TR Bonus - 10/20-24/18 "I hope you like pictures of food” - New TR LINK added 3/12

[2xcited2sleep]

Definitely putting poutine on my “to try” list! I also love the Boardwalk area. It’s so lovely to be able to have a lazy morning and then just pop into World Showcase. Your posts always get me missing F&W! Have you made plans for a trip this year? I’m ready for details but it’s probably 4-5 months too soon for that. So funny but I was at the Tutto Gusto lunch too. We probably crossed paths several times before meeting at the tequila lunch. No one at the table I was at enjoyed the mussels broth. It’s so interesting you got refills. Maybe it was our server but a couple of people asked for more and it was met with an eye roll and a lot of hesitance. I also think it interesting that they tweak the menu over the course of the festival (whereas the tequila lunch menu stayed the same) - could go twice! I do agree that these lunches are fun and I always meet the nicest people. Like Julia Child said, “people who love food are the best people!”

 

[skier_pete]

Wow this looks good! I’m debating if I can fit it in if we go this October. But the trip would be so short I’m not sure it would be worth it.....

Yes - it does take up the better part of a day - you have to COMMIT to these lunches!

The poutine at Refreshment Port was on our list, but we never made it.
Glad you enjoyed your meal and snacks!

Oh - you missed a good one!

Definitely putting poutine on my “to try” list! I also love the Boardwalk area. It’s so lovely to be able to have a lazy morning and then just pop into World Showcase. Your posts always get me missing F&W! Have you made plans for a trip this year? I’m ready for details but it’s probably 4-5 months too soon for that. So funny but I was at the Tutto Gusto lunch too. We probably crossed paths several times before meeting at the tequila lunch. No one at the table I was at enjoyed the mussels broth. It’s so interesting you got refills. Maybe it was our server but a couple of people asked for more and it was met with an eye roll and a lot of hesitance. I also think it interesting that they tweak the menu over the course of the festival (whereas the tequila lunch menu stayed the same) - could go twice! I do agree that these lunches are fun and I always meet the nicest people. Like Julia Child said, “people who love food are the best people!”

I was just working on typing up our tequila lunch! I am surprised they weren't letting you have extra glasses. I noticed that they didn't really come around offering, but when we asked they had no problem providing. I always find these events do have the nicest people. They tend to be big Disney/F&W fans too - because I think the casual fan doesn't even know about these type of events.

 

[skier_pete]

Day 3 Continued - post Italian Lunch

WE met back up with M and K, they had enjoyed a meal at Biergarten while we were wining it up. M had to head back home because she had already played hooky from work one day for this, so she had to work the next day. K was going to stick around because she had another commitment in Orlando the next evening, so we let her stay in our room the second night. (I’m not sure if I had mentioned, but we got them a room for last night to share so that we could all have a good time at Jellyrolls. We had booked FP for the evening and could not resist spending some time at MK. This picture was taken at 5:45 PM to indicate what time we got there.




We started out with our first FP for Big Thunder Mountain. This is probably my favorite coaster in MK. The wait was 40 minutes at the time we arrived.



We had timed it so that our second FP was already coming due as well. HM had a big backup as well and was showing 45 minute wait.





Even with our big lunch we had decided that we still needed to have some dinner.



The order of what we did next gets a little fuzzy – I THINK we did our third FP for the 7 D mine train. I think this one had a wait time near 100 minutes.



DW and I really needed a nap.



We then headed back over to Adventureland for Pirates. I love this shot of K and I going all terrified and DW looking like “What the heck are you doing?”




Lastly, we had to head to where the birds sing words and the flowers croon.





IT was only around 8 PM, but we debated about whether we wanted to stick around for the fireworks, or if we wanted to do Jellyrolls again. Jellyrolls won – so we left the park and took the bus back to the room so the ladies could change for the bar. We headed down around 9:30 PM and we said we wouldn’t stay late…though “not late” was about midnight.



