Completed 7/27 - Save the Art! - Jan 2024 Trip Report

[Araminta18]

Rides and Snacks! - Tuesday Jan 16, 2024 (part 4)​

We'd finally made it over to France, so we were heading towards Ratatouille, with lots of stops on the way.

I wish they'd sell a small print of this one.

They had one of the painting photo ops set up here but no photographer around, sadly.


We try hard.

Also, I keep forgetting that Festival of the Arts puts up little chalk drawings on the buildings.

It's Remy and Emil!

Then, time for Ratatouille!

I don't know why the fastpass line for Ratatouille is always so long, but it is. We ended up waiting about 15 minutes before we boarded the ride, which is way better than the 80 min standby line!

I like Ratatouille, but absolutely not for 80 minutes.


Not my favorite picture but I do like this magic shot.

At this point it was a little after 3, so we decided to head back to the room and take a nap. Best location ever, seriously. We rested for about an hour and a half. It was lovely. And at 4:45, we were heading back into the park to get our seats for the concert. This was the one I was looking forward to most - Heidi Blickenstaff and Gavin Lee! Heidi was in Freaky Friday the musical here in Virginia (and a bunch of other things), and Gavin was the original Bert in Mary Poppins. They're both so good, and I couldn't wait to see them together.

And by 5 pm, this was our view! Front row, near the center. Woot!

Once seats were grabbed, I ran up to Germany and got us some dinner/snacks. I got the Red Wine-braised Beef Short Rib with parsnip purée, broccolini, baby tomatoes, and balsamic glaze, and the Black Forest Cake: Chocolate mousse with morello cherries and chantilly cream.

The short rib was a bit on the tough/dry side, but the flavor was good. And the parsnip puree was good. The cake was delicious - neither Trevor nor I much care for actual cherries in our dessert so we just ate around those, cause the cake itself was awesome. Cake on the bottom, then chocolate mousse with the chantilly cream on top. Yum. This is definitely my pro tip for the Broadway concerts - get your seat, and then have one member of your party run and grab snacks from the nearby food booths.

And then the concert started! I'm about at the picture limit, so i'll leave you with just this one photo of Gavin Lee, doing the iconic Lumiere pose.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Sorry but I would not be happy to be seated next to someone with all that food during the performance Before or After .
I have never seen anyone bring in a complete meal .
Would you also recommend this for the Candlelight Processionals?
Please reconsider out of consideration for the guests and the performers .

 

[jrmint427]

Trevor got sick and we think we stayed in a hotel with bedbugs (I had bites that seemed to fit the pattern) so that was a fun underlying panic the whole time.

I'm so sorry to hear that! Hope you were still able to have a great time in Paris,

We got to experience the sandy bottom, and the lazy river, and the whirlpool - the whirlpool was my favorite. I had it to myself for a while so it was like a small, fast lazy river that just sent me around and around. We had the hottub to ourselves for a bit, and got to see the sandbar where the kids were all playing (all like 4 of them ) - that sandbar is huge!

This is really selling me on the Beach Club for a future trip! Do Beach Club and Yacht Club share this pool area?

But isn't it cute? I love the befuddled look on Robin's face.

What a sweet picture!!

 

[Araminta18]

Sorry but I would not be happy to be seated next to someone with all that food during the performance Before or After .
I have never seen anyone bring in a complete meal .
Would you also recommend this for the Candlelight Processionals?
Please reconsider out of consideration for the guests and the performers .

Thank you for the alternate point of view. To clarify, it was two of the dishes from the Germany booth, so not a full meal. We held them both in our hands and did not set them down on the bench, and were very conscious to not be infringing on the space of those around us. We also were not eating during the show, so I'm slightly confused at your request to be considerate of the performers. Regarding your allusion to Candlelight Processional, that event is much more crowded; I doubt anyone would be successfully able to leave and return to their seat, though if someone was able to I wouldn't dissuade them. I also would comment that eating in the pavilion (which is outdoors) is not prohibited.

I'm so sorry to hear that! Hope you were still able to have a great time in Paris,

Thank you! We did still have a good time (especially enjoying all the yummy food)!

