The Year of Disney is Over...But We're Going Back Anyway! (Oct. 2011) ~ Updated 10/20

Lucky that you only have two more work days! I still have five I have to get through. But I'll make it!

I've been following the Disney Food Blog too and I love it! Just makes me excited for going.
 
Not much longer now for you! You are going to have so much fun during the F&W Festival. I wish we could get out there this time of year. It will never happen as long as I work at a school, so it will just have to be on my list of future goals.

I can't wait to hear about your reviews of all the food booths.
 
I love the Target bags! What is the actual size? I may have to do a quick Target run!!!

So excited for your trip! Do you leave on Wednesday? We leave on Friday and come back on Wednesday.
 
I don’t post all that often on the disboards, but I really love the whole trip planning part. We’ve worked really hard on looking through all the information on the Food and Wine Festival, and we’ve made a number of revisions to our plans to simplify our trip, so I thought I’d give a brief summary of the day-by-day activities for our trip.

Day One (Wednesday, Oct. 5): Arrival
Our flight leaves Minneapolis about 6:30 a.m., which means we need to be at the airport around 5 a.m., which means we need to be at my sister’s house (she is graciously driving us to the airport) around 4:30 a.m., which means we need to leave our house about 4 a.m., which means getting up about 3:30 a.m., which means going to bed pretty soon after we get home from work Tuesday night, which means I really need to get laundry done tonight, so I can get things packed. Dugette did most of her packing last night.

We have a layover in Atlanta, from 10:13 a.m. to 12 p.m. As Dugette mentioned before, we will be tasting the wonders of Chick-Fil-A breakfast, which I am intrigued to try! After a short flight, we touch down at 1:23 p.m. Through the wonders of Magical Express, we will simply need to head straight to the buses, with no need to pick up luggage this time! From our experience, we will probably get to Pop about 3 p.m. Our room should be ready by then. We requested a king room, and hopefully it won’t be too far away. It would be really nice to have a fridge, if only because then I could bring an ice pack for my back: these are going to be some long hard days of walking.

Anyhow, when we drop things off at the room, if we have time, it would be nice to unpack. I find if this is not done right away at the beginning of the trip, it often never gets done at all. However, as we’d like to leave Pop by about 3:45 p.m. or so, we may or may not have time to unpack. Once we get to the Magic Kingdom, we’ll transfer to a boat to the Poly, our favorite place in the world! By a little before 5 p.m. or so, we should be able to nab a grown-up grilled cheese and Dole Whip from Captain Cook’s, then take a nice relaxation break in a hammock. I have a hard time sleeping, since I get paranoid if we have a backpack with us. I’m also a little concerned about what we’ll do with the camera. I’ve had one camera die on us at the Poly beach when it fell in the sand, so I always worry a bit about that.

So after a nice break, we’ll head out about 6:30 p.m. or so to walk to the TTC to take the monorail to Epcot. I love this walk, through the lush pathways of the Poly!

When we get to Epcot, around 7:15 p.m., we’ll first head to the Festival Center to pick up our Passport. If they’re still available, we may grab a Soarin’ Fast Pass, or if not, then a Test Track FP. Then off to World Showcase!

We’ll be sticking around the entrance. Our plans are to start at the Brazil Booth. We’ve heard mixed reviews of the Feijoada, but I’m interested in trying it, if it’s their national dish. I’m going to have the Mahi Mahi, as Dugette doesn’t like seafood, and we may have the Frozen Caprinha. I’ve had one before and liked it.

Then, over to the Caribbean booth, which is one of the booths we’re most looking forward to. The Ropa Vieja and jerk-spiced chicken both look amazing. We’re also really hoping the Dragon Berry Colada is as good as the Cherry Colada from the Puerto Rico booth last year. We may also try the Coconut Mojito. We are starting this trip out right!

Finally, we’ll head to the Dessert and Champagne booth, for the Dessert Trio. We also discovered they have a Gran Marnier ice cream dish, that is one of the best values for snack credits!

Around then, extra magic hours will begin for Future World. Not sure if we’ll watch Illuminations that night or not. Soarin’ and Test Track are our top priorities for the night. I’d also content that a first day at Epcot isn’t complete without Spaceship Earth! If we’re up for it, we may try the Orange side of Mission: Space right before we leave. Dugette has never tried the orange side before, and she’s not sure how it will make her feel, but if we leave right afterwards, it might be ok.

Then, we take the bus to Pop after the park closes at midnight. It will be a long day, but the magic of Disney will get us through the day!
 

Lucky that you only have two more work days! I still have five I have to get through. But I'll make it!

I've been following the Disney Food Blog too and I love it! Just makes me excited for going.
Only one more for us now! And 4 for you, I guess! It's coming fast! :cool1:

Not much longer now for you! You are going to have so much fun during the F&W Festival. I wish we could get out there this time of year. It will never happen as long as I work at a school, so it will just have to be on my list of future goals.

