"It's a 5 - gimmie more!" - A Food and Wine Trip Report Oct 16-20. (Final Update 2/9/14!)

[TheMaxRebo]

The cooking demonstration looks really good - and to get a full galss of whine out of it really makes it a pretty good value! (I feel like when we have done them in the past it was like a large tasting portion, definitely not a full glass). Those portions for the wine tasting one do seem pretty meager - though I guess if one of them is $80/bottle they aren't going to give you a ton.

Bummer about the issue with the MB - at least it seems like the CMs tried and wanted to help. That room is quite huge and wow that bathroom! tub and show and separate room for toilet. Pretty nice! Definitely feels like that room was meant for more than 2 people to stay at and would be more than adequate for a family of 4 or 5

 

[skier_pete]

The cooking demonstration looks really good - and to get a full galss of whine out of it really makes it a pretty good value! (I feel like when we have done them in the past it was like a large tasting portion, definitely not a full glass). Those portions for the wine tasting one do seem pretty meager - though I guess if one of them is $80/bottle they aren't going to give you a ton.

I felt both were a pretty good value, especially against most Disney "special events" associated with food and wine. Both were entertaining and educational!

Bummer about the issue with the MB - at least it seems like the CMs tried and wanted to help. That room is quite huge and wow that bathroom! tub and show and separate room for toilet. Pretty nice! Definitely feels like that room was meant for more than 2 people to stay at and would be more than adequate for a family of 4 or 5

I admit I am still very much in the "Pinch me - I'm a DVC member" phase. While SSR was never a resort I dreamed of being at, the room was beyond luxurious to me. (I am not one that believes in paying deluxe prices for hotels.) Quite honestly the first time I stay at BLT, WL, BW or BC I will really be on Cloud 9, because those are all resorts that I've dreamed of staying at but never thought realistically I could ever afford to. Even DVC I always thought was out of reach until I looked into resale. I still feel like the schmuck that's gotten an unexpected upgrade to first class.

Though - I was a little surprised to note it seemed like the room would've had a hard time holding 5. I thought all the one-bedroom DVCs were set up for five, but although the sofa bed folded out, there was really no place for the fifth person. (Looking it up just now, there is a 4 guest maximum in the 1-bedrooms at SSR.)

 

[PrincessInOz]

I like your pictures from the F&W events. I think I could have eaten all that shrimp pasta up! It looks delicious.

Shame about the Tragic Bands. I guess Disney doesn't seem to have improved the system much since last year.

I like the room. It looks nice and roomy. It probably would have been perfect if DD came along.

 

[skier_pete]

I like your pictures from the F&W events. I think I could have eaten all that shrimp pasta up! It looks delicious.

Shame about the Tragic Bands. I guess Disney doesn't seem to have improved the system much since last year.

I like the room. It looks nice and roomy. It probably would have been perfect if DD came along.

The thing with the MB - they never really were able to explain what went wrong. Our problems last year at least stemmed partly from having a room only + a package, and picking up the tickets early. This year it was a straight ahead room only single reservation. It doesn't give me a good impression of the resiliancy of the system.

I was VERY tempted when everyone was leaving, and that big plate of pasta was sitting up front to ask if we could have seconds. It wasn't that I was afraid of their response, I was more afraid of the glare I would've gotten from DW.

The one bedroom would definitely be nice for a trip with DD - too bad we won't normally have enough points to afford one. Maybe someday.

 

[khertz]

The cooking demonstration looks like a lot of fun! And oh man, that pasta looks amaaaaaazing. Very cool that you were able to do two demos without paying a ton. You sure don't find things that cheap in Disney very often.

Bummer you had MB issues AGAIN! I sure hope that all the help from the CM's and getting a phone number just in case is not foreshadowing that it didn't work when you got back for the night!

 

[skier_pete]

The cooking demonstration looks like a lot of fun! And oh man, that pasta looks amaaaaaazing. Very cool that you were able to do two demos without paying a ton. You sure don't find things that cheap in Disney very often.

Bummer you had MB issues AGAIN! I sure hope that all the help from the CM's and getting a phone number just in case is not foreshadowing that it didn't work when you got back for the night!

Loved the culinary/wine seminars. We did two more on Sunday, though I didn't think they were quite as good. (Didn't care as much for the food/wine.)

