What is This Wet Stuff Falling on Us? September 2021 Food and Wine TR! (RL Update 10/2!!)

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Day 4, Part 5: If They’re Not Offering a Fireworks Dinner Package, We’ll Create One!

We had a nice relaxing afternoon in the room, and even had time to watch the Pats game!

A little after 7:00 we started to get ready to head out again for our dinner reservation at Rose and Crown. When I made the ADRs, the fireworks schedule had not been released yet for our dates, so I assumed they would be at 9:00 like they had been and I booked the reservation for 7:40 in hopes we could get an outdoor table and a good view of the show.

Well, when they finally release the fireworks schedule for our trip, the show was at 10:00 instead of 9:00, and of course there were no later reservations for us to switch to. So I told my mom we just had to eat suuuuuper slow. HA!

We ended up arriving at Rose and Crown at 7:30 and checked in at the desk. I requested an outdoor table, and they said of course, but we may have to wait a bit. Not a problem at all, we had plenty of time to kill! So they took my number so they could text when the table was ready. We then headed off and over to the tea store since my mom loves tea and we always have to shop there on our trips.

About two steps into the store my phone buzzes and it’s Rose and Crown letting us know our table is ready! That was fast! So we turn around and head back to the check-in desk.

In the roughly 2 minutes since we had left the check in desk, a huge line had built, so we got in the line to wait. About 30 seconds later and CM came out and asked if anyone in the line had received the text that their table was ready, so I yell up to him that I had, so he ushers us to the front of the line. There was one guy towards the front of the line who was complaining loudly about us “cutting” the line as we walked by, I couldn’t believe it! Some people

The CM ended bringing us to a great table along the railing on the upper deck. At that point they didn’t have the fireworks dinner package, and weren’t using the lower deck for dining, so we had a perfect table!

We settled in and took our time perusing the menu, still had over two hours to kill before the fireworks!

Our waiter eventually came over, and asked right away if we were planning on staying there to watch the fireworks. So I confess that yes, we were planning on ordering a lot of food and taking our time to eat it so we could watch the fireworks from there. The waiter was totally cool about it, thankfully, and assured us it was not a problem at all, that we could stay as long as we wanted!

We finally decided what we wanted to eat, we both went with the salmon, and mom ordered a snake bite to drink and I got a glass of pinot noir. I realized this was possibly a dangerous order for myself, the last time I ate there in 2019 and had the salmon I ended up with food poisoning, but apparently I like to live dangerously, and I’m happy to say this time I did not get food poisoning!

The food came out pretty quick, and my goodness was this delicious!





We ate as slow as we possibly could, it took us a solid 45 minutes to get through the dish, I was actually pretty impressed how slow we ate! We finally finished a bit after 9:00, so at least we were within an hour of the show! At this point our waiter came by and gave us some awesome news, he said that we could move down to one of the tables on the lower level for an even better view, and he would serve us drinks and dessert down there! This was beyond awesome, while the view from the upper level is good, the view from the lower level is amazing. Plus, down there we didn’t have to worry about hogging a table, although they never ended up seating anyone else there so I guess it didn’t really matter.

We ended up moving down to a two seater table on the lower level and ordered a dessert to share and some more drinks. We ended up getting the sticky toffee pudding, and my goodness was this amazing! I kind of wish we each got one instead of sharing one!



We also ordered a few more drinks and settled in to wait for the fireworks.





This was back when Epcot forever was still going on, and while I liked Illuminations a lot more, I’m really happy we got to Epcot forever instead of Harmonious since it looks like the view from Rose and Crown isn’t all that good. I don’t understand how they were so short sighted with the design of Harmonious and have the main barge only be viewable from two spots in the park, and neither of those spots are where they have the upcharge fireworks dinners. It just seems so stupid to me!

Anyways, it was a great view of the show, and a perfect way to end the day.

After the fireworks we finally settled our bill, and gave our awesome waiter a nice big tip, like 35%. We were just so grateful he was cool with us hogging a table for so long, and even let us move to an even better table for the show! We ended up hanging out at the table for another 15-20 minutes to finish our drinks and let the park clear out a bit before heading back to the YC for much needed sleep!

On the way out we took some pictures.




One day if I have a larger yard I totally want to put something like this in, I think it's so pretty!

