Aw, my Frose went back to being Rose - 2019 Food and Wine Adventure! RL Update 4/22!

Happy Saturday everyone! I finally got around to writing the next few chapters of this TR. Sorry for the delay! Things have been nuts around here. For years I wished I had a job where I could just work from home all the time. Well be careful what you wish for I guess! Trying to run projects and an office and manage people remotely turns out is not easy so it's been weeks of very long days. Fortunately I had a vacation scheduled for this week, and I decided even though I'm not going anywhere now, I'm still going to take the time off for I guess a change of pace? Regardless, got all my stuff tied up and put someone else in charge for the next week, so I am finally free to do fun things again, like reliving our most recent trip!

Day 7, Part 3: The Skyliner!

After wrapping up at Oga’s, we made our way out of the park. It was time to try something completely new!

We made our way out, and over to the Skyliner!

When we got there, there was only one other family there, so we were ushered into our very own cabin! I was psyched that we got one without the wrap, I really wanted to be able to get a good view out the window.

Here’s a video as we made our way out of HS!



I was amazed at how much I enjoyed this! I wasn’t a huge fan when they were announced, frankly thought they would ruin my beloved IG! Still not entirely sure how much of an impact they have there, it didn’t seem too much different during this trip outside of the CM previews, but they did JUST open to the public part way through the trip so I wouldn’t say we have the best data.

The ride to CBR was nice and smooth, and very breezy! It was actually a pretty windy day, and we did notice the sway, but it was never enough to be uncomfortable. There was also quite the breeze in the cabin! The vents at the bottom really allowed for a lot of air flow, so we got the hair standing straight up picture!



When we got off at CBR to switch, it took us a minute to figure out which side to go to. I’m sure there were signs, but we were totally oblivious to them. Fortunately there was a CM standing there who asked where we were going and then pointed us to the Epcot line. We were the only people there, it was awesome!

Once again we ended up with a cabin without wraps, so we got some more video of our trip.

On this leg we ended up behind a wrapped cabin and we could not figure out who the characters were on it! So if anyone wants to take a look, there is a video posted at the end where you can see it.

At the Riviera stop, we stayed onboard, but asked the CM working there while our door was open if he knew who the characters were on the gondola ahead and he just looked at us like we were crazy. HA!

Oh well, we tried!

We continued onto Epcot, and got a nice view of the Ratatouille construction. Cannot wait for that ride to open!



As we were pulling into the Epcot station, it started to rain. Noooo! Ok, not the end of the world….and in fact resulted in a nice empty park!

Here are some more videos from the ride! You can see the characters we couldn't figure out in the second one.




Up Next: Back to the Food Booths!
 
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That skyliner ride looked like so much fun! Thanks for posting that. We all need a little Disney in our lives right now!

I had to cancel my trip for the first week in June and not sure when I'll reschedule. I hate all this uncertainty, but the important thing is that people are healthy and safe.
 
That skyliner ride looked like so much fun! Thanks for posting that. We all need a little Disney in our lives right now!

It was really fun, I was surprised how much I liked it! I think it's our preferred way to get between HS and Epcot now! It's so true about needing some Disney in our lives right now. I've been reading so many TRs lately trying to get my Disney fix!

I had to cancel my trip for the first week in June and not sure when I'll reschedule. I hate all this uncertainty, but the important thing is that people are healthy and safe.

I'm so sorry you had to cancel! I'm really worried that our trip this fall will end up being cancelled too, but who knows how this whole thing will pan out. We're still planning hoping for the best, but kind of expect that it won't be happening.
 


Day 7, Part 4: Back to the Food Booths!

When we got off the skyliner it was drizzling a bit, so we quickly made our way into the park, then stopped under the awnings at the store there to wait the rain out. I’m glad we did, within a minute of getting there the sky opened up!

Fortunately the downpour didn’t last too long, only about 5 minutes, and once it was just a little drizzle we made our way into the park.

Our first stop was France, it was time to try this year’s beef and the la passion martini slushy!



We started eating at one of the tables in France, but soon after the rain started to pick up again, so we made our way to the gazebo there and just sat on the ground to enjoy our goodies.

The beef was good as always, always one of the top dishes of the festival for us, and the martini was just as amazing as I remembered it!

While camping out in the gazebo, I ran up to the food booth again to pick up the crème brulee for my mom and the fondue for myself.



The crème brulee was fantastic! The fondue was good, it’s hard to go wrong with a bowl of melted cheese, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the bread it came with.