I will take away the suspense if you read the next post!

 

[skier_pete]

As we entered Epcot, we decided the easiest thing to do to meet up with “Teetah” was to just head back to the festival center/Wonders of Life. They had about 10 minutes left in the Mixology seminar, so we just hung out looking around the gift shop. (Didn’t care much for the offerings this year, so didn’t buy anything.)
When “Teetah” and her DH got out of their class, we finally got our first DISmeet! We stopped and chatted, and decided to head towards Germany for some beer. So, we headed back to World Showcase past Mexico, Norway and China.

We stopped at the “Farm Fresh” booth we tried previously for another beer/wine, before moving on. We stopped at the South Korea booth, and DW and I got a Kimchi Dog with Spicy Mustard. Somehow I missed out on a picture of this one, but honestly we didn’t care for it very much, and both rated it a 2. DW also got a Black Raspberry Wine that she liked quite a lot.
Next up was the Africa booth, where we tried the South African Bobotie with Turkey and Mushroom.



While it had a decent flavor to it, I didn’t think it was anything special, so I gave it a 3 out of 5, while DW enjoyed it much more and gave it a 4.
(This makes it sound like we moved very quickly here, but we were taking our time talking and getting to know each other a bit. We only were spending a few hours together.)

FINALLY, we made it to Germany. We wanted to try a little of everything here. Teetah and DW headed to the food booth, while the boys headed to the Brewers Collection booth. I decided on Flight #2.



These neat little trays not only gave you a place to hold your beer, each slot was numbered so you know what beer you were tasting. Here is how I rated them (of course this is based on my tastes, so your results may vary). Altenmunster Oktoberfest – 3. BraufactuM Roog – 4. BraufactuM Darkon – 2. BraufactuM Progusta IPA – 3

Meanwhile on the food side – we both got an order of Schinkennudeln (Pasta with Cheese and Ham).





This is a very basic German cheese noodle dish, but it was done excellent, and DW and I both loved it. DW in fact gave it a 5 and came back later in the trip to try it. I gave it a 4, even though cheese noodles are totally on my 5 list, it is such a basic meal I couldn’t quite bring myself to give it a 5.
Proof of our DISmeet!



At this point, we discovered that “Teetah” and her DH had never been to Karamel Kuchen. We had to rectify that immediately. Anyways, I had seen a Caramel Bacon square on the Disney Food Blog, and I just HAD to try it.
DW got a regular caramel square which was very soft and delicious:



Here is the Caramel Bacon square. It is not really laced with a large amount of bacon, only a bit of the smoky bacon flavor. This was so, so good.



Our friends tried the Caramel and sea salt square as well as a caramel apple.


Unfortunately by this time the evening was slipping away from us. We had a FP+ to watch Illuminations, and it was getting on 8:30 PM, but we had time for one last stop – Poland! Any good Buffalonian would need to stop here!



We tried the Kielbasa and Potato Pierogi with Carmelized Onions. This is more standard fare for DW as she makes this all the time as a Ukrainian- American. We thought the ones here at Epcot were just OK, not as good as what we get at home, so therefore rated it a mere 3.



I also purchased a Frozen Szarlotka – And Apple flavored Vodka drink. I liked this one just fine, and it brought me up ahead of DW on the drinks for the day. (C’mon, we all know I’m the bigger lush!)



We were happy with our F&W accomplishments for the day. We hit a total of TEN booths at this point, as well as Kringla Bakery and Karamel Kuchen, and I think we had spent under $150 – which was actually under our budget.
We headed back around World Showcase towards the Future World end where the FP+ area was located. It was interesting that there were not at all big crowds around for Illuminations, so we were able to find a spot near the railing where we could sit. I like Illuminations OK, but it is not something I need to see every time, but this was our first time seeing it since 2011 when we did the Illuminations cruise. It was fun and being at the South end of the Lagoon we could book right out of the park.

We made it back to our room well before 10 PM, and lo and behold, our MB WORKED!!! (We were pretty nervous walking up to that door I can tell you.) On our way back to our room we spotted this little guy too!



It wasn’t real late, but we had the next three nights planned as late nights, plus having been up at 4:30 AM, we were ready to call it a day!

Next up - Hollywood Studios and more "friend meets"!

