My Second Time at the F&W Festival.

[JerseyJanice]

Hello, everyone! We went to WDW for 4 nights, 9/29 to 10/3, which included the start of the F&WF. Last year, I scored an unbelievable price for airfare over Columbus Day weekend so I got to experience the Food & Wine Festival for the first time then. I loved it and thought was a fun and unique thing to do. My husband didn't go then, so I was excited for him to experience it this year.

I learned from reading the Disboards that all food items at the F&W kiosks can be purchased with snack credits from the DDP. Based on that, I added the Quick Service dining plan to our reservation. Four of us there for 4 nights equaled 32 snack credits to use. What a shame it'll be half that amount in 2012, but I'm glad I got to take advantage of it this year.

Where my son goes to school and I work, we had off for the Jewish religious holidays on the 29th and 30th. It's the reason I chose these dates for the trip as my son is in high school, and we don't want him to miss too many school days. We also brought my nephew who is a year younger than my son (he was off school on 9/29).

So I'm going to post about the food and drinks we enjoyed during our trip and try to do it in chronological order.

 

[MickeyNicki]

Sounds great! Hitting up F&W in 5 days and I cannot wait!

 

[JerseyJanice]

I'm looking forward to your reviews!

I enjoy reading all your reviews, Nicki. I don't always have time to post on them, but I do read them.

 

[GAGirlInVA]

I'll be there in a week! Can't wait to follow along!

 

[JerseyJanice]

We arrived early on Thursday, 9/29. (Had to leave for Newark airport at 4:30 a.m. ) I didn't do on-line check-in for the resort because I had my heart set on a Cabanas room and was prepared to plead with a CM (even grease a palm) to get one. There was a bit of a wait to check in, but it was worth it because not only were we assigned a nice corner room in Cabanas 8A, but it was ready right away at 11:00 a.m.

After changing into bathing suits and cover-ups, we went to Siestas for lunch. With our meal plan, the kids ordered chicken strip meals, and DH and I split a chicken sandwich. For dessert here, the only options are a bag of chips or a small package of cookies. I think that was kind of chintzy since they sell ice cream treats that they should offer, and the desserts over in the Pepper Market and Rix Cafe are to-die-for!

The other food itself was very good though. The chicken strips were actual strips as opposed to nuggets, and we enjoyed the pesto sauce on the sandwiches. Fries were your basis Disney fries. We got our refillable mugs there and then, but ordered sodas in paper cups so I could wash them before use.

Later on in the afternoon, DH and I enjoyed a couple of Siestas drinks each. I got floaters of 151 rum ($1.75) on both of mine (a pina colada and a banana daiquiri). Ah! Nothing says "vacation!" to me more than catching a buzz on boozy tropical drinks in the middle of the day. DH had a pina colada himself and a sangria that the nice bartender explained they made batches of fresh every morning. The sangria was almost as good as what we get at home in NJ's world-class Spanish restaurants (e.g., Segovia and The Iberia).

Bro joined us as we were getting ready to go to Epcot for the evening and brought us a bunch of goodies--a cooler, bottled water, canned beer, dish soap and some snacks. What a great guy he is! I was as happy to see him as I was to be at Disney World.

 

[JerseyJanice]

So we got to Epcot and headed straight out to the World Showcase.

If you read my dining reviews from last summer, you already know what a limited number of items my nephew eats. Last year, he ate only hot dogs, chicken nuggets and hamburgers. He eats plenty of junk food too. This year, he wouldn't eat hot dogs, but branched out into breaded chicken sandwiches and rotisserie chicken. I would never put with his pickiness if I were his mother, but I'm not, so I let him order whatever he wants.

I knew he wouldn't eat anything at the F&W Festival booths, so we headed straight to the Refreshment Port in Canada when we got there. I ordered him a chicken sandwich, but forgot to ask for it plain. Just like his hamburgers, he will only eat it dry with just meat and bread. He waited for the sandwich while I went to the Canada F&W kiosk and convinced them to exchange it for a completely plain one. The only dessert option here is soft-serve ice cream that you have to get at the same time as your food. Boy, that stinks! He ordered a cup of chocolate that completely melted by the time he tried to eat it.