I had sort of felt like I was done with drinking, so I started with a beer, but it wasn’t sitting well with me, so I switched to 7 and 7. Our waitress from the night before was now handling bar duty – she remembered us and even asked “Where’s M?”, but the other bartender was pouring better. I ended up having three 7&7s by the time we left. (@khertz this reminds me of your TR - "The TMs are starting to recognize us!" Not sure I should be proud that it's CMs in a bar.)



Total # of Drinks: 12 (31 total)
Rides: Five (BTMRR, HM, 7DMT, PotC, Tiki Room)
Steps: 10,633 (4 miles)

 

[skier_pete]

No comments on the last post? That's OK - I am weirdly excited that my number of likes have now officially past my number of posts. Considering when they added likes I already had over 6000 posts, I think that's pretty good. "You like me - you really like me!!" here we go with Day 4:

I am not sure my liver or stomach can take much more of this trip – but here we go for day 4! We hadn’t stayed up too late the night before, and while we weren’t raring to go, we did manage to get out to Hollywood Studios by 10 AM. Of course, being at Boardwalk is maybe the best hotel to be at for DHS, because if you have the energy for it, you can walk down to the park, and staying in the standard wing, you are actually as close as can be to the park. The walk is normally less than 10 minutes, but with the construction they had the walk way rerouted a bit through the parking lot. The result was the a longer walk, but I couple shots of the construction.




WE hadn’t rushed into the park and so we stopped to get our photopass pictures in front of the theater.




We had a FP for Star Tours. Our friend K is not a fan of the ride (or Star Tours in general) but I really love the 2.0 version with the randomization.






Once we were done with the ride – we had decided to enjoy a snack. I wanted to have one of the cream cheese filled pretzels while DW wanted her Mickey Bar.




We headed from here to Toy Story Land. This was actually K’s first time going on the slinky dog dash!




We had like an hour until our FP for Slinky Dog, and the wait for Toy Story Mania was showing only about 30 minutes.




We were also having a visit from our friend in New Zealand – as a flattie…



The line ground to a halt shortly before we got to the glasses station. Apparently the main track went down, so they had to start funneling everyone to the third track. It probably took close to an hour by the time we got on the ride. We had fun chatting though!



Love Toy Story Mania. I had the high score for the vehicle!
By the time we got out we were already in the middle of the FP window for Slinky Dog.




The theme-ing around this ride is really fun. I love this sketch of the ride layout.



And the posters with all the slinky animals. Slinky cat!!



Slinky Dog PP



Next post - enough with these other parks....back to Epcot!!!

 

[skier_pete]

Day 4 continued

Once we had done that ride – we had already wrapped up what we wanted to see in Hollywood Studios…so we planned to head back to the hotel and then back into Epcot. However, we needed to stop at the Starbuck’s for K, and DW could not resist a sweet treat there.



We took the friendship boats back to Epcot, and they continued to paint the façade of the Skyliner station. Here’s a shot of it partly completed.



We headed towards the center of Epcot and Canada – picking up the steak at the Canada booth. These steaks keep getting smaller and more expensive, but they are still pretty tasty!



Next up is one of our favorite booths – Australia! The lamb chop here is one of my favorites, though DW doesn’t like it because she’s not a fan of lamb, so I get it all to myself! The Sweet and Spicy Bush Berry Shrimp was also a winner – this was the second time we took this one on and it was really great – a perfect mix of spicy and sweet.



Next up was the Almond Orchard. This one is always hit and miss and today was no different. We got the Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip and it very good – though nothing unusual – rated it a 4 out of 5. The banana almond soft-serve was not so good – the banana flavor was very strong and the texture I didn’t like. It was really big and I didn’t even finish it.



Next up was the Hawaii booth we got the Terriyaki Glazed SPAM Has – which I liked quite a bit. DW got the Tuna Tataki – which surprised me since she doesn’t really like “Rare” fish. (I didn’t like it.) Turned out she didn’t like it.



