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

[disneyAndi14]

I think uber/Lyft from MCO is so easy and the price is not bad. I think we will always do this once ME is done. The best part of ME was the luggage service and with that gone I don’t really care if I use it or not.

I think you may have the room above the one we had in June. We were on the main floor with a view of the tennis courts and the quiet pool
One year we had the best room at YC, a corner room, high floor with the best view of the lake and lighthouse. The room was larger as well. I was spoiled with that room!
You can’t beat the convenience of YC, I do love the location!

 

[VAtink]

I think uber/Lyft from MCO is so easy and the price is not bad. I think we will always do this once ME is done. The best part of ME was the luggage service and with that gone I don’t really care if I use it or not.

Totally agree, this is actually the first time we've used Uber to get to the hotel! We've always use DME before. I do really miss the luggage transfer, I don't really care about the loss of MDE, but I do wish that they would bring back the luggage transfer!

I think you may have the room above the one we had in June. We were on the main floor with a view of the tennis courts and the quiet pool
One year we had the best room at YC, a corner room, high floor with the best view of the lake and lighthouse. The room was larger as well. I was spoiled with that room!
You can’t beat the convenience of YC, I do love the location!

Oh, that corner room sounds amazing! This room would have been a great room if it weren't for the construction. Not the best view, but during the non-construction hours it was super quiet, and it was super quick to get to the quiet pool, which we did a few days since we didn't feel like dealing with any sort of crowd at SAB! Also really quick to the lobby, just took the stairs in the lobby and one long hall later we were in the room!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 2: That’s a Lot of Cheese! *Part 1

We last left off with us on our way to Epcot for our first taste of F&W for the year!

We headed out of the YC and made our way over to Epcot. I’m glad we took the Uber to the resort so we could get in earlier. I believe we got to the park right around noon.

Our first stop was the store at the IG to pick up the Remy map and put money on my gift card. It was a quick stop and soon we were on our way to our first food booth!

We decided to start over in Germany and then make our way back towards IG stopping at any of the booths that interested us. We also wanted to start knocking off some of the Emile’s Fromage Montage cheese items, which is why we started at Germany.

Epcot was pretty crowded this day, although being a Friday afternoon during F&W it wasn’t all that surprising. And France was just a madhouse, so many people there with the Ratatouille preview, so we made our way quickly through there.

At Germany we both got the schinkennudeln from the cheese crawl and found a picnic table to eat at.




Gotta get the pics!

This was really good and surprisingly not as heavy as expected which was great since it was way too hot for something heavy! This ended up being one of my moms top dishes of the fest! It was pretty high for me too, but I don’t think it quite made it to the best of this years fest.

After we finished our food, we headed into the Germany pavilion to check out the shops, and to more importantly, try some wine! We had a fireworks cruise booked for later in the week and wanted to bring wine with us, and decided to taste wine in Germany, Italy and France to find a good bottle, you know, basically do our own version of the wine walk.

We ended up ordering samples of the pinot noir and the Lemberger. We took our samples out to a little table just outside the door (love how many tables they have back there these days!) and enjoyed them while taking in the atmosphere of the pavilion. We even got to see the cuckoo bird come out! Anyone know why it comes out at 5 after the hour? Seems like a random time…









Also just noticed the time on the clock is 7:05 which was what time it was in Germany while we were sitting there! (was 1:05 in the afternoon for us). Never noticed this detail before!

Also had a good view of the hidden Remy from our table:


The wines we tried were delicious, and we couldn’t decide which one we liked better, so we ended up buying a bottle of both. I do love that nowadays we can just take the bottles with us and don’t have to come back later in the day to pick them up at the entrances to the park. We did get a stern warning each time we bought a bottle this trip that we would be removed from the park if we opened it while in the park. We had no intention of opening it in the park, but I can totally see people doing that, especially with the prices of the mini wine samples at the food booths!

Once we had our wine, we slowly made our way back towards IG, finding all the Remy’s along the way. I do like how they are further back into the countries this year than they used to be, it’s nice to go explore the countries we haven’t before!

When we got to Italy, we decided to swing by the store where we picked up a bottle of Limoncello as well. Apparently I was in the mood to lug 3 bottles of alcohol around the park with me.

Next up: That’s a Lot of Cheese! *Part 2*​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

What a fun afternoon! Both you and your mom look so happy to be there. I love it! I had no idea about the time on the clock in Germany (very cool) and also didn't know you could now take bottles with you... hmmmm. I overheard a CM in Italy telling another group that there was a wine there that was made just for Disney and that their regular wines were very expensive (inferring this was a deal). Not sure how true that is but think I shall check it out next time. But I do miss the package delivery (I know alcohol was never a part of this- front of park/IG delivery only for booze). I am just too lazy to lug all my purchases around. I also have loved the Remy hunt this year. He's hard to find in some pavilions!

