You Get a Suite! You Get a Suite! Everybody Gets a Suite! December 2023 Trip Report! (RL Update 10/6!!)

[Stacybaeasm]

Like this one...

 

[VAtink]

Wow! What a fun event. Everything looks absolutely delicious and, I agree, way better than F&W. Going back to our earlier exchange, I thought the Jollywood food was better than F&W too. I think it must have to do with the volume and there are just too many people walking around EPCOT all day so they need to do simpler dishes that they can mass produce easily. There's a similar outdoor event here in FL called Field to Feast -- it's held on a farm in Mount Dora and George of Wine Bar George does the wine and the chefs are from various different Disney restaurants (Jiko, Flying Fish etc.) and the proceeds go to charity. You'd need a car to get out there but if you're ever here when it's happening, I think you'd love it.

It was so much fun, I would definitely do it again! Yeah, it's funny since I swear I remember the food at F&W being better years ago, but perhaps I'm just misremembering. I will say, I found the food at FArts was better (way better) than F&W so I'm sooooo excited to be going back to that again this year!

Field to Feast sounds good, and those chefs are from our favorite restaurants! We'll need to look into trying it out one year. I keep saying we need to explore more that FL has to offer, but we always just end up in Disney World for the whole trip!

 

[VAtink]

That food event looks delicious! Thank you for sharing the pictures!

It was so good, I was super impressed with all of it! Now I have a long list of restaurants around here to try out!

 

[VAtink]

It all looks good.

It was all so good, so many surprises too! I can't believe it was all local restaurants too, some I'd heard of but never thought to try, and others I've never heard of before. Now of course I need to go try them all!

 

[VAtink]

You need to get one of those plastic plate things I've seen people with in Epcot. It has a side holder to put your drink in. And that description is as clear as mud. My excuse -it's Monday. But I'm sure I'll be able to describe it better later.

Like this one...
View attachment 861525

I actually have one of these from our first F&W trip! I just have no idea where I put it...

 

[VAtink]

Day 5, Part 6: Jollywood Part 4 – More Music, More food!​

We last left off grabbing a drink at the ABC commissary and dancing to the guitar music on commissary Ln.

Once the guitarist finished his set, my mom decided she wanted to grab a drink, so we headed over to Baseline since we both wanted to try the beer margarita there and it was close.

We ended up getting those, and dad picked up a mango beer.







Drinks in hand we settled into a table at baseline to enjoy and people watch. A lot of people got super glammed up for this party, so it was fun to check out all the outfits!

I was pleasantly surprised with the beer margarita as well, it was really good!

While enjoying the drinks we were watching the Snow White and Dopey meet right in front of Baseline, and at one point saw that line had gotten super short, so we left dad at the table and mom and I went to get in line. We brought our drinks to enjoy while we waited.

Right before it was our turn they switched out characters and we ended up meeting Mary Poppins and a penguin. And just before it was our turn I ran the drinks back to the table that dad was still at so we didn’t have to deal with them.



It was a fun interaction, and mom really loved chatting with Mary Poppins since she uses Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in her class so was excited to talk about it! Meanwhile the penguin and I were having a competition on who could do the penguin waddle better.



After the meet we met back up with dad, and I ran to pick up another margarita.

We were getting hungry at that point, and since ABC Commissary didn’t have a line earlier, we decided to head back there to get some food.

Once again there was no line, so we got our snacks. We got some empanadas, yucca fries, and the cheesecake!







While the portions were small, they packed a lot of flavor and we really enjoyed the food here! Sorry for the half eaten food pictures, we were getting tired and forgot to get pics at first!

After eating, we wandering around getting some pictures.









After getting pictures, mom decided that her next must do item was to see the band at the tip top club, so we headed over there. Unfortunately, we got there to find the band was on break and wouldn’t be back for another 15 minutes.

At that point it was after 11, and we wanted to see the 11:30 NBC show, so made our way over to the theater.

They were already letting people in by the time we got there so we headed in and lucked out that the row we picked was filled just to the middle, so we had great center seats!

This show was really great, we all loved it! I didn’t get any pictures since I wanted to just enjoy this show, but the Jack puppet was so ridiculously cool, especially seeing it up close!

After the NBC show we headed back to the Tip Top Club for my mom, and this time the band was playing!

We ended up watching 4-5 songs, they were really good, and mom loved the music!

