Stop Throwing Tissues on Me! – September 2023 Food and Wine Fest Trip Report! (Updated 2/12!)

[VAtink]

I would be stressed out if that happened to me. You have to have a working phone at WDW. I'm glad the problem went away when you got to the YC.

Yeah, I was pretty stress out about it, I was so relieved when it charged fine once we got to the YC!

There is something really nice about being safely inside while a storm rages outside. We had dinner at Yak & Yeti during a downpour. It was over by the time we were finished. The timing was perfect.

Definitely! It doesn't happen often, but sometimes our timing is perfect!

I hate when they bring the main course before you've finished the appetizer or salad. I once said something to our waiter at Citricos about making sure he didn't bring the main course too soon and he looked very offended.

This 100%!!! It drives me nuts! That's so weird about the waiter at Citricos, you would think with being a fancier place they'd be accustomed to people not wanting to rush through the meal.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I would be so frustrated by the phone charging situation - I’m so glad it fixed itself once you got to the Yacht Club. (Although, honestly, the outlets not working at that nice of a hotel is really unacceptable.)

Your dinner at Flying Fish looked so good! I’d love to fit this one in sometime - it’s one of the signatures I’ve yet to visit.

Your mom and the tissues…

 

[VAtink]

I would be so frustrated by the phone charging situation - I’m so glad it fixed itself once you got to the Yacht Club. (Although, honestly, the outlets not working at that nice of a hotel is really unacceptable.)

Yeah, I was pretty upset about it, I was really worried my phone would just stop working during the trip! So glad that it seems to just have been an issue with the Swan and not my phone! Hopefully they do a refurb soon!

Your dinner at Flying Fish looked so good! I’d love to fit this one in sometime - it’s one of the signatures I’ve yet to visit.

It was amazing, I would say one of the best meals I've had on property. I cannot wait to go back!

Your mom and the tissues…

Right?? Haha, it was so random, I couldn't figure out why she kept doing it!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 1: Finally Home!​

We had originally planned on waking up around 6:30 this morning. For once we were mostly skipping rope drop this trip, we figured with my mom’s leg, the initial rush would be too hard on her, which was fine by me. I hate all the pushing and shoving that often happens at rope drop, these days I’ll prefer to only do it to do the less popular rides or to take pictures with no one in them.

Anyways, we had planned on getting up around 6:30, but since we had gone to bed so early the night before, and were used to being up by 5am, we were both wide awake by 5:30. Oh well, we tried to sleep in!

It was actually a gloriously relaxed morning. We had some coffee, watched the news, and enjoyed some fruit and half the blueberry muffin. I was thrilled that the weather forecast each day was getting better and better. I had an inkling it would, even my local news in DC before we left mentioned that the TS hitting us (DC area) over the weekend would be pulling in cooler air from the north to FL, so it was actually a fantastic time to go, I missed the storm hitting my house, and was in FL for some shockingly low humidity in September. Win-win!

Finally, after a super lazy morning we got our stuff packed up and headed out of the Swan around 7. We made the short walk over to the YC where we had one of the best check-in experiences ever. The CM checking us in was so awesome, she saw that we had put in a request for a view of the gazebo and not on the first floor.

At first she mentioned that we had a resort view booked, but I mentioned that technically we booked a garden view before they changed the categories, so we wanted to be in an actual garden view room. She was great though, and starting going through all the available rooms that would be good. Apparently they can actually see the views on their computer, so she was going through room after room to see what would work.

Initially she could only find a room on the first floor, which we declined, I hate bugs and in my mind the first floor rooms have more bugs.

Next she found another room that had the view and was on an upper floor, however it only had a king bed, so that wouldn’t work for my mom and I.

Finally, she found the room we ended up getting, and I’m so happy she spent the time finding it, it was perfect. It did take a while to find it though, we were working with her for about 25 minutes. While she was looking we ended up chatting with her and another CM standing there, and we got to talking about all the food and drinks at Epcot, and got into our favorite drinks. Well, this CM was amazing, she actually put together a guide to the best food and drinks in Epcot, and offered to print it out for us. Of course we accepted, and it is so cool! She did a great job putting it together.


Please ignore how wrinkled this is, it traveled with us to Epcot every day so got a bit beat up.

The room the CM found was not ready yet, which we expected, it was only about 7:45 in the morning at that point! We swung by bell services to drop off our bags, then made our way out the back of the YC to stroll over to Epcot.

