Wine and Dine 2015

[Chaitali]

I am struggling with this as well !! I've been reading a bunch of stuff and basically it comes down to "whatever works for you" .. I guess we will have to do somewhat of a test run maybe doing my longer runs at night time over the summer.. Anyone have any suggestions or tips??? TY

I don't really have any suggestions but here's what worked for me last year for Tower of Terror. We slept in that morning and had a big brunch around 11am at Ohana. I had a light early dinner around 5:30 (veggie sushi from Kimonos so mostly simple carbs) and took a granola bar with me to eat while waiting in the corrals. I also had shot bloks to eat during the race as needed. The other thing that helped is I looked for an night races in my area I could try out before heading to Disney. I wasn't able to find any long ones but there was an 8k at night I did in July and a 5k at night I did in September. Both of those kind of helped too. I don't feel safe running by myself at night here but if that's something you can do in your area, that would help to experiment with.

 

[lovingeire]

Seriously considering another trip to V&A. The cost is insane, I know, but man that place is amazing! Depends if I think I can save up enough money to pull that off by then.

We have never been to V&A, but we've saved gift cards that we were given as presents and we have enough to go there, so we are doing it this trip! We just thought since this is our food-focused trip, and it's something we both really want to do someday... it seems like a good time to go for it!

We have never been to V&A, but it is definitely on the bucket list! Hmmm…might have to think about that, although with this being my third trip this year we'll see if the budget allows for it.

I'm really at a loss about what I want to do specifically though. With food and wine going on, I'm not sure how much of our eating will be at the kiosks and how much in restaurants.

That's my issue. I would really like to do a room only res and then get a Tables in Wonderland card, but my husband keeps insisting we need to have the dining plan. i was just thinking I'd buy some gift cards to use for meals and to pay off any room charges. We've never done F&W before though so I'm at a bit of a loss.

Probably sticking mostly to EPCOT. We have dining plan on res now, but I think we are going to drop it, I don't see us using the QS meals.

We have the dining plan right now too, but I am contemplating dropping it as well.

Having a night race is really going to throw off my eating planning. I have no idea how to eat for a full day before running. I usually do it in the morning on either a snack or a small breakfast.

I too am used to running mostly on a light snack so it should be interesting to run at 10 and have to eat all day. I was leaning towards maybe a late, big breakfast and then snacks, sandwich type things with my normal pre-race snack prior to the run?

 

[RookieLady]

I ate a large lunch the day of the race, as if I were eating dinner. I then didn't eat until I had my power bar in the corrals. I was trying to replicate my eating pattern at home and maintaining similar spacing between my regular, big dinner I usually eat at night, fasting while sleeping, and then eating my power bar before I do an early am run. This worked for me.

Surprisingly, I had no trouble with the night race. I normally go to bed at 9:00 pm, but I laid around all afternoon Saturday. The excitement around the corrals and the race starting for forward corrals really woke me up. I was encouraged because I followed Jeff Galloway's finish in the upright position plan, and I struggled with the 12.5 mile run, which was the only run longer than 6 miles I did at night. But, I didn't replicate my spacing for eating for that run, so I wonder if that had something to do with it or whether it was just a bad run.

 

[AThrillingChase]

For TOT I ate at Tutto Italia at 4pm - spaghetti and meatballs. I think I had a light, early lunch and no breakfast (I'm not much of a breakfast person and I eat pasta constantly). I did not snack on anything after that, just some powerade.

Right now this is a solo trip, so I was planning on nearly every meal being at F&W except maybe a late breakfast at Captain's Grille or lunch at hurricane Hannah's one day. But, now I keep seeing all these amazing restos opening! Morimoto, and a rumored jungle cruise themed resto opening late 2015 at MK. Will "late" = Nov? HMM

 

[huggybuff]

I've been planning complusively for months already as well!! (Mostly around food, lol.) I'm a big reader of the Disney Food Blog and I love their restaurant reviews. I think all the research will pay off for my first trip to WDW. I've had a countdown on my home PC for months already til the day I can make ADRs.