This is really selling me on the Beach Club for a future trip! Do Beach Club and Yacht Club share this pool area?

do it do it do it! Yup, they do share the pool area, but it's going to be closed for refurbishment Jan 2025 to June 2025

 

[Araminta18]

Gavin and Heidi are Amazeballs - Tuesday Jan 16, 2024 (part 5)​

Forgot to include this video before - Gusteau's from the line at Ratatouille

Anyways! Back to the concert. Gavin and Heidi are so funny together - Heidi acts like she's over it all and Gavin is totally on point with the comedy. We were dying. And of course their voices are amazing. Heidi even sang "I Won't Say I'm in Love" from Hercules (apparently there's a stage production opening in Europe sometimes soon-ish that they were promoting) which is one of my favorite songs. And then the Mary Poppins medley! So good.

So proud of how this picture turned out.




Heidi's "Poor Unfortunate Souls" is amazing.



This is basically a Heidi and Gavin appreciation post, in case you weren't sure.

They are amazeballs.

Also, I was using the voicememo on my phone to take "notes" this trip, and so some of these things are going to be out of order - Heidi and Gavin sang a song from "Frozen" ("In Summer"), which reminded me of something that happened at lunch. Trevor was wearing a t-shirt he got when we saw Frozen the Musical on tour - it says Arendelle Ice Company. And at lunch, there was a waiter who saw it and came over to us and was like "OMG where did you get that shirt". People love Trevor's shirts! He'd gotten several compliments today on it, and yesterday people were loving his "Gonna brie all right" shirt. Anyways, back to the concert - the concert series is so good! It's definitely one of my favorite parts of Festival of the Arts. If you get a chance to go, I highly recommend this concert series.

Afterwards, our plan was to get all the food from a bunch of the food booths and just to explore the park at night.

More pictures!

Pascal!

We were heading around the park to China and Mexico, so I snapped this pic from Germany on the way. Such a pretty picture.

We ended up skipping the China food and getting food from Mexico. First up, Carne Asada: Chipotle-Marinated Beef Sirloin, Grilled Queso Fresco, Nopales Salad with Queso Fresco Foam and Chicharron Dust.

This looked good to me (especially the grilled queso fresco), but it was just ok. The meat was tender, but not super flavorful and a bit cold.

(hey there picture limit)

 

[Araminta18]

Snacks, Coaster, and Photos: A Quintessential TR post - Tuesday Jan 16, 2024 (part 6)​

We also got the tostada: Tostada de Langosta: Chilled Lobster with Chipotle Aïoli, Onions and Mango on a Fried Corn Tortilla with Guacamole, Shredded Cabbage and Hot Sauce.

This was very fresh, and a surprisingly large portion (bigger than it looks). I didn't like the red sauce cause it was very spicy, but otherwise it was good. Can't even really taste the lobster - just tastes like a really fresh meat/salsa thing. Which may not be a ringing endorsement for most people but I don't like lobster so it worked for me.

And then we got some food from the Imagination Pavilion (spoiler we brought our food from Mexico to eat in the pavilion 'cause air conditioning). We got the rainbow cake with freeze dried skittles -

Standard vanilla buttercream cake, but at least it's moist. It'd be more interesting if each layer were a different flavor, but it looks cool and was a fine cake. The freeze dried skittles were odd - not bad, just odd.

Then we got the Grape Smoothie with freeze dried SKITTLES bite sized candies.

We did not like it. It was more of a milkshake - definitely strong dairy, and like SUPER strong grape/purple flavor. The strong purple flavor + dairy just did not work for us. We dumped it and kept the cup, cause the cup is cute.

We did like the pavilion - look at these fun projections!

Next up, Deconstructed Dish! I was excited for this booth - it all looked interesting. First, we got the Deconstructed Key Lime Pie: Flexible Key Lime Curd, “Key Lime” Mousse, Graham Cracker Cake, and Meringues

This was the dish I was least excited about, but it was surprisingly good. I don't like key lime, but this was really good. I think the berry jam/raspberries helped make it yummy for me. But we'd absolutely get this again, and definitely a sleeper hit - I only got it cause we needed a stamp for our wonderful walk of colorful cuisine.

Deconstructed BLT: Pork belly, onion bread pudding, watercress espuma, and tomato jam

I was excited for this and it just wasn't good. It was very heavy and greasy, and the pork belly was overcooked and tough. I did like the green foam (the watercress espuma) as it lightened it up a bit, but it was hard to get a bite with everything. This was disappointing.