It was getting pretty late in the day and I finally got to my first drink! I wanted a margarita but I couldn’t decide which – so I got all three flavors in the “Fiesta”– strawberry, mango, and lime. Honestly I didn’t really care for the lime that much.



I was getting full, but DW got a Jerk Spiced Chicken Lollipop from the Islands of the Caribbean stand. I think she liked it. She also got a frozen mojito which we didn’t share because I already had a margarita.



It was approaching 3 PM and K had to leave us because she had some sort of event to go to that evening, so we headed back to the Boardwalk together. DW and I gave ourselves some more “relax” time – I think I went down for a swim as well. It was about 7 PM when we headed back out to the park in our new Boardwalk T-shirts:



We weren’t all that hungry but had a few things we wanted to do. DW loves the “Rose Gold” cupcake at Sunshine Seasons – and was determined to get one. Meanwhile – I had to go to the Event Center to get the AP holder cutting board they were giving out for 4 visits. So we headed towards future world and stopped for a quick dessert before our dessert. The Chocolate Studios liquid Nitro truffle and the Chocolate Raspberry Torte. These are both full on 5s!



While at the festival center and got the beer flight – mostly because I wanted to try the Chocolate Milk Stout. The other two were OK, but I really liked the stout!



I also had to get a cup of drinking chocolate for DW while I was here. This is the only food booth that you can get a DVC/AP discount on – apparently because they consider it a merchandise booth.



We ended up snagging a last minute FP for Frozen Ever after. I really like the ride – but also don’t think it’s worth a long wait. I feel like someday the standby line will settle down to 20-30 minutes, but not just yet.



Our other goal for the night was to see Illuminations one last time. They had already announced at this point that it was ending next September – so we knew we wouldn’t get to see it again. We headed around to China to try and scope out a spot.



We were finally hungry enough to eat. We got the Xian Pancake with beer and the Roasted Duck Bao Bun from china. Both were OK but not great – 3 out of 5. I also got a Jasmine beer to get my “China” drink around the world out of the way. It was awful, awful, awful.




We staked out a table in China where we thought we could see the show OK. (It was an OK spot but not a great one.) I then ran off to get some food from the India booth. We got the Naan with the 3 dipping sauces and also Korma Chicken with cucumber salad. The Chicken was delicious and rated a 4. The Naan dipping sauces were in order from best to worst The Coriander pesto, the Mango salsa, and the pickled garlic.



The last dishes we tried for the night were from the Africa booth, where we got the Red Lentil Stew, and something that wasn’t in the booklet – Piri Piri Shrimp Skewer. Both were delicious and rated a 4.



I didn’t take any pictures of Illuminations because I just wanted to enjoy it for the last time. (sniff) We started heading out of the park – but went rather slowly. I stopped at the American adventure to get a Lemon Slush with Fireball whiskey. Another country down!



With that we headed back to our hotel. We knew this was our last night – but three late nights in a row meant we didn’t really have the energy left for a fourth one. We weren’t looking forward to leaving the next day. But we were looking forward to another specialty lunch.

Total # of Drinks: 3 (34 total)
Rides: Four (ST, TSMM, SDD, FEA)
Steps: 21,630 (8.3 miles)

 

[SweetSerenity]

I agree about the banana almond orchard sundae. It was a big serving, but it was a bit weird on texture.

Whatever that is at Starbucks, it looks delicious.

 

[NJlauren]

Really love hearing about all the different dishes! I am counting the days....

I am excited to hear what last specialty lunch you are doing!

I’m way behind on my like count.... I doubt I’ll ever catch up!

 

[skier_pete]

I agree about the banana almond orchard sundae. It was a big serving, but it was a bit weird on texture.

Whatever that is at Starbucks, it looks delicious.

Som ekind caramel halloween torte. DW can't go long without her sweets!

Really love hearing about all the different dishes! I am counting the days....

I am excited to hear what last specialty lunch you are doing!

I’m way behind on my like count.... I doubt I’ll ever catch up!

I gave you a like - but I can only give one.