On the way we had to stop and get pictures of the former 50th Mickey and Minnie topiaries just outside the door.







We then made our way over to Epcot, even though we had planned to avoid rope drop, we had somehow managed to make it there just in time for early entry to start, oops!

Next up: First We Ride, then We Eat!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

While she was looking we ended up chatting with her and another CM standing there, and we got to talking about all the food and drinks at Epcot, and got into our favorite drinks. Well, this CM was amazing, she actually put together a guide to the best food and drinks in Epcot, and offered to print it out for us. Of course we accepted, and it is so cool! She did a great job putting it together.

This is really cool! It looks like something that any CM could do for a guest. Did she ask you a few questions about your preferences before she created the list?

We then made our way over to Epcot, even though we had planned to avoid rope drop, we had somehow managed to make it there just in time for early entry to start, oops!

We ended up with an unintended rope drop last April when staying at the BC. We like to have breakfast at Ale & Compass on our check out day. We spent some time packing before going to the restaurant. We finished eating around 8am and decided to try to go to Remi before the park opened for the general guests. We were able to do the ride before the mass of regular guests arrived. It was perfect. But we did have to hurry back to the resort to finish packing before the 11am check out time.

 

[piglet1979]

Although to be fair at the time this was super stressful, I LOVE my phone, and the idea of having a non-functioning phone in Disney was starting to send me into a panic attack! Not to ruin the surprise, but it looks like the issue was the plugs in the Swan, I realized the next morning that although it appeared my portable charger was charging, it never did, and once we were in the YC everything charged perfectly, so yeah, the Swan could use some updates!

Anyways, that was a lot on charging issues. Back to the fun!

We had the same issue with our stay back in April. We ended up ordering different chargers with longer cords so we could use them in other outlets. This was only down fall of the resort for us.

Initially she could only find a room on the first floor, which we declined, I hate bugs and in my mind the first floor rooms have more bugs.

I think the same thing. DH thinks I am nuts.

 

[vamassey1]

I'm joining in a little late. We were in Disney Sept 8-13 and boy was it hot.

We'll also be down in Christmas but after you leave. Our dates are Dec 17-21. Just a short visit to see our DD before Christmas. She's a CM in Studios.

I'm enjoying your Mother/Daughter trip. I've been lucky to take a few in the last couple of years with my daughters.

Looking forward to more.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

How cool of that CM to give you a special list as well as of the CM who spent time searching for a 'good' room for you. I see a couple of my fave drinks on there - the moonshine sour in America and the Moroccan Mule in Morocco are outstanding!

 

[VAtink]

This is really cool! It looks like something that any CM could do for a guest. Did she ask you a few questions about your preferences before she created the list?

It was so cool! She didn't check our preferences, it seemed she had this already created and just printed it out for us. Definitely introduced us to some things we didn't even know were available in Epcot!

We ended up with an unintended rope drop last April when staying at the BC. We like to have breakfast at Ale & Compass on our check out day. We spent some time packing before going to the restaurant. We finished eating around 8am and decided to try to go to Remi before the park opened for the general guests. We were able to do the ride before the mass of regular guests arrived. It was perfect. But we did have to hurry back to the resort to finish packing before the 11am check out time.

Nice! I do love the early entry, it's nice to knock out a ride or two before the masses show up!

 

[VAtink]

We had the same issue with our stay back in April. We ended up ordering different chargers with longer cords so we could use them in other outlets. This was only down fall of the resort for us.

Oh that was smart! It seemed the only plugs in the room that were working were in the bathroom, so at least we could dry our hair!

I think the same thing. DH thinks I am nuts.

I mean, it makes sense to me!

 

[VAtink]

I'm joining in a little late. We were in Disney Sept 8-13 and boy was it hot.

, thanks for joining in! Yeah, September can be brutally hot, I swear it can feel hotter than the summer months at times!

We'll also be down in Christmas but after you leave. Our dates are Dec 17-21. Just a short visit to see our DD before Christmas. She's a CM in Studios.

Nice! That's so cool your DD is a CM down there! Hope you have a great trip!

I'm enjoying your Mother/Daughter trip. I've been lucky to take a few in the last couple of years with my daughters.

Thank you! They are such great trips, I would say even better than trips I've taken with my friends. Such great memories, plus we tend to be on the same page about what we want to do more often than not.

Looking forward to more.

Thanks, will be updating soon, hopefully this weekend!

