Food and Wine Trip 2009

Another new first for a Disney trip this time around. Usually Kriss and I go to the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival alone. We’ve been with other adults in the past, friends and family, but it’s our one trip a year where we are able to get away without any kids because we plan it on a weekend that the oldest three are at their other parent’s houses and Kellie stayed with my grandparents. Unfortunately both of them passed away this year so we decided to take Kellie with us. We’ve also added another adult going with us, Kriss’ mom Linda. This year we are also meeting some of their family from Boston, Mandy, Donna, and Joe. Again with time constraints of work and kid sitting we planned the trip to be a Friday-Sunday trip.

We left Richmond Hill around 7:30AM and got to Disney before noon. Our room wasn’t ready which isn’t uncommon but usually they give you a card with a number to call and get your room number, but this is the first trip they offered to text the room number, pretty cool. Kriss, Kellie, and I went to EPCOT for a few hours while Nana, Mandy, Donna, and Joe went to Downtown Disney. We tried some of our past favorites like kefta from Morocco and sushi from China. I also got some gumbo from Louisiana which is similar to last year except no hot sauce. South Africa had a pretty good tenderloin with mango bbq sauce and sweet potato. We hit a few other booths before headed back to the room to meet up with the others and drop Kellie off so Kriss and I could go back for a few hours alone. We did get to see Off Kilter perform one set, hit a few more booths, and then went to meet up with everyone and go to Jellyrolls. Linda (Nana) kept Kellie while we went out.

Saturday was the big day for Food and Wine. We didn’t bother getting up for rope drop because we were only going to hit one park and there was just no need. We took Kellie to ride Figment, Nemo, and I grabbed some Fastpasses for Soarin’. We hit some more booths and tried some things we missed Friday and took the others to try the things we had liked from the day before. Standouts? By far the winner was the fisherman’s pie from Ireland. It’s basically a Shepherd’s Pie but with lobster and scallop. Other notable favorites were gumbo from Louisiana (although they did NOT have the little bottles of McIlhenny hot sauce to kick it up like last year,) pot stickers from China, the tenderloin mentioned above, Kriss’ kefta from Morocco, crab cakes from America, and I liked the tostada pollo from Mexico. There were a lot of things I wanted to try that I skipped thinking we would come back later but things didn’t work out but I really wanted t try some of the soups and stews and the shrimp ceviche.

There is something about Food and Wine this year that I really can’t put my finger on. We’ve been going every year since 2002 but this year just “felt” different. I don’t know what it was but the overall vibe was just different, in a good way. It was also noticeably brighter at night. Disney has added some lights on the backside of the lake, especially in France and between there and Morocco where it had been really dark in the past at night. One negative I would have to say is that I believe they have completely phased out the display samples of food at the booths. When we first started going you ordered and paid for your food right at the booth and there were samples of each country’s food on display under a clear cover so you could see what you were ordering. Now you order at a kiosk several feet to many yards away from the food so I found myself standing at some of he exits waiting to see what people ordered before getting in line to order.

We’ve also started making a habit of seeing at least one Off Kilter set. Kriss and I went Friday when it was just us and then went back again Saturday so the others could see them. Off Kilter is a Canadian band playing Celtic rock, complete with bagpipes and kilts, that plays on a stage between the Canada and England pavilions. They even play some 80′s tunes by some popular Canadians like Bryan Adams and Bachman Turner Overdrive (BTO,) and you can even hear some Chuck Barris, Slade, or maybe even a jam version of Amazing Grace that’ll give you goosebumps in person. I don’t think I can hear Whiskey in the Jar enough either!

It’s starting to be a recurrent theme in my Disney posts but every time we go it seems that we see or do something different. This year it was sidewalk “drawings.” On Friday we came upon a cast member, dressed in the normal CM “janitor” attire in the Mexico pavilion with a broom in the middle of the walkway but something caught my eye on the ground, dark wet lines. As I started looking at it getting closer I realized it was a face he was “drawing” with a wet broom.

We stood there for a minute trying to guess what it was until it was apparent that it was Goofy. You can see the margarita booth in the background, this was right in front so you’ll know where to keep an eye out. Saturday we came across him again right in the middle of Showcase Plaza which is where you walk from the fountains towards the lake at World Showcase. This time he had a mop and bucket and was again drawing a familiar face.

So there it is. Nothing really special this trip other than getting to see some family that we don’t get to see often. We’ll be back again next year to see what else we can get in to.