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

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We've stopped at terminal C to pick up passengers when we took Mears Connect. It would be interesting to see the inside of the terminal.

The terminal itself is beautiful, really well done. And bonus, the three times I've been there, it's been relatively empty. I've booked Jetblue for out December trip for the main purpose of being able to go in and out of terminal c instead of A/B!

Is this the first time you have stayed at the Swan?

It is! We've stayed at the Dolphin before, but decided to change it up this year and check out the Swan for a night.

 

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Day 1, Part 2: Welcome Home…for the Day​

We last left off getting into an Uber at the airport and heading over to the Swan. It was a pretty quick trip, about 25 minutes, and soon we were pulling into the resort. As we were passing under the Disney World Sign, our Uber driver even slowed down a bit for us to take it in, my mom was 100% oblivious to this and was going on about some things she needed to do once we arrived, I had to gently nudge her to stop with the planning for 2 seconds and look out the window at the Disney World sign!

Once we arrived at the Swan, we swung by the front desk to check in, and at first it sounded like our room wasn’t ready, the woman checking us in asked for a phone number for our room text. Whomp whomp. Well, then she surprised us by pulling out room keys and pointed us in the direction of the elevators! YAY!!!! I love when the room is ready when we arrive!

So at the Swan there are two banks of elevators, east and west, and each only go to certain floors. So the woman who checked us in pointed us to the east elevators to get to our room. Well, as we’re walking over there, we must have looked a bit lost, so this other employee stopped us and asked if we needed help, so I told him I didn’t think so, we’re just heading to our room. He then asks which floor are we on, so I tell him the 5th. He gets this big smile on his face and goes “well I’m glad you ran into me then, those elevators don’t go up to the 5th floor, you need the west elevators, let me take you.”

Thank goodness for that guy, otherwise we would have totally followed the instructions from the front desk!

We just booked one of the cheap rooms at the Swan since it was only for one night since we once again decided to add a day to our trip after our original booking. So we didn’t book a balcony or specific view with this room, so we were surprised at the view we did get!



Maybe not as nice as looking out over towards HS, but for what we paid I thought it was a pretty nice view! Certainly better than the cheap(er) rooms at the YC views!

The room itself was nice enough. Pretty small compared to the Disney resorts, and definitely in need of a refresh. Hardly any of the plugs in the room worked, and things were just worn. Also, they only had a single trash can in the room, and it was in the toilet room. This seemed odd, like we tend to use the trash more in the main area or the sink area rather than in the toilet room! Yes we could have moved it, but it seemed odd to only have one trash can in the entire space.

Here are some pictures of the room, please ignore the mess we had already made!






Just me creepily sitting in the corner with my sunglasses on…

We spent a little time getting ready and sunblock on before we headed downstairs to call for another Uber to head to Disney Springs!

Next up: Some Shopping and Some Wine Bar George!​

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Hooray for a smooth travel day! I think you deserved one after all your travel trouble on prior trips.

Wow, I’d LOVE to arrive so early in the morning! That’s unlikely as our airport has very few (almost no) direct flights to MCO, plus a direct flight is about four hours. So, I’m jealous!

I actually love your view at the Swan! It is a great view for a “standard” room.

 

[Wood Nymph]

As we were passing under the Disney World Sign, our Uber driver even slowed down a bit for us to take it in, my mom was 100% oblivious to this and was going on about some things she needed to do once we arrived, I had to gently nudge her to stop with the planning for 2 seconds and look out the window at the Disney World sign!

I think the Disney sign would seem more exciting if we didn't go to WDW several times a year.

The room looks adequate. I think the broken outlets would bother me. Did they have any USB ports?

 

[jgl130]

We went the same exact days as y’all! We were preparing for rain the whole trip and we’re pleasantly pleased that really only Wednesday night was an issue.

We over lapped! I was there 23-25! Interested to hear how you faired with genie as we had some issues!!!

