Just Slap a Band-Aid on it and Everything Will be Fine! 2025 Food and Wine Trip Report! (Updated 11/22!)

[ThreeBoyMama]

Seriously that is obnoxious. I hope they didn’t bully their way onto every other ride that day

Your moms banner pictures are cute!

 

[Wood Nymph]

The Santa hats on the Haunted Mansions characters is very cute.

Anyways, the CM told them to move to the side, but they refused since they “were there first” and paid to ride. Finally, another CM came over and between the two of them, got the family to move away from one of the touch points, so we were finally able to scan in!

I can understand the frustration of the family who didn't know how the multipass worked. But they could have moved out of the way when they were asked to the first time.

 

[VAtink]

We had such a hard time with that one too! We actually had to go back another day. Thankfully as we were looking around a 4 year old near us found it! Haha! I don't know if we ever would have found it.

It was so hard to find! All the other ones were super easy, but this one took a while. Fortunately my mom decided to use the restroom while in America and on the way out she spotted him!

Wow!

Right? Some people are ridiculous!

Very nice of the CM...I hope the family was appreciative...

Yeah, like I feel kinda bad that they didn't read anything about the LL and didn't book any rides, but it was a really bad assumption on their part on how it worked! Plus cynical me wondered if they tried this at every ride that day so they could essentially use it like the premiere pass.

 

[mickey916]

Plus cynical me wondered if they tried this at every ride that day so they could essentially use it like the premiere pass.

I wondered the same thing!

 

[VAtink]

Oy vey. I can appreciate how complicated a Disney vacation can be but just granting them LL b/c they complain irritates me to no end.

Right? I also can't understand how they purchased the LL without making any ride selections, I thought you had to select at least one ride to even make it to the purchase screen!

 

[VAtink]

Seriously that is obnoxious. I hope they didn’t bully their way onto every other ride that day

This! Yes, I was thinking the same thing. And I also fairly certain they lied about not knowing they had to book rides in advance, I just tested booking LLMP and you can't even continue to the check-out screen until you book at least a single ride!

Your moms banner pictures are cute!

Thanks! She was on a mission to get a picture with every single one this year!

 

[VAtink]

The Santa hats on the Haunted Mansions characters is very cute.

Thank you!

I can understand the frustration of the family who didn't know how the multipass worked. But they could have moved out of the way when they were asked to the first time.

Yeah, that was so obnoxious. I'm happy that second CM finally came over and had them move partially out of the way!

 

[Araminta18]

Random RL update. So since we became APs I've been diligently tracking the savings we've gotten with it, and now that our first year of APs has come to an end (don't worry, we renewed), I decided to add up how much we saved this year, and guys, I'm shocked! So I broke the savings down to the following categories: 1. Merchandise, 2. Dining, 3. Hotel, 4. Events (MNSSHP etc), 5. Tickets. And here is the final breakdown for year one. Note this doesn't even include the savings on renewing the APs.
1. Merch savings: $356.90
2. Dining savings: $104.90
3. Hotel savings: $579.61
4. Event savings: $267.25
5. Ticket savings: $3387.64
Total savings: $4,696.30!!!

If we add in the renewal savings the total comes up to $5,244.77! I can't believe how much we saved with this, definitely made the APs worth it! Next year we're doing fewer trips (in theory), so I'm curious to see how much we save since the ticket savings is where we get the most bang for our buck.

Anyways, the nerd in me just wanted to share the fun numbers. Hope everyone is having a great Friday!

so i'm way behind, but I'm curious on this - I find that with my AP, I do more park days than I otherwise would because I have the AP and it's just super easy and "free" to hop into a park for a few hours, whereas if I didn't have the AP I may not have popped into the park. So it's hard for me to quantify exactly how much ticket savings we get. Do you find that you do that too?

As for hotel savings I almost don't count that at all 'cause I've found that between bounceback offers or savings offers open to everyone I don't actually get a savings bonus on hotels from being an AP.

Anyways, just think its interesting, trying to quantify specifically how much money the AP saves.

 

[VAtink]

so i'm way behind, but I'm curious on this - I find that with my AP, I do more park days than I otherwise would because I have the AP and it's just super easy and "free" to hop into a park for a few hours, whereas if I didn't have the AP I may not have popped into the park. So it's hard for me to quantify exactly how much ticket savings we get. Do you find that you do that too?

As for hotel savings I almost don't count that at all 'cause I've found that between bounceback offers or savings offers open to everyone I don't actually get a savings bonus on hotels from being an AP.