 

[VAtink]

How cool of that CM to give you a special list as well as of the CM who spent time searching for a 'good' room for you. I see a couple of my fave drinks on there - the moonshine sour in America and the Moroccan Mule in Morocco are outstanding!

It was so cool, and we really appreciated all the time she spent trying to find us the perfect room. Just an overall amazing CM!

Funny you mention the moonshine sour, that is actually the drink she recommended over all others! We had never even heard of it prior to this!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

It was so cool, and we really appreciated all the time she spent trying to find us the perfect room. Just an overall amazing CM!

Funny you mention the moonshine sour, that is actually the drink she recommended over all others! We had never even heard of it prior to this!

I have heard, from a couple of the regular bartenders there, that it is the most popular drink in all of EPCOT. I've now forgotten the statistic they quoted but the number they make in a day is astonishing! And it's sooooo good.

 

[VAtink]

I have heard, from a couple of the regular bartenders there, that it is the most popular drink in all of EPCOT. I've now forgotten the statistic they quoted but the number they make in a day is astonishing! And it's sooooo good.

Wow! Now I'm regretting not picking one up! Need to make a point to get one in December, I can't believe I've been missing out all this time!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 2: First We Ride, then We Eat!​

We last left off heading to Epcot in the morning. We arrived right at 8:30, which is when early entry started this day, which actually ended up being great timing since the crowds at security and to get into the park were gone (all in the park already), so it was an easy stroll in.

Our first stop once inside the park was the store at the IG. We wanted to pick up the Remy maps and load more money onto my gift card. We browsed the shop a bit and I made a mental note of stuff I wanted to get, most notably the F&W t-shirt, the metal wine tumbler, and of course the cheeseburger coasters (which I only saw at this store this trip, so if you’re looking for them, check there!). Since we didn’t want to lug all the stuff around with us, we decided to just get the Remy maps and load the gift card at this point, and pick up the merchandise on the way out. We did make a point to ask the CM here (and really every single place we shopped) if they would ever consider bringing back the resort shipping. I figure if we say it enough maybe the people who make these calls will finally give in and bring it back!

We had a great conversation with the CM checking us out, she was so sweet, and absolutely loved that we were on a mother-daughter trip. She also let us pick up the prize for the Remy scavenger hunt right away, which was good since I think we only found like 3 or 4 this year (short trips are hard!). We both got the Mickey and Minnie one, I had wanted the Remy one, but they were already completely out for the year. As an aside, this is one of the reasons I dislike how early they start F&W these days, having merchandise be out by September sucks. If they must have a festival over the summer months, they should just create a new one and have F&W start in September again.

Anyways, moving on!

As we were about to leave, I made an offhand comment to my mom about how I should pick up a F&W gift card at some point so then I’ll have one from each festival. The CM overheard this and called us back and grabbed a gift card from the pile and dropped it in our bag. Thanks awesome CM! I know they’re technically “free” but still, it was really nice of her to do that.

We then made our way towards the front of the park, taking pictures along the way.



Every trip since high school we've gotten a picture of my mom in front of the tea shop. One of these years I want to put them all together as mom and the tea shop through the years!



Aw, poor Pua's face is being used as a sign

As we were nearing all the construction walls, I said to my mom “ugh, I hate these walls, I cannot wait for them to come down!”

In the middle of saying this, I realize we’re walking by a group of suits (guessing some management team), and they all turned to stare at me when I said this, and some did not appear too happy. I mean, do they think anyone likes the walls? Of course people can’t wait for them to come down!

Our next stop was Creations to browse a bit, I saw a puzzle I liked, but again we didn’t want to carry anything around, so we didn’t purchase.

Like our last trip, my mom had DAS again, so we had prebooked rides for this morning. Our first was at 9am for TT, so we made our way over there after finishing our browsing at Creations.

At that point in the morning, going through the LL wasn’t really needed, the standby line was crazy short. We quickly made it into the car design room and designed this beauty:



The ride was fun, but the interactive car stuff showing how your car did against others wasn’t working. Oh well.


Am I swatting a bug?!?!

Now before the trip my mom and I talked a lot about how she would get in and out of rides since she was still having a lot of trouble stepping up and down since breaking her leg. So we agreed that we would try to load where I could be in the ride vehicle first and help her down, and then also be the first out so I could help her out. This for the most part worked pretty well this trip, obviously there are some rides this didn’t work just with the sides we loaded/unloaded on, but TT was one that was perfect for this.

