Food and Wine Trip 2008

This year’s Food and Wine trip was another first for us. This is the one trip where where in the past we’ve met others down there in Disney but for the last few years Kriss and I have gone alone, which was a nice change from being with people every year prior. So this year, after hanging out at our neighbor’s, Bruce and Lonnie, for months before talking about the trip they decided they’d like to go too since they hadn’t been in over 3 years and that was with kids too. So with a little finagling of kid’s schedules, we all took Friday off and headed south as soon as the kids were on the school bus at 7:00.We got in to Disney and both of us had rooms available by noon which is always a treat. Bruce and Lonnie were staying at Coronado Springs which I was glad to have an excuse to go check out since it’s one of the few resorts Kriss and I haven’t been to, much less stayed at. We typically stay at Beach Club or Boardwalk because they have easy access to EPCOT but after years of booking our trip early then finding out that there were other weekends we would prefer to go because of who would be in Disney performing, I waited this year until the schedule came out in the Summer and was only able to get a room at Old Key West. Not that OKW is a bad place, we stay there a lot for our week long trip with the kids when we need a big place, you just have to drive to the parks from there. I think the other factor is we booked Columbus weekend because I was off Monday but we ended up only staying through Sunday anyway so I definitely won’t go on the holiday weekend in the future. But we had all checked in and were walking through EPCOT gates by noon.

Since it was lunch time we immediately went to World Showcase to partake in some food and wine. I swear it seems like it expands every year and there were a lot of people here already in the middle of the day on a Friday which was odd other than being Columbus weekend I guess. We did our usual first day skim of all the booths hitting only the easy ones that we know we like or that look interesting. There was an area set aside this year for Louisiana with live music playing every time we walked by and I went there a few times during the weekend for gumbo, very good. We also saw the Dragon Legend acrobats in China which has now moved inside the temple, a welcome pleasure since it is air conditioned. We had already been talking about wanting to see Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios and knew we had to be there first thing in the morning but didn’t want to spend the whole day there so after a few hours we headed over to DHS to hit some of the other rides and get them out of the way. We were able to get right on Rockin’ Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror 2 times with a fast pass, and Star Tours so we wouldn’t have to worry about some of the big rides the next day, we could just hit Toy Story Mania first thing in the morning and then anything else would be gravy before heading back to Food and Wine. We then left Hollywood Studios and went back to EPCOT and being unsuccessful getting a reservation to eat somewhere, we somehow walked right in to Rose and Crown and got a table. Kriss and I had been in there to the pub before but had never eaten there, yay another first. The food was awesome and what made it even better is they have a small private viewing area for watching Illuminations that they escorted us to so we got up from the table at 8:45 and walked right up to the wall on the lake for fireworks and didn’t have people crowded around us. Afterward we were a little tired between driving and walking all day and knowing we were getting up early for Hollywood Studios, we headed back to the room for a shower and bed before 11:00.

Saturday morning we were pulling in the parking lot of Hollywood Studios before 7:30 because it was the morning Extra Magic Hours park that day and opened at 8:00 for resort guests, and got to one of the turnstiles first, it wasn’t even light out yet, we wanted to be up front for rope drop. All went well there and I got to a fastpass machine first so we were able to ride twice that morning. We did Rockin’ Rollercoaster again and got a little breakfast all before the park opened at 9:00 so all of you that don’t like to go to the EMH park because it’s crowded, please keep doing so, I kinda like that no crowded crowded feeling you leave me with. We also did the Backlot Tour and “let” Bruce and Lonnie sit on the left side of the car but we were in a place between two water flows so not much water came in where we were. It was good for a little shock factor though. I had hoped to see the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show that I NEVER get to see anymore but it was not to be this trip either. Before long we were heading back to EPCOT though since it was getting close to lunch time and we were hungry after our early snack breakfast at Hollywood Studios Commissary.

