PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

[franandaj]

OK so I'm mainly posting these pictures here because tonight we are going to a meeting for the Los Angeles Pride Parade and these pictures are from the Long Beach Parade about two weeks ago. I need to have them available to me on my phone in a quick concise place so I can show them to the Parade Coordinator in case they question why our drummer, keyboard player and bassist need to drive up to the float to unload in the morning.

However, you can see me in my "other" non-Disney element!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Look who's blowing your horn....and...er....clarinet?



Fabulous shots! You really STAND out.





(I tell you .... it's a mistake to get me to visit PTRs when I'm sick .....literally! )

 

[franandaj]

Look who's blowing your horn....and...er....clarinet?



Fabulous shots! You really STAND out.





(I tell you .... it's a mistake to get me to visit PTRs when I'm sick .....literally! )

How'd you know about the clarinet? You can't see it any of the pictures? Yes Fran HAD to play two instruments, she could choose tunes where she only played one instrument, but I do have to say that Sing, Sing, Sing (where she pays clarinet) was the most popular tune we played.

We played Sing, Sing, Sing, Bandstand Boogie (the American Bandstand Theme) and this tune Groovin Hard (my choice, a totally groovin jazz chart that anyone who went to jazz school played and totally jams!) I'm totally looking forward to doing it again next weekend for 400,000 people it will totally rock, or should I say jazz!

 

[PrincessInOz]

How'd you know about the clarinet? You can't see it any of the pictures? Yes Fran HAD to play two instruments, she could choose tunes where she only played one instrument, but I do have to say that Sing, Sing, Sing (where she pays clarinet) was the most popular tune we played.

We played Sing, Sing, Sing, Bandstand Boogie (the American Bandstand Theme) and this tune Groovin Hard (my choice, a totally groovin jazz chart that anyone who went to jazz school played and totally jams!) I'm totally looking forward to doing it again next weekend for 400,000 people it will totally rock, or should I say jazz!

We did talk about it over lunch.....or did I make that up?

 

[franandaj]

We did talk about it over lunch.....or did I make that up?

OK you're probably right. But be sure, Fran is the clarinet player. One of my college teacher told me that in my hands (embouchure) it was more of a weapon.

 

[franandaj]

So this is not really an update, but I figured I better post something...we booked our next trip!

We plan to take our friend Arline in May of 2012. Our ultimate plan is to stay in a 1 br at Kidani for three nights, and a 1 br at BLT for four nights. However, I can't try to book that until October. For now we are booked into SSR for five nights and BCV for two nights, both in 2 br units. However, that will be a separate PTR which I'll launch sometime in the Fall, maybe after our final accomodations are made.

The other cool thing is that infomration for the F&W Festival is starting to trickle out. Here are some of the items that have already been released

New Menu Items

Hawaii Booth
Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise
Tuna Poke with Seaweed Salad and Lotus Root Chips
Seven Tiki Mai Tai
Kona Longboard
Pipeline beer

Caribbean Islands Booth
Ropa Vieja (Braised Beef) with White Rice
Jerk spiced Chicken Drumstick with Mango Salsa
Frozen Dragon Berry Colada
Frozen Rock Coconut Mojito

Portugal Booth
Calamari Salad with Olives and Smoked Paprika
Portugal Wine Bar

Scandinavia Booth (returning this year)
Swedish Meatballs with Lingon Berries
Xante Sunshine Cocktail made from Xante pear and Cognac Liqueur

Canada Booth (an old favorite)
Introducing: Apple Ice Wine as a new menu item this year

Desserts at the Festival
(Not sure if these will be the three desserts served at the dessert booth, or if these will be at regional booths)
White Chocolate Macadamia Mousse with Dark Chocolate Pearls
Tres Leches Verrine
Pastel de Nata

 

[PrincessInOz]

Your proposed trip for 2012 sounds great....and those new F&W items are delectable. I'll have one of everything!

 

[franandaj]

Details for the F&W Festival have begun to leak out. There is some good news and bad news. Our plan for Saturday during the Festival was that we would lunch at the kiosks, and at 2:30 head to Bistro de Paris for Taste, Shake and Indulge like the French, a Grand Mariner Tasting and drink seminar accompanied by traditional French Desserts. The good news is that will be back. I hope we get in.

For dinner we planned to attend Party for the Senses, hoping that the Wine View Lounge would return. PFTS is a Grand Tasting event where you stroll and savor tastes from various chefs. The Wine View Lounge was a special area which cost $90 (above the PFTS price) for a reserved seat and other amenities. Both are back, they are just not offering them the weekend we will be in Florida!