I thought I had mentioned elsewhere what our second lunch was - but I will keep it in suspense for the moment. Hint: It was not "wine" related.

 

[NJlauren]

Som ekind caramel halloween torte. DW can't go long without her sweets!



I gave you a like - but I can only give one.

I thought I had mentioned elsewhere what our second lunch was - but I will keep it in suspense for the moment. Hint: It was not "wine" related.

Maybe I missed it! But either way I’m excited to hear about it!

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Love the photo in front of the boardwalk at night. Your review is great, sorry I'm not a big commentor on reviews!

 

[Cowgirl_Jessie]

Love your food rating system! We can never remember what we loved or just liked a few days after. That is a great scientific approach to the food fun!

Congratulations on so many likes!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Your last viewing of Illuminations ever. I am not emotionally prepared for it to end. I concede that it’s probably time and the middle globe part is kinda boring but I just love the music and overall message. And there’s a ton of nostalgia wrapped up in it for me - so many amazing days have ended with this show. I will be sobbing the last time I see it, for sure. I’m glad you got to see it one last time.

I haven’t been to JellyRolls in a while and you are showing me the error of my ways. Must fix this on an upcoming trip!! Glad you got some time at Hollywood Studios. Once Galaxy’s Edge opens the line may extend all the way to the Boardwalk!!

You’re also making me anxious to start thinking about F&W. It will be interesting to see what they do with the beverage seminars and cooking demos now that they’ve announced other uses for both the Odyssey Center and Wonders of Life pavilion.

 

[skier_pete]

Your last viewing of Illuminations ever. I am not emotionally prepared for it to end. I concede that it’s probably time and the middle globe part is kinda boring but I just love the music and overall message. And there’s a ton of nostalgia wrapped up in it for me - so many amazing days have ended with this show. I will be sobbing the last time I see it, for sure. I’m glad you got to see it one last time.

I haven’t been to JellyRolls in a while and you are showing me the error of my ways. Must fix this on an upcoming trip!! Glad you got some time at Hollywood Studios. Once Galaxy’s Edge opens the line may extend all the way to the Boardwalk!!

You’re also making me anxious to start thinking about F&W. It will be interesting to see what they do with the beverage seminars and cooking demos now that they’ve announced other uses for both the Odyssey Center and Wonders of Life pavilion.

I'm wondering that myself. Possibly move it to the Millenium Village building? (Between Canada and UK?) I think they do Party for the senses there.

 

[franandaj]

I've been struggling to keep up. Your Italian lunch sounded good. I will keep that in mind for next fall in case we can't get into a French lunch.

Other than that I have read up but having a hard time keeping up right now!

 

[skier_pete]

Here is the wrap-up of the trip with Day 5.

Because we only had 5 days on our trip – we had a late flight to leave out of Orlando. So we basically lazed in the room as late as we could in the morning. We actually had had a Flights of Passage FP booked for today and cancelled it because we didn’t want to be rushed and otherwise didn’t really want to go to Animal Kingdom. It was actually near 11 AM before we left the room to check out – as we had a lunch to get to.

They were having a Cast Member pumpkin carving contest and letting the guests vote on it. This is one of the more charming bits about Disney – the Cast Members really are into their company!





Meanwhile, at the International gateway Skyway station – they were almost done painting the mural!




Pretty amazing that 3 days ago this was a blank surface!

I didn’t really want to eat anything – but DW was hungry and really wanted another of the pull pork poutine.



Here was our goal for this morning



Mexico and La Hacienda De San Angel







We were here to do the Tequila lunch. Neither of us are Tequila drinkers, but I thought it would be a fun and different experience, and I’d heard good things about it.
They handed us a margarita to start off, but it was one made with a very spicy mescal – It was a Ancho Chile Margarita.



They also gave you a small shooter glass of vodka that you were supposed to use to clear your pallet between courses. I suppose it worked.



Here’s the four tequilas we would be tasting.