Last, the Deconstructed Strawberry Mint Julep.

This was something that should not have been deconstructed. The strawberry was good, but the taste of the julep/base itself had a really strong medicinal aftertaste. I think this would have been better with more strawberry that was more thoroughly mixed in. Trevor liked it more than I did, and he thought it was refreshing, but I couldn't get past the medicinal aftertaste.

At this point we were a bit full, so we took a pause on food and decided to head to Guardians! We got in line at 7:01, and waited about 25 minutes to get into the first pre-show room. Those Guardians preshows man - so not good. They really need to do something about the funnel after the second pre-show especially. There was a family (several adults) with a couple tween children and the kids ran ahead and left the adults at the back of the group and then tried to have the adults push through to catch up, and I realize this may be another unpopular opinion but no. Trevor especially hates that funnel room and was not here for letting that whole stuff happen.

And the funnel was super backed up. Took us 20 minutes or so to get on the ride from here, but we did wait an extra cycle for row 9.

I love that my hair is so messed up you can't even see my face. Oh, and we got Disco Inferno.

We got off the ride and were outside at right about 8 pm. So about an hour - not horrible. It apparently had rained while we were in there because it was just lightly sprinkling when we came out, so good timing on our part. Also Spaceship Earth looks gorgeous at night.

We had about an hour til the fireworks, so we wanted to take pictures!

There were a bunch of photopass photographers out in the garden area that just re-opened, and there were some cool effects.

This is the one where the CM walks behind you with the light bar.
(boo picture limit...the next post is mostly gonna be photopass. #sorrynotsorry)

 

[Araminta18]

Photos and Fireworks! - Tuesday Jan 16, 2024 (part 7)​

The Photopass CMs were great - we got several of these shots. There wasn't anyone in line behind us, so I didn't feel guilty that they were taking some time.



Aw

Then we hopped over to another CM for more shots with a different prop:



Light up Mickey head!

We got done with photopass photos there at like 8:40, so we were just hanging around in that area, admiring Spaceship Earth:

And guess what happened? The "show" on Spaceship Earth started, and it was the Figment show, which was cool.

And then a few minutes later the next show started, and it was the Muppets Rainbow Connection show! This was the one I've been wanting to see for a while but I keep missing it, so I was SO EXCITED!!

So good. I love that they do this show on Spaceship Earth, and the Rainbow Connection one is just so good. Love it. It was quite a nice surprise.

And it ended like 5 minutes before the fireworks, so we decided to head to the lagoon at the end of the bridge there that links Future World and World Showcase, by the stage they use for some of the Festival of the Arts shows. We got a pretty good spot for walking up like 5 min before.

It was a bit far back, but a pretty decent view. It helps that there aren't projections you need to see, just fountains. Trevor likes that they still use torches, cause he likes fire. And I like the show itself - gonna be honest no Epcot show has blown me away but this one isn't any worse than the shows we had.

I think my favorite part was after the show - we were waiting for everyone to clear out, and everyone near us had left so we just sat on the grown there by the stage and were enjoying the music and the ambiance. We also got to hear the "please go away" message, which I don't think we've ever heard before. It was just really nice.

 

[Araminta18]

Epcot Night Finale - Tuesday Jan 16, 2024 (part 8)​

At about 9:30 they stopped playing fireworks music and so we decided that was our cue to head to the front of the park for a couple more magic shots.

We got distracted on the way with other photos.


I love Spaceship Earth.

And then we got distracted again with that pin shop there by Spaceship Earth (got some pins, Trevor got a magic band... )

Then in front of Spaceship Earth we got the magic shots we wanted!


We were pushing it a bit - they cut the line off right after us. Phew!

Honestly I love the music loop there in front of Spaceship Earth at night too. So nice.


By 10:10 we were done, and had to walk back through Epcot to International Gateway (no buses to Beach Club. ). It was kind of cool seeing it at night with like no one there.


I like the fiberoptic plants!

We got back to the room by 10:30, and I was a bit hungry, so we went to the Marketplace (cause it didn't close til 11) and got food!

We got a surprisingly good (and big) roast beef sandwich (to split). And it felt "healthier" and not greasy or fried - a good choice. We also got sucked in and got a mickey brownie:

Delicious.