From the Canada kiosk, I got 2 orders each of the cheddar cheese soup and chicken sausage with polenta. The soup didn't seem as cheesy as last year when I had it both at the F&W and while dining at LeCellier. I think it was an off-batch because it almost tasted like potato soup. DS wouldn't finish his and DH wouldn't eat it either. The sausage seemed spicier than we remembered, and I got attacked by a duck while we eating here. It came out of the bushes next to the table set up for F&W and pecked my legs. (If you heard a woman scream bloody murder in Epcot on the evening of 9/29, that was me.)

We wound up stopping at the Tangerine Cafe in Morocco and getting two lamb and chicken combo platters for DH and DS. Both were convinced they couldn't get filled up on the kiosk offerings alone, so they had to have meals.

Bro and I sampled various kiosk offerings including chicken slovaki (sp?) in Greece (good, but a bit small), pork slider (didn't love it) and mai-tai (did love it) in Hawaii, fisherman's pie in Ireland (very good), and the sausage in pretzel roll in Germany--which would have been much better if the pretzel roll tasted fresher.

The kids got kaki-gori's in Japan, and we stopped for drinks at the regular booths in Italy and France. I had a bellini in Italy then DH and I each got a Grand Marnier (sp?) slushie in France.

To watch Illuminations, a nice CM allowed us into a roped off area near the International Gateway, on one side of the bridge to France. She was letting people in randomly, mostly families, to what must be a VIP viewing area because we had a fantastic view of the show, which is my favorite thing in all of Disney World.

 

[JerseyJanice]

The kids went straight to bed when we got back to the resort. DH and I ventured out of the room for a few drinks.

We peeked into Rix Lounge, but it had no customers, so we went to the Laguna Bar. We wound up having a great time there that night.

The bartender was a lovely young Russian woman named Irina. She amazed us with her bartending skills. Quite a crowd came, and she kept up by herself making delicious drinks quickly.

DH drank sangria, that Irina made fresh by mixing triple sec, brandy and juice in a glass and topping it off with red wine. This was opposed to the pre-made pitchers of sangria they had out at Siestas Bar. I ordered mojitos. A few years ago, I fell in love with the mango flavor of this cocktail at Petals Bar in Pop Century. I rarely get them at home because I haven't found any in North Jersey I like as much. I'm sure with the large Latin population around here, there must be some place that makes them as well, but I think the atmosphere in WDW has something to do with how great they taste there.

Business became very brisk with lots of guests coming for drinks. When the bar stools filled up, people took the tables nearby. It turned into quite a party, and we had lots of fun meeting and talking to fellow guests. I asked Irina what time she closed, and she said 11:00 p.m. was the official closing time, but she was allowed to stay open later if she got a big crowd like the one she had that night.

We left at midnight, and our bar stools were taken the moment we got up. The walk back over the bridge to the Cabanas was beautiful and romantic. There are lights strung across the bridge that reflect off the water along with the other lights around the resort. The pyramid at the Dig Site is illuminated too. So gorgeous! I felt like I was in Cancun on my honeymoon again.

 

[chocolateMinnie]

subscribing

 

[JerseyJanice]

I'll be there in a week! Can't wait to follow along!

subscribing

Thank you both for your interest!

I just hope I don't bore you because I have no pictures.

 

[JerseyJanice]

We headed out to Epcot 10:30ish. Met up with Bro when we got there and went straight for Soarin' Fastpasses. The guys all decided they were starving and had to get lunch at Sunshine Seasons. It wasn't quite 11:00, but lunch was being served. DH got himself a pork chop and mashed potatoes with an apple crunch thing for dessert. DS got sweet and sour chicken, rice and veggies, and yet another big chocolate chip cookie. Nephew insisted on ordering half a rotisserie chicken and mashed. I didn't think he would eat it--he ticked me off last year by eating only the leg of the chicken, but this time, he stripped the bones clean. For dessert, he chose a 'smores brownie that he ooed and ahhed over. It did look good.

