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

Our first stop was France where my mom got the escargot croissant.
Oh yum

Beautiful

So far a great start to the night, we managed to get 5 rides in plus watch the fireworks all before the event even started!
Awesome

Looks and sounds great. Someday I hope to get to this tea

The Dom Perignon, well, it was ok. I wanted to try it simply because I will never be able to bring myself to buy a bottle of it, I am more of a Trader Joe’s $6 bottle kind of girl. Glad I got to try some, but really nothing special.
I have had several bottles and will say that 1990 vintages were the best ( my first taste was NYE of 2000, anything since 2000 hasn't been as good. Plus I know there are several years that they did not produce Dom Perignon because the grapes weren't up to their quality.



Love this one with Remy!
Me too

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!
Yay what good luck

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.
I have a feeling you weren't the only one to complain, and they listened.
 
Day 7, Part 6: Party for the Senses, Part 2

Once the doors were opened to all the guests, the room filled up quickly. We were glad we were able to get a few dishes before the mob came!

After enjoying our first dishes, I headed back out to pick up some more food!

Now I didn’t jot down what each thing was, but I did try something from each booth, but looking at the pictures I can’t quite figure out what everything was. So I’m going to do my best to match the pictures to the description on the menu, but if anyone notices I got something wrong please let me know! Some of the pictures don’t look like any of the menu items so I’m a bit stumped! HA!

The next dish I picked up was the Warm Celery Root with crackling mushroom and mustard sauce. Now here is one where the picture looks nothing like the description, but I know I tried the celery root after my first round of food, and this was the next picture on my phone….so I guess it is it?



I know celery root isn't for everyone, but I love it. I discovered it about two years ago when I saw it in Whole Foods and decided to randomly buy it. Of course then I got home and had to figure out what to do with it, and it turns out that mashed celery root makes a great healthy substitute for mashed potatoes! Has a mild celery taste to it, but I really enjoy it. Anyways, I found the dish here to be just as yummy, and I loved the accompaniments.

Next up was the Skirt Steak (left) and also the Pan Seared Bison (I think).



When I got back to the table I was surprised to find some martinis had arrived! Apparently when I was off picking up food my mom ordered them from our waitress. She got a raspberry and a chocolate and let me pick one, so I opted for chocolate, yum!



We had noticed that Chef Morimoto was out meeting guests that evening, and my mom LOVES meeting chefs, so she asked if I would mind if we went to go meet him. Of course I wouldn’t mind! So we made over to his booth where there was a short line of guests waiting to meet him, and in no time it was our turn!



It was cool meeting him, my mom was gushing about it, but I thought our interaction meeting Chef Chauhan at the Burger Block Party was more fun since she really interacted with us. Still great to meet him though!

Up Next: PFTS, Part 3!

 
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My mom absolutely loved this dish!

Beautiful

It was so cool seeing the rainbow, it was huge!

Looks and sounds great. Someday I hope to get to this tea

Definitely recommend it! The sandwiches were amazingly tasty, and the tea was fantastic. Plus I like some mid-day champagne :drinking1

I have had several bottles and will say that 1990 vintages were the best ( my first taste was NYE of 2000, anything since 2000 hasn't been as good. Plus I know there are several years that they did not produce Dom Perignon because the grapes weren't up to their quality.

Interesting! Maybe I'll have to try a pre-2000 bottle, might change my mind!

I have a feeling you weren't the only one to complain, and they listened.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they got 100s of complaints, it was such a mess last year! So impressed with the set up this year though! They did a great job fixing last years issues.
 
Day 7, Part 7: Party for the Senses, Part 3!

After meeting Chef Morimoto I just HAD to pick up his dish, so grabbed the Peking Duck Ramen.



I love how unique his presentations are, both this year and last year his dish was served in something other than a standard plate.

I also picked up the Cape Canaveral Royal Red Shrimp Annatto.



This was SO good.