So back at the room we were just relaxing and watching tv and eating our food and snacks, including some of our desserts from Le Cellier. The Le Cellier desserts weren't great - they were fine, but the PB&J chocolate Trevor didn't like, for example. He thought it had a weird bitter taste. I thought they were ok. But honestly the mickey brownie was better. Maybe I just have no taste.

So overall, it was a really lowkey, lovely day. Relaxing and fun and just nice. Tomorrow? More art!

Fun with Metrics:
Steps walked: 17344 steps (6.7 miles) (i feel like this gives us no credit for the swimming we did )
Ride count: 2 (Ratatouille and Guardians)
Savings due to AP discount: $27.40 (pins and magic band )

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I'm enjoying your trip report! I haven't been to Festival of the Arts, but I am hoping to be able to go some day.

My parents went in 2019, and they bought me an art piece of Belle on a ladder in the library, by Paige O'Hara. They gave it to me as a gift when I finished my school librarian certification. It's the "Far Off Places" one: https://www.paigeohara.net/store/c6/LITHOGRAPHS.html

I really like your pictures of the castle in the fog, along with the fireworks pictures. I also like all the FARTS magic shots. It looks like you're taking full advantage of the festival!

 

[Araminta18]

I'm enjoying your trip report! I haven't been to Festival of the Arts, but I am hoping to be able to go some day.

My parents went in 2019, and they bought me an art piece of Belle on a ladder in the library, by Paige O'Hara. They gave it to me as a gift when I finished my school librarian certification. It's the "Far Off Places" one: https://www.paigeohara.net/store/c6/LITHOGRAPHS.html

I really like your pictures of the castle in the fog, along with the fireworks pictures. I also like all the FARTS magic shots. It looks like you're taking full advantage of the festival!

Thanks for reading!! I hope you get to go - that's awesome that your parents were able to get you a librarian inspired piece, and by Paige O'Hara no less!

Yea...I take waaaaaay too many photos But glad you're enjoying them!

 

[Araminta18]

Chilly Crepe Morning - Wednesday January 17, 2024 (part 1)​

This morning dawned lovely but cold!

It was chilly - I put on my spirit jersey to stay warm, which is super unusual for me in Orlando, but kind of nice.

We had a 9 am breakfast reservation at La Creperie in France, and otherwise the plan for today was a few art signings and to finish off our list of food we wanted to try from the booths. I took a picture of my art so far to make sure I didn't duplicate anything.


We were a bit slow heading out this morning, but it was kind of nice to meander over there. I noticed this cute rose detail on the gate by the gazebo there!

Aw

We ended up being about 5/10 minutes late to our reservation but the CMs were great about it. Also, Remy was only posted like 20 minutes at 9:10! Crazy low. We were kind of hoping it would stay that low after we were done eating.

Once at La Creperie, I got the chicken crepe with bechamel sauce:

and a nice hot chocolate:


These were both really good - I love a savory crepe.

Trevor who is weird does not like savory crepes, so he got the mashed potato and bacon soup of the day:

The waiter was super cute and when he brought the soup was like "I brought two spoons!" so that I could try it too.

Then it was time for sweet crepes!

I got the Melba: Peach, Red Berries Sauce, Almonds. Delicious!

Trevor got the banana: Banana, Caramel Beurre Salé

Also delicious, even though Trevor doesn't really like salted caramel.

While we were eating, we heard one of the CMs making a comment about low wait times, and at 9:40, Frozen was 45, but Remy was still 20 and Test Track was only 25. My theory was that it was because of the skyliner being closed - if you're coming in through the front of the park, you're gonna stop at other rides on the way before you get back here. But we were hoping it held for when we finished breakfast!

We left at about 10:05 am, and Remy was still posted at 20 minutes, so we hopped in line! Woot! They weren't using the outside queue at all. 8 minutes later, we were here:

I also got on film the bit where Gusteau bangs on the stars to turn them on -

Overall though, it was looking promising! Would it actually be 20 minutes?

 

[Araminta18]

Tour of Remy's Queue...and a surprise Belle meet and greet! - Wednesday, January 17, 2024 (part 2)​

We got into this cute little art room that I normally don't see cause we're normally in the fastpass lane -

So cute!

But the reason why I'm going to give you a BUNCH of pictures is because right as we got in here, they announced a "temporary delay". Womp womp.