 

[franandaj]

OK, I'm now all caught up here! Whew! Going away on a trip sure puts you behind on the DIS!

I totally agree with you on the Chick-n. There are plenty of good things that can be made using only vegan ingredients, why mimick other meat foods? I would have skipped that booth (and did last year).

I really liked the beef skewer and the empanada last year, but why make a new booth, call it Patagonia and then serve the items that used to be in Argentina? Makes zero sense.

The seminars sounded good. I would have loved to have more of that shrimp dish, it looked very tasty. Having been to plenty of the wine seminars, and tasting rooms, that's definitely the standard amount of a tasting pour.

Sorry you had problems with the MBs. I was surprised when ours worked without a hitch. I love the one bedrooms, and I don't care if it's wasted space, that Jacuzzi tub makes up for everything! In Florida we take total advantage of the kitchen, but when we stay in California, often times we don't use the living room except for storage.

Great fun and DISmeet. You really got in quite a bit of booths there. We tend to get full after 2-3 booths, so you did good with 5-6!

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the booths!

 

[skier_pete]

I really liked the beef skewer and the empanada last year, but why make a new booth, call it Patagonia and then serve the items that used to be in Argentina? Makes zero sense.

Maybe they wanted to add Chilean wine? I agree it's a weird choice.

The seminars sounded good. I would have loved to have more of that shrimp dish, it looked very tasty. Having been to plenty of the wine seminars, and tasting rooms, that's definitely the standard amount of a tasting pour.

Oh, the pour sizes were fine. My problem is I'm more of a drinker than a taster!

Sorry you had problems with the MBs. I was surprised when ours worked without a hitch. I love the one bedrooms, and I don't care if it's wasted space, that Jacuzzi tub makes up for everything! In Florida we take total advantage of the kitchen, but when we stay in California, often times we don't use the living room except for storage.

I did try out the jacuzzi tub once. It was a nice treat, and certainly I see the appeal of the one-bedrooms, especially the fact that they are more readily available than the studios, but our big thing is affordability, and at this stage we can't afford a 1-bedroom on a regular basis.

Great fun and DISmeet. You really got in quite a bit of booths there. We tend to get full after 2-3 booths, so you did good with 5-6!

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the booths!

Well, you have to remember that this represented both lunch and dinner, and also we often split a single item at a booth between the two of us, so really we never felt like we were eating a lot. That wasn't until the last day, when we were trying to get through the last of the booths!

 

[Tinker326]

I found it! And it was appropriately my lunch time as I read through all your food posts!!

Cracking up at the "Crabless Crab". Great name. Really. Makes me want to try it. Can we not come up with better Vegan options/names?

I really, really want an Empanada now. YUM! I have a recipe for one that is quite good but it involves a lot of work on my part. I would much prefer to just buy one!

Blech on venison and lamb (I despise both). Saw quite a few desserts I would have tried (remember, sugar addiction right here!!!).

DW is def. all red & smitten with her perfume designer. ))

What the h#ll is 'yard bird'. I mean yard birds in my neighborhood are robins and sometimes a cardinal or two. I really wouldn't want to eat either.

Crikey- I just realized I didn't read through all your posts. I'm commenting halfway through. Ok. Well.... I guess here's 1/2 my comments. I'll go read the rest.

 

[Tinker326]

Ok- finished the rest.

Before I forget again- I did have to stop and go try to google Epcot bottomless sinkhole. All I found in my brief searching was the old World of Motion building was removed because of one. Nothing on that lake. So share!! I love stuff like that!!!

Your SSR room looks roomy and wonderful!

Your evening food looked delish. Especially tasty - the German potato thing. And beer flight... And YUM on the peirogi's & sausage. One of my favorite meals as well.. and thankfully I have several good Polish friends around to cook them for me. (So I don't always have to buy Mrs. T's & Hillshire Farms!) I bet DW's are awesome!

$15 for that wine tasting? Ugg. Rip! Our local winery charges $10 and you get 6 VERY GENEROUS pours.

And what is the reasoning behind not breaking up your spaghetti? It cooks so much faster if you do!

 

[skier_pete]

What the h#ll is 'yard bird'. I mean yard birds in my neighborhood are robins and sometimes a cardinal or two. I really wouldn't want to eat either. .

