The water may be fake, but the wine is real! Mother Daughter 2017 F&W Trip!!! (Updated 5/27!)

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May 5, 2013
Welcome everyone to my latest trip report! This one was a trip down to Disney World for our favorite event of the year, Food and Wine! Yay! We went to our first F&W last year, and loved it so much that we decided to make it a yearly tradition for a mother daughter trip. This time around we stayed for full week, no idea how I convinced my mom to agree to that, but it ended up being the perfect amount of time for us. We managed to get some serious downtime in along with the usual crazy running around!

This year we decided to book the Tequila lunch again, we did it last year and loved it so much we wanted to do it again. New this year, we booked the Party for the Senses with the Wine View Lounge seating. We had done the Burger Block Party last year and loooooved it, and since that didn’t return this year, we decided to try the Party for the Senses instead.

Alright, enough of the preview, let’s get the introductions over with so we can get into the report, and more importantly the food!

First up, my favorite travel partner and fellow wine lover, my mom!



Then of course there is me, Debbie!



If you have read any of my previous trip reports you would have noticed that my mom and I are obsessed with Splash Mountain. So we were very very sad it was closed this trip, hence my picture. It's ok though, we found plenty of other adventures to experience to almost make up for missing out on our favorite attraction!

Next up…Day 1!!!
 
TOC:

Day 1, September 18

Part 1: It's Travel Time!

Part 2: All Byyyyy Myself
Part 3: It's Character Time!
Part 4: F&W Three Times in One Day!

Day 2, September 19


Part 1: It's Picture Time!
Part 2: We Finally Made it to a Ride!
Part 3: Food Booths are OPEN!
Part 4: Boo to You! (And big boo to Disney buses!)
Part 5: It's Starting to Feel Like Halloween!
Part 6: We finally Meet the Ducks!
Part 7: Dessert and Happy Hallowishes!
Part 8: We Get Competitive!

Day 3, September 20

Part 1: Well That Was an Unexpected Wake Up!
Part 2: More Food Booths!
Part 3: We Finally Experience Pandora!
Part 4: Animals Everywhere!
Part 5: We Try Tiffins again!
Part 6: Sunset Safari and Pandora at Night!

Day 4, September 21

Part 1: The Most Relaxing Morning!

Part 2: Did Someone Say Tequila?
Part 3: Back to the Food Booths!
Part 4: We Do Something We Haven't Done Since the 90s!
Part 5: Our Favorite Night Activity!

Day 5, September 22

Part 1: Quick, to the People Mover!
Part 2: Can't They Open it Just for Us?
Part 3: It's an Ice Cream Kind of Morning!
Part 4: A Surprise Proposal!
Part 5: I Think we Just Melted
Part 6: We Need a Second Lunch!
Part 7: A Much Needed Low Key Night

Day 6, September 23

Part 1: Another Day with the Animals!

Part 2: How Many Rides Can We do in an Hour?
Part 3: Lions and Tiger and Rude Teenagers!
Part 4: It's a Giraffe...sitting down!
Part 5: Yup, FOP is as Amazing as They Say!
Part 6: We're Here for the Party!
Part 7: So Much Food!
Part 8: More Food!
Part 9: Seriously, Even More Food!
 
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Day 1, Part 1: It’s travel time!

After what seemed like FOREVER waiting for our Food and Wine trip, it was finally here! Since my mom teaches and can’t really take days off, we once again worked the trip around her work schedule. Fortunately, the way the holidays and her work schedule worked out this year, we were able to book a full week! Unfortunately, she taught on Monday, so couldn’t take a flight until after her class. Since I didn’t have any restraints on my travel plans, I decided to take a morning flight out and enjoy some Disney time by myself while waiting for my mom to arrive.

My flight was at 9:30ish, early enough to get down there with enough time to enjoy the parks, but not so early I had to wake up obnoxiously early. Yay for sleeping in on the first day of vacation! I really love my sleep.

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HA! I feel ya little furball.

Usually I get to the airport fairly late, the security at DCA is super fast and I’ve never had much of a wait. This trip though I was completely breaking tradition and headed over to the airport waaay early since I was also doing something else very strange…I actually checked a bag for once! I realized after the past two trips where it was a struggle to pack my bags at the end of the trip, and with extra days this trip we would desperately need the extra space!