Well, as we were getting out of the vehicle, I turned to offer my hand to help my mom up, which she gladly took. This whole thing took maybe three seconds, but apparently this was too long for the CM unloading the ride who snapped at us that we were taking too long. Like seriously? My mom was clearly struggling to walk, no need to yell at us! In the end, not the end of the world, and she was the only not great CM we experienced, so not horrible, just a bit surprising.

We also had Genie+ this day. We were using the leftover tickets from the hurricane last year which had pre-booked genie+ already on them, so it kinda felt free since we didn’t have to pay for them that day (since you know, things purchased 18 months prior don’t count )

So at 7 that morning I had booked us a LL for FEA. After we wrapped up at TT, it was already into our return time for FEA, so we headed that way. BTW, this is our stacking of rides this day (minus TT – we already used it before I thought to take a screen shot):



Not too shabby!

On the way to FEA we saw that Donald was about to come out at Mexico, and there was only two groups in line, so we decided to hop into line as well, I’ve never seen such a short line to meet him there so I figured we couldn’t pass up this opportunity!



I’m glad we stopped, this is the only character meet we got to this trip!

Once we wrapped up with our Donald meet we made our way over to Norway. There was hardly any wait for FEA with the LL, and soon we were on!



Once off FEA, it was into our time for my favorite, Guardians!!! I had also booked an ILL for this in the morning.

Thanks to the ILL, we walked right into the preshow.

Once again we got September (why do I get this song so much?), but I’ve seen that being September 21st, they played this song all day, so I guess at least this time there is a reason I keep getting it!



Once off Guardians it was about 10:30, and moms leg was starting to bother her, so we found a table with chairs in the shade to sit at right next to the Coastal Eats food booth and decided to just sit there and rest until the booths opened. It was actually a really nice break, we were in the shade, and had seats. We decided that once the food booths would open, mom would stay at the table, and I would run to the booths to grab food, and then we would enjoy everything once it was at the table.



Next up: First Taste of Food and Wine!​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I sure hope Disney is listening because you're not the only one who is passing on purchases because you don't want to lug them around all day. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why that's not back yet ... it seems like such a no-brainer to me! And also, we all hate the walls!!!! That they're surprised by that is hilarious. Hurrah for finding seats in the shade. Sweet of you to run and get the food. Your mom is a trooper. I'm exhausted with two 'good' legs.

 

[vamassey1]

You're getting lots done and fast.

I have not bought stuff just because I don't want to lug it around. Disney really is missing out on not have the ship to resort service.

Great plan to have your Mom hold your shaded table while you get the food.

 

[DVCjj]

Absolutely love following along with you. It's amazing what I glean from Trip Reports' little suggestion tidbits. Believe me....I'm always so grateful.

The CM who was rudely impatient when you tried to help your mom out of the vehicle needs to be reported. And honestly, I'm not usually a complainer anywhere...especially at Disney.

I have R.A. and stupidly did FAR too much walking this trip and really paid the Flare pain price. I could not have done several rides without my daughter giving me extra hand support getting out of some of the deep vehicles.
No one said one thing, as they should have done with you & mom.

Favor: Could you please explain Ride Stacking in a nutshell? My brain seems not grasping the correct way. I looked at your example and was concerned that your Day in two spots claims you are overlapping reservations?
That's not a problem???

This trip I had DAS, Genie+ and LL a couple of days and I admit I did a lousy job of planning. My (adult) daughter could care less (been there a gazillion times and loves walking and walking so didn't mind my lousy job. But I wish I knew what I was doing and felt like I wasted money.

ONLY if you are able, I would love to get your tips.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Well, as we were getting out of the vehicle, I turned to offer my hand to help my mom up, which she gladly took. This whole thing took maybe three seconds, but apparently this was too long for the CM unloading the ride who snapped at us that we were taking too long. Like seriously? My mom was clearly struggling to walk, no need to yell at us! In the end, not the end of the world, and she was the only not great CM we experienced, so not horrible, just a bit surprising.

Did she have any trouble with continuous loading rides like Haunted Mansion? I know someone who fell when getting off HM because the CM's wouldn't slow the line down.

We also had Genie+ this day. We were using the leftover tickets from the hurricane last year which had pre-booked genie+ already on them, so it kinda felt free since we didn’t have to pay for them that day (since you know, things purchased 18 months prior don’t count )

That is good Disney math and you did a great job using it.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I know I would buy a lot more stuff if they brought back shipping to the resorts. And the walls?? WHY would the suits be surprised????? Come on people.