And here’s the pairings written down.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/Q1qFBv]

They basically took us from least to best. Tequila grades are mostly about aging. I forget the details, but the blanco is like less than 6 months. The respado is 6 month to a year, and the aged is 1 -2 years. There’s also a double aged that is over 2 years, and though they brought a bottle out to us, they didn’t give us any as it was $250 a bottle.

In additional there was a plate of “odor clearers” that you would sniff when smelling each tequila.



The first course lobster in tequila mango ceviche and plantain chips but they neglected to mention the avocado. The tequila itself was very strong – burn your gut level. DW didn’t like it, but I didn’t even like it enough to finish hers. The food itself though was really wonderful.



The second course is empandas with pork, and now a respado tequila. This one was much better. One of the fascinating things they had us do was to smell the tequila both from the front, middle and back of the glass, and each part gave different noses to the odor. It really was interesting. The empanadas again were really great eating.



The third course provided one of the best things we ate the entire trip – A filet of beef with yucca fries. I can not begin to tell you how good this was! It was also really a large portion – and by this point we were really starting to get full – but it was SOOO good. The drink was actually a Mescal – which is not truly a tequila and in this case was also not all that great – probably would rank it #2 amongst the 4 we tried.



The desert was another wonderful thing – chocolate lava cake and this was presented with the aged tequila. This material was the best we had – it almost had the sweetness of a whiskey. This was so good that some folks from the table next to us that wasn’t occupied grabbed the extra glasses – so a lot of us got to have two of these.



So if you are keeping tabs – this is 6 tequilas, taking me to 40 drinks on the trip!

The whole meal we were chatting with the other people at our table, and at one point here the woman to the left of me asked me “Do you write trip reports?” and I said that I did. Turns out she was a fellow DISer @2excited2sleep ! She told me that she enjoyed reading my TRs and that she also liked the way I was talking about the Skyway made her less nervous about the changes that were coming from it. I admit it was kind of fun/flattering meeting someone at random that knew who I was, but I was really glad she said something, because it was a nice little conversation. Made me feel like one of those “Internet Celebrities”! No autographs please.

We left after the dessert very full. Overall, I can’t say it turned me into a tequila fan. But it taught us a lot, and the food was fantastic. We definitely want to eat there again for a regular meal now.

When we were done we had a few hours before we had to call it a day. I wanted to get one more drink to wrap the “drink around the world” with something at Norway. I forgot what exactly this was – but I didn’t like it very much.



We walked a bit through the China Pavillion



We then made our way around the rest of world showcase, with a stop in Germany;





We were getting tired and decided we really needed a nap. And where better to nap than in the back row of the American Adventure! We picked a seat in the back. I nodded off almost immediately, and woke up with the ending with Mark Twain and Ben Franklin on the statue of liberty. IT really is a good show, but also a good place to refresh!

On our way out of the theater – I received a text – suddenly our flight was delay over two hours! As it is, we were suppose to have a 9:00 PM flight arriving in Buffalo close to midnight. Well, now we weren’t taking off until 11:00 PM and getting in a 1:30 AM. Well, what to do but extend our time at food and wine!




We had managed to get a late FP for soarin at 4:30 PM, so we decided to take advantage of it.



We then came back into WS for some last bit of F&W. We didn’t get a lot, but we still had a booths we hadn’t yet had time to hit. We returned to Mexico and had a Short Rib Tostada and a Shrimp Quesidilla. The Tostoda was OK (rating 3) but the Shrimp Quesidilla wasn’t very good. (Rating=2).



One last selfie before we headed out.



We got the seared Shrimp and Scallop cake from Thailand. This was quite terrible. I think it’s time to give up on this booth. (They had the worst thing we ate last year.)



The at the Greek booth we got the taste of Greece (Souvlaki, Feta Cheese Dip, Lamb Sausage), the Spanakopita, and the Bougatsa (a lemon custard dessert). They were all good, but the Spanakopita was the best.



I think this was the venison sausage from New Zealand – I didn’t mark it off.



