Aw, my Frose went back to being Rose - 2019 Food and Wine Adventure! RL Update 4/22!

[jrmint427]

A line had formed at the food station by the time I got up there, so I waited for my turn, but right when it was my turn, these two women who where behind me, just stepped in front of me and ordered! What the?!?!? Of course I said, “excuse me, you just cut me.” But the women just ignored me. I was just blown away by the rudeness!

How rude!

Once we arrived, we headed straight to do the virtual reality with the lions. It was SO cool!

That sounds amazing! Was the VR only open to guests at this event? I haven't heard of this before!

we could see the MK fireworks from our balcony! It was such a surprise and a really great end to the night!

Such a beautiful surprise. I wish every night could end with fireworks.

 

[Cloe Colton]

I'm late to the party but I'm here!!

I totally agree on your sentiments towards EPCOT Forever. I thought it was a good show but it did feel super disjointed and I don't like the kids singing. Like I get Disneys for kids but do we need to all listen to a kids bop for a nighttime spectacular? lol

I WISH the flights I took offered more first class! DH and I upgraded on our one leg to Aruba for like $60 and it was the best decision I ever made! I wish it wasn't always so dang expensive! lol

Your Boardwalk view is so pretty! Definitely a nice place to try for a night!

I always have food envy when I see what I missed at F&W or F&G once I get home! Definitely missed the scallops and blueberry wine. Ugh it was so hot when we there I'm surprised we tried as much as we did! lol looks like an awesome start to the festival!

Circle of Flavors looks SO FUN! I guess I didn't really realize what it entailed. Definitely adding it to our shortlist of things to try in the future!! I hope it wasn't a limited time offering!

 

[VAtink]

Joining in and caught up!

Thanks for joining in!

That’s some travel/arrival day!!

Haha, seriously, it was so fun but pretty exhausting!

I’m def taking note in your food and wine thoughts! Going to my first one in a few weeks am can’t wait!

Enjoy, hope you have a fantastic trip!

So interesting, we also Love Minnie Vans and may take them a bit to much, but they told us they have over 100 now but only 30 (I think) full time drivers everyone else is part time. We did find the waits this past trip to be a bit longer and sometimes abandoned ship to take a bus! Shocking!

Oh wow, only 30?? That explains why sometimes it takes forever to find one!

This circle of flavors event seems awesome!! Great reading about it!

It was so good, definitely recommend!

 

[VAtink]

The Circle of Flavors sounds amazing! I've never heard of it before. That's great that you got a view of the fireworks!

It was really great! I have no idea how I heard about it....possibly (likely) on here?

Loved being able to see the fireworks from the balcony, that room at the Boardwalk was fantastic!

 

[VAtink]

What an interesting evening. Glad you were able to enjoy it even if it was sooooo hot.

It was a really awesome event, I loved how it was more than just about the food too. The VR was really cool, the lions were just amazing!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Circle of Flavors looks awesome! I know when I saw it I really wanted to do it-but it's not being offered when I visit. I'll have to keep track though to see if they schedule more dates!

 

[VAtink]

Sounds like a fun event! I am sure you and the CM at the lamb station became best friends by the end of it all! Hahaha

It was so much fun! Haha, seriously, I felt slightly ridiculous going to the same booth over and over! At least the CM was awesome about it and we had some fun chats!

 

[VAtink]

How rude!

I know, right! Btw, totally read that in a Stephanie Tanner voice...

That sounds amazing! Was the VR only open to guests at this event? I haven't heard of this before!

Yeah, the VR was only offered as part of the event. At first we were going to skip it, but I'm glad we didn't, it was so cool! The event was so great, definitely recommend!

Such a beautiful surprise. I wish every night could end with fireworks.

It was, what a perfect way to end the first day at Disney!

 

[VAtink]

I'm late to the party but I'm here!!

Thanks for joining in on the fun!

I totally agree on your sentiments towards EPCOT Forever. I thought it was a good show but it did feel super disjointed and I don't like the kids singing. Like I get Disneys for kids but do we need to all listen to a kids bop for a nighttime spectacular? lol

Yes! I don't get the kids singing thing at all! I really hope the next show has better music.

I WISH the flights I took offered more first class! DH and I upgraded on our one leg to Aruba for like $60 and it was the best decision I ever made! I wish it wasn't always so dang expensive! lol

Me too! I love it when there is first class available, and when it's not horribly expensive to upgrade to it!