I was saving my appetite for the F&W kiosks, so I just tasted some of my husband's food. Last year, I enjoyed lovely F&W offerings there at SS--a grilled portobello mushroom slider with bleu cheese & argula, and a nice merlot. But this year, they had nothing. DH shared his apple crunch thing with me and it was very good. It was tasted like a muffin stuffed with apples and had a chopped nut topping that was delicious.

We had over an hour to go on our Soarin' fastpasses, so Bro and the kids headed for Mission Space (which I won't do) while DH and I headed to the Festival Welcome Center. Last year, I got a beautiful prosecco at the Marketplace there. I believe they offered some beer there too, so those are what we were going for, but this year, no prosecco or beer. They had a rose cava that I would have tried if DH could have gotten a beer, but since he wasn't interested in any wine, we left there and walked over the Odyssey bridge into the World Showcase

It was a hike, but the guys like to go on MS a few times if it's not crowded. Entering the WS near Mexico, we stopped at the Caribbean booth first and got a drink each--me, the coconut mojito and DH, the dragonberry colada. We both really liked our drinks and tasted each other's. DH didn't care for the herbal flavor of my mojito, but I liked both cocktails.

I got a rib-eye taco at the Mexican booth nearby; I'd have ordered a lime-strawberry margarita there, but I was still drinking my mojito. Can't drink those frozen drinks too quickly--it was hot and I didn't want a brain-freeze.

We headed back in the direction we came from, and I hit the Argentina booth for a steak skewer. DS and I loved them last year, and it was just as good this year. I think you can put a good chimichurri sauce on anything and it'll taste great. I also got a tasting cup of Argentina Malbec. Yum! I only just tried this wine in the past year or so, and wonder where it's been all my life.

We met up with the guys again when they called on our cells and tolerated doing most of the Future World attractions, including Ellen. I really love the Ellen attraction--especially on a hot day like this one--but it is time-consuming and I was anxious to get inside the World Showcase and enjoy the Festival.

We ended FW with our Fastpass ride on Soarin' and finally we were off to the WS. Bro for some reason really wanted to get one of the chicken sandwiches my nephew got the night before. So we went toward the Refreshment Port first and worked our way back toward Mexico from there. Nephew asked for a chicken sandwich too and this time, I insisted they give us a receipt to pick the ice cream up after he ate his meal. The girl working today did it grudgingly, but at least she did unlike the lady who served us the evening before.

 

[mousiemom]

is there a certain time you should be @ the F & W in WS? what was your favorite drink?

 

[CWarkenthien]

Saturdays are the WORST days for F&W. My family and I just got back, and went both Sat. and Sunday. The lines on Saturday were unbearable, I only went to two booths, Italy (which I waited about 15 minutes) and S. Korea, which was less crowded, only 5 mins. But France would have been unbearable for me, probably 25 people a line that didn't seem to move.
Sunday everything was about a 5 minute wait if any. (Even a cast member told me Saturdays have been VERY busy)

 

[JerseyJanice]

is there a certain time you should be @ the F & W in WS? what was your favorite drink?

We were there the first day the Festival officially began which was a Friday. As the day went on, it got more crowded at the kiosks. And let me tell you--all of the kiosks close after Illuminations. It's a shame because I bet they could sell food and drinks for another couple of hours.

My favorite drink of the day is fortunately available all year around--it was the blood orange margarita at LaCava. It had great flavor and I could taste the tequila in a good way. Of the kiosk offerings, I enjoyed trying all the different beers.

 

[jeza66]

Went to the F&W and didn't realize how much money you can spend. Try not to go to hungry because for a family of 4 you will be amazed at what you can end up spending and still walk away hungry

 

[JerseyJanice]

Went to the F&W and didn't realize how much money you can spend. Try not to go to hungry because for a family of 4 you will be amazed at what you can end up spending and still walk away hungry

Actually, the Quick Service Dining Plan was great to have for the Festival since we had 32 snack credits to spend, and they were good on all the food offerings at the kiosks. The drinks are pretty pricey, but it's vacation.