I took a bit of a break from eating after the shrimp to watch the show and digest a bit.


The act this year was Femmes of Rock, and they were awesome! If we played music like that back in band in middle school I may have actually kept up with playing!

After a short break from stuffing my face, I headed back out to the booths for more yumminess! My next dish I believe was the Lamb Tagine. I know I had it, and I believe this is a picture of it...



Somehow, I still had room for more food after this, so went out yet again to pick up more food. My next dishes were the Scallopini of Striped Bass and the Braised House-made Parmesan Fennel Sausage (I think)



I don’t remember the sausage too much, but I do remember I loved the bass!

I was finally starting to feel full at that point, but there were two dishes left that I wanted to try, so I headed out again to pick up the Wild Boar Tenderloin and the Lobster and Corn Potsticker.





While we were enjoying our food out waitress came over to check in on us and see if there was anything we needed. So we chatted with her a bit about how it was a shame that Illuminations was at 9:00 that evening and this event went until 9:30 since we would have loved to have seen it. She agreed it was too bad that we would miss it if we stayed for the whole event.

Well, 9:00 comes and goes and I notice that I didn’t hear any fireworks. So when our waitress stopped by next I inquired about the lack of fireworks, and she informed me that they pushed Illuminations back to 10:00 so people at the party could view them! Now, I’m not convinced that’s the real reason they pushed them back an hour, but it was definitely appreciated! We also confirmed with our waitress that even with the later fireworks we could still catch a Minnie-Van back to the resort, and she confirmed that as long as we were back by 10:15 we could get our car. Perfect!

Next Up: PFTS, Part 4! Plus that time we accidentally broke into the backstage area.

 
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Sounds like the party was going awesome! So many yummy looking dishes. And that's great that you'd still be able to see Illuminations!
 
I'm glad Disney fixed the issues you had with last year's party. It's good to know someone actually read the email and acted upon it. Also, good for you and your mom to go back this year and give it another chance. Many people would not have done that.

Most of the food there looks absolutely drool worthy! Are you planning on attending next year?

You were living right with Illuminations getting moved back an hour.
 
Sounds like the party was going awesome! So many yummy looking dishes. And that's great that you'd still be able to see Illuminations!

It was such a great party this year, the food was amazing! Definitely one of my favorite Disney events I've been to. We were SO happy we'd be able to see Illuminations too, we weren't sure if it would still be around for our next trip, so we really wanted to catch them at least one more time!
 


I'm glad Disney fixed the issues you had with last year's party. It's good to know someone actually read the email and acted upon it. Also, good for you and your mom to go back this year and give it another chance. Many people would not have done that.

We are too, it was impressive how well they ran things this year, so much better than last!

Most of the food there looks absolutely drool worthy! Are you planning on attending next year?

The food was amazing! We want to go again next year, but we're going a different week so I'm afraid it won't be offered, but who knows, maybe we'll experience a little Disney magic and they'll offer it on our weekend!

You were living right with Illuminations getting moved back an hour.

Oh I know, I'm still so upset it's going away! I really hope it's still around for our trip this coming September so we can see it one more time!
 
Day 7, Part 8: PFTS, Part 4! Also, that time we accidentally broke into the backstage area.

After a bit of a break from the food, we decided it was time for some dessert!

They had some really awesome looking desserts this year, unfortunately I was so full though I only tried a few items.



I have no idea what this is, but it looked cool and tasted great!

I also picked up the Luciano Spritz to enjoy with my dessert.



Around 9:20 I ordered my last glass of wine. According to the waitress, they wanted to finish the bottle, so I got a very uncharacteristic Disney pour!



The event officially ended at 9:30, but we stayed and finished our drinks for another 15 minutes. While finishing our drinks, our waitress brought out our gift bag! This year was really nice, better than last year. We got the usual wine glass (plus the wine glass toggle thingy from our lanyard), plus a box of chocolate from the ganachery, some tea, and a really cute trivet!