I can't wait to hear about your reviews of all the food booths.
Yeah, that would be really hard for you to do F&W, I suppose. (Unless your school has a fall break?) Well, something to look forward to someday, I guess!

I love the Target bags! What is the actual size? I may have to do a quick Target run!!!

So excited for your trip! Do you leave on Wednesday? We leave on Friday and come back on Wednesday.
The Target bags, in my rough measurements, are 12.5 inches wide and 17-18 inches long (the SW one is longer than the TS one by about an inch). Yes, we leave bright and early Weds. morning. Your trip is coming so fast too. And we go to the Halloween party the same night and come home the same day, I believe (just you at DL and us at WDW)!
 
As you can see, Dug wanted to do an update now that we've finalized plans more. Unfortunately, even though I hid it well, he managed to accidentally figure out my anniversary surprise to him while hunting around in the the Disboards. :sad2: For those who don't know (probably most of you!), the surprise is that we are doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour on our last morning! Dug is super excited! :cool1: So, the money I was going to spend with the Disney Florist to leave a surprise-breaking basket & note in our room is now being re-purposed to allow us to enjoy a bit more Food & Wine (and maybe a wine tasting seminar). No need to break the surprise, since he already knows!

In other news, our anniversary (that we share with WDW) was on Saturday. We kept it low-key, since our real celebration is at WDW. However, we had to get Bailey groomed, so we went out to brunch during that at a local cafe we love. Almost like Disney food....

Chocolate Croissant:

IMG_1065.jpg


Looks a lot like Tonga Toast:

IMG_1067.jpg


Good stuff!

And Bailey's pre-trip transformation? Well, here's the before:

IMG_1064.jpg


And the after:

IMG_1078.jpg


She always looks so different without all the fur! But, it will be much easier for my dad & step-mom to take her out running in the woods and such without the mess of fur getting full of mud and stickers and stuff.

So, because I'm going to give my last efforts before the trip to the previous trip report, Dug is going to do his best to post the rest of our plans to the PTR here. But I'll leave you with one more glimpse of what I'm looking forward to (taken last year at F&W):

P1040939.jpg


:cloud9: Can't wait! It's coming quick!
 
That's a great pic that you took at F&W last year. It's coming! I can't believe it. I do have four more work days. But I don't count Friday, because I really won't be working as much as just waiting for the day to end. :laughing:
 
/
Day One (Thursday, Oct. 6): Arrival
We should be able to get a grand total of 4.5 hours of sleep or so, and then it’s up and at ‘em around 5:30 a.m., in order to get ready, have breakfast in the room and be on the first bus by 7 a.m. We’ll have Magic Kingdom Early Magic to do, and that means arriving at least a half hour before park open at 8 a.m.!

We’ll be headed straight to Fantasyland this morning, as we’ve found we get the most bang for the buck there during Early Magic. We will grab a Peter Pan Fast Pass, then all aboard for Dumbo, for some early morning spying over the walls at the Fantasyland Expansion! Then we will go play in the queue at Pooh. Finally, we will ride Snow White for one of the last times. Even though this is sort of an odd ride that scares small children, I will be a bit sad to see such a classic be turned into a princess meet-and-greet. Hopefully the mine car ride will be even better, but it will be a while before that is open.

Anyhow, the goal is to get those three rides done in time to get to the bakery before the 9 a.m. rush streams into the park. We will likely be having a croissanwich and juice with one of our counter service credits and a cinnamon roll on the side (cash).

Afterwards, we’ll be back at it, heading over to Adventureland for one of Dugette’s true favorites, Pirate’s, and my oddball favorite, Jungle Cruise. I love seeing the backside of water! If we have time, we’ll do Aladdin. The goal is to grab a Dole Whip Float in time to head over on one of the first boats to Tom Sawyer Island. A few paintbrushes are hidden on the island, and if you return them to a cast member, you get some fastpasses, typically for Big Thunder or Splash.

That pair will likely be next on our list, followed by the new Tiki room. Then we head back towards Fantasyland to do Haunted Mansion and Small World and to use our Peter Pan Fast Pass. It is a small world after all! If we have time, I’d like to go to Hall of Presidents at some point on our trip.

Around 12:30 p.m. or so, we’re going to have lunch at Columbia Harbor House. Dugette is planning on having a tuna sandwich, while I am eying a lobster roll, and we will likely both have the apple crisp as our dessert. We may also get a clam chowder on the side (cash).

Before we leave the Magic Kingdom, we may stop to see Mickey’s Philharmagic. I like to sing along with all the classic songs! Then it’s off to buses, to head out for Pop around 1:45 p.m., arriving around 2:15 p.m. for a break. Hopefully a nice nap and a chance to finish unpacking.

