It’s Disney, Four Hours of Sleep is Normal! Mother Daughter 2018 F&W TR! (Updated 9/22!)

Day 7, Part 3: Final Stretch of Food Booths! Part 1

After a great chat with the CM’s while picking up our PFTS credentials, we made our way over to our next food booth.

On the way over we hit up the PP photographers.







Love this one with Remy!

After our photo shoot, our first food booth stop was Brazil where I got the pork belly. The flavors were really good, but it was supper fatty and I hate that texture, so this was a miss for me.



Out next stop was Hops and Barley where I got the beer flight.



Notice how the beer names are handwritten on the cardboard? Yup, another booth that had run out of the cards! I chatted with the CM there for a bit and she mentioned she had spent hours handwriting the beers on each holder! I felt bad for her, but also loved that she did that, it’s nice to know which beer is which!

We found a picnic table in the shade there and split the beer flight. It was still relatively uncrowded at that point which surprised us being a Saturday at Food and Wine!

Once we finished the beer flight, we made our way over to Germany where I got a glass of one of the Rieslings.

It was good, and surprising. All the Rieslings I’ve tried have been very sweet, but this one wasn’t at all, which I actually really enjoyed!



Next up was the Brewers collection, where I got the Pomegranate beer. Now, I’ve gotten this a few times before, and I love it. I’m a huge fan of their grapefruit beer too!



Also, note to self, don’t save all the food booths that only have drink items you want for the very last day! So much drinking.

Next up: Final Stretch of Food Booths! Part 2

 
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You got some really cute PP pics with your mom this trip! I love when the photographers take their time to get good shots.

That poor CM that had to handwrite all the beer flights! Hopefully they got the cards in soon.

Looking forward to reading about PFTS!
 


You got some really cute PP pics with your mom this trip! I love when the photographers take their time to get good shots.

Thanks! Me too, I love when they try different angles and poses and really seem to care about getting the perfect shot!

That poor CM that had to handwrite all the beer flights! Hopefully they got the cards in soon.

Haha, I know, I can't believe she actually did that! Still surprised how many booths had run out of the cards this trip too.

Looking forward to reading about PFTS!

I'm looking forward to writing it! Haha! I'm still trying to match the pictures to the food items...somehow there seem to be more pictures than foods we tried. Hope to get through this soon!
 
Day 7, Part 4: Final stretch of Food Booths! Part 2!

Not surprising, our next stop also was for a drink. It was India where I got the chenin blanc.



Finally, it was time to stop at a booth for some food! Ugh, vacations are so unhealthy.

We stopped at Thailand where I got the beef dish and the white wine.



The beef was amazing, and was perfectly spicy.

We finished up at Thailand, and I applied the sticker to my passport, and we were DONE! It only took three years, I finally had something from each booth.

By the time we wrapped up, it was a bit before 12:30, and the weekend crowds had arrived, so we made our way to IG and back to the BC for some quality pool time! We hung out at the pool for a while, and while there I ordered THE drink of the BC/YC….the sunken treasure!


(finishing up the sunken treasure on our balcony)

After a fantastic and very refreshing dip in the pool we headed back to the room to rest up for our big party that evening.

While my mom was napping, I couldn’t stop thinking about how I missed such an awesome opportunity not booking the Minnie Van by the deadline to take us to PFTS that night. Now, one thing I usually hate to do, which I really need to get over, is asking for what I want. Well, I figured this would be a good place to start, so I found the email they had sent and responded asking if there was any way we could possibly still be booked for a Minnie Van that evening for the event.

I fully expected them to respond that it was past the deadline and it was too late, so I was shocked when my phone started to ring and it was a 407 number. I answered and it was one of the event organizers!

I explained to her that I totally understood if it’s too late to schedule one, we just didn’t realize until that morning that the van dropped us off at World Showplace rather than the front of the park, but she was beyond nice and said she thought she could make it work and asked what time we would want to be picked up. So I told her 5:50, figured that would be more than enough time to pop next door! And lucky day, she confirmed they would be able to send a car for us at that time!

Thank you awesome CM!!
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After the afternoon excitement, it was time for my own nap!

Next Up: Party for the Senses, Part 1!

 
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How awesome that they could still get you a Minnie Van! My philosophy is that it never hurts to ask because all they can say is no! So good for you!
 
Day 7, Part 5: Party for the Senses, Part 1!

After a nice relaxing afternoon chilling in the room, we started getting ready for our special evening around 5:00. At 5:40 my phone rang from another 407 number, and my first thought was Disney was calling to cancel our Minnie Van! Ha, what on earth is wrong with my brain?!?

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It was actually our Minnie Van driver, Monica, calling. She told me she arrived early just in case, but we didn’t need to rush, she would be downstairs waiting. So nice!