 

[VAtink]

What a fun afternoon! Both you and your mom look so happy to be there. I love it!

It was such a great start to F&W! After missing out on our annual F&W trip last year we could not wait to get started at the food booths this year, glad we started in Germany because that dish was delicious!

I had no idea about the time on the clock in Germany (very cool) and also didn't know you could now take bottles with you... hmmmm. I overheard a CM in Italy telling another group that there was a wine there that was made just for Disney and that their regular wines were very expensive (inferring this was a deal). Not sure how true that is but think I shall check it out next time. But I do miss the package delivery (I know alcohol was never a part of this- front of park/IG delivery only for booze). I am just too lazy to lug all my purchases around. I also have loved the Remy hunt this year. He's hard to find in some pavilions!

Yeah, I didn't even notice the time until I was going through the pictures this morning and realized that it was 7:05. Such a cool detail!

I also didn't realize that they let us take the bottles with us, but it makes sense since they're not shipping purchases to the front of the park these days. I really hope the bring back the delivery of purchases to the hotels, or even the front of the park, again. I too hate lugging our purchases around, definitely makes us spend less!

The Remy hunt was awesome this year! He was really hard to find in some places. Funny enough, we spent about 20 minutes searching all over the UK for him one day before I finally looked at the map and realized there was no Remy there this year

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

It took a really long time for her to show up, apparently her plane took a nice tour around the airport before finding a gate, but eventually I saw her coming down the stairs to the baggage claim a

I feel like the orlando airport has the LONGEST ride from landing to a gate!

It took a pretty long time for my moms bag to come out, I believe it was around 11:15 at that point, and once we had it we walked right outside and I called for an uber. It arrived in about 5 minutes and we were on our way!

This was definitely a great decision, we ended up arriving at the YC around 11:40, so much faster than DME!

That is good time! I am still trying to decide what to do when we go in February. Not sure how nice the new service will be. I don't have high hopes for it.

Spoiler alert! Turns out this was a mistake, we should have waited for our originally assigned room, but we wouldn’t discover this until later in the trip!

Oh NO!!!

This would be the source of much frustration later in the week….

That doesn't look good.

When we got to Italy, we decided to swing by the store where we picked up a bottle of Limoncello as well. Apparently I was in the mood to lug 3 bottles of alcohol around the park with me.

I mean it makes sense... I am suprised they let you carry it around the park.

 

[RollTideinMD]

So happy to be reading along! Can't wait for the next installment.

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 3: That’s a Lot of Cheese! *Part 2*
We last left off picking up a bottle of Limoncello at Italy.

After picking up our alcohol, we stopped at a few photopass photographers in Italy.




This one cracks me up, the photographer told us to looked shocked, so I was expecting maybe stitch to be breaking through the concrete or something a bit more shocking then ice cream!

After our mini photoshoot we made our way to the Greece food booth where we both got the griddled cheese that is on the cheese crawl. Our goal was to finish the cheese crawl the first two or three days, and boy was that hard! At least we knocked out two of the five items the first day.





I also ordered the wine flight for us to share.

While the griddled cheese was good, it was super heavy which surprised us. We figured the dish in Germany would be the heavy one, not this! It was super hard to finish, it was just SO MUCH CHEESE! Plus the honey on top kinda weighed the dish down, I think it would have been a bit better if it was not doused in honey.

The wine flight was good as well! Just very very tiny pours.

Once we finished up our food from Greece we were totally full for the time being, so we slowly made our way over to the IG. Of course we took more photopass pictures on the way out!









We noticed a lot more photopass photographers around WS this trip that we haven’t seen before so we tried to stop at all the new ones!

After we exited I had to get a picture of my mom in front of the 50th anniversary sign by the Skyliner!



On the way back to the room we swung by the store at the YC to pick up some milk for coffee in the morning and some yogurt for breakfast. We spent a good amount of time unpacking when we got back to the room since we were still pretty full and had plenty of time before dinner.

Next up: Wait, What is This Wet Stuff Falling On Us – Day 1​

 

[VAtink]

I feel like the orlando airport has the LONGEST ride from landing to a gate!

It seriously took my moms plane like 25 minutes to taxi to a gate, I couldn't believe how long it was!

That is good time! I am still trying to decide what to do when we go in February. Not sure how nice the new service will be. I don't have high hopes for it.

Yeah, after using DME for years I was shocked how quickly we got to the hotel using an Uber! I'm not sure about the new service either, back in the 90s we used the Mears bus and I don't remember it be all that horrible, but I think Ubering this trip has spoiled us and I don't want to ever have to stop at 4 other resorts before getting to ours again!