Your Boardwalk view is so pretty! Definitely a nice place to try for a night!

We had such a great room there! While it wasn't our home resort, we really loved it, and the fireworks at night was such an awesome surprise!

I always have food envy when I see what I missed at F&W or F&G once I get home! Definitely missed the scallops and blueberry wine. Ugh it was so hot when we there I'm surprised we tried as much as we did! lol looks like an awesome start to the festival!

Aw, well something to look forward to next year? It was pretty hot for our trip too, it's always so hard to eat when it's that hot outside. There was one day later in the trip where we had a quick rain shower, and it cooled off seemingly pretty significantly afterwards, so we took advantage of that and hit up a ton of food booths!

Circle of Flavors looks SO FUN! I guess I didn't really realize what it entailed. Definitely adding it to our shortlist of things to try in the future!! I hope it wasn't a limited time offering!

It's such a fun event, I would definitely do it again! I do hope they keep offering it, it seemed really popular so hopefully they keep it around.

 

[VAtink]

Circle of Flavors looks awesome! I know when I saw it I really wanted to do it-but it's not being offered when I visit. I'll have to keep track though to see if they schedule more dates!

It was such an awesome event! Fingers crossed they add it in while you're there. I hope they keep it for a while, I would love to do it again.

 

[jrmint427]

I know, right! Btw, totally read that in a Stephanie Tanner voice...

I definitely wrote it with her in mind Child of the 90s here!

Yeah, the VR was only offered as part of the event. At first we were going to skip it, but I'm glad we didn't, it was so cool!

I'm glad you did it too, then, would love to try that some time!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 1: EEMH – HS Style!

This morning we woke up at the wonderful hour of 5:00AM. Actually a few minutes beforehand. We were still very much used to our work schedule, so this wasn’t too horrible of a wake-up. We were out the door at 5:18 and on our way to HS!

Since we were at the Boardwalk, we opted to just walk over, even though the boats were running. It turned out to be a good choice since we beat the boat by quite a bit even walking slowly due to mom’s foot! We arrived at security at 5:35, and there was hardly anyone there so we breezed through. There were CMs standing just past security to scan our magic bands to make sure we were resort guests, so we scanned there, then made our way to the tapstiles to get into the park.

By the time we got there, there was a crowd already on Hollywood Blvd waiting for the park to open. We ended up just by Sunset Blvd while we waited.

At 5:55 they began the march back to MF:SR. Since my mom’s foot was bothering her, we walked very slowly so tons of people passed us, but it didn’t seem to make a difference since we never stopped moving until we were actually on the ride!

We actually kind of wish there was a bit of a wait so we could slow down in the queue and check things out! I’m not sure what time we actually got on the ride, but the walk back there took a while, so I imagine it was close to 6:10.

We were one of the last groups in the pre-show, which actually worked out well for us. The way the numbers worked out, when we entered the next room, both my mom and I were handed the pilot card! There was only one couple behind us, so our ride we didn’t have any engineers. I’m going to blame our performance as pilots on the lack of engineers….

The ride itself was awesome, we loved it. However, we learned later in the week, we found it to be significantly more fun as the pilot over the engineer!

We weren’t the best pilots, I had the right/left controls, and my mom had the up/down. She kept forgetting it was pull up and push down, so kept going the wrong way, so we crashed a lot! It was still a blast though, just hope the couple with us didn’t mind our not so great driving!

After our ride we headed out of SWL and over to TSL. Our goal was to ride Slinky, however when we arrived we found it was down, and there was a long line waiting for it to open. So instead we headed over to TSM, which was posted at a 25 minute wait, and took just about that, maybe a hair less.

Once again I beat my mom, yay! It was a tough win though, she was beating me for most of the ride, it wasn’t until the fast shooting at the end that I pulled ahead. I hate that I always have a much higher accuracy score than her, yet she always is winning up until the fast shooting part. How does that work!?!?

After TSM, we checked on Slinky, and found it was running again! The posted wait was 20 minutes, but there was a CM standing at the entrance warning people the wait was closer to 80 minutes. We didn’t believe him, and it was good we didn’t since the wait only took 11 minutes!



Love that ride! Yes, you may have noticed the gopro on my hand, I do have a video of the ride, I'm just being slow uploading everything so I'll post that later!