This is what I think of when I hear "Yardbirds"

The Yardbirds are an English rock band that had a string of hits in the mid-1960s, including "For Your Love", "Over Under Sideways Down" and "Heart Full of Soul". The group is notable for having started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, all of whom are in the top five of Rolling Stone's 100 Top Guitarists list (Clapton at No. 2, Page at No. 3 and Beck at No. 5).[1] A blues-based band that broadened its range into pop and rock, the Yardbirds had a hand in many electric guitar innovations of the mid-1960s, such as feedback, "fuzztone" distortion and improved amplification. Pat Pemberton, writing for Spinner, holds that the Yardbirds were "the most impressive guitar band in rock music".[2] After the Yardbirds broke up in 1968, their lead guitarist Jimmy Page founded what became Led Zeppelin.

Ok- finished the rest.

Before I forget again- I did have to stop and go try to google Epcot bottomless sinkhole. All I found in my brief searching was the old World of Motion building was removed because of one. Nothing on that lake. So share!! I love stuff like that!!!

I couldn't find it exactly on the web...but I heard Marty Sklar tell stories about it. I found this one reference on AllEars from a D23 talk by Marty:

Story 5: Have you ever wondered why there is so much room between Future World and World Showcase? Well it seems that after construction was well underway, a giant sinkhole was discovered in the area separating these two sections of the park. In excavating this land, they never did find the bottom. This meant that no building could be constructed in this area. In the end, a lake was created here for aesthetic purposes. Several of the monorail pylons had to be anchored to concrete pads beneath the surface to provide adequate support.

The story as I heard it was in constructing the monorail they would put the support beams down into the lake, and they would just sink out of sight never to be seen again. They finally solved the problem by building a giant underwater "pontoon" of sorts that bridges the sinkhole - basically an underwater track that had enough surface area to rest on the silt without sinking - and then put the beams on top of that.

Your SSR room looks roomy and wonderful!

Your evening food looked delish. Especially tasty - the German potato thing. And beer flight... And YUM on the peirogi's & sausage. One of my favorite meals as well.. and thankfully I have several good Polish friends around to cook them for me. (So I don't always have to buy Mrs. T's & Hillshire Farms!) I bet DW's are awesome!

Now we'll know what to serve if you ever make it out to Buffalo/Niagara Falls!

$15 for that wine tasting? Ugg. Rip! Our local winery charges $10 and you get 6 VERY GENEROUS pours.

And what is the reasoning behind not breaking up your spaghetti? It cooks so much faster if you do!

Well, it was more than a wine tasting. Around here most of the wineries only charge $2 for 4 tastes, so I definitely don't think it was a value. But you got a nice presentation about the wine, and really almost a lesson in what to look for in the wine. I would say the culinary ones were much better!

 

[PrincessInOz]

CAtching up.

I got to try the Kielbasa with another Polish descended Dis-ser. She thought it was pretty average too.

 

[NMW]

subscribing

 

[skier_pete]

CAtching up.

I got to try the Kielbasa with another Polish descended Dis-ser. She thought it was pretty average too.

Average is a good descriptor!

subscribing

Welcome aboard! Please stow all baggage in the overhead bins or under your seat. Emergency exits are positioned here, here, here and here.

 

[skier_pete]

We got up nice and early to make rope drop at DHS. A couple of early morning pictures takenat 8 AM as we headed down to the bus.





No more than a 10 minute ride got us to the turnstiles. The weather was near perfect, and the crowd wasn’t too thick. (Not sure how I managed to make this picture look like a crane shot.)



So we made our way to what’s been our first ride of the day since 2008 (wow, 6 years!). Notice the FP return time showing what time we were getting in line.



Gotta say we both love this ride a lot. I would probably never list it in my “top ten attractions” but I probably should, because this ride always leaves me smiling when I get off.



TSMM selfie!!



I tried to do a better job of going after the high point targets, and I managed to break 150,000 points for maybe the first time!



Next up was a first for DW…Rock and Roller Coaster. Somehow, I convinced her to ride it for the first time ever. This is also the first time I’ve ever ridden it WITH someone. That was a neat treat. Here’s DW in the alley ready to board the limo. Does she look nervous?



Wait time was about 20 minutes. We asked for the front of the car, but unfortunately, DW kept her eyes closed the whole time, so she didn’t get to see all those neon signs in downtown LA!



