how long they last.

As expected, our view was great!

Your view is better than I expected.

 

[VAtink]

We've never seen the shows. As you know, you can't see Spaceship Earth from the area near the International Gateway. You have a "long" walk over to the front of the park. And I don't know when the shows begin and how long they last.

Yeah, it is a bit of a pain how far away it is from the IG. We made a point to be up there after dark to see the shows, it helped that one of our favorite drinks from the festival is up there (the swine brine), so we had extra motivation to be in that area! I think the shows start right around when it gets dark, and they're every 10 minutes starting on the hour. I'm not sure how late they go, but I'd imagine until park close.

Your view is better than I expected.

I was very impressed, will definitely be requesting this room in the future!

 

[VAtink]

Quick RL update! So you all probably know by now all about my wonderful luck with my flights. Well, it looks like that luck is continuing into our next trip since it looks like my flight is one of those that is cancelled due to the shutdown! Yay! Seriously, I'm surprised they picked this flight, Delta only has two flights a day to MCO while other airlines have 5+ and none of theirs are cancelled. I would have expected routes that are more common would be the one cancelled, but I guess that would make too much sense!

So now I'm trying to decided if I should preemptively change flights (hasn't been cancelled yet), or just wait and hope for the best. Knowing my luck, I'm leaning towards changing my flight. I'd probably fly in on Friday instead too, just to give myself some extra wiggle room, thankfully I took Friday off already! But now I need to decide do I want to just stay at the airport hotel and meet my mom there when she flies in the following morning, or do I want to book a night in Disney? The airport would be a LOT cheaper, but it also would be nice to be in Disney earlier. Hmmm....so many decisions!

I feel like after the delays the past few trips I'm due for a flight that gets me there on time, but it's looking like it won't be this trip! Oh well, first world problems I know, just frustrating.

 

[Wood Nymph]

There is no crystal ball and no one knows what will happen. But I do believe that the shortage of air traffic controllers will be a problem even after the shutdown ends.

 

[VAtink]

There is no crystal ball and no one knows what will happen. But I do believe that the shortage of air traffic controllers will be a problem even after the shutdown ends.

I'd believe that, and even when the shutdown ends I fully expect there to be residual effects on top of that. Worst case, the auto train is near me, so I could take that if needed, but I'd rather not take an 18 hour train ride if I can avoid it!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Friend - how far is the drive? I drive from Blacksburg, VA and with stops, it's still less than 12 hours. Now, I'm originally from the midwest so 12 hours in a car is "normal" but it's something to think about. I've looked at the auto train myself but I can drive it faster than the train.

 

[VAtink]

Friend - how far is the drive? I drive from Blacksburg, VA and with stops, it's still less than 12 hours. Now, I'm originally from the midwest so 12 hours in a car is "normal" but it's something to think about. I've looked at the auto train myself but I can drive it faster than the train.

Looks like 12.5-13 hours to drive. I'm not sure if I'm cut out for that drive, we used to drive Dug up to the Cape in the summer and that was about 9 hours and by the end we were so over driving, I can't imagine tacking on 3-4 hours on top of that! Yeah, the train takes a while, but at least I could sleep and eat and even work if needed. It is funny how different parts of the country view long road trips differently. I grew up outside of Boston, and I used to think the 6ish hour drive to college was nuts, but I also grew up being less than an hour drive from three other states, and less than two hours from two others!

 

[VAtink]

Day 3, Part 1: Did Someone Say Mimosa?​

We woke up this morning around 7 and slowly started getting ready and ate breakfast. Our first LL wasn’t until 9:30 thanks to the whole Disney IT issue I had while booking them, so we had time to bum around before heading out.

I did make a point to get a picture of the plug situation in the YC, I wasn’t sure if they’d have both USB A and C plugs with the reno, and was happy to see they did have both!



Finally, we got bored just hanging out in the room so decided to head over to Epcot to get the day started!

Once in, we decided to head to France to take some pictures in the area with no one around. But first, mom needed a picture with a Food and Wine banner, it became her goal for this trip to get a picture with each version!



We then made our way to France to get more pictures with no one in them. It was a bit awkward since both Belle and I think it was Aurora were out meeting on opposite sides of the fountain this morning, so kinda blocking the rest of the pavilion, but we tried to sneak past them without getting in any pictures to get back by near Les Halles for some pictures.

We quickly ran out of things to get pictures of back by Les Halles, but saw the Impressions of France movie was about to start in about 5 minutes, so headed in there. I think the last time we went in this space was in the 90s, so it was long overdue. We spent the time waiting for show checking out all the exhibits, I was so impressed, these were really cool! I was never a “theater kid” – ie the last play I was in was in elementary school, but I did grow up going to the theater. My mom thought it would be good to expose me to the arts at an early age, so from about ages 7 to 14 we had season tickets to a local theater so went to shows almost monthly, and I grew to absolutely adore the theater. So now I love love love everything to do with the theater so was totally geeking out to all the displays in this area! (and I didn’t stop going to the theater at 14, I just started going to my high school shows instead, which may not have been “professional”, but they did feature THE Chris Evans, so I mean, they were pretty much professional. And yes, I went to high school with Captain America.)





Oddly, even though when we entered the sign showed the next show starting in 5 minutes, the doors to the theater never opened after the time had passed, so we gave up and decided since we were in France, it only made sense to go to Les Halles!

Now, I’ve heard horror stories from the past year about how crazy Les Halles is in the morning now, so I was expecting a bad line, so we were pleasantly surprised to find there was no one there! Score!

I ended up picking up a mimosa, and we decided to get a chocolate croissant to split for breakfast the next morning. I was extremely impressed with the CM making the mimosa, she poured the champagne to maybe a millimeter below the brim, then added the tiniest splash of oj to top it off. She understood the assignment!

We decided to sit in Les Halles so I could drink some of the mimosa before heading out.



Once I had enough of the drink to avoid spilling as I walked, we headed out to explore WS. We did a bit more exploring of France first, and for some reason I decided to hide behind a plant?







Next up: The Hunt for Remy…and Banners​

 

[tazdev3225]

I have been reading your TR but tend to not comment. I am actually envious that you and your mom go to Disney together. I got my mom to go with me once after my kids were grown. She was ready to go home by the end of the 1st day. Every time I mention I am going again she just gives me the oddest looks.

I was actually there in September from the 23rd to the 30th with a friend that I met here on the boards many years ago. Still debating a TR but who knows, maybe I will get around to it eventually. I never realized there was an exhibit like that in France, I will have to check it out when I am down again in March, solo this time.

I was also sorry to hear about your Dug. I totally get it as I had to take my mom's dog to be put down right after I came home. Gretal was 16 1/2 so and I cried like a baby and she wasn't even my pup. I will miss watching Dad sneak her food at Thanksgiving.