When we got off the posted wait time had jumped up to 80 minutes….but the line looked shorter than when we rode, so it seems they were really inflating the wait time! Even though we didn’t believe the posted wait time, we opted to ride AS2 instead where we had no wait at all!

After AS2, we headed back to SWL to explore some more and get some photopass pictures!















While exploring, we ended up on the elevated area looking over the MF. While there, a CM came up to us and told us they were about to start a brand new photopass picture up there, and there was one family ahead of us, but we could be the second group ever to get that shot! Of course we went for it!



You may recognize this as the picture in the intro...probably easier to find us now that you see what we're wearing! In case you missed us, here's the close-up!



We wrapped up our exploring around 8:30 and were ready for some rest, so headed out of the park. Of course we stopped for pictures on the way out!





This picture makes me laugh. The photographer told us to turn around, and on the count of 3 pose any way we wanted to. I did the ta-da!!!! pose, and my mom did the monster, but they are close enough it looks like one of is very very confused! HA!

It was nice leaving before the crowds came in, there was a massive crowd waiting when we left around 8:30!

NEXT UP: Another Round of Food Booths! ​

 

[jrmint427]

This sounds like a productive morning! We skipped GE on our trip so I enjoy seeing all the pictures.

The posted wait was 20 minutes, but there was a CM standing at the entrance warning people the wait was closer to 80 minutes. We didn’t believe him, and it was good we didn’t since the wait only took 11 minutes!

I feel like they always do this to try to prevent the line from ballooning too quickly after a ride has been down! I’ve learned not to trust CMs in these moments haha.

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

. Well, I got a bit too into the VR, and ended up whacking my mom with my hand while I was looking around, sorry mom!!

Ha! At least it was your mom and not a stranger.

My first stop was the Leopard booth, where I picked up the grilled lamb for my mom, then I went over to the Lion booth to get the steak for myself.

These look amazing!

The next trip up I picked up the shrimp curry, and once again, I got the lamb for my mom. The CM at the leopard station thought it was hilarious that I was back yet again. Yes, my mom REALLY likes lamb!

This also looks really tasty. I am impressed with the food for this!

and the Lion S’more pop for my mom.

Wow! All 3 of those pops looked amazing as well!

We slowly made our way out of the park, on the way we saw a photopass photographer with no line, so quickly got our pictures! Apparently we left the event with fairly full drinks...

You also look a little extra happy! A good night!

After TSM, we checked on Slinky, and found it was running again! The posted wait was 20 minutes, but there was a CM standing at the entrance warning people the wait was closer to 80 minutes. We didn’t believe him, and it was good we didn’t since the wait only took 11 minutes!

I saw them do this with TSM at rope drop one morning. Literally as we were walking into the standby que at 9:00 am on the dot they upped the time to 90 mintures but we walked through in 10. But I am sure by the time the masses got to the ride it would be that.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Always love your reports! I've only read through Epcot Forever and will come back later to catch up. I also saw the premiere and had VERY similar thoughts. I loved Illuminations so much it is possibly I was predisposed to not like anything that wasn't Illuminations. But it just doesn't have the same feel. I miss the blowing out of the torches. I miss the music. And I HATE the kids singing and the mishmash of songs. It just seems (to me) that the spirit of EPCOT Center was lost. On the bright side, however, my dinner possibilities have busted wide open since in the past I've always tried for a minimum of 2-3 dinners per trip in World Showcase to see Illuminations and now I don't need to do that.

 

[annie170]

I always enjoy your reports, so I'm glad I found this! Glad to see your mom is doing better.

Those photo pass pictures in GE are really cool! I haven't seen those before.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

The Circle of Flavors event looks like a lot of fun! I looked into booking it but it looks like the last night is October 23- the night before our trip!

Those photopass shots in SWGE are so cool! I need them all!

 

[missangelalexis]

Such a productive morning get to experience SWGE & TSL!! Sounds like it was a lot of fun!

 

[Cloe Colton]

What a great morning! Awesome that you got all of the cool pp shots! DH and I really wanted the 360 one but it was down during our trip!

 

[VAtink]

This sounds like a productive morning! We skipped GE on our trip so I enjoy seeing all the pictures.

It was such a productive morning, I wish they would keep EEMH around for longer!

I feel like they always do this to try to prevent the line from ballooning too quickly after a ride has been down! I’ve learned not to trust CMs in these moments haha.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I can't believe how much he inflated the wait time though, it was 8 times less than he quoted...that's nuts!