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Basically me every time I pack...

My mom loved the idea since now I could schlep the ponchos down and she didn’t need to try to find space for them!

So I ended up getting to the airport 1.5 hours before my flight so I could deal with checking my bag…it’s been so long since I’ve done it I had no idea what kind of lines to expect! HA! Turns out, there was no line. I had a great conversation with the JetBlue agent about how I was on my way to meet Mickey, it felt like the Disney Magic was already starting!

It took a hot second to get my tags and drop my bag off, then I headed down to security and breezed right through as always. I arrived at my gate with over an hour to spare. I decided to spend the time going through our list of food my mom and I wanted to try. That was a mistake, by the time we boarded the plan my stomach was seriously growling!

Soon it was almost time to board! I purchased the even more space seats so was one of the first groups to board, so I gathered my stuff and waited for the boarding process to begin. But then suddenly, the gate agent closed the door! What?!?! Uh oh, was my flying bad luck about to strike again?

Yes, yes it was. Oh fail.

The agent announced there was something wrong with the plane and they would update us in 30 minutes. Nooooo!
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Fortunately, the fix didn’t take horribly long, we ended up taking off around 10:30. The flight from DC is pretty short, it was about an hour and 45 minutes on the way down and we landed right at 12:14. I made a point to note how long it took to get through the airport and to ME, and then how long to get to the YC so later in the day when my mom arrived I could be downstairs in the lobby waiting for her at the right time.

We ended up pulling into the YC right at 1:35, so about an hour and 20 minutes from landing to front door, not bad at all! It was so great to finally be home! I was the first off the bus and headed straight to the lobby to see our room was ready. Lucky day, it was!

We were in room 4116, which was a nice location. It was soooo quiet back there, but the view was kind of, lacking. We basically looked out into a tree. I guess we did book a garden view, and a tree is part of a garden? Haha. Definitely not quite as nice as our view from the trip in May, but we don’t spend too much time in the room so it wasn’t a big deal.

The only thing about the room we didn’t like was since it was a smaller room, they didn’t have the barn door separating the vanity area from the rest of the room which we ended up really missing. That extra bit of privacy was so nice on our trip in May!


No barn door :(

I quickly freshened up, then headed out to experience my first taste of Food and Wine!!!
 
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Day 1, Part 2: All byyyyyy myself!!!

After a quick change and brush of the hair, I set out on an adventure over to Epcot! It was finally time to start trying out the food!

I made it over there right around 2:00. There was no one in line for security so I breezed right through. I was finally there! Normally if I was with my mom, we would have stopped and taken a bunch of pictures of each other as we walked through Epcot, but being alone I got to speed up the process and head straight to the food!

First stop, Canada! This was one of our favorite booths last year, so I was excited to try it again. Plus I figured it would be good to start the fest off on a high note! I ended up getting the wild mushroom beef filet mignon and the moosehead radler. The beef was once again amazing, you didn’t even need a knife, which was good because I forgot to grab one. The moosehead radler was also great, I love grapefruit beer, and this had a very similar flavor.

Here is the beef and the beer.



Epcot wasn’t too crowded Monday afternoon, and the food booths had no lines at all which was nice. I did however have a bit of trouble finding a table at my next stop. After finishing up at Canada, I skipped over to Patagonia where I got the beef skewer. I had tried it last year, and it was just ok, the beef last year was very dry and chewy, but this year it was actually really great! Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture of this one since I couldn’t find a table, so ended up eating it while walking.

After finishing up the beef skewer, I made my way to the front of the park, of course stopping at photopass photographers on the way!





I made my way over to the festival center to pick up some items to make a surprise gift bag for my mom. I picked up one of the wine bags, a bottle of wine (well…purchased the wine…couldn’t take it with me), a F&W shirt and wine glasses.

After getting all the goodies for the surprise gift bag, I started feeling a bit exhausted from the heat, so headed back to the hotel to rest a bit.

On the way out, I swung by the Farm Fresh booth to pick up the Raspberry cider to sip on as I made my way to IG. It was delicious, but once again I failed at getting a picture. I swear, I did a much better job documenting the food booth items once my mom arrived!