So we have changed it up. We've decided to eat at the kiosks Thursday night when we arrive at Disney, besides breakfast, we'll also eat from the kiosks on Friday, and now we plan to attend the 3D Disney Dessert Discovery which debuted last year. For $45 (in 2010) you get all the desserts and cordials you can consume, from 7:00-8:30 and then a preferred viewing for Illuminations on Friday nights during the Festival.

Saturday we'll stick with the French seminar, and either cook in the room or take our chances with Beaches and Cream.

Sunday we have a lunch ADR at Sci-Fi Dine in Theater, and I just found out that Sunday Night Cat Cora will be doing a special wine dinner at Kouzzina, so we're going to try for that. In addition they have Tequila tastings that are paired with snacks so we will try for one of those on Friday.

Reservations for these events begin at 7AM on August 16. They plan to release the full schedule with prices next month, but until then I think we have our tentative schedule for the Signature events!

I'm sorry we won't get to experience PFTS this time, but that's why I bought points at the BCV, to come back every 2-3 years. I have a feeling that with no festival in CA, I'm going to want to come back to WDW in 2013, depending on what happens with Tokyo Disney and our potential trip there!

 

[PrincessInOz]

2013? ......

 

[franandaj]

2013? ......

What? With 888 points you don't think I would leave these things up in the air! Don't we have the LTP DISmeet tentatively scheduled as well?

 

[PrincessInOz]

What? With 888 points you don't think I would leave these things up in the air! Don't we have the LTP DISmeet tentatively scheduled as well?

Yes....was it DLR.....WDW.....or both?

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I'm good with either

 

[franandaj]

Yes....was it DLR.....WDW.....or both?

I'm good with either

Me too...but Sharon...is your DH good with both?

 

[ACDSNY]

I think you all need to go for both with a cruise thrown in for good measure!

 

[franandaj]

I think you all need to go for both with a cruise thrown in for good measure!

I'm hoping by then that Fran and I have gone on a cruise, we've decided that we need to go a a few Disney Cruises before the Dream so that we have a higher priority booking status for Remy and Palo, but unfortunately Sharon can't really do cruises, so we will be confined to Land meetings for this DISmeet. I can't wait to start racking up Disney Cruise points for booking, I think we'll start with the Mexican Riviera and go from there!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Me too...but Sharon...is your DH good with both?

Probably.....

 

[franandaj]

Well it's about time! This weekend in Florida was the TIW Preview of the F&W Festival and following the event, many details of the F&W Festival were released on the Disney Food Blog.

Food & Wine Festival Preview Details

This is the first concrete full schedule to be released. According to this the schedule will be published on the official Disney website four days prior to the registration date of August 16th. I will have to up at 3:30AM that morning to make reservations for all my favorite events. Here are the events under consideration:

Signature Dinners:

Thursday October 27, Jiko or Brown Derby (probably neither, but we'll see once the budget gets figured out!)
Kouzzina Dinner - one for sure at 8PM eiher October 27 or 29th, the 28th maybe if we have to otherwise we'll try the lunch on the 30th
Tuesday, November 1, Citricos possibly, but that depends on whether or not we would rather eat at 'Ohana (which is slightly winning as it did last May)
Wednesday, November 2, Fulton's, but I think I would probably rather keep my CA Grill reservations for that night.

Friday, October 28,

10:00AM-12:00PM - Kitchen Memories (Cat Cora) Formerly Celebrating Family and Friends in the Kitchen, this fun event will return to the 2011 Festival and feature celeb chefs!

OR

12:00-3:30PM French Regional Lunch - Alsace Region, Maison Pierre Sparr winery, Presenter Bernard Sparr

8:00-9:30PM 3D Dessert Discovery - This event, introduced in 2010, is back for the 2011 Festival! Featuring desserts, more alcohol than you can drink, and special viewing of Illuminations, it’s a fun night for not too much cash!

Saturday, October 29,

TBD (2:30-4:30 in 2010) - This seminar, titled “Taste, Shake, and Indulge Like the French: Grand Marnier Tasting and Interactive Experience” showcases the talents of a Grand Marnier cocktail master. Tastings and sweet treats included!

So it looks like most of my F&W experiences will take place on Friday and Saturday. That's good because from what I hear the kiosks at Epcot are mobbed on those evenings. We stayed away from them on Friday and Sat last time I was at the festival. We'll use the other times to explore the kiosks in more detail. (Thursday afternoon, Monday morning) Hmmmm that's not much time there, I'll have to plan this strategically!

And this all came in out in perfect timing because

tomorrow I start doing the double digit dance! Woohooo!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Good idea to stay away from the mob at F&W. I'm now over the officially jealous stage....I hate you!

Those events look great! But I know you'll take lots of pictures to share.