Afterwards, celebrating her achievement. I think now she’s actually gone on every ride at WDW. (Well, except the Speedway and Astro Orbiter.)



After that, we had a FP+ for Tower of Terror, but DW was NOT going on another thrill ride, so it was up to me. The Standby line was surprisingly long for before 10 AM (maybe 25 minutes) but I walked right up and on.







Finishing up the “big 3” we had to decide what to do next. As anyone that followed my PTR may have noticed, I’m a pretty big planner, and especially at DHS with all the shows on schedules, we tried to make a plan as best we could. But we had also made plans at (sort of) the last minute to get together for lunch and spend the afternoon together. Because of this, we only had a few “must-dos” in this park, so we decided to try and squeeze in most of them before lunch. So, even though I had a FP for Star Tours for the afternoon, we ended up walking over to Star Tours next.

Surprisingly (again) there was posted a 25 minute wait. I couldn’t believe that the lines were actually snaking around outside through the forests of Endor, and I almost had us get out of line because we did have that later FP (which we never used). However, we stuck it out, and the wait really ended up being probably under 20 minutes total, so not too bad. We were also in the very back row, which I don’t think I’ve ever sat in. (No pictures here!)


With this, we’d done all the rides (GMR is not on our “to do” list.) so we decided that we would get a Mickey Bar. Well, we found a vendor right outside Star Tours (by the Drew Carey bathrooms), but their computer wasn’t working, so then we went in search of an open snack cart. Possibly, quite sadly – we wandered through a good portion of the park, around in front of the hat, through Pixar Place, and back to the Streets of America, yet couldn’t find an open cart. We did stumble across “Wandering Oaken’s trading post” which we stuck our head into for about 5 minutes. With no ice cream available, we stopped to do the Art of Animation drawing class (DWs favorite) but our timing was bad, a show started in 10 minutes, but it was full, so we would have to wait for another 30 minutes after that, so we said “forget it” for now. We then decided to see the Captain Jack Sparrow show. (Since closed.) They gave us a return time about 30 minutes away, so instead of waiting, we now were able to use our TSMM FP+ for a second ride around the track. Notice we both improved our score, but I still won!



Went to check out Jack Sparrow. This show, while cute, was nothing to be proud of, and I think it’s fine that it closed. By this point – FINALLY, the snack bars were open, and we got our gosh-darned Mickey Bars!



At this point we only had about 20 minutes until we were meeting friends for lunch, so we decided to duck into One Man’s Dream, something that we had never toured before. There was some neat stuff in there, nothing that a Disney Geek like myself didn’t already know, but really a nice little display that seemed really appropriate for a place called Hollywood Studios.

Walt’s old office:



A WDI layout of Peter Pan:



After that, it was time for our 2nd DISmeet-up in two days!

To be continued another day...

 

[franandaj]

That's annoying that it took so long to get a Mickey bar. Lots of rides in the morning. Im not sure that I've ever rode RnRC with anyone other than when we booked that VIP tour during SWW. Fran and I always travel alone. Once we brought my parents and in April we're brining friends, but we aren't even going to DHS with them.

Someday I will rise from Beaverdom on TSMM!

 

[Tinker326]

YHEA for DW getting on RnR!!!!

And super cute pic of you guys and the Mickey Bars!!! Def. don't show DD that one- it shows way too much Disney Magic without her around.......

Toy Story- I know I've told you this before- but I just don't get the draw. It's ok.. but my hand hurts after riding it. It's just not worth the fuss/wait (to me). If the waits start dropping, maybe............. I'd rather do Buzz.

I do wonder how DHS will look after the rehab. I'm hoping for good things since this is my least fave park!

So long as they leave my ToT alone!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Have you told DD that you Mickey Bar cheated on her yet?


Glad to see DW got on RnRC with you. I love that ride. You got a lot of the major rides out of the way at DHS early.

 

[khertz]

I can't believe DW rode RnRC with her eyes closed!! Seems like that would make it even scarier! But I'm glad she decided to ride with you, and she looks very proud of herself outside in front of the big guitar.

Ugh a 30 minute search for a Mickey bar? That's criminal! Been there, done that. Only I had the opposite problem and it was late at night so the carts were all closed for the day with no hope of reopening. At least you got one!