Anyways, just think its interesting, trying to quantify specifically how much money the AP saves.

For us, we go the parks just as often during trips as we did pre-APs, so it's an easy comparison. We always got park hoppers, and did parks every trip day other than the day we leave. So definitely comparing apples to apples with that.

We didn't use the AP for hotel savings often, I think it was only two trips when we added a night, and the AP discount was the only one available, or was a lot better than any other one. Like one of the trips it was the night at CSR Club level, only the AP rate had discounted CL rooms, and it was a 30% discount which at that time was the best CL discount I had seen for any of the discounts. But yeah, for the most part these days we book with our bounce backs to get the best rates!

It's fun to keep track of it to make sure it's worth keeping them. So far it is definitely worth it!

 

[Araminta18]

For us, we go the parks just as often during trips as we did pre-APs, so it's an easy comparison. We always got park hoppers, and did parks every trip day other than the day we leave. So definitely comparing apples to apples with that.

We didn't use the AP for hotel savings often, I think it was only two trips when we added a night, and the AP discount was the only one available, or was a lot better than any other one. Like one of the trips it was the night at CSR Club level, only the AP rate had discounted CL rooms, and it was a 30% discount which at that time was the best CL discount I had seen for any of the discounts. But yeah, for the most part these days we book with our bounce backs to get the best rates!

It's fun to keep track of it to make sure it's worth keeping them. So far it is definitely worth it!

I really should keep track of hotel stuff as we go - I only try to figure it out at the end and by then the info about hotel discounts is long gone! I only really keep track of merch/food discounts in the moment but I may have to start, just out of curiousity! Another spreadsheet, here I come LOL

Also, forgive me if you said this and I just missed it - when is your next trip? It's soon right? I'm curious if we'll overlap - we're going Nov 28-Dec 2nd

 

[VAtink]

I really should keep track of hotel stuff as we go - I only try to figure it out at the end and by then the info about hotel discounts is long gone! I only really keep track of merch/food discounts in the moment but I may have to start, just out of curiousity! Another spreadsheet, here I come LOL

Haha, I keep ours in a Google sheets document with tabs for each category, this way I can update it while on the trip! Yes, I'm a nerd

Also, forgive me if you said this and I just missed it - when is your next trip? It's soon right? I'm curious if we'll overlap - we're going Nov 28-Dec 2nd

Aw, we're just missing each other! We're heading down on the 6th.

 

[Araminta18]

Haha, I keep ours in a Google sheets document with tabs for each category, this way I can update it while on the trip! Yes, I'm a nerd

I legit just started a google sheet for this! LOL I'm in the middle of looking at rooms for our FARTS trip in January so resort discounts are veeeeeery applicable.

ETA: @VAtink keeping this spreadsheet was a BAD IDEA! I renewed our APs last August, and did my Sept solo trip, and we have planned the Nov trip and then a FARTS trip. Assuming the FARTS trip happens, and not even knowing how much we'll save on merch/dining in Nov and on the FARTS trip, we're already ahead ~$650. Why is this bad? Makes me feel so virtuous about saving money that I should feel free to buy more!! LOL

Aw, we're just missing each other! We're heading down on the 6th.

dang! oh well. I'm hoping all is good with the flights by the time we go, so hopefully it's good for you too. Not gonna lie, last week before the shutdown ended I'd booked us a rental car as a backup just in case!

 

[VAtink]

I legit just started a google sheet for this! LOL I'm in the middle of looking at rooms for our FARTS trip in January so resort discounts are veeeeeery applicable.

ETA: @VAtink keeping this spreadsheet was a BAD IDEA! I renewed our APs last August, and did my Sept solo trip, and we have planned the Nov trip and then a FARTS trip. Assuming the FARTS trip happens, and not even knowing how much we'll save on merch/dining in Nov and on the FARTS trip, we're already ahead ~$650. Why is this bad? Makes me feel so virtuous about saving money that I should feel free to buy more!! LOL

Or it's a very very good idea!

dang! oh well. I'm hoping all is good with the flights by the time we go, so hopefully it's good for you too. Not gonna lie, last week before the shutdown ended I'd booked us a rental car as a backup just in case!

Oh yeah, I was getting really worried about the flights! I *almost* booked a train down just in case. Fingers crossed there are no other issues and the flights are on time!

 

[VAtink]

Day 3, Part 3: La Cava Experience!​

We last left off heading over to La Hacienda to check in to our next activity, La Cava Experience!