Around 12:25 we were getting tired, and were really cold, so we decided to skip the fireworks and head out.

It was once again our lucky day, on the way out I tried getting a Minnie Van, and got one right away! Wahoo!

We made it back to the hotel by 1AM, and spent some time winding down with some wine and snacks we had brought back from the lounge earlier before calling it a night.

Next up: Suite Number Three!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

I was pleasantly surprised with the beer margarita as well, it was really good!

It doesn't sound like it would be good.

we ended up meeting Mary Poppins and a penguin.

The penguin is cute.

At that point it was after 11, and we wanted to see the 11:30 NBC show, so made our way over to the theater.

What was in the NBC show? I've never heard of it.

After the NBC show we headed back to the Tip Top Club for my mom, and this time the band was playing!

We ended up watching 4-5 songs, they were really good, and mom loved the music!

That sounds like fun but it would be way past my bed time.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

This is the second report with what I consider unusual beer usage. You have a beer margarita and I saw one that had rum and beer. It's an interesting trend.

 

[precious pixie]

Loving all the updates, including the real-life ones! I am so close to purchasing an AP. I haven't had one since 2019, but I feel like it is time with more things coming back. I really enjoyed your recap of Jollywood! I am thinking of a first week of december trip and this would be right up my alley! Your report has me excited for the holidays even though we just got rid of the cool weather here

 

[SoloStitchGirl]

Following! Nice to see another NoVA person! I'll have to keep an eye out for the Field to Feast event next year.

 

[VAtink]

This is the second report with what I consider unusual beer usage. You have a beer margarita and I saw one that had rum and beer. It's an interesting trend.

Oh really? I wasn't sure what to expect with the beer margarita, but it was shocking really really good!

 

[VAtink]

Loving all the updates, including the real-life ones! I am so close to purchasing an AP. I haven't had one since 2019, but I feel like it is time with more things coming back. I really enjoyed your recap of Jollywood! I am thinking of a first week of december trip and this would be right up my alley! Your report has me excited for the holidays even though we just got rid of the cool weather here

Thank you! Not to be an enabler, but yes, totally time to get an AP! I feel like there is just so much to do there, it's nice having multiple trips coming up to try to fit more in.

We loved the December trip, so much so we're doing an early December trip again next year! Jollywood was fun, but I do hope if they bring it back they make it longer, there was so much we wanted to do that we didn't get a chance to in a single night. We barely scratched the surface of the food and drink offerings, and there was so much more we wanted to try!

 

[VAtink]

Following! Nice to see another NoVA person! I'll have to keep an eye out for the Field to Feast event next year.

Hello fellow NoVA person! Thanks for following along! I don't know if I've just been oblivious over the past few years, or if these are becoming more popular, but I noticed there have been so many food festivals around lately! It seems like the past few weekends there's been some in the area. Definitely need to start checking them out!

 

[VAtink]

Day 6, Part 1: Suite Number Three!​

We got to sleep in a bit this morning, ended up getting up around 8. I was pleasantly surprised when I went out into the dining room to see that my parents had already been to the lounge, and had brought me back breakfast! (I realize at this point I should not have been surprised, they did it every day )

They got me the eggs (was a frittata I believe with turkey), some sausage which was amazing and I usually hate sausage, some pineapple and some blueberries. They also got me two coffees (I NEED my coffee in the morning!), some POG juice, and a surprise POGmosa! What great parents!





Yes, all four of these drinks are mine!

We ended up hanging around the room for a while this morning, sadly there weren’t many animals out on the savanna this morning, but we still got to enjoy the room. We also spent time packing since we were moving once again to another hotel!

I also got a picture of the Hey Disney in the room, we had them in every room this trip, and throughout the week we got to know it more and more. We started with just using it for alarms, but we ended up using it a lot for music (from the parks!).



A bit before 11 we headed out and called for an Uber. Mousekeeping was very happy, they had been banging on our door since like 8 that morning!

We got an Uber quickly and were on our way to resort number three – The Beach Club!

When we arrived the greeter came over to chat with us, and we ended up chatting with him for a while, mostly about the gingerbread display, which was SOOOO COOL! (we’ll get to pictures in a bit). While chatting with him, another CM came over to see if we were checking in, and after chatting with him a bit as well, brought us over to bell services to drop off our bags, then brought us up to the club level lounge.