Next up…It’s Character Time!
 


I love reading all about your Mother Daughter food adventure WDW trips!
 
Day 1, Part 3: It’s Character Time!

After a nice break in the AC at the hotel, I was ready to head out to my first FP of the trip! I was a bit worried about my luggage at that point since it was almost 4 hours since I had arrived and my suitcase was nowhere to be seen, but right as I was about to head out the door there was a knock, and there it was! Phew!

After bringing my suitcase inside, I made my way back to IG and up to Future World for my meeting with the big man himself, Mickey!

My FP for the characters was at 4:00, but I didn’t get there until 4:25. I was surprised how long the line was for FP at that point! Epcot had seemed like there were very low crowds, so I was a bit surprised to wait 30 minutes with the FP to meet Mickey, Goofy and Minnie! I did find it fun that most of the people in line were adults without kids, I love that so many people want to meet the characters regardless of their age!

The wait passed quickly, it’s always fun watching other people’s interactions with the characters which makes time go by fast! Soon it was my time to meet the gang!



I don’t know why, but I always have slightly awkward interactions with Mickey! I don’t know if it’s stage fright on my part, or the fact that I feel like I tower over him, but I never have this issue with any of the other characters. So weird...

After Mickey it was Goofy’s turn!



We had a little dance, took some pictures and I was shuffled on to my last meet and great, Minnie!




She was fun, but it was a super quick picture before I was ushered out!

After meeting with the gang, it was well into my next FP time, so I headed over to FEA!

There was a long line for FP again, and once again it ended up being about a 30 minute wait. When I got the loading area, the CM asked me how many were in my party per usual, so I told her it was just me, so then she asked where I would like to sit. So of course I told her I’d prefer the front, but I’d be happy with anything. She was awesome though and told me to hold back for a minute, let the next group by me, then told me to head to row 1! I ended up having the full first row all to myself!



So Awesome!

After riding FEA, I was starting to get hungry again, so I decided to head around WS to see what food piqued my interest!

My first stop was India! I picked up the Korma Chicken and the Kingfisher Lager. The chicken was great, very flavorful and was nice and spicy! I really enjoyed it, and the beer was good.


Korma Chicken from India and the Kingfisher Lager.

Once I finished up in India, I continued onto Italy. At Italy, I got the Absolut Penne with Shrimp and the Frozen Margarita with Limoncello and Tequila. The margarita was amazing as always, and the penne was fantastic! I ended up chatting with a group of locals at the table next to me while enjoying the food, they were super nice. Kind of made me wish I were a local and could swing by F&W on a random Monday afternoon! (ok, not kind of, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to pop into Epcot on random afternoons to enjoy F&W! Maybe when I retire...)


Margarita and Penne from Italy.


Such a pretty view!

Upon finishing up my food from Italy, I was ready for another break from the heat. Plus I wanted to finish setting up my mom’s surprise gift bag. So I headed out of the park and back to the room. On the way out I stopped by the store by the IG to pick up the wine I had purchased earlier, then went back to the room to set up the gift bag!

Next up….my mom arrives, and I’m headed back to Epcot for the third time that day!
 
Day 1, Part 4: F&W Three Times in One Day!

After getting my moms surprise gift bag set up, it was time for some impatient waiting! While waiting I unpacked my suitcase and put everything away.


Finally at 7:01 I got a text from her that she was on the ME bus! YESSSS! (Also, yay, my mom figured out how to text!)

Soon after, she texted me they were on their way, but instead of making the usual three stops at Boardwalk, BC, then YC, her bus was stopping at 4 stops adding AoA first.

Since I had planned the timing on meeting her based on the normal three stops, I wasn’t really sure what time to meet her in the lobby now, but fortunately with her new texting skills, she kept me posted on what stop she was on.

Finally she texted she had just left the BC and was on her way to the YC! Since I know if takes her a while to type and send a text, I knew she had actually left the BC a few minutes before, so she would be due at the YC any second. I already headed downstairs when she texted she was at Boardwalk, so once I got the BC text I went outside to meet the bus. I walk outside just as it was pulling up, and my mom ended up being the first one off! YAY!!!! It was 7:56 when she arrived, so we fortunately had a bit of time to run over to Epcot to pick up some dinner at the food booths!