We made our way downstairs around 5:45, and easily found Monica. We had a great chat with her about the requirements to become a Minnie Van driver, and she talked a lot about her previous rolls as a CM. Favorite part, apparently they like to call Bob Iger “uncle Bob” hehe.

It didn’t take long to get to Epcot, we entered the backstage area where we pulled over and got out to go through security. There was one Minnie Van that had gotten there before us, and woah, talk about fancy. The women looked like they were going to the Met Gala, not a Disney event! Beautiful dresses, but my goodness I would have felt overdressed in those outfits!

The security went quick, they did the normal bag check then did the metal detector wand on us.

Once we cleared the backstage security, we hopped back into the Minnie Van and got a nice backstage “tour” around the park. It was cool to see the Ratatouille building up close, they were just starting to put the façade on at that point!

We eventually made it to the backstage area next to the World Showplace, where we got out. We were immediately met by another CM who verified our names and handed us off to yet another CM to lead us onstage.

We entered on a red carpet, nice touch Disney. Suddenly the Met Gala guests didn’t seem so out of place!

Once we got onstage, there was a table set up with two more CM’s, who once again took our name and verified we were WVL guests. (I guess they had a surplus of CM’s that day…)

Anyways, once they checked off our names again, they directed us to the door and told us we could wait inside in the AC until the event started.

We made our way inside, and it was set up similar to the Rockin’ Burger Block Party from two years prior where they had a queue inside for people to wait. This was welcome as it was so hot outside. Last year they had us wait out in the heat and it was miserable.

There was a CM at the front of the queue holding us back from entering the main room. My mom and I were the first in line so chatted with her for a bit.

Then, at 6:11, another CM came over to tell the one holding the line back that they were ready, so we filed into the event! We went around the curtain and were met with more CM’s, this time there to lead us to our seats. So much better than last year where we had to wander around trying to find them ourselves!

Side note, I wrote Disney a rather scathing review after last years PFTS, and every single thing I had issues with Disney fixed for this year. It was amazing. Very impressed.

Anyways, we were led to our table, which was already set up with a welcome drink and our first plate. The first plate was a deconstructed salmon roll, and it was amazing!





The drink was, well, blue. Haha! The MC had us try to guess what the flavor was. I got it immediately, cotton candy! My mom disagreed. Haha. Turns out I was correct. The drink was ok, but a bit too sweet for me. I much preferred the champagne welcome from last year.

Another change this year from last, instead of have two WVL areas on either side of the dance floor, it was one large area in front of the stage. We found this to work out much better. Last year it was sometimes tricky getting in and out of the area when carrying plates when there is drunk dancing going on!

Yet another change this year from last, they brought the WVL bar out from backstage. Plus our waitress was much more attentive and stopped by often to run up to get us drinks as well. Overall, a much better experience than last year!

One downside though, when we were let in, most of the booths around the room weren’t ready to serve food yet! That was a bit of a bummer since the nice thing about getting in early is being able to stop by multiple booths to pick up food before the masses are let in. So instead of grabbing food in the 40ish minutes we had before everyone was let in, we spent most of the time just wandering around looking at the menus.

The booths did start serving just before everyone else was let in, but it did seem like a bit of a waste of time. Although, during that time they did bring all the chef’s up on stage to introduce each one!



I was able to pick up two dishes and bring them back to the table before they opened the doors for everyone at 6:50.



One the right is Chef Huda’s signature jerk chicken mac and cheese. This was AMAZING! Fun note, her restaurant is actually local to the DC area….so one of these days I’m going to have to take a trip over there to check it out!

The other dish I believe is the braised short ribs in a blanket from Chef Daniel Joly.

Up next: More food at PFTS!

 
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Oh my gosh, this looks like something from the Food Network or Top Chef... very nice! :)



 
How awesome that they could still get you a Minnie Van! My philosophy is that it never hurts to ask because all they can say is no! So good for you!

I know, I was so happy it worked out! I really do need to get better at asking for things, you are so right, all they can say is no!
 
Sounds like a great start! All the dishes so far look so good!

It was such a great start to the event! The food was amazing, going through all my pictures from the event it making me so hungry! I'm bummed we're going a different week this September so likely won't be able to attend this, but who knows, maybe Disney will add extra evenings!
 
So, so, SO happy to hear that the issues from the 2017 PFTS were resolved. I just may have to give it another try this year.
 
So, so, SO happy to hear that the issues from the 2017 PFTS were resolved. I just may have to give it another try this year.

Haha, you and me both! I was hesitant to try it again this year, but we decided to give it one more shot, so glad we did! It was so well run this time around! I hope to be able to go this coming September, but we're going a different week so I'm afraid we'll miss it. Oh well, more $$ for food booths and other F&W events I guess!
 

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