We went in the opposite direction around the lake from the day before to get to where we had left off around Africa for some Durban chicken which is always good, and then we headed to one of the temporary countries, Australia, which does a wine tasting “walkabout” where you pay $8.00 and go to 4 different booths and try wine from 4 different regions of Australia. I don’t think it had anything to do with the cute Aussie girl Natalie we met the day before that we kidded with and told would come back later. We bought two tickets for this and shared between us. Afterward we wound our way around and hit Louisiana for more gumbo, sushi in Japan, and I don’t remember them all, but ended up watching the British Invasion which didn’t seem as good this time so we went back to the Rose and Crown for a little bigger drink than the little wine glasses. While we were standing there waiting our turn, a big guy walks in behind me, I didn’t really pay much attention at first but was something caught my eye that I didn’t pick up on at first. It was George Reiger of DisneyTattooGuy.com. George considers himself to be Disney’s #1 fan. I had read about George in the Disney forums but figure what were the odds I would ever meet him in Disney, especially on accident. George has in excess of 1.900 Disney tattoos all over his body and that is a two year old figure according to his website, he told us he adds about one new one each week so he has to be close to 2,000 by now. He is the only man in the world that has Disney’s permission to tattoo Disney characters, likenesses, and logos on his body because of copyright issues. He also has a 4,200 square foot custom built Disney themed home in Pennsylvania with over 26,000 pieces of memorabilia and he travels to Disney World every month and all other Disney parks in the world at least once a year. He’s a cool guy and let Kriss take a few photos of him and then we left him alone, I’m sure he gets it a lot which, if you over your body in Disney tattoos and then go to the parks every month from Bethlehem, PA, you can’t be a shy person that doesn’t like attention, but I’m sure he wanted to drink his beer without hiking up his shorts every five minutes. If you ever read my site George it was a pleasure to meet you.

Working clockwise around World Showcase, the next stop is Canada and I’ve always wanted to watch an entire Off Kilter set, I seem to always come up on them at the end. So I shuffled everyone that direction after leaving the Rose and Crown to get within earshot of the electric bagpipe band. Pardon my ignorance but I haven’t put the two together of why there is a rockin’ Celtic band playing in the Canada pavillion, playing Celtic and Canadian songs, wearing kilts, and reading their website I don’t see any of them that are Canadian, go figure. That doesn’t change the fact that just about anyone out there reading this would probably find a toe tappin’ or hand pattin’ a thigh if you were anywhere around when these guys are playing. Here are Bruce and Lonnie diggin’ their rendition of Bryan Adams’ Summer of ’69. I still didn’t catch the whole set and I’d actually like to hear several of them one day, we’ll be back for sure. So being in Canada and not having actually been up into their pavilion really we turned up in there to the find a cool waterfall and then up over the top where Kriss found this red telephone booth, it really works too, you could place a call, if you deposited some money. This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. So having pretty much done Food and Wine clockwise and counter over two days, we headed back to our rooms to freshen up for dinner.

That night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe, a place Kriss and I go to almost every trip. We have their All Access card that will get us priority seating, next available for our party size, as well as earning reward points, a VERY handy card to have with this being Columbus weekend as well as Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. It was a tad bit loud which I pretty much expected because it was a Hard Rock on a Saturday night but we were still able to unwind and chat for a while knowing that the day was done, all we had to do was get back to the resort and get up the next morning to come home. Since I’ve kind of gotten into making my own BBQ lately, I’ve started ordering the brisket sandwich there which is surprisingly good for a huge chain place like a Hard Rock but they have their own BBQ pit at every location so I would recommend it, but order the sandwich, it’s much cheaper than the meal and more than most people can eat anyway. Bruce, Lonnie, and Kriss had ordered hurricanes the first round but Lonnie didn’t care for it much and ordered a mai tai the second round and I hadn’t tried theirs before so I stuck my straw in for a taste and it obviously had a nice floater of rum on top, Hard Rock doesn’t skimp on drinks. We hung out here until we’d had our fill and then headed off back to Disney property for a quick stop at World of Disney and to our calling bed.

Sunday was a pretty uneventful drive back home other than stopping for breakfast at one of our usual places, the IHOP, and Kriss in a little bit of hurry to get back and pick up Kellie from spending the night at aunt Hollie and uncle Chad’s house. We had a great time the whole weekend, I wish I could go back before the Food and Wine festival is over.