@NJlauren we had issues Saturday and Sunday with ILL and regular LL. So annoying!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Hurrah for the room being ready! I agree that the rooms are in big need of refresh. I noticed the trash thing too (& no dedicated recycling). And I don't really care for their soap/shampoo products. But those rates (& the free waters & all the great dining) are pretty hard to ignore in comparison to rack rates at the Disney resorts. That said, there's nothing like the Yacht Club.

 

[NJlauren]

@NJlauren we had issues Saturday and Sunday with ILL and regular LL. So annoying!!

Ugh same, it was so bad those few days! We go back in a few weeks and I’ll be so annoyed if it happens again! It was brutal

 

[DVCjj]

Love reading your report as always. I'm definitely following along.
We were there 23-30 and had a usual lovely time. After a zillion trips and a hurricane last year, it was 'interesting' to say the least that Wed & Thursday's MONSOONS were quite challenging. First time we've had to slosh...and I mean slosh through higher-than-ankle-height water to get from the front of Epcot out the back to BWV (Wed) AND BCV (Thursday).
We were laughing all the way as it was so ridiculous how drenched we were. And this was with umbrellas and newly purchased ponchos at Japan (of which I have 10 back home) and even layered Dollar Tree Ponchos under the Disney ones. Insane.

Did you also get caught in those storms?

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I love it when a travel day goes smoothly. Also - I'm not sure that the drinking time matters on vacation. I am not a big drinker by any means but on vacation, all bets are off. Next time, have that mimosa at 5am. What's the worst that can happen???

 

[KPeterso]

Following along. We overlapped too. We were there 9/15-28. And only had a few evenings with some big thunderstorms. And only got really stuck in them once or twice.

 

[VAtink]

Hooray for a smooth travel day! I think you deserved one after all your travel trouble on prior trips.

Haha, right? It's so weird to not have delays!

Wow, I’d LOVE to arrive so early in the morning! That’s unlikely as our airport has very few (almost no) direct flights to MCO, plus a direct flight is about four hours. So, I’m jealous!

It is pretty nice, except for the super early wake-up! That's too bad your airport doesn't have many direct flights to MCO, maybe it will change at some point? Up until like a year or two ago we only had like two flights a day down to MCO, now we have like 10, it's nice having more options!

I actually love your view at the Swan! It is a great view for a “standard” room.

Yeah, I thought the view was really nice! Didn't expect that at all, so was a nice surprise!

 

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I think the Disney sign would seem more exciting if we didn't go to WDW several times a year.

Haha, that is a great point!

The room looks adequate. I think the broken outlets would bother me. Did they have any USB ports?

Yeah, for just one night it was fine. They did have USB ports, but none of them worked. They really could use an update!

 

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We went the same exact days as y’all! We were preparing for rain the whole trip and we’re pleasantly pleased that really only Wednesday night was an issue.

Yeah, the days leading up to the trip the weather wasn't looking so great, I'm so happy it changed! We somehow got very lucky and managed to be inside for the worst of the rain the few times it did rain!

@NJlauren we had issues Saturday and Sunday with ILL and regular LL. So annoying!!

I'm glad we weren't using genie+ these days, we had some issues booking an ILL over the weekend, but I would have been so frustrated if I was trying to also do Genie+!

 

[VAtink]

Hurrah for the room being ready! I agree that the rooms are in big need of refresh. I noticed the trash thing too (& no dedicated recycling). And I don't really care for their soap/shampoo products. But those rates (& the free waters & all the great dining) are pretty hard to ignore in comparison to rack rates at the Disney resorts. That said, there's nothing like the Yacht Club.

Right? It's so nice to be able to get right in and drop our stuff off. The rooms could definitely use a refresh, it was fine for just the night, but the lack of working plugs in the room would be awful for a longer trip. And yes, it doesn't even come close to comparing with the Yacht Club!

 

[suse66]

Once we arrived at the Swan, we swung by the front desk to check in, and at first it sounded like our room wasn’t ready, the woman checking us in asked for a phone number for our room text. Whomp whomp. Well, then she surprised us by pulling out room keys and pointed us in the direction of the elevators! YAY!!!! I love when the room is ready when we arrive!

Nothing better!