Once we wrapped up our drinks, we slowly made our way out of World Showplace to catch Illuminations. We didn’t want to walk too far so we would have time afterwards to get back to catch the Minnie Van, so ended up standing back behind the handicap area to watch. The trees were in the way a bit, but we’ve seen this show so many times it didn’t bother us.

We realized this could be our last time viewing Illuminations! I actually started to tear up during it this evening, it has been my favorite fireworks show for years, I just adore the music, and ugh, it gives me the feels. So yeah, I cried. I’m not sure when it happened, but I have officially become that person who cries at all Disney fireworks!

giphy.gif


I took this video to document what I thought would be our last Illuminations. Please ignore the unsteady camera and the trees in the way! I like to ignore the video and just listen to the music.


Ugh, still makes me cry watching that. I can’t imagine an Epcot without Illuminations! The next show better have some amazing original music and not just songs from movies!

Once the fireworks wrapped up, we headed directly behind us to World Showplace, only to find the big wood doors had been closed! WHAT!?!? There were a few other people who arrived around the same time also expecting Minnie vans who were just as confused.

Then, my favorite chef from the event showed up! Chef Huda, who funny enough is from the DC area as well and is just across the river from me, showed up also looking to get back in for her car! This woman was awesome, and decided to just go right in through the CM only door! HA!

My mom, perhaps slightly drunk, followed her! Oh goodness.

Of course I had to follow my mom back there. I fully expected to be kicked out and be banned for life for doing this.

We snuck back to the entrance of the building, and were shocked to see CM’s already breaking down everything from the event! Amazing to see how quickly they work. I would love if they had a tour that just went over operational things, such a well-oiled machine!

Anywho, the chef and my mom got busy trying to find someone to help us. Most of the CM’s had no idea what we were talking about, but finally one went inside to grab a manager. The manager eventually came back and informed us that our waitress and the CM’s we spoke with at the beginning of the event were wrong, and the Minnie van service stopped running at 10:00! Um, they specifically told us the service would run until after the fireworks….but then we remembered the fireworks were pushed back an hour and figured they never updated the Minnie vans for this! Oh well, at least we were a quick 7 minute walk from our room! (yeah yeah, first world problems, I know). I do feel bad for the people who were staying at resorts further away though, I would have been so mad!

On the bright side, I got this cool picture of the PFTS sign while waiting for my mom and the chef to find a CM who knew something about the Minnie vans!



So we finally slowly made our way out of the park and back to our room for our last night sleep in our happy place.

 
Sounds like a nice end to the night! I totally understand getting emotional, Disney tends to do that!

Ah what an annoying situation about the vans! But it made for a good story I guess and luckily you didn't have too far to travel!
 
Once the fireworks wrapped up, we headed directly behind us to World Showplace, only to find the big wood doors had been closed! WHAT!?!? There were a few other people who arrived around the same time also expecting Minnie vans who were just as confused.

Then, my favorite chef from the event showed up! Chef Huda, who funny enough is from the DC area as well and is just across the river from me, showed up also looking to get back in for her car! This woman was awesome, and decided to just go right in through the CM only door! HA!

My mom, perhaps slightly drunk, followed her! Oh goodness.

Of course I had to follow my mom back there. I fully expected to be kicked out and be banned for life for doing this.

We snuck back to the entrance of the building, and were shocked to see CM’s already breaking down everything from the event! Amazing to see how quickly they work. I would love if they had a tour that just went over operational things, such a well-oiled machine!

Anywho, the chef and my mom got busy trying to find someone to help us. Most of the CM’s had no idea what we were talking about, but finally one went inside to grab a manager. The manager eventually came back and informed us that our waitress and the CM’s we spoke with at the beginning of the event were wrong, and the Minnie van service stopped running at 10:00! Um, they specifically told us the service would run until after the fireworks….but then we remembered the fireworks were pushed back an hour and figured they never updated the Minnie vans for this! Oh well, at least we were a quick 7 minute walk from our room! (yeah yeah, first world problems, I know). I do feel bad for the people who were staying at resorts further away though, I would have been so mad!