As we were finishing up our food, and CM came over, and told us we had to move because a princess was coming out to meet there. I was actually a bit shocked at her attitude, I guess she assumed we’d argue about it, but she was downright rude about it! So we, and the other families that had joined us in the gazebo, all got up and made our way out just in time for the parade of people to file in to meet the princess!

We quickly finished up our food at the tables, then made our way to the next food booth, Brazil!

Here we both ordered the Brazilian seafood stew. I also ordered the red wine, which I used the full name when I ordered (been learning Portuguese so it was fun practice!), and the CM working the booth just gave me a blank stare and goes “I’m from Illinois, I don’t speak Spanish.”

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I ended up telling him I just wanted the red wine.

We picked up our food and made our way over to the tables in that area. It was still super quiet back there due to the rain so we had plenty of tables to pick from. Everything was still wet, but so were we, so we didn’t mind sitting in wet seats.

Ok, to the food. The stew was absolutely amazing! We were so surprised! My mom still talks about it and how she can’t wait to get it again!



It was also kind of perfect for the dreary day. It was pretty chilly (by FL standards) with the rain and being wet, so a warm hearty stew was the perfect snack!

I don’t have any notes on the wine, so I assume it was good!

After we left Brazil, the weather started to clear up, yay!


Next up: We are hungry hungry hippos.
 
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I'm curious. For which princess did you get kicked out of the gazebo?

I know most CMs don't get paid much, but geez, they don't have to be rude.

I thought they tried to get people from each of those countries working the booths. That's pretty funny about the CM from Illinois!
 


I'm curious. For which princess did you get kicked out of the gazebo?

I believe it was Belle, didn't actually jot it down in my trip notes.

I know most CMs don't get paid much, but geez, they don't have to be rude.

Right? I mean, I somewhat get it, there are far more jerks out there than I'd like to believe. I worked one summer in a customer centered roll, and that was a one and done, people can be pretty awful. But still, we weren't arguing at all, we were just sitting there enjoying our food, no need to be rude!

I thought they tried to get people from each of those countries working the booths. That's pretty funny about the CM from Illinois!

Me too! I was so excited to try out my Portuguese! What a let down! Haha!
 
Hi! I’ve read a couple of your TRs and enjoy reading about your trip! The green gondola that you were trying to figure out the characters on is the Zootopia gondola! Hope this solves your mystery. Lol
 
Hi! I’ve read a couple of your TRs and enjoy reading about your trip! The green gondola that you were trying to figure out the characters on is the Zootopia gondola! Hope this solves your mystery. Lol

Thank you! And yes! Finally the mystery is solved, thank you so much!
 
Guys, this “vacation” week has not turned out the way I planned! Not only did I end up actually working 20 hours by Tuesday afternoon, but to top it off, my laptop had a stroke on Wednesday morning right as I was trying to send out a proposal to a client that was due. First it was the blue screen of death and it automatically restarted. Awesome. Then, when it restarted, one of my drives was missing. Like totally completely gone, there was a big ol question mark over the folder. Seriously??? And, I’m sure you can guess, the proposal (ie the 20 hours of work I had done the past two days) was on that drive. Also, slightly more upsetting, this TR was on that drive….and I had the next two posts already written. NOOOOOOOO!

Needless to say I was in a complete panic/totally devastated. So of course I Googled the problem to see if I could fix it, and I tried every solution I could find, nothing worked. UGH. Fortunately there is a computer repair place just down the street from me, so I got in touch with them and they were happy to have me swing by to see if they could help. So I turned off the laptop, and started getting ready to go out. Well, a few minutes before I left, the computer place emailed to verify I had tried restarting. Um, duh, that is the first thing I tried. But then I starting thinking that knowing my luck, I’m going to show up at the place, turn on my computer, and the folder would magically be back. So I decided to turn the laptop on again just to check since I didn’t want to deal with that embarrassment, and BOOM….the folder was suddenly back! I immediately transferred everything from that folder to an external hard drive, then let the computer place know it was fixed.

So yeah, that was a crazy stressful morning, but good news I got my proposal back AND this TR! Which of course means….new update time! YAY!

Day 7, Part 5: We are Hungry Hungry Hippos

After wrapping up at Brazil we headed over to Morocco. My mom got the hummus fries there and I got the mimosa.





I had gotten the hummus fries last year and really liked them, and my mom was bummed she hadn’t tried them back then. She really enjoyed them this time around! I thought they were good as well, but they seemed different than from last year, like less crispy? I dunno, they still tasted good, just not quite what I remembered.

The mimosa was of course yummy. And wow, writing these trip reports I’m shocked how much I actually drink on vacation! Thankfully they’re all small pours!

