Just Slap a Band-Aid on it and Everything Will be Fine! 2025 Food and Wine Trip Report! (Updated 11/8!)

[disneyAndi14]

Woah what?!?! I've never heard of this. So this is different than just opening the door with your phone, this actually makes the magic band work? I can't wait to try this, it would be great to bypass the front desk!

Yes it programs each MB to open the door. I was so excited when I figured this out with a little help from Andi. It is called choose my magic band!

 

[Mary Pops In]

So sorry about Dug. It's amazing how pets manage to steal our hearts.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I do love the lazy river at Stormalong Bay. I love just floating around and around and around. But the crowds there make it slightly less appealing. Looks like you got a great room and had a grand afternoon!

 

[Wood Nymph]

This is always a solid choice at the festival, and once again did not disappoint.

The filet at Canada is our number one favorite. We always pick that one first.

After shopping we were both still a bit hungry, so decided to head over to Hawaii to get some more to eat. Here mom got the cheesecake and I got the pork slider and the Oahu Sunrise!!!!

I prefer the old cheesecake. The new version seemed rather bland.

I learned, when you go into your resort account on MDE where you look at bus times and charges, there is a scan your magic band. This allows you to scan your MB with your phone and it opens your room once you do this. It is really easy and works well when you have many different MBs. I have quite a few and like to wear different ones each day or so and now I never have to go to the front desk because of MB issues.
I’m surprised the CM didn’t know that.

Wow - I need to check that out. We usually always have trouble getting our MB's to work when staying at BC or YC.

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

I’m so sorry about your sweet Dug

Enjoying your report as usual

 

[ckmiles]

Im so sorry to hear about your handsome boy Dug. I bet he was the bestest boy ever.

 

[emisorik388]

Welcome everyone to my annual Food and Wine Trip Report! I hope you enjoy following along on our adventure from this year’s festival.

This year we had a bit of a shorter trip, coming down (barely…we’ll get to that in a second) on September 20th and flying home on September 25th. Even though it was a shorter trip, we packed a lot of Food and Wine fun in, and of course some other stuff too.

Per usual, this was our mother daughter trip, and was kinda our 10 year anniversary at Food and Wine! Kinda because the skipped 2020 festival, but it has been 10 years since we started going. So I guess we get to celebrate a decade of the fest next year as well.

Now for introductions!

First up is my mom, Carol.

View attachment 1009151

She is the best travel buddy, we tend to enjoy the same things, and both of us love Disney, so we take a lot of Disney trips together. She is a semi-retired teacher, so our trips have to coincide with her school schedule, but fortunately being semi-retired she doesn’t teach every day of the week so it’s a bit easier to fit trips in, especially shorter ones.

Next up is me, Debbie!

View attachment 1009152

(having a bit too much fun with the photopass lenses )

I’ll be your narrator for this hopefully amazing trip report! I was lucky enough to grow up on Disney and going to Disney World yearly, and clearly became hooked. I love visiting Disney World, and especially love visiting with my mom, it’s amazing having these opportunities to make these memories with her.

Now for details. Even though this was a short trip, we did do a split stay. Crazy I know, but originally we had planned to come down on the 21st instead, but then decided to book a bouceback for Saturday night to make the trip just a bit longer. So the first night we were at the Beach Club, and then on Sunday we moved over the Yacht Club for the rest of the trip.

Alright, I think that’s enough for introductions, let’s get into the show!​

Such a fun start to the trip report! The mother-daughter tradition makes it even sweeter, and your intro instantly gives it that warm, Disney-loving vibe. Ten years of Food and Wine trips together is seriously impressive—can’t wait to see your favorites from this year’s festival.

 

[VAtink]

Yes it programs each MB to open the door. I was so excited when I figured this out with a little help from Andi. It is called choose my magic band!

I can't wait to try this out on our next trip! (Also, kinda sad I'm fairly certain I'll have issues with them once again )

 

[VAtink]

So sorry about Dug. It's amazing how pets manage to steal our hearts.

Thank you!

 

[VAtink]

I do love the lazy river at Stormalong Bay. I love just floating around and around and around. But the crowds there make it slightly less appealing. Looks like you got a great room and had a grand afternoon!

It is really nice, especially if you manage to be in there when it's not crowded! But yeah, once the crowds come it's not so enjoyable.

 

[VAtink]

The filet at Canada is our number one favorite. We always pick that one first.

Isn't it good? We always make sure we get this at least once during Food and Wine!

I prefer the old cheesecake. The new version seemed rather bland.

Haha, and I found the old one to be way too sweet. Different tastebuds!

Wow - I need to check that out. We usually always have trouble getting our MB's to work when staying at BC or YC.