We hugged, then quickly ran upstairs to put her stuff away, and take a quick peak at the gift bag I put together. My mom absolutely loved it!

It was a quick turn around, and soon we were headed right back out to Epcot to grab some more food. Of all the times I’ve been to Disney, this was the first time I’ve been to Epcot three times in one day!

My mom had her eye on the ravioli from Earth Eats for dinner, so we headed that way. We made it in plenty of time, so she got her Zucchini Ravioli, while I picked up the Gogi Wines Chardonnay and then swung by Active Eats for the Loaded Mac ‘n Cheese. I wanted to try this last year, but it was so hot that it seemed way too heavy. Good thing we swung by at night this time, so it was a bit cooler so I finally got to try it!



My mac 'n cheese and wine...look how much food this is!


My mom really liked the ravioli, and the mac ‘n cheese was delicious, so glad I finally tried it! The Chardonnay was good, but nothing special.

Next up we wandered over to Flavors From Fire, but nothing really stood out for us so we skipped it. From there we headed to the Wine and Dine Studio and got the artist palette of wine and cheese. We loved it last year, and once again we found it to be fantastic!



Once we finished up with that dish, we were both exhausted so decided to head back to the room to get a good night sleep before the next day full of fun!

Next up…Day 2 and more Epcot (and even more food)!
 
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Loving this report and your food reviews! So glad I found it. It's so nice to be on crescent lake during f&w! I travel with my mom a lot but have never thought of leaving her home for a while the first day :rotfl: she's such a slowpoke I should threaten her with it! Can't wait to read more!
 
Awesome start to your report. I'm impressed that you visited EPCOT 3 times on your arrival day and have already sampled so many tasty things. Thanks for the heads up on the beer in Canada. I'm a big fan of grapefruit beer
 
Loving this report and your food reviews! So glad I found it. It's so nice to be on crescent lake during f&w! I travel with my mom a lot but have never thought of leaving her home for a while the first day :rotfl: she's such a slowpoke I should threaten her with it! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks, and welcome! Yeah, it was a bit odd not having my mom around for the first day, but I knew I'm impatient enough that waiting around all day for a later flight would drive me nuts, so I figured why not go spend some quality time in Disney by myself!

Awesome start to your report. I'm impressed that you visited EPCOT 3 times on your arrival day and have already sampled so many tasty things. Thanks for the heads up on the beer in Canada. I'm a big fan of grapefruit beer

Thanks! Oh my goodness, grapefruit beer is the best! I even stocked up the fridge in the room with some that first day just so I could enjoy some during our mid day breaks!
 
Day 2, Part 1: It’s Picture Time!!!

We woke up nice and early ready to head out for our first full day at Disney! Our plans for the day were to hit up Epcot in the morning, have an afternoon break at the resort, then head over to the Halloween party!

We set off to Epcot at 8:30 that morning. We always think it’s going to be a long walk over there, but it usually only takes us about 7-8 minutes, so we end up having a bit of a wait to get in.

Per usual we took tons of photos walking over to the IG!


My standard lighthouse picture




Once we arrived we only had to wait a few minutes before they opened the lines for security and scanning the magic bands. We made it through quickly, then headed up to the hill for the actual rope drop. Of course we snuck in a picture while waiting before getting yelled at by the CM up there to stay to the right, oops!




We were shocked when the rope drop was super early at 8:52! Way to go Epcot, love the early openings!
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Instead of fighting with all the crowds to rush to FEA or TT or Soarin, we took our time and took more pictures on the way in. I love these lazy park openings!








We were taking pictures of each other in front of the food and wine display in future world, when a CM walked by and asked if we would like him to get a picture of us. Um, yes please! Thanks awesome CM!



Next up: We finally get on a ride (after a few more pictures of course)!
 
Sounds like another fun mom/daughter trip. I can't wait to hear about your adventures.

We were there around the same time as you for our annual mom/son trip to Food & Wine ...who knows we may have ran into each other at some point.
 

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