I do love all the cute little art touches. Very appropriate for the festival!

Luckily though, after about 5 minutes, the ride came back up, and we continued moving slowly towards the load area. There's some really fun artwork in the queue!



And by the time we got to the ride, if you took out the 5 minutes or so the ride was down, it was actually a 20 minute wait! Not too bad at all. Almost made me a little sad we used our fastpass yesterday on it - should have used it on Frozen or something.

As we got off the ride, the wait time was 65 minutes, and they were definitely using the outdoor queue. Good timing! And we of course stopped for the photographer they always have there -

You can see Trevor and I in our "cold weather" Disney gear.

The plan from here was to head to the Star Wars art booth near American Adventure, 'cause Trevor had been eying a piece all week and finally caved. But as we headed over there, we ran into Belle, with a super short wait! We waited less than 10 minutes.

The only downside was the sun being in our eyes. And look at Belle in her little winter cloak!

That was a fun little surprise.

We kept going, but ran into another artist out signing that I wanted to meet, and who happened to have a new piece out! Ryan Riller does papercut art and he's super nice and just awesome. So I of course quickly grabbed his Women of Wakanda piece and got it signed:

I did not remember Trevor had filmed this. Bonus! But seriously, all the artists are awesome and so nice - definitely one of the best parts of FARTS.

We kept going - eventually we'd make it to the Star Wars booth, I promise! But first bathroom break in Japan, and fun selfie from up there 'cause we never got back there and it's cute!

I actually saw a photographer up there but it was one of those "Capture your Moment" photographers. Good spot for it though!

But right after we made it to the Star Wars booth and got Trevor's piece, but we left it there so we could have the artist sign it later in the day. The lady there seemed confused about shipping, so we were not sure if we'd actually get it.

At this point, where to? The other side of World Showcase! We wanted to get snacks, look at the chalk art (since it wasn't raining!), and watch the acrobats. So off we went to the Friendship boats. We didn't have to wait very long, though being there by Spice Road Table reminded Trevor of how when we had eaten there the other day, they had a bunch of jars of spices as you wait to be seated, and he saw one labeled white pepper. That intruiged him - white pepper apparently has a milder, more earthy taste, and now he wants to try it. I don't think he has yet.

We got to sit outside - woot!

You'll have to tune in next time for our 7 month old reviews of the dishes.

 

[cassidy57]

I love your spirit jersey and i can't wait for the reviews of the dishes.

 

[Araminta18]

I love your spirit jersey and i can't wait for the reviews of the dishes.

Thank you! It's one of my faves as well

The reviews of the dishes will be coming up hopefully Saturday!

 

[kclark9830]

Loving all the updates!!! We were planning a WDW trip in March 2025 at the Boardwalk but ended up changing it to early Feb at Beach Club! But then, our daughter joined the girls bball team at school, and I think that's going to throw a wrench into my plans . One of these days I'll get to FARTS!!!

 

[Wayland10]

I had to go back and reread from the start, since I’ve booked my very own Festival of the Arts trip for next year! I’ve always wanted to go to this one! How quickly does art sell out? Do they ever restock?

 

[Araminta18]

FARTS Food! - Wednesday, January 17, 2024 (part 3)​

We made it successfully across the World Showcase - time for chalk art! The artists were out cause it was (finally ) not raining!

So cool to watch them work - they're so talented. And so fast! We were talking to one of them and they said they have 3 hours to finish each piece. I didn't realize they had a limit or anything like that. Fascinating.

We watched them for a bit, and then we headed over to the lagoon where they have a stage set up for the festival. The acrobats were about to do a show, and we wanted to watch it. It's not usually crowded, and we got a pretty good spot - the only bad thing was the sun was in our eyes and we foolishly had left our sunglasses in the room this morning cause it was cold and we didn't think it would get that sunny. It did though.

Anyways - the acrobats (not sure if that's what they're actually called but it's the best word I've got ) were awesome! Super cool to see.

I'm really glad we were able to catch it. So fun.

After that, we ducked into the gift shop right there to buy sunglasses, despite the show being over. It was bright! I got Haunted Mansion ones and Trevor got Mandalorian aviators. But...being in a gift shop we kept looking, foolishly, cause of course we found other things. Trevor got a cool Avengers baseball cap and I got a Baymax long-sleeved shirt that says "My caregiving matrix is not equipped to deal with this problem".