My issue is that I'm co-planning this with people on the dining plan so I'm thinking there will be some big differences between what I would choose for myself and trying to fit meals into the DP. C'est la vie, I've already decided I'm going back to WDW anyway!

 

[bcarey2k]

V&A is great ... If you're a foodie. If you're a semi casual food lover (some of our friends), you'll still appreciate it, but leave thinking it's over priced.

We love it and especially love the Chefs Table, when we can get it!

 

[fsupharm77]

That's my issue. I would really like to do a room only res and then get a Tables in Wonderland card, but my husband keeps insisting we need to have the dining plan. i was just thinking I'd buy some gift cards to use for meals and to pay off any room charges. We've never done F&W before though so I'm at a bit of a loss

We did F&W a couple of years ago and we brought a gift card for it. We already bought our card though Krogers and got 4x fuel rewards (not sure if you have them down there). You can definitely just eat at the kiosks and not book a meal that day, although I think we might book LA Hacienda for a light dinner and margaritas!

 

[RogueKnits]

Is it bad that I'm already thinking about ADR's. I'm a compulsive planner! Hopefully we'll convince my dad to come out and watch our kids so we can have an adults only trip. At Princess I tried all new restaurants so I'm hoping we will get to try some new signature restaurants on this trip. I'm thinking:

Friday: Be Our Guest
Saturday: Undecided if we need a ressie this day? Maybe Kona for lunch or breakfast?
Sunday: Yachtsman Steakhouse (this is my must do for the trip!)
Monday: Trattoria al Forno or Narcosse's if we decide on another signature

With food and wine festival thug I'm totally undecided on how many reservations I want to do, but my husband is obsessed with the dining plan and snacking might not be enough for him.

Hopefully I'm not alone in already planning out my trip!

You're not alone! We're not doing the dining plan this trip because it just doesn't make sense for us, so I'm thinking of trying Il Mulino. Flying Fish is also on my list, but not sure we'd do both of those. It also got a little complicated since my parents decided to join the fun. They're staying at the Wyndham, so they'll have a kitchen and I don't know if they'll want to join us for meals or do their own thing. Current plan which I will probably change 10 times before I can even make ADRs:

Thursday: Il Mulino or Flying Fish
Friday: Boma maybe?
Saturday: Cape May character breakfast; probably just grab a snack somewhere for dinner
Sunday: Be Our Guest if I can get it, otherwise maybe Kona or somewhere else on the monorail route

 

[lovingeire]

We did F&W a couple of years ago and we brought a gift card for it. We already bought our card though Krogers and got 4x fuel rewards (not sure if you have them down there). You can definitely just eat don the kiosks and not book a meal that day, although I think we might book LA Hacienda for a light dinner and margaritas!

We don't have Kroger, but I just bought a ton of gift cards to pay off our May trip and got pretty much a free tank of gas. I paid $3.30 for 20 gallons! It was awesome! I'm thinking either way I will be buying gift cards to pay the room balance, but leaning towards having no dining plan. I know it's out of DH's comfort zone (and it took two trips for him to get used to the dining plan!) but I just have a feeling it will be better for us this go round.

 

[chbc]

@lovingeire One point to perhaps sway your husband towards the Tables in Wonderland is the drink discount, and your proximity to F&W.

 

[PrincessV]

You know the drill - what works for me might not be what works for you, blah blah blahbity-blah...

I have chronic low blood sugar, so I MUST eat before running. Last year I had my usual oatmeal for breakfast, a yogurt snack mid-morning, a sandwich with chips for lunch around noon, an afternoon snack, then had a bowl of chicken noodle soup with a croissant for dinner around 6pm. I brought a Clif bar to the race and had that about an hour or so before starting. It really was the perfect day of pre-race eating for me and my needs: I felt well-fueled but not weighed down.