Up Next: There’s Always that One Family​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

What a perfect evening! Sounds so fun! I agree with you on Harmonious. Illuminations I could watch from anywhere around the lagoon and always loved it. Harmonious I've seen twice now - once from Germany and once from a reserved area behind the shops at the base of Future World. They were two entirely different experiences, the latter being MUCH better with the ability to see the projections. All that said, I still don't love the show but maybe I am just bitter about Illuminations. I'm going to see it again next weekend and will see if it grows on me. It's similar to the "new" Soarin where the majority of seats get the distorted view. I just don't understand how these issues weren't considered in the design phase. It's been a while since I've dined at R&C - may need to change that. And I agree that the fairy lights in the UK garden are so magical!

 

[Paulaparm]

That's awesome that you got to stay there for the fireworks!

 

[Wood Nymph]

At this point our waiter came by and gave us some awesome news, he said that we could move down to one of the tables on the lower level for an even better view, and he would serve us drinks and dessert down there!

I think it was a good thing that you told the waiter that you planned to stay there for the fireworks. He was able to solve the problem of giving you a great view and freeing up his table for additional guests, and tips. That sounds like a perfect evening.

I don’t understand how they were so short sighted with the design of Harmonious and have the main barge only be viewable from two spots in the park, and neither of those spots are where they have the upcharge fireworks dinners. It just seems so stupid to me!

We watched Harmonious from the bridge between UK and France and I thought it was a good view, even though you couldn't see the center of the "big round thing". You could see what was happening in all four "taco shells". And the music coordinated nicely with what was going on in the four half circles (taco shells). We were staying at the Beach Club and it is so easy to run into Epcot for the fireworks that I don't think I need to see what is going on in the big barge. It isn't worth the extra hassle.

I miss the Illuminations music but not the crazy globe with 7 minutes of boring nothingness. I appear to be in the minority when I say that I liked Harmonious. The ending is amazing.

 

[VAtink]

What a perfect evening! Sounds so fun! I agree with you on Harmonious. Illuminations I could watch from anywhere around the lagoon and always loved it. Harmonious I've seen twice now - once from Germany and once from a reserved area behind the shops at the base of Future World. They were two entirely different experiences, the latter being MUCH better with the ability to see the projections. All that said, I still don't love the show but maybe I am just bitter about Illuminations. I'm going to see it again next weekend and will see if it grows on me. It's similar to the "new" Soarin where the majority of seats get the distorted view. I just don't understand how these issues weren't considered in the design phase. It's been a while since I've dined at R&C - may need to change that. And I agree that the fairy lights in the UK garden are so magical!

The bolded is 100% me! I loved Illuminations, it seriously had all the feels, and I just don't see Harmonious being that way for me. I haven't seen Harmonious in person yet, so maybe I'll like it better then, we'll see. I just wish they would use more original music in shows, especially in Epcot. Or maybe bring back Tapestry of Nations, that would make me feel better about all these other changes!

R&C is really good, although the menu was pretty limited when we went in September. Hopefully it's been expanded since then.

 

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That's awesome that you got to stay there for the fireworks!

It was so great, our waiter was fantastic for letting us move down to the better seats for the show!

 

[VAtink]

I think it was a good thing that you told the waiter that you planned to stay there for the fireworks. He was able to solve the problem of giving you a great view and freeing up his table for additional guests, and tips. That sounds like a perfect evening.

Yeah, it worked out well. I felt really bad about hogging a table for so long, but not long after we arrived the tables next to us cleared out and no new parties were seated at them, so I felt slightly less guilty. It was pretty awesome to be able to move down to the lower level for the show, the view from there was great!

We watched Harmonious from the bridge between UK and France and I thought it was a good view, even though you couldn't see the center of the "big round thing". You could see what was happening in all four "taco shells". And the music coordinated nicely with what was going on in the four half circles (taco shells). We were staying at the Beach Club and it is so easy to run into Epcot for the fireworks that I don't think I need to see what is going on in the big barge. It isn't worth the extra hassle.

Interesting, I can't wait to see it in person to see how I really feel about it. It's so hard to judge from videos! Although I'm 99.9% sure that I will still prefer the music from Illuminations.

I miss the Illuminations music but not the crazy globe with 7 minutes of boring nothingness. I appear to be in the minority when I say that I liked Harmonious. The ending is amazing.

I feel like that is such a common complaint about Illuminations. It is a pretty long break in the show, I think we usually chatted a bit during that time so we didn't really notice it

 

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Day 5, Part 1: There’s Always that One Family

We were up super early again this morning, this time to get ready to head over to the AK!