After that unplanned shopping trip, finally time for food! First booth was the Craftsman's Courtyard. We got the Grilled Pork Belly with salsa verde, broccoli rabe, pickled peppers, and raclette cheese on grilled sourdough:

I was excited for this one, cause the cheese was the raclette cheese they heat up and scrape off the big wheel...like this:

As far as how it was - it was a huge portion, much bigger than I expected. And it was good - more spicy than I expected (cause of the peppers), but I liked the cheese. Trevor didn't like the cheese. This was a solid entry but not anything amazing. And almost too big a portion? Which I realize is a weird thing to say for these expensive dishes but I like small portions that let me try lots of things. Overall good, nothing amazing. Probably wouldn't get it again.

We also got the Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak with caramelized onions and mushrooms, blue cheese fondue, and arugula on a grilled French roll.

I should have asked for this without mushrooms, but otherwise it was good. Another solid entry, but not like amazing. Probably wouldn't get it again either.

Next, we were heading to the Cuisine Classique booth to get Beef Wellington! We passed the chalk artists again so of course we watched them for a little bit again. Definitely one of my favorite FARTS things - just too bad the weather made it so we really only got to see them today!

Anyways, the beef wellington! Theoretically it was the same as last year, and last year the beef wellington was just gross. At least the one we got was essentially inedible. But when I started to see reviews this year, it looked different than last years, so I wanted to try it again. Glutton for punishment I guess? Trevor said he wanted to try it because we hadn't had Beef Wellington, only Beef "Bad"ington. Har har har.

So over to the booth! We were having good luck - no lines to pay and only a little bit of a line to pick up the food. Not bad, especially compared to some of the lines we'd seen on earlier days.

So...was it better than last year? Yes! I don't like the mushrooms, but it was definitely edible, even good. The puff pastry was warm and soft with a bit of crisp on the outside, the meat was tender, and then just a tiny bit of heat. And if you ate a bite with the meat and the mashed potatoes and the sauce and the carrots...delish. It definitely redeemed itself. Though it does highlight why I get sad when influencers are like "I'm not gonna order it 'cause it's the same as last year" cause even if the dish is technically the same/doesn't say "new" next to it on the menu, they still make changes. And to this dish at least, for the better.

Then, over to the Pop Eats booth! Though side note we walked by the booth we went to on the first day (with the paintings of the castles) and they had sold out of a couple of them. Made me glad we got them that first day we were here! The person said there would be restocks, but she wasn't sure when, which is basically the story of FARTS - restocks coming but you have to hope it's during your trip.

PopEats, despite my comment above, did have a bit of a long line to pay. So I waited in line and Trevor went off to find us a spot to sit and eat. The plan was to only get the grilled cheese and tomato soup, but I saw folks getting the cake and it looked so pretty, so I got that too.

Ok, so the cake: Rock the Dots White Chocolate and Orange Mousse with vanilla bean chiffon cake

I don't really love white chocolate, which is why I was gonna skip this one, but isn't it just so cute? And it was yummy too. Trevor thought it tasted like an orange creamsicle, with the vanilla and the orange.

And the Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese -

This was delicious. Kind of a small portion, but considering the price (i think like $5 or so) that's not bad for the festival. It was cooked just the way I like it (not too brown/burned) and I think the soup even had cheese in it? Delicious. This was definitely one of my top food booths at the festival. Trevor liked France better (cause of the brie bowl). I liked the brie bowl too but it was so small and SO expensive, whereas here you got more food and it was half the price. Though when I said that to Trevor he was like you get what you pay for and no, Trevor's just wrong about not liking grilled cheese.

One more Trevor dad joke for you - we had found a high table but we were sitting on one of the planter/benches things, and the table was just like 2 or 3 inches too high for the seat. Trevor's comment? "Next time let's give the table fewer drugs so it wno't be as high". ba dum ssssssssssss

We were getting a bit full, but we had one booth left that we wanted to hit, because it would allow us to finish our Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine! So over to Canada we went, for the Gourmet Landscapes booth.

First up, Verjus-roasted Beets with goat cheese, petite lettuce, blackberry gastrique, and spiced pecans (this was the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine item).