 

[TinkerBelle_325]

Hi!!

How did I miss this? Thanks for the shout out and I look forward to reading about your trip

I still can't bring myself to cheat on Mickey, despite having a very strong love for Harry

to my Pre Trip Report! This is my first PTR ever, and I’m not sure that I have much to go on, but as I’ve learned from DisneyFirefly, PrincessInOz, onelilspark and TinkerBelle_325 this is a journey and I hope that you will all join me through it! Special thanks for PrincessInOz for giving me the title of my PTR.

Now one really can’t blame me for wanting to cheat on Mickey with Harry. You know how it is anytime there’s a kid in town, they’re always interesting and exciting. However I imagine that after all the hype and hoopla have worn off, Mickey will still take me back after my little tryst with Harry. Besides, Mickey wants my $$$'s So here’s the story, it’s me and my DP embarking on this next trip. Here we are on our trip in January of 2010.

Some background for those of you who don’t know me…we are DVC members since 2007, our first DVC trip was in 2008 and I don’t know how I’m going to go back to staying in regular hotel rooms after DVC! We’re both “older” and that’s all I’ll say on that subject , we don’t have any kids, except of the fur kind. We miss them a lot when we’re on vacation so we don’t like to be gone much longer than a week.

We both ride scooters in the parks.

DP has suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis for over a decade so our touring style is quite laid back. In the last year she’s had a hip replacement and two knee replacements. By the time our trip comes around, hopefully she will have gained some mobility. However, she will still probably need to use a scooter to get around. I broke my foot over 10 years ago and arthritis is beginning to set in. I can’t walk much more than a mile before I become crippled for the next three weeks. I know because after the last Pride Parade I marched in 2008 I could barely walk for quite a few weeks afterward.

My favorite park is Epcot, I love the countries, I love all the different foods you can eat, and especially during F&W time the way you can snack around the world. In our first visit to the F&W Festival in 2009, we tried almost EVERYTHING! We made the mistake of having ADRs which didn’t give us the opportunity to go back and get a second taste of the things we liked. This trip we will know better. Plus we will not have to have everything, only the new and our favorites from previous trips.

OK so here are the basic plans (as minimal as they are) sometime in late October or early November we will fly to Orlando from LAX. We’ll stay two nights at Universal Orlando.

And then we’ll head over to Disney for an unspecified number of days mainly so that we can enjoy the Epcot F&W Festival, but depending on which resort(s) that we stay at plans may change. We’ll stay in a DVC Resort, maybe two, but that’s for the next update.

OK for those of you who are late to the party and don't want to read some 20+ pages of chit chat, I've added this handy dandy link to all my actual updates. As I have more updates, I'll continue to add to these posts.

Contents
Accomodations
Transportation
Our First Couple Days
The First Part of our Disney Trip
First part continued
And just a little more!
The second part of our Disney Trip
Where I start to rethink my itinerary
Coming to terms with Plan B
Finalizing the Dates
Favorite Epcot Rides
Favorite Hollywood Studios Rides
F&W Must Haves Part 1
F&W Must Haves Part 2
First Reservation Made
Second Reservation Made
Booked our Airfare!
This just became a Double PTR!
Second Trip Itinerary
VWL Passed ROFR
BCV Passed ROFR
Switched part of trip to VWL
Things are falling into place

If you're just here for the Food Porn...here are links to my non WDW travels and dining.

Club 33 and our Band weekend at Disneyland
Christmas Breakfast and Dinner
Day after Christmas Dinner
Fondue Food Porn
Winemaker Dinner with the Frank Family
Diners, Drive-ins & Dives - Our 5th location
We're in Vegas Baby
Steak Anyone?
Andre's at the Monte Carlo
Breakfast Buffet!
Willy & Jose's
Now THIS is a Steakhouse - Del Frisco's Las Vegas
The Last Buffet
The Last Buffet Continued

 

[franandaj]

Hi!!

How did I miss this? Thanks for the shout out and I look forward to reading about your trip

I still can't bring myself to cheat on Mickey, despite having a very strong love for Harry

Welcome! I love reading your reviews! It's so great that your family gets along so well and I always laugh about the "Challenges" that your Dad presents you with. Somehow I missed your last one from May 2011, so I'll have to get over there and start reading up!

Will you be going to F&W this year?

I can't wait until they announce the Kiosks, I hope the word comes out before August 12th!

We're huge Harry fans and the last time (first time) we were at Universal was when they announced that they were building it, so we've been planning this little tryst for quite some time. Pretty much we just want to see HP World, the rest is not so exciting, and I will enjoy going back to Tchoup Tchoup, then it will be on to F&W!