And with that we headed out of the park at about 7 PM – again the mural on the IG Skyway station:



Because our flight was delayed 2 hours, we had skipped the magical express back to the airport. Instead, we took a Lyft ride. We actually had called the airport about changing our flight to the next day. They said that because it was a greater than 2 hour change they would let us change out flights. We tried to see if we could get a flight back the next day instead. The problem was our options were either an early flight in the morning which would be no advantage, or the same flight the following evening, which we really didn’t want to get home so late. So instead, we stuck with our plans and just slept in a bit the next morning.

This was a great trip. If you think about it, we spent about 4 hours at DHS, about 4 hours at MK, and the rest of our 5 days at Epcot – and we still weren’t sick of it. IT was a great trip, and with our points at the Boardwalk hope to do it for many years to come. Unfortunately, we won’t be doing it in 2019 because of other plans.

Thanks for following along on both these trips. We had a blast with 4 trips in 11 months, and going 16 months without another one doesn’t sound too bad, but we are already missing it.

Rides: 2 (American Adventure, Soarin) – only did 14 rides the whole trip!

Drinks: 7 (total: 41)

Steps: 15,517 (5.8 miles)

Well, that sums up four trip reports in 12 months of travel. We have NO WDW trips planned for 2019, however, we WILL be going to DLR for the D23 convention in August - I promise I will post a link here on this trip report once I start that one! It should be one interesting Trip Report with the new Star Wars land @ Galaxy's Edge and all the excitement out of D23. [/url]https://flic.kr/p/2dLA4Tahttps://flic.kr/p/2dLA4Tahttps://flic.kr/p/2dLA4Ta

 

[SweetSerenity]

Really enjoyed your last post. The tequila lunch isn't something I would do, but it looks really good.

You are a Dis celebrity! That's cool you were recognized.

Sad you have no upcoming trips, but reading all your reports has been a pleasure. Look forward to your DL adventure in the future.

 

[NJlauren]

Great end to the trip! I love tequila I would love to check out this meal!!

I will miss your reports with no trips in 2019! But I’m guess you’ll have a PTR sooner then later to plan for 2020! We are doing a similar but opposit years then you a few trips between 2019-2020 then nothing till fall 2021!

I am sure you’ll have a fabulous time in DLR!!

Thanks for sharing your trips with us!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

You are definitely an internet celeb and I’m so happy to have had an opportunity to meet you! Hopefully our paths will cross again in the future! That was SUCH a good lunch. The only thing I didn’t really care for was the initial mezcal Margarita- too smoky for me. And bonus that there was that whole empty table with tequilas already poured. That still puzzles me- they must know how many reservations there are so all those people didn’t show?

Nice that you got a bonus few hours in Epcot but that late a flight sounds painful! I agree with you - I don’t think I could ever get sick of Epcot — especially during F&W! And staying in the Epcot resort area just makes it so easy!! On the gondola topic, I am relieved it appears they are enlarging the International Gateway entrance beyond the current ~4 lanes of tapstiles.

Sorry to hear you don’t have any 2019 WDW plans but D23 sounds great. I’ll be excited to hear all about it - especially all things Galaxy’s Edge!!

 

[franandaj]

Your Tequila lunch sounded great! I would have been glad to finish off any if the Tequila that you didn't want! I really like Tequila so that one is a good fit for us. And the food is always excellent, we keep saying that we will go back there for their regular menu and haven't yet. Maybe in January of 2020.

Bummer on your flights, but at least you didn't have to work and could sleep in.

Regarding your D23 trip, when the information on SWGE and how various aspects of it will be handled I will be in touch via email. Remind me if your dates again....and I'll be happy to take care of the stuff we discussed, but I might even have better news for you, however, I'm still waiting myself.

 

[YodasMom]

Enjoyed your trip report again! I always use my BWV points during F&W, too, and I love spending most of my time at Epcot during any or the festivals I attend.

Hope you enjoy D23! I attended in 2015 and really enjoyed the experience, seminars, and shopping, as well as DLR before, during, and after!