Sadly, this was a miss for me. I don't really like beets cause of the very strong dirt taste, but I was hopeful (after the really good beet salad I had at Le Cellier) that I would like this. But nah - the dirt taste was really strong and the cheese was both too strong for me and yet not enough to balance out or cover the dirt taste. I took a couple bites and was just like bleh no thank you. Trevor didn't really try it cause he knew he wouldn't like it. Looked pretty though.

Next, Roasted Bone Marrow with onion marmalade, pickled mushrooms, and petite lettuce.

This was a miss too. I like the taste, but I really don't like touching bones, and with the texture of the bone marrow you really have to scrape it out of the bone. *shivers* Actually I sneezed right before I handed Trevor the plate (I didn't sneeze on the plate) and Trevor was like "Oh you sneezed on it!" cause bone marrow has the texture of mucus (sorry if that's too gross!). But I can get over the texture once it's spread on the toasted bread - it just makes it hard to scrape out of the bone. If someone were to give me bone marrow already spread on toast, or in a ramekin or something where it was easy to just scoop it out and spread it, I'd 100% eat it. But in the bone...it's a lot of work for the effort. So good taste, but overall a miss.

The last item I had hopes for - the Wild Mushroom Risotto with truffle shavings and zinfandel reduction (Plant-based Item)

While they had this last year, they made changes to it for this year. And not for the better like the beef wellington. This year, instead of large parmesan flakes like last year it was shredded parmesan, and while last year there were only tiny mushrooms and such, this year it had huge chunks of mushroom. And while that's probably good for most folks, it was definitely not a good change for me. Oh well - you win some, you lose some!

So yea, overall all three dishes were a miss, but at least we could now get the completer treat for the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine!

I thought it was just the cookie, but it was also a berry smoothie and a souvenir cup. Nice! The cookie was pretty and surprisingly good. But then maybe i just like sugar. The smoothie was also good. I was pleased.

At this point, it was about 2:10, and our plan was to go to Disney Springs, but we spent more time eating than we thought we would, and also there are no buses to Disney Springs from the front of the park, which was essentially where we were (well, that side of the lagoon anyways). So we decided to head to the back to get Trevor's art signed (since the artist would start signing at 3), and then do a quick blitz to Disney Springs since we hadn't been there this trip and we wanted Gideons, and then back to Epcot for me to get some art signed by another artist who was signing from 5 to 7. Did we actually make this happen?! You'll see...

 

[Araminta18]

Loving all the updates!!! We were planning a WDW trip in March 2025 at the Boardwalk but ended up changing it to early Feb at Beach Club! But then, our daughter joined the girls bball team at school, and I think that's going to throw a wrench into my plans . One of these days I'll get to FARTS!!!

Oooh Feb at Beach Club! I'll keep my fingers crossed that your daughter's bball schedule magically lines up to make FARTS work. Some day you'll make it!!

I had to go back and reread from the start, since I’ve booked my very own Festival of the Arts trip for next year! I’ve always wanted to go to this one! How quickly does art sell out? Do they ever restock?

Yay! How exciting!! Where are you staying? and when are you going? I think we're probably gonna do FARTS next year but I always wait to start planning til they announce the Broadway singer schedule. As far as art...there's no real rhyme or reason I don't think. Some stuff goes super quick, some doesn't...they do re-stock but it's not like on a set schedule. The artists on instagram try and give updates, so I'd definitely follow people you're interested in, but otherwise *shrugs* Buy what you like when you see it? Sorry, I know this isn't super helpful! I did like going at the beginning of the festival because they did have everything, but they do restock so you don't have to go then.

 

[Wayland10]

Yay! How exciting!! Where are you staying? and when are you going? I think we're probably gonna do FARTS next year but I always wait to start planning til they announce the Broadway singer schedule. As far as art...there's no real rhyme or reason I don't think. Some stuff goes super quick, some doesn't...they do re-stock but it's not like on a set schedule. The artists on instagram try and give updates, so I'd definitely follow people you're interested in, but otherwise *shrugs* Buy what you like when you see it? Sorry, I know this isn't super helpful! I did like going at the beginning of the festival because they did have everything, but they do restock so you don't have to go then.