On the bright side, I got this cool picture of the PFTS sign while waiting for my mom and the chef to find a CM who knew something about the Minnie vans!
Yeah, that seems like they really should have made things right and gotten you a minnie van anyways!
 
Sounds like a nice end to the night! I totally understand getting emotional, Disney tends to do that!

Yeah, it's odd, I never used to get emotional for fireworks, but the past few years I can't help but to cry!

Ah what an annoying situation about the vans! But it made for a good story I guess and luckily you didn't have too far to travel!

We were so lucky we were at the BC and could easily walk back to our room. If we were somewhere like AKL we would have been so upset we couldn't get a car!
 
Mini Pre-Trip Report!

Alright, going to wrap this TR up soon, but had to stop by with a mini pre-trip report interjection. Specifically the annoying morning I had trying to make dining reservations.

So this September we decided to only book 4 ADRs, and not hard ones to get, so I figured this morning would be a breeze. It started off pretty easy, and in fact, it let me start making reservations when I first signed on at 6:30 this morning, so it was nice I didn't have to wait until 7:00! Although annoying I was up so early on a Saturday, especially since today is actually 179 days from the start of our trip, but because of the split stay I got to do this twice!

Got my first reservation no problem, but then I tried to make reservations for the FotLK package. We wanted to go on September 29th, that's where it fit best in our schedule. Well, the package as of right now ends on September 28th! HA! Figures it ends the day before we want to go. So I decided to book it for the 28th and mess with our schedule later.

For the last reservation I had to call since it was for the Illuminations dining package and they seem to really limit the number of 2 person tables since only reservations for 3+ were available for this trip (and we're going for more than a week!). I had read over in the dining forums though that people just called and the CM on the phone was able to get them the table for 2, so that's what I did, or tried to do.

The woman I spoke with on the phone was nice enough, but she also found she could only make a reservation for 3 or more, not for 2. So she ended up booking for 3, with one as an infant so we wouldn't have to pay, and said she would then remove the 3rd person after it was booked. Well, before she had the chance to cancel the 3rd person, she hung up on me!

I figured it wasn't a big deal, I know how to modify the reservations on my own anyways, I could do that later. So I decided to spend some time messing with our schedule to fit in our new FotLK package. Turns out, moving it made our schedule not exactly ideal, and I realized it would interfere with the French breakfast F&W event we wanted to do this year. Ugh. I tried to move other things around in our schedule to see if I could move the reservation to even earlier in the trip, but with my mom arriving later in the trip than me this year of course the only day it worked was the day before she arrived. Seriously, trying to work out a Disney schedule can be a huge pain sometimes!

I needed time to think about this schedule now, so decided to take a break and modify the Illuminations dining package reservation down to 2. Now I've done this many times before, I've found time and time again if I can't find a reservation for 2, to look for a reservation for 3+ and many times one will show up, and it's super easy to modify it back down to 2 once you get it booked. Welp, it's normally super easy I should say. Today it wouldn't let me at all. I could add people, but not subtract!

So I find myself on the phone once again with Disney to see if they can do it. The first CM I spoke with tried but also couldn't get it to modify, so she ended up calling guest services to see if they could do something. After about 10 minutes on hold, the CM comes back to inform me that nope, no one can seem to get the reservation modified! HA! Now, I know this isn't a huge deal, but still annoying!

One interesting tid-bit, the second CM I spoke with asked if we were celebrating anything that evening with the dining package, and I joked that we were possibly celebrating a new fireworks show, and she said it would be! Eek! I was just joking, and was really hoping that it would still be Illuminations, but if this CM was actually in the know, it sounds like Illuminations will be gone before the end of September! (fingers crossed she was also just joking)

So in the end, not all horrible, we ended up getting most of what we wanted, and now have a infant named little Bobby (after my dad) "joining" us for our Illuminations dining package which my mom found to be pretty hilarious. Just have to keep watching to see if the FotLK package opens up for the day we want, and then we are golden! Just hope it's not an issue when we show up at Rose and Crown without a kid!