Oh NO!!!

That doesn't look good.

Yup, we should have asked to move the second we saw the equipment directly below our balcony. Lesson learned!

I mean it makes sense... I am suprised they let you carry it around the park.

I was so surprised when they told us we had to take it with us. We've always had to come back later in the day to pick it up from the store at the IG. Guess the no shipping purchases includes wine these days! I do hope they bring back the shipping purchases to the hotel or even the park entrance, but if I they do I also really hope they continue to let us bring purchased wine with us!

 

[VAtink]

So happy to be reading along! Can't wait for the next installment.

Thanks for following along!

 

[disneyAndi14]

The ice cream magic shot cracks me up, it is cute!
Good to know you can walk out with your wine bottle now
We didn’t do the cheese crawl or the scavenger hunt this past trip
most likely because of my ankle. We did enjoy F&W!

 

[VAtink]

Totally forgot to put this in our arrival day post! So when we arrived at the YC in the Uber, the security guard stopped us to verify that we were guests or had dining reservations, which we expected. We told him that we were staying there so he asks for "the first three letters of the first name."

I give him a funny look because, really, the first name?

So I ask him if he wants the first three letters of the first name or did he mean the last name, and he snaps back at me "the last name, that's what I said!"

Oooookkkk. So he was a little grumpy, and after he let us through the Uber driver agreed that he totally asked for the first three letters of the first name!

At least he let us through! ​

 

[VAtink]

The ice cream magic shot cracks me up, it is cute!
Good to know you can walk out with your wine bottle now
We didn’t do the cheese crawl or the scavenger hunt this past trip
most likely because of my ankle. We did enjoy F&W!

We laughed so much when we first saw the ice cream shot! Totally was expecting something else!

It's great being able to leave with the wine these days, especially when you want to crack one open right away!

The cheese crawl was surprisingly hard to finish, wasn't expecting that since I love cheese! I'm glad you enjoyed F&W! How is the ankle doing?

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

This one cracks me up, the photographer told us to looked shocked, so I was expecting maybe stitch

This is HILARIOUS!!!

r, back in the 90s we used the Mears bus and I don't remember it be all that horrible, but I think Ubering this trip has spoiled us and I don't want to ever have to stop at 4 other resorts before getting to ours again!

I am mostly worried if we decide to do uber, we wouldn't have one. Plus with a party of 4 someone always has to sit in the front seat which is always a little weird... But I alwasy make my husband sit in the front.

 

[cajunfan]

Can't wait to read more. Loving the food porn...

 

[GDubDIS]

Enjoying following along! Love the festivals at Epcot.

You're from the DC area right? Do you fly out of Reagan? I will say if you have any flights early in the morning or on a Sunday/Friday afternoon I would make sure to leave plenty of time - you would not BELIEVE the lines lately!! I'm talking 30 minutes+ for precheck, which used to be unheard of. Crazy!! Glad that you had a practically empty airport!

 

[snikki]

I’m pretty sure we will do uber once DME ends. It seems that it would be the quickest option.

The cheese crawl looks so tasty!! I love cheese sooo…. Lol.

Your mom looks like she’s having a great time already.

 

[VAtink]

This is HILARIOUS!!!

It really is! I laughed so hard when I first saw it.

I am mostly worried if we decide to do uber, we wouldn't have one. Plus with a party of 4 someone always has to sit in the front seat which is always a little weird... But I alwasy make my husband sit in the front.

Ohh, yeah I wonder how availability will be impacted once DME is gone, it would be a very different experience if it takes 30-40 minutes for a car to become available!

It is definitely awkward with a larger party, even when just my parents visit me and there's only three of us in an Uber, we typically make my dad sit in the front since it's a bit squished in the back. Good thing is my dad loves it!

 

[VAtink]

Can't wait to read more. Loving the food porn...

Thank you and ! More food coming up soon!

 

[VAtink]

Enjoying following along! Love the festivals at Epcot.

, thanks for following along! Aren't the festivals at Epcot great? So much good food!

You're from the DC area right? Do you fly out of Reagan? I will say if you have any flights early in the morning or on a Sunday/Friday afternoon I would make sure to leave plenty of time - you would not BELIEVE the lines lately!! I'm talking 30 minutes+ for precheck, which used to be unheard of. Crazy!! Glad that you had a practically empty airport!

Ooph, that really sucks! In the last 15 years the only times I've had more than a 5 minute wait at security at DCA were the few times I flew out of terminal A. The wait for security there sucked. Haven't flown out of terminal A in about 5 years though, thankfully! Glad there was no wait when I flew a few weeks ago, and hope these new wait times are just a fluke, I love not having to leave super early for my flights!