Around 4:30 p.m., we’ll grab a bus to Epcot. On our way in, we may grab a Kim Possible phone and stop at Club Cool. Our favs there are the Costa Rica Fanta and the watermelon flavor from China. And watching others drink the Beverly!

Then we’ll be trying the new Hawaii booth. We are both really looking forward to the pork slider and the Seven Tiki Mai Tai. I am exceedingly suspicious of the Tuna Poke and am doubtful I will try it: would love to find some reviews of it.

Then it’s off to the Canada booth for their classic Cheddar Cheese Soup. I’ll be having the salmon. Cooked in maple and Moosehead Beer? Yes please! We may try the sausage and polenta, but we’ve heard very mixed reviews, so not sure.

We’ll also be grabbing the delicious-looking Greek cheese with pistaccios.

And them it should be time to listen to one of my favorite bands, Off Kilter!

Afterwards, we will stop by the France booth for the coq au vin, and my personal delight, the escargots. We are also looking forward to France’s delicious drinks, the Pomegrante Kir and the Cosmo Slush. Somewhere in here if we’re getting full and need a break, we will likely stop to watch the France movie, which I find really relaxing and a great reminder of my trips there.

I’m not sure how it will be possible to eat anything else at that point, but if so, we will be stopping at the Portugal booth for the Pastel Nata and the Linguica Sausage. I may also have the Calamari Salad and a Fonseca Port.

If we need to kill time, we’ll probably watch a 8:20 p.m. show of Mo’ Roccan. Then we have to find a spot to watch Illuminations, hopefully somewhere that I can sit down while watching.

Afterwards, we’ll grab the bus back to Pop, where we will use the arcade credits from our package. Then, somehow if we are still hungry, we may have dinner at Everything Pop. If luck will have it, we may get to sleep by an early, early 11 p.m.!
 
Hi, all! Sorry that the PTR just died off like that, but things got busy and we had to go to WDW! We had a great trip and (surprisingly for us) lots of relaxing moments! If you're following the still-in-progress December 2010 TR, you know that I pumped out as many updates as I could on that before leaving, but it's still not quite done. I'll try to get that finished this weekend and get started on a TR for this trip. I'll post a link when it's started. Okay, must sleep now...darn Disney exhaustion!
 
Glad you had a relaxing trip! You guys needed it!!

I can't believe I missed an actual Dug post! :thumbsup2 Somehow your TR fell off my subscribed list. Silly DISboards! I can't wait to hear about this visit.
 
Welcome Back! I can't believe that you are already home. Disney time goes by too fast.
 
jut followed from your siggie in the other report...holding my place so i can get in on the TR action!!
 
Excited to see that you are back and that you had a great trip! I am trying my best to get caught up on everyone's TRs, so bear with me since I am so behind on yours. I can't wait to hear which booths were your favorites at F&W.
 
Glad you had a relaxing trip! You guys needed it!!

I can't believe I missed an actual Dug post! :thumbsup2 Somehow your TR fell off my subscribed list. Silly DISboards! I can't wait to hear about this visit.
I'm glad we had a relaxing trip too...very much needed!

Welcome home! Glad you had a great trip, can't wait for the TR! :cool1:
Thanks and welcome home to you too! :goodvibes

Welcome Back! I can't believe that you are already home. Disney time goes by too fast.
Agreed!

jut followed from your siggie in the other report...holding my place so i can get in on the TR action!!
Great to have you here!

Yay! We get to go from one trip report to another. I love sequels :cool1:
I no longer remember the days before I had a TR going! :rotfl:

Anxious for the tr!
Coming right up!

Excited to see that you are back and that you had a great trip! I am trying my best to get caught up on everyone's TRs, so bear with me since I am so behind on yours. I can't wait to hear which booths were your favorites at F&W.
I totally understand the catching up on TRs thing! I am so far behind on the ones I'm following...including yours...I will read your updates soon, though!

The quick summary of favorites at F&W (spoiler alert!): During the trip, we were discussing the "dream meal" of seconds from the booths. Mine was:
Appetizer of Griddled Greek Cheese from the Greece booth
Meal of Pork Slider from the Hawaii booth
Drink of Dragonberry Colada from the Caribbean booth
Dessert of Bailey's Lava Cake from the Ireland booth
Wish I'd had the appetite to put those all together and do that, but I only ended up having seconds on one of them!
 
Just got it started (only an intro so far) and the link is:

"Poor Unfortunate Souls: So Wet, So Full"

By the way, 2011 tried to get us once more: we downloaded pictures during the trip from the camera to the iPad and then transferred them to the desktop when we got home. Somewhere in that process, about 170 vanished! :eek: Luckily, between my idea and Dug's technical abilities, we got them restored for your enjoyment! (One was actually the intro pic for the TR!) Whew!
 














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