We just booked one of the cheap rooms at the Swan since it was only for one night since we once again decided to add a day to our trip after our original booking. So we didn’t book a balcony or specific view with this room, so we were surprised at the view we did get!

The room certainly looks nice and functional for one night. You can't beat the location!

 

[VAtink]

Love reading your report as always. I'm definitely following along.
We were there 23-30 and had a usual lovely time. After a zillion trips and a hurricane last year, it was 'interesting' to say the least that Wed & Thursday's MONSOONS were quite challenging. First time we've had to slosh...and I mean slosh through higher-than-ankle-height water to get from the front of Epcot out the back to BWV (Wed) AND BCV (Thursday).
We were laughing all the way as it was so ridiculous how drenched we were. And this was with umbrellas and newly purchased ponchos at Japan (of which I have 10 back home) and even layered Dollar Tree Ponchos under the Disney ones. Insane.

Did you also get caught in those storms?

Thank you! So we go super lucky with those storms. On Wednesday we caught the very beginning of it, but made it indoors just in time for the skies to really open up, and on Thursday we somehow managed to be indoors the entire time it rained. We're not usually this lucky when it comes to rain

 

[VAtink]

I love it when a travel day goes smoothly. Also - I'm not sure that the drinking time matters on vacation. I am not a big drinker by any means but on vacation, all bets are off. Next time, have that mimosa at 5am. What's the worst that can happen???

Me too! And yes, I like your way of thinking. Next time I'm on the super early flight I will definitely be getting that boarding mimosa!

 

[VAtink]

Following along. We overlapped too. We were there 9/15-28. And only had a few evenings with some big thunderstorms. And only got really stuck in them once or twice.

Thanks for following! Yeah the weather was pretty great, we really only saw rain on two days, and avoided it for the most part. The weekend of the 23rd was probably some of the nicest weather I've seen in FL in September, it was so nice!

 

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Nothing better!

It is so nice to have the room ready when we arrive, wish it happened more often!

The room certainly looks nice and functional for one night. You can't beat the location!

Yeah, for one night it was fine. If we were doing the whole trip there I'd probably ask to be moved to a different room in hopes of getting plugs that actually worked. Love the location, the Epcot resorts have always been our favorites.

 

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Quick RL Update! So as probably most of you have seen, info for the Festival of the Holidays was released today!!!! Wahoo! Also, 1. Why are these things always released on the days I'm in the office so I can't check it out for hours?!? Like does Disney know my in office schedule? Would it be so hard for them to for once release things on a day I'm at home and can get info right away instead of having to wait all day? and 2. I'm SO EXCITED!!!!

I'm also a tad nervous about the crowds. Like our September trip was the most crowded I've ever seen it in September, even Touringplans has the parks we went to as 8s and 9s. I don't think I've ever seen an 8 in September let along a 9! Of course we had the perfect storm in September of the opening of the 4 new food booths, Soarin' over California coming back, AP previews for Moana, a new AP magnet being released, and probably some the nicest weather I have ever experience in FL in September. So yeah, I was hoping that Disney wouldn't announce anything that would increase the crowds the week we're there in December, I feel like we already put in our time, let other people deal with the crowds with new things starting next time!

Well, of course then it comes out that the new fireworks show starts right in the middle of our December trip! Like really Disney? You couldn't wait a week? (Also a side note: If Disney decides to come out with a new fireworks show in the future and you want to figure out when it will debut, just find out when our trip is, I swear Disney bases when these shows debut on when we'll be there...they always start during our trips!)

Then today I see that John Stamos and Neil Patrick Harris are the narrators the week we're there too, which I'm assuming will draw a crowd as well. I was really hoping for a lesser known narrator while we're there. Oh well, at least we'll be in Disney and not at work!

Now I just can't wait for the Candlelight Processional dining packages to drop, I hope they are released early because once again, they're released a day that I'm in the office so either I need to book before 7, or after 5 (at which point I assume they'll be all gone). Fingers crossed for a 6am drop!

Alright that's all I have for todays update, it's time to do a deep dive into all the info that was released today! ​