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.
Just over a year ago, the Disney Vacation Club announced that members staying using their points could access the internet from their room for free, and being able to telecommute, we’d always thought it would be nice to go spend a week or more at Disney and I work from the room and then enjoy Disney when I didn’t need to work. So finally this July we decided to try it before Kellie started back to school, just her Kriss, and I. Read more
We usually take at least one Disney trip in the winter during January or February and with annual passes and other membership cards expiring, we decided to go the last weekend in February. I had also thought it may be a slower weekend since Valentines/President’s Day week is usually very busy. Kellie had a Dr appointment at 7:30 Friday morning so as soon as we were done with it we headed south. We got in to Orlando just after 1:00PM at Disney’s Old Key West, one of our favorite places to stay, checked in and grabbed a bite to eat at Olivia’s for lunch. We stayed at OKW on our last trip to Food and Wine Festival in October and actually got the same room both times, studio 3316, by chance. Read more
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. Read more
Just finally getting around to writing this trip report. Yes the kids were surprised with this one again although it was a lot harder since we were pulling a trailer, sort of hard to hide it. But Marc Jr was here for his last week of summer vacation and we had the girls this weekend too so Kriss and I decided to plan a surprise trip for the kids. We booked a room on Expedia (link in the right column) and got an awesome rate on a 2 bedroom at FantasyWorld Club Villas that was a few miles from Disney. I am the first to admit that we are WAAAY spoiled by staying on Disney property all these years and yes our first impressions were not of excitement, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to do this trip if it weren’t for Expedia. The room was a little small for 6 of us but fortunately my parents decided to go with us and were able to get the same rate and Marc stayed with them right next door. It was a 2 story room that seems to have been partially refurbished recently (it looks like they have been doing it gradually based on reports on Expedia) with a kitchen, living room, and complete bathroom downstairs and two bedrooms, bathroom, and washer/dryer upstairs. Read more
With a quiet weekend coming up having only one child for the first time in over a month, we thought it was time for, you guessed it, another trip to Disney. We do this a lot after the family trip since it’s usually more of a production and this year we did one park commando day with the whole family, plus we had some DVC points we had to use by July 31 or we’d lose them. Read more
What an awesome trip we had this year, I think our best family trip yet. The large family ones seem to be improving each year, probably due to us knowing more how to handle things and the kids getting older. This year we really slowed things down, partly due to finances and several kids only having a few or no days left on their tickets so we only planned one big commando park day. Read more
The older girls went out of town this weekend skiing so Kriss and I decided last minute to take a quick trip back to Disney. We had considered it for two weeks since we got back from the last trip and I even called a few times to try and get a cheap room on site with an Annual Passholder (AP) discount. I even called from the road around St Augustine just to make sure. But Friday morning after the kids were gone to school we decided we’d take out anyway and just find a room off property somewhere. Read more
We went to the Pirates and Princess party in Disney on Jan 26th and took Kellie to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique to be made up as her favorite princess, Cinderella. Dad and Lynn were also down in Orlando the week before because Lynn had a conference for school so they had decided to stay the weekend and go to Disney before they even knew we were going. So they went to EPCOT with us Saturday morning and dad got to ride Mission:Space with me for the first time. Kellie has FINALLY gotten past the magical 40″ height so she was able to ride Test Track and Soarin’ for the first time and loved them both. Read more
On Friday, November 9th we came home around 8:00PM from eating some hot wings at Hooters and Kriss flipped on Tivo to watch an episode of Dinner:Impossible that we had recorded earlier in the week, the Pixar episode. The show hadn’t started yet as I sat down to watch the opening when I turned to Kriss and reminded her that Chef Robert Irvine was going to be in Disney at the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival on Saturday for a cooking demo and to sign books. She immediately scooted up to the edge of the couch and looked at me with a look like she was fixing to jump up in the air. After a brief discussion which was mainly deciding how serious each of us were about it, we were up throwing clothes in a suitcase and snatching Kellie up and within minutes we were backing out the driveway and headed south down I-95 with no hotel room awaiting us. We got to the Disney area around 12:30AM and found a Holiday Inn Express and checked in and quickly went to bed. Read more