Alright, thanks for letting me rant about my morning, more fun pre-trip excitement will be coming up shortly, along with the rest of this TR!
 
Good grief! What an ordeal! I agree that Disney planning can be a pain. It's amazing when you think about how much time you spend planning a trip to Disney. I think back to the 80's and 90's when we could make reservations the same day, didn't have fast passes and could kind of wing it through the parks. Those days are long gone!

On a positive note, it sounds like you have a great trip coming up!
 
So frustrating that Disney can't make dining reservations easier! I have two things I need to book that currently end in June and one for Cali Grill brunch that I haven't been able to snag. I feel your frustrations!

I don't think you'll have an issue being a group of 2 instead of 3, probably just if it was for 1 person and you had 2!
 
Just read all of your report - loved it! Looks like we will be there the same time this year! We will be staying at the Beach Club and I absolutely cannot wait!!
 
Pre-TR - Part 2!

Well, we did it, we figured out a way to make our schedule work!


After the ADR drama we had a lot of deep conversations about what we really wanted to do this trip, and what we could eliminate, what could be moved, and basically how would we completely change around our perfectly designed schedule.

Ok, I know, first world problem, and we are still just under 6 months out so plenty of time to change, but I know there are some of you out there like us who get the planning bug and put a lot of effort into making a perfect schedule BEFORE booking ADRs so we know where everything fits! So to make these changes afterwards is a bit annoying! But we figured it out!

So we ended up removing the F&W French breakfast event and left the FotLK package for that Saturday. We’re already left room in our schedule for other F&W events based on when they were offered in past years, so we figured we probably have enough already this year – until of course Disney releases the F&W schedule and nothing is the same days as last year and we have to change our schedule again! (Seriously Disney, please don’t do that!!!!)

The fun thing about moving the FotLK to Saturday is it completely opened up our Sunday! We debated a bit what we wanted to do during this time. We could pop over to Epcot around 10:30 to pick up some food booth items before the crowds pick up, but it does fill up fast so that would be a quick in and out. Our plans are to do HS that evening since we want to see TSL with the lights on, and we don’t really feel the need to be there for a full day so we decided against going there. Since Saturday is now a full day at AK, we figured two days in a row may be a bit much, and we’d be heading over to MK the following day so didn’t feel like we had to do that two days in a row either! Somehow, we actually found ourselves with nothing to do at Disney! What!

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But then I had a fantastic idea! What about a relaxing day hanging out at the pool….and more specifically, the brand new cabanas! We decided that it sounded perfect, especially after such a long day on Saturday (we typically don’t do a FULL park day, usually just a morning park, rest, then an evening park). So we are booked for a cabana now for that morning! I’m so excited to check these out! Plus we’ve noticed that while during the week in September there were plenty of chairs available at Stormalong bay, the weekends filled up fast, so it would be nice not having to worry about getting chairs!

So happy we got it all figured out! Now just need for Disney to release the info about the F&W special events so we can get those figured out! I guess first they should also release the dates….it is taking them forever this year!
 
Good grief! What an ordeal! I agree that Disney planning can be a pain. It's amazing when you think about how much time you spend planning a trip to Disney. I think back to the 80's and 90's when we could make reservations the same day, didn't have fast passes and could kind of wing it through the parks. Those days are long gone!

On a positive note, it sounds like you have a great trip coming up!

Haha, we talk a lot about how different our trips in the 90s were! It was so easy to just show up and have a great time! Although my mom, who is always on top of things, always made our ADRs super far in advance even back then!

Thanks, we're so excited about this trip, trying to do some new things yet also trying to have a less hectic trip than this past year. Lots of down time planned for this year!
 

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