Right? I can't wait to try this out!

 

[VAtink]

I’m so sorry about your sweet Dug

Thank you!

Enjoying your report as usual

Thanks!

 

[VAtink]

Im so sorry to hear about your handsome boy Dug. I bet he was the bestest boy ever.

Thank you! He really was, I'm very lucky to have gotten over 12 years with him!

 

[VAtink]

Such a fun start to the trip report! The mother-daughter tradition makes it even sweeter, and your intro instantly gives it that warm, Disney-loving vibe. Ten years of Food and Wine trips together is seriously impressive—can’t wait to see your favorites from this year’s festival.

Thank you! Yeah, I love being able to do these trips with my mom, we make such amazing memories! I still can't believe it's been 10 years, I feel like it was only 2-3 years ago we started making an annual F&W trip, but it has been a pretty amazing 10 years!

 

[VAtink]

Quick RL update! So our next trip is coming up in a month, and we are so excited, but also a bit stressed since there is a LOT going on between now and then! I mean, obviously we knew there would be when booking this trip with the holidays, but then I found out I have a few work trips I need to make too between now and then, and I just found out my cat needs surgery, so I'm not sure when I'm going to have time for packing at this point!

Also, today I discovered Disney changed something we had planned to do and were SO excited for....the cel painting at the GF! For over a year it has been offered on Monday afternoons, so we left our Monday afternoon open this trip to do it. Well, in September they changed it to be Sunday afternoons, which ok, a bit annoying to change it, but it still fit in our schedule and was still when we'd be at the GF. Well, today I check out the activity calendar for November and December, and they changed it to be Thursday afternoons now, and late! Seriously Disney!?!? It had been Monday forever, we planned our trip and booked our ADRs around this, and now there is no way to fit it in since it's at the same time as our Candlelight dining package. First world problem I know, but still frustrating.

So we think we'll do the lei making at the Poly this trip instead since that is still offered on Monday. We had planned to do that when we stay at the Poly next fall, but now we'll do the lei this trip, and then plan to do the cel painting next fall when we're at the Poly. So in the end it looks like it'll work out, I'm just bummed since I saw they had special holiday cels this time of year that I really wanted to do.

Other than that, I think our trip is pretty much set, I am trying to move our Beak and Barrel reservation a bit, but no luck so far, but if I can't it's not that big a deal. Everything else is looking really good! I'm so excited to see all the decorations again, and the snow on Main Street!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Oooh the holiday cels sound so cool. Bummer they changed the schedule. Ugh!! Just did Beak and Barrel this past weekend and so cute.

 

[VAtink]

Oooh the holiday cels sound so cool. Bummer they changed the schedule. Ugh!! Just did Beak and Barrel this past weekend and so cute.

Yeah, it's unfortunate, I hate when for years something is the same day, and then they suddenly change it, it makes it so hard to plan! Oh well, we'll try again next year!

We did Beak and Barrel twice in September and really enjoyed it. I do with they had a few other options for non-alcoholic drinks as well as food, but the drinks we had were really good!

 

[suse66]

Also, because of this, it may be a bit before I post a TR update, right now it's kinda hard to think about anything other than my little man.

I am so sorry for the loss of your sweet boy.

 

[VAtink]

I am so sorry for the loss of your sweet boy.

Thank you!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 6: An Evening in Epcot, Part 2!​

We last left off enjoying food from Hawaii!

After finishing up our food from Hawaii, we decided it was time to get our after-dinner drink and head over towards the front of the park to watch the shows on SE. So we made our way over to Flavors from Fire where we each got the swine brine!

Once we had our drinks, we made our way to the front of SE to find a place to sit and enjoy the shows and our drinks.

It was surprisingly empty in that area this evening, so we made our way to a planter off to the side where no one was around and settled in. Oddly, about 5 seconds after sitting down, this couple came and sat directly next to us, like 2 inches from me. What on earth!?!? This planter had to be at least 30ft long and there were other planters around us with no one there, why on earth did these people sit practically on top of us?!?! So weird!

Anyways, we settled in and shortly after one of the SE shows started.





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!
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https://flic.kr/p/2rEdRqA

It was such a perfect way to end the evening in Epcot.

After the third show, we decided to start making our way back to our room, even though it was only about 8:30 at that point. Yes, it was early, but I suspected we’d have a great view of the fireworks from our room, so I wanted to be back in time for that! So we made our way out of Epcot and back to the YC.

We made it back with plenty of time to spare. Once back we got some chocolate and glasses of wine set up and settled in on our balcony for the show.



As expected, our view was great!





What a perfect way to end the night! After the show we headed in and watched some Sunday night football before calling it a night.

Next up: Did Someone Say Mimosa?​