We arrived at the rope at 10:28, and within a minute Humberto came out to bring us inside. Today there were three groups in the class. I was kinda hoping for a private experience, I’ve seen people report by doing the early one they’ve gotten their own class, but I guess today was a popular day to do this!

We were brought inside to the lobby, and then one by one each group was brought back to the tasting room. It was nice that this was a very intimate experience, we’ve done the similar experience when the tequila lunch was offered with Food and Wine, and then it was a very full class, maybe 30 people, so it was nice with there only being 6 of us total so we could ask questions and really participate.

The tables were already set when we arrived, they had all the tequila we’d be tasting, a glass of vodka as a pallet cleanser, and then a tray of various ingredients that would come into play later in the experience.







Once we were all seated, Humberto introduced himself and went over what to expect from the class.

He then went into the history of tequila and really really recommended we visit Tequila, even offering to go with us to show us around!

Before long, he was introducing us to the blanco.

Now, before he let us take a sip, we had to clear our pallet, so we all drank a bit of the vodka that was at our place setting. I look over to see my mom downed the thing like she was at a college party!

It was finally time to try the blanco. Similar to a wine tasting, he had us swirl our glasses to check for the body of the tequila, the blanco started to “tear” a lot quicker than any of the others. Humberto then went over how to properly smell it, having us take in the aromas from the bottom, middle and top of the glass. It always amazes me how the smell differs depending where on the glass you take a sniff from!

We then were able to take a sip, and per Humberto, we were supposed to take a sip and dip our heads down, then slowly let out a breath and then lift our heads. Apparently this takes away the “bite”, but with good tequila I’ve never noticed that bite, so didn’t find this technique did a whole lot.

After our first sip, it was time to get into the ingredients on the plate in front of us. For the blanco, we were told to pick up the lime peel and rub it between our fingers. Once the oil had been released we smelled the tequila, then the lime, and back and forth, and amazingly, they smelled the same! Woah!

We went through this process with the next few tequilas and various ingredients, next up was the reposado, then the anejo, the extra anejo, then we had a mix of reposado and blanco (which was my favorite), and then to finish it off, we moved on to mezcal!

With the mezcal Humberto challenged us to try an ingredient that was in front of us that was completely unnoticed until this point….grasshoppers! I totally didn’t even realize that was what they were, but being 6 shots in, we all figure why not! Yes, the entire class tried the grasshoppers!



Honestly, they weren’t bad, they were just like a chip, crisp and salty. I only had one, meanwhile my mom devoured her entire bowl. I had to laugh because she also ate ALL the guac that was at the table, like I looked over at one point and she had half the guac from our table on a single chip! Since it was such a small class I didn’t want to say anything to her to remind her that the chips and guac were for us to share so as not to cause a scene. So in the end I hardly got any food since she ate all of it, but it’s ok, I figured I’d grab something to eat at the food booths once the class ended.

After we had tried all the drinks, Humberto asked us which of the tequilas or mezcal we liked the best, and when he got to me I totally drew a blank and said “I think it was the fourth, but honestly I really have no idea, I totally lost track with the number of shots!” Humberto just goes “yeah, that can happen”

For parting gifts we were given a certificate, a pin, and a margarita to go in a souvenir cup with the class name on it!


(yes, I should have turned the cup around to see the logo, oops!)



Before leaving we chatted with Humberto a bit and told him that we had taken the tequila lunch class with him a few times back when it was offered with Food and Wine, he was impressed we kept coming back, and did mention that it is unfortunate that they’re not allowed to put on those lunches anymore, which obviously had me dying to ask more questions! Like is that just a line, or are they really not allowed to put on the F&W lunches anymore?!?! And if so, who isn’t allowing it, is it Disney? The restaurant group? I kind of suspect that it’s not so much a Disney thing and more a La Cava thing, I mean this was almost $200 a person and the only food was some guac and chips, while the tequila lunch was only like $79 and included a 4 course meal. Plus the La Cava Experience can be offered year round, and twice a day, so it makes sense to do this instead of the lunches with F&W.

Oh well.

Next up: Trying More Food and Wine!​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Not allowed?!?! Yeah, I have a few questions too! The France pavilion got to do Parisian breakfast this year, so I'd guess it's not Disney? But to pretend I understand Disney and their decision-making would be silly. So happy you guys enjoyed this. I suppose we should be grateful they're at least still offering this. Was each party of two at their own table or were you all together? Like, how much guacamole is there? I'm an addict. How long of an experience is this? ~ an hour?