We headed out of the room a bit before 6:30 and got the bus stop at 6:28, and then waited. The first bus didn’t end up showing up until 6:52. We weren’t doing so well with our morning bus timing this trip!

We boarded the bus and it was just about to pull away, when a guy comes running over and asks the driver if he can wait for his family. Annoyingly the bus driver agreed, and about 5-6 minutes later the guys family arrived. There was one person in a scooter too so it took a while for them to get loaded. Finally at 7:02 we pulled away, only to turn and head over to the BC! I was a bit perturbed by this, in April the bus was delayed getting to the AK and we arrived after park opened and FoP already had a 45 min wait by the time I got there, so I was worried that was happening again this day.

There was a massive line at the BC of people waiting for the AK bus, so we loaded as many as could fit on the bus and were finally on our way.

We ended up arriving at AK at 7:18 but I was happy to see they still hadn’t opened, so we got in the shortest line at the turnstiles, although it was pretty decently long at that point.

At 7:21 they opened, and people started filing in, and soon it was almost our turn, just one family ahead of us to scan in. And then it happened, none of the three kids in the family could get their fingers to scan. They kept trying with different fingers, but nothing would work.

Now in the past where my mom’s finger wouldn’t scan, they would pull us aside and verify our tickets and send us on our way. Not sure why they didn’t do that with this family, but the CM let them keep trying for 10 minutes! Meanwhile we’re watching hoards of people streaming in, and there were still long lines at all the tapstiles around us so we couldn’t hop over to another one. Needless to say we were getting pretty annoyed.

Finally they CM just lets the family go through and it was our turn. We got through quickly and booked it over to FoP, hoping the delay getting in wouldn’t lead to a long line.

When we got to the end of the FoP line it was pretty far back winding through the paths, and since it was constantly moving I guess a bunch of people behind us assumed it wasn’t a line and kept trying to cut in front. Finally I put my hands on my hips and stuck my elbows out to block the space around so people wouldn’t try to push past. People still did, but I told them they were in line now and couldn’t cut, and fortunately they were cool with me telling them that. I guess some people really are just clueless!

Amazingly the wait to get on the ride was only about 20 minutes! Also amazingly, we ended up on the ride with the family we were stuck behind at the tapstiles!

Now I’m sorta joking when I say this, but this family was one giant walking disaster. I have no idea how this happened, but somehow between the point where the CM handed them the glasses to the ride room, two of the kids lost the glasses. Seriously, how on earth did they lose the glasses going from one room to the other? They went back to look to see if they were on the ground, but no, they were just gone. This ended up holding up the ride since the CM had to go back and get them new glasses.

Finally it was time to ride and it was awesome as always! Although I noticed that this time there was no sprays of water. I had only noticed the water for the first time in April, but I think that was the first time I was at the very top, so I guess the lower levels just don’t get sprayed?

Fortunately, this is the last we saw of that family!

All joking aside, I did actually feel bad for them, those days were whatever could go wrong does go wrong can be pretty frustrating. Hopefully they didn’t let any of this ruin their day!

Next up: Babies Everywhere!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

We boarded the bus and it was just about to pull away, when a guy comes running over and asks the driver if he can wait for his family. Annoyingly the bus driver agreed, and about 5-6 minutes later the guys family arrived. There was one person in a scooter too so it took a while for them to get loaded. Finally at 7:02 we pulled away, only to turn and head over to the BC!

My experience has been that the bus driver will only wait for people if he can see that they are walking to the bus. I guess your bus driver wasn't in a hurry. I would have been going crazy at this point.

There was a massive line at the BC of people waiting for the AK bus, so we loaded as many as could fit on the bus and were finally on our way.

It is unusual for the BC to have a long line for AK, so it made sense that they would send the YC bus there. We were on a bus to AK that started at BC and then went backward to YC. I asked the driver about it and he said he was the "clean-up" bus that will go to the other resort if necessary.

Now in the past where my mom’s finger wouldn’t scan, they would pull us aside and verify our tickets and send us on our way. Not sure why they didn’t do that with this family, but the CM let them keep trying for 10 minutes! Meanwhile we’re watching hoards of people streaming in, and there were still long lines at all the tapstiles around us so we couldn’t hop over to another one. Needless to say we were getting pretty annoyed.