 

[spideymike]

The last three years my wife and I ran Tower of Terror, we'd get a larger lunch or brunch (for example Tusker House) and head back to our hotel by 2-4pm for a power snooze. We'd get up around 5pm or so, get a small supper at our hotel that was full of protein and get some snacks too like a banana/granola bar to eat while getting to the corrals around 7pm.

 

[lovingeire]

@lovingeire One point to perhaps sway your husband towards the Tables in Wonderland is the drink discount, and your proximity to F&W.

YES!!!! I keep mentioning this to him. We like to have a glass of wine or two with dinner too and I found Princess Half weekend I was often too full for dessert so I pushing for it. I may even just make the change and he'll have to trust me!

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

Pretty much every roadway and sidewalk down here is cambered - it's the only way to deal with our torrential summer rains. So for folks from other places, it's probably noticeable the entire course. It's every running day of my life, so I deal with it a few ways: I alternate sides of the road/sidewalk frequently so one side of me isn't taking all of the brunt of it, I run down the center "hump" of the road in races, often the far outside or far inside shoulders are a bit less pronounced. The worst of it in the W&D course, IMO, is the cloverleaf ramp heading into DHS.

Thanks for the info. The idea of this makes me slightly nervous, but I appreciate the suggestions on how to deal with it.

 

[NormaG]

Is it bad that I'm already thinking about ADR's. I'm a compulsive planner! Hopefully we'll convince my dad to come out and watch our kids so we can have an adults only trip. At Princess I tried all new restaurants so I'm hoping we will get to try some new signature restaurants on this trip. I'm thinking:

Friday: Be Our Guest
Saturday: Undecided if we need a ressie this day? Maybe Kona for lunch or breakfast?
Sunday: Yachtsman Steakhouse (this is my must do for the trip!)
Monday: Trattoria al Forno or Narcosse's if we decide on another signature

With food and wine festival thug I'm totally undecided on how many reservations I want to do, but my husband is obsessed with the dining plan and snacking might not be enough for him.

Hopefully I'm not alone in already planning out my trip!

Not bad at all! We're flying down tomorrow morning at 0600 but I've been talking about November and planing costume, ADR's, which park on which day. My husband is sick of hearing it! He says, "how about getting through this trip!"

 

[Dis_Yoda]

Thursday Night - We'll eat at Crew's Cup at Yacht Club as we are unsure of when exactly we'll arrive
Friday - Tutto Italia
Saturday - We'll do a large late breakfast either at Boma or Tusker House or Captain's Grill. I'll eat dinner somewhere in EPCOT at 6:30/7PM. He'll eat a Bagel w/ Turkey & a banana in the room.

 

[fsupharm77]

Not bad at all! We're flying down tomorrow morning at 0600 but I've been talking about November and planing costume, ADR's, which park on which day. My husband is sick of hearing it! He says, "how about getting through this trip!"

My wife is getting tired of me planning for this trip. We have a 15 day trip to California with a stop at DLR and is getting on me to start planning for that instead! I figure I can get on that after I get her party ticket booked.

 

[ChipN'Dale]

Having a night race is really going to throw off my eating planning. I have no idea how to eat for a full day before running. I usually do it in the morning on either a snack or a small breakfast.

This is the link to the brochure they handed out at last year's W&D, page 10 has some nutrition suggestions from Jeff Galloway.

http://as1.wdpromedia.com/media/rundisney/pdf/wine-dine/2014/W&D14_Program_Online.pdf

 

[chbc]

In October, I plan to do my long runs at night on the school track and campus. I will play around with fueling during that time. Hydration! After a long flight, strong focus on hydration prior to flight and race.
I love planning Disney Dining! My husband will miss his "build- a-Dole Whip at CC, will check out Lania window. DH is vegetarian, wherever I make ressies for, panning on calling ahead so he doesn't have a week of Vegan Shepard Pies and Fresh Mozerella Sans from BW bakery.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

Do they have anything besides water out on the course? I've never done a long run and not sure whether I'll need anything during the race. I've heard of people using a gel or goo? Know there are power jelly beans,etc. any recommendations?