Once in the lounge the CM from the lobby passed us off to the lounge CMs, who promptly offered us a welcome drink! We of course accepted!





It was just about 11:30 at that point, so snack time was starting, so once we were checked in, we decided to check out the lounge and grab some snacks to enjoy with our welcome drink.

I swear I took pictures of the food, but they seem to have disappeared, oh well!

After finishing our snacks, we wanted to go check out the holiday displays at the BC and YC, so made our way back downstairs.

First up was the BC since we were already there




​

https://flic.kr/p/2pUogza

I love that this was based off of the Ducktales game in Epcot, I used to love watching Ducktales when I was a kid, and I love Epcot, so it was a perfect carousel for me! Check out that mini Spaceship Earth on top!

This was just so incredibly cool, we ended up watching the carousel for a while and took tons of pictures!





Next up we headed over to the YC to check out the decorations there.

On the way we got some more pictures in the Beach Club.



I love this hallway in the Beach Club. When we were younger, back in the mid 90s (which somehow only seems like 10-15 years ago, not like 30 years ago, yikes!), we preferred the BC over the YC (weird how that changed!). I remember being obsessed with the place, we would go every summer when I was in school, and for some reason this hallway just stands out in my memory from those days. That and that they used to play oldies at the pool, AND we used to walk through the pool area at like 7am prior to opening to get to the boat dock and occasionally would catch SCUBA divers cleaning the bottom of the pool. Oh, and not to mention the old entrance to the pool area with the large stairs right in front of Beaches and Cream. Ah, memories. Anyways, I digress!

Next up: More Decorations, and the Skyliner!​

 

[ThreeBoyMama]

I weirdly love that hallway too. It reminds me of my trip with Sean when I’d sneak down to the gym early every morning while he was still sleeping. The Beach Club is so beautiful and peaceful in the morning.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Well based on my profile picture, you know I love that hallway too. I also love the framed sandcastles. So funny, I liked Beach Club more when I was younger too and now I am Yacht Club ALL THE WAY. You are really selling me on the club level suite life!!! Would really love to be enjoying a POG mimosa this morning!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I love the gingerbread display at the BC. I still have lots of pictures of it from my last Thanksgiving trip. Thanks for reminding me of this so I can put it on my list for my (possible) Thanksgiving trip this year.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I swear I took pictures of the food, but they seem to have disappeared, oh well!

They don't have anything special for the afternoon snacks, anyway.

I love that this was based off of the Ducktales game in Epcot, I used to love watching Ducktales when I was a kid, and I love Epcot, so it was a perfect carousel for me!

We stayed at the BC in December, too. I've never seen Duck Tales, but that didn't really matter. The carousel is always amazing. I liked last year's carousel more than this one.

When we were younger, back in the mid 90s (which somehow only seems like 10-15 years ago, not like 30 years ago, yikes!), we preferred the BC over the YC (weird how that changed!).

We always preferred the BC over the YC. One time they switched us to the YC when we arrived at the BC. They claimed that there was something wrong with the BC room. Anyway - we were pretty angry about the change. It doesn't seem to matter too much now, though. I like the YC rooms better than the BC, but will take whatever is cheaper.

 

[VAtink]

I weirdly love that hallway too. It reminds me of my trip with Sean when I’d sneak down to the gym early every morning while he was still sleeping. The Beach Club is so beautiful and peaceful in the morning.

I love how they haven't changed the hallway over the years as well, I hope they never do! And yeah, it really is so peaceful in the morning, it really is such a special place.

 

[VAtink]

Well based on my profile picture, you know I love that hallway too. I also love the framed sandcastles. So funny, I liked Beach Club more when I was younger too and now I am Yacht Club ALL THE WAY. You are really selling me on the club level suite life!!! Would really love to be enjoying a POG mimosa this morning!

Yes, great profile pic btw! It is odd how BC used to be #1 and now it's switched over to the YC. Guess it's more of an adult vibe at the YC, but when I was a teenager the BC was the place to be!

Club level was so ridiculously amazing. We were so spoiled. Right now we're staying club for part of our upcoming F&W trip. I keep hoping the release club level discounts for October for the rest of our trip, but we did find an amazing deal for water view at the YC for that part of the trip, so at least we got a small upgrade from what we originally booked. And yes, most mornings I would love start the day with a POG-mosa. I wish I could find POG juice around here!