This is SO ANNOYING. I have seen this more often lately, especially during our Sept and Oct trips. In fact, my husband was one of the guests blocking the line because his finger scan wouldn't work. And we are AP's and have been there a lot. The CM's have got to be more careful about blocking the lines. It never used to be this bad.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Wow. The gall of that guy. I mean... I could maybe see if his family was within sight and he just sprinted ahead. We've all felt the despair of just missing the bus/boat/monorail by seconds. But for them to be 5-6 min behind? And for them to think a bus full of people should wait for them? Wowza. I am actually just back from a weekend at WDW and something is going on in the system such that many people aren't able to scan in. It sounded like people's magic bands were getting deactivated randomly. Happened to me once. And they don't pull the guest to the side ... the CM raises their hand and waits for help. UGH.

 

[VAtink]

My experience has been that the bus driver will only wait for people if he can see that they are walking to the bus. I guess your bus driver wasn't in a hurry. I would have been going crazy at this point.

We had so many people do this on this trip, I've never seen it this bad before. All but one morning taking the bus someone would request the bus wait for the rest of the family to show up. Every driver agreed, although most said they would only wait until the next bus arrived in roughly 5 minutes. There was even one family that was actually there at the bus stop but wanted to finish their coffee before getting on, and we're talking full cups, and the bus driver was totally cool with it. It was beyond frustrating to just sit there waiting watching them casually enjoy their coffee, drove us nuts!

It is unusual for the BC to have a long line for AK, so it made sense that they would send the YC bus there. We were on a bus to AK that started at BC and then went backward to YC. I asked the driver about it and he said he was the "clean-up" bus that will go to the other resort if necessary.

Oh weird, definitely haven't seen a BC then YC pickup yet! It seemed the week we were there they were sharing the bus to the AK in the morning, or at least the days we went to the AK we always swung by the BC after the YC. I would much rather they not share in the morning, I want to get to the park ASAP!

This is SO ANNOYING. I have seen this more often lately, especially during our Sept and Oct trips. In fact, my husband was one of the guests blocking the line because his finger scan wouldn't work. And we are AP's and have been there a lot. The CM's have got to be more careful about blocking the lines. It never used to be this bad.

This drove us nuts! Thank goodness it only happened once, and we were so relieved there wasn't a massive line for FoP by the time we got through!

 

[VAtink]

Wow. The gall of that guy. I mean... I could maybe see if his family was within sight and he just sprinted ahead. We've all felt the despair of just missing the bus/boat/monorail by seconds. But for them to be 5-6 min behind? And for them to think a bus full of people should wait for them? Wowza. I am actually just back from a weekend at WDW and something is going on in the system such that many people aren't able to scan in. It sounded like people's magic bands were getting deactivated randomly. Happened to me once. And they don't pull the guest to the side ... the CM raises their hand and waits for help. UGH.

The funny/sad thing is this wasn't the worst of the bus holders we experienced this trip! I'm totally ok if the rest of the family is only like a minute behind, or as happened once one had difficulty walking so we waited for them to make the trek from their room to the bus, but for the most part we found people were holding up the bus for 5+ minutes while their family continued getting ready. So incredibly rude! Peoples entitlement has gotten to be a bit much lately!

Ugh, that's annoying with the magic bands. Hopefully this is a short lived issue!

 

[VAtink]

Happy Holidays everyone! So quick RL update. I've finally decided to cancel the FARTS trip this year (whomp whomp), with the costs of repairing/replacing all the stupid things around the house that keep breaking, it didn't seem smart to now deplete my savings on a trip. Plus with covid looking not so great anymore it's probably for the best to not go at the beginning of February.

The good news is, I'm now looking at a May trip for F&G! Now I know some of you may be wondering if I couldn't afford a trip in February how can I afford one in May? Well, after the rather rough stay at the YC I reached out to Disney to explain our frustration and disappointment, and amazingly they offered to make up for it with a free stay at any deluxe hotel. I'm still in shock, I didn't even expect a reply, so this totally floored me.

Also, I apologize for the brief hiatus this TR has been on. I did something really dumb, when setting up my Christmas tree a few weeks ago, I put my bag of cameras behind it in the corner to store for the holidays (small house built in the 1920s = practically zero storage). Well, I realized last week when I was about to post a new chapter that all the pictures from that day are on a memory card in one of those nicely stored cameras. Oops! I tried to see if I could reach the box behind the tree, but since the tree is wedged in a corner between my tv stand and a wall the only way to do that would be to move the entire tree, and that is not something I'm in the mood to do at this point. So sorry for the delay, hopefully this weekend after the presents are opened and moved from under the tree I may be able to figure out a way to get that box back out. Stay tuned!​

 

[Hubie]

We ate at R&C while on our 1/2020 trip and it was wonderful. I'm kind sorry we passed it up this past November/December.