I’m really excited- it’s been at the top of my list for years! We’re going beginning of February, and staying at our favorite hotel, Animal Kingdom Lodge! We’re booked at Kidani right now, but I have a waitlist at Jambo house. It’s also going to be our 20th anniversary celebration, so we’re going in style! I wish we could have waited until we knew who was going to be there and had the dates of the festival confirmed, but other commitments mean we have to go then if it’s going to happen. I hope it’s safe to assume that FARTS will be happening in early February, but with how Disney is changing things, who knows? We were bummed that our usual August trip won’t overlap with Food& Wine this year.
I saw that last year the artist who does Gideon’s art was there with an Indiana Jones inspired piece that I’d have loved, so I wondered if they put everything out at once or hold some back to put out throughout the festival. I guess I’ll find out!
Thank you for your answers and your extremely fun trip report- you inspired me!

 

[Araminta18]

Epcot Afternoon! - Wednesday, January 17, 2024 (part 4)​

So, we were heading to the back of the park, but as our walk was taking us by the chalk artists, we stopped again and watched. They'd made a lot of progress!


Which I guess makes sense if they only have 3 hours for each picture!

As we got back near England, our plans changed yet again. We were getting a bit sleepy, so we decided to head back to the room and take a nap, then head back into the park at like 4:15/4:30ish so Trevor could get his picture signed. Then we'd watch the 5:30 concert with Heidi Blickenstaff and Gavin Lee again, cause they were amazing, and then we would go to Disney Springs. More manageable than the earlier plan!

Trevor and I did split up briefly - I wanted to blitz through the gift shops in the UK pavilion, and Trevor wanted to look in the Boardwalk gift shop for something for his office. I beat him back to the room and started on a lovely nap. Ooh, also look what the CMs had done by the closed skyliner!

So creative.

After our naps, we left the room a little before 4:30, and were at the tapstiles at exactly 4:30. Seriously best room location ever. As we headed towards the Star Wars art booth, we had to pass France and I saw they had a very short line, so we split up. Trevor kept going, and I stopped to get the chocolate cake and the brie bread bowl from the France food booth.

Food secured, I headed over to join Trevor at the Star Wars art booth. I got to see them doing something with the fireworks barges:

Kind of fun!

Over at the art booth, when I joined Trevor with the food secured, I found there had been a little bit of a comedy of errors! When Trevor got there he found the art was all packaged up, ready for shipping. Oops! So he asked the CM to unpackage it so the artist could sign it, and once unpacked, it turned out she'd already signed it earlier! Oops again! But since it had already been unpackaged, she personalized it. It was a fun conversation - she was super sweet and nice.

Honestly what I mostly remember about the conversation is that we talked about the cold and then her partner showed up with coffee and so she could warm up her hands. Anyways!

Picture personalized and repackaged up for shipping, Trevor and I grabbed a seat by Japan to eat the food!
Crème de Brie en Petit Pain: Warm creamy brie in a house-made bread bowl

Delicious. This was a bigger portion than we'd gotten last time, so that was good - felt slightly more worth the money.
Then the cake: Moelleux aux Noisettes, Croustillant Noisettes, Coulis Framboise et Mangue: Molten Valrhona chocolate cake, hazelnut crunch, and mango-raspberry coulis

This was not nearly as good as it looked. It wasn't bad, just super bland - no strong flavor and it just kind of was there. It needed salt, or stronger flavors or something. Even with the mango raspberry syrup it was still bland! Weird. Oh well.

Once we were done, Trevor headed to the pavilion to get us a seat for the concert, and I headed back to the France area to meet another artist and get the print I'd bought signed.

This was Kenny Yamada - he does these super cool pieces with the letters. I bought the Robin Hood one (in the picture) and also one that was a G for the Great Mouse Detective. It was so fun to meet him and talk with him a bit.

Picture signed, I headed back towards the America pavilion, only I got detoured. I stopped by Morocco and got three of the yummy cherry cookies!

I also decided to detour and stop at Joffreys to try their Pastel Pineberry Frost: A pastel work of art featuring frozen lemon, Minute Maid Lemonade, and pineberry syrup garnished with lemon, which they had special for the Festival. Maybe not my best idea in the cold, but still.

This didn't look like much, but it was delicious.

Trevor wanted a donut so I got him the bright pink one

Joffrey's had a big line so I was worried I'd be late for the concert, but I made it back just in time, with about 3 minutes to spare.