We were able to ride Soaring three times on our last day of our recent trip and found that even the shoes of other riders above us didn't bother us if we were seated on the end of the row of seats and in the very middle of the ride/screen. On our third ride we did get seated in the front row without asking to wait for it.

Sorry about your predicament with the camera. We drove so I brought my computer with me on our recent trip and just loaded each day's worth of pictures on it every night before going to bed.

As far as people's behavior, you can say that about a lot of people anywhere nowadays in the US. It's the great society we now live in, and I don't think it's going to improve in the future. Just look at the rotten politics in this country.

 

[Paulaparm]

Congrats on getting a "free" stay!

 

[Wood Nymph]

Flower and Garden is ten times better than FARTS in my opinion.

Since you can pick from any deluxe resort, have you decided which one you are going to stay at?

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Happy Holidays! Sorry about the home repairs and trip cancellation. I am getting pretty nervous about the virus stuff too -- I have both a Jan and a Feb trip planned. Oh well, I guess I'll just wait and see. I'm so ready for this COVID stuff to be over (as I'm sure everyone is)! Wow on a free stay! That's amazing!! I'm trying to remember - was it you who had an unusable balcony due to construction? That would be a bummer. As you know, I absolutely adore Yacht & Beach Club but holy hannah have the room rates gone up. Have a merry Christmas and I'll look forward to some updates once you can get behind the tree.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Well, I fell behind. December is always way way way to busy for me. But I am all caught up!

Mini RL Update. So my February trip is starting to look a bit less likely these days. My house has decided to be a jerk and break appliances for fun over the last few weeks. First my washer stopped working, then my microwave, and just tonight my oven (thank goodness it waited until after Thanksgiving!). The washer I can probably get repaired, but finding someone around here to even attempt to repair a microwave is impossible, and the oven is pretty old and needs repairs pretty much yearly these days, so it looks like those two are getting replaced, which sadly eats away at my vacation fund.

That sucks.... Our appliances are on there last legs as well. I keep talking nice to them so they last past the holidays and our trip!

After the fireworks we finally settled our bill, and gave our awesome waiter a nice big tip, like 35%. We were just so grateful he was cool with us hogging a table for so long, and even let us move to an even better table for the show! We ended up hanging out at the table for another 15-20 minutes to finish our drinks and let the park clear out a bit before heading back to the YC for much needed sleep!

See, I need to figure this out for our trip. I think we might need to skep the nighttime shows if it is super crowded. That sounded perfect!

Finally they CM just lets the family go through and it was our turn.

Wait! They let them through without having proof of tickets! That is crazy! I get letting people into the fastpass line but... the whole park!

People still did, but I told them they were in line now and couldn’t cut, and fortunately they were cool with me telling them that. I guess some people really are just clueless!

Some people really are!

I reached out to Disney to explain our frustration and disappointment, and amazingly they offered to make up for it with a free stay at any deluxe hotel. I'm still in shock, I didn't even expect a reply, so this totally floored me.

I am always glad to hear that there is still some customer service around still!

 

[VAtink]

We ate at R&C while on our 1/2020 trip and it was wonderful. I'm kind sorry we passed it up this past November/December.

It is really good, even with the limited menu they have these days.

We were able to ride Soaring three times on our last day of our recent trip and found that even the shoes of other riders above us didn't bother us if we were seated on the end of the row of seats and in the very middle of the ride/screen. On our third ride we did get seated in the front row without asking to wait for it.

That is awesome, I don't know if I've ever been on it more than once in a day, three times sounds great! I love getting assigned the best seat without having to ask!

Sorry about your predicament with the camera. We drove so I brought my computer with me on our recent trip and just loaded each day's worth of pictures on it every night before going to bed.

Thanks! It's my own fault, between storing them back there, and apparently being too lazy when I got back from the trip to move the pictures to my computer. Oh well, I'll get to it eventually!

As far as people's behavior, you can say that about a lot of people anywhere nowadays in the US. It's the great society we now live in, and I don't think it's going to improve in the future. Just look at the rotten politics in this country.

Yeah, what a bummer, just wish more people would think about others a bit more. Oh well, there are at least still some good eggs out there!

 

[VAtink]

Congrats on getting a "free" stay!

Thank you! I still don't believe it's real, I probably won't until a trip is actually booked!