After wrapping up in Morocco, we strolled around WS looking for our next stop. It ended up being at Japan where my mom really wanted to try the Sake.

I’m not a huge fan of sake, but I was pleasantly surprised at the one my mom got. I still probably won’t be buying a bottle of it for myself, but it was much better than I expected!

We strolled while my mom sipped her drink (hence no picture), and finally found ourselves at the American pavilion, where I had my eye on some food!

As the sun was full out by this point, all the guests seemed to have come out of hiding and it was getting pretty crowded. So I had my mom go save a table with some shade while I went up to get the food.

I ended up getting the slider and the beer flight. My mom decided to get some action shots of me getting the food.







The slider was SO MUCH FOOD. I couldn’t finish. It was delicious though! The beer flight was good, but I was getting full, so my mom ended up drinking half of each sample.

We sat there enjoying the shade and food for a while. Our feet were getting super tired at this point, it was a long week of a lot of walking in flip flops! We documented us each propping our feet up to rest while there. HA!





Finally around 1:15, we were getting close to our FP+ time, so slowly made our way back out into WS! Our destination, Norway! It was time for FEA!

We lucked out and were assigned row 1!



After riding we decided to head over to that new donut booth. I really wanted to try the Boston Crème lager!



I figured this beer would be either really really good, or shockingly bad. Thankfully it was really really good!

We only sat in that area for a little bit, we were both getting tired and were ready for our afternoon break, so we started to slowly make our way out of the park while I enjoyed my drink.

Of course we took PP pictures!



On the way out, we swung by Canada so I could pick up a shirt for my dad that says “Papa Bear” on it. My dad always calls my mom ‘mama bear” and me “Debbie bear”, so it seemed perfect! (Plus it was on sale!)


Next up: That Time Mousekeeping made us Cry
 
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Well, this "vacation" week decided to throw a few more curve balls before it ended. After working half the week and then having my computer die, I thought that was the worst of it, but oh was I wrong. Very very wrong. Turns out the week saved the best for last, and I ended up having to have surgery on Friday! Seriously, worst vacation ever. Things are better-ish now, but the surgery did a number on me and I'm feeling pretty icky and just want to sleep all day, but at least the week is over so hopefully better times are ahead! At least with all this down time I can really focus on finishing this TR! Silver lining! And sorry for the bummer update...followed by a bummer TR post...bad TR timing!

Day 7, Part 6: That Time Mousekeeping Made us Cry

After wrapping up in Epcot, we made our way back to the hotel. We ended up getting back to the room at 2:50, only to arrive just as mousekeeping was entering our room. I asked her if she could just skip our room today since we wanted to go in to rest and didn’t need anything. Well, her response completely shocked us. Instead of letting us into our room, she pulled the cart up against the door and yelled at us that she needed to clean our room and she would be there for a long time so to just go away.

Seriously?!?!?

My mom had had enough at that point, and was just exhausted, so went to go sit in the chairs at the end of the hall, while I waited outside of the room. My mom’s foot was also really bothering her, and she was about to break down, so I figured it would be good for her to just sit in a quite spot for a bit.

About 10 minutes later, a CM came by to ask what I was doing standing in the hall. So I explained to her what had happened, and she was livid and exclaimed that this should never happen (no kidding). She went off to talk to a Mousekeeping manager, who eventually swung by.

The manager scanned my magic band to verify that it was in fact our room, then pulled aside the cart the Mousekeeper had barricaded the door with to enter and speak with her.

After a few minutes she came out and was super apologetic and reiterated that this should never have happened, but unfortunately the mousekeeper had pulled all the linens off and the room was a mess right now, so we unfortunately could not go in now until she was done.

At this point I was struggling to hold back tears. I’m totally not someone who cries often, but after 9 hours in the parks, and just being so tired after a week of running around, I had just had enough!

Finally, over 40 minutes later, the mousekeeper emerged and let us back in the room. At this point we were both just so annoyed, yet so exhausted and desperately needed showers, so we just went in and ignored the glares that woman was shooting our way.

Ugh, such a horrible experience. Not the best way to end the trip!

Anyways, at least the rest of the day was fun!


Next Up: We Just Can’t Stay Away From Epcot
 
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Oh my goodness! Your pandemic "vacation" sounds like quite a doozy! I'm so sorry about all of it, especially surgery! Glad to hear you're home and on the mend and hopefully things start looking up! And I officially declare you get a do-over vacation as soon as possible!

Back to your TR. I guess the skyliner isn't as bad as I feared but it's just not for me. It does add to the IG crowd and for the life of me I can't understand why, at rope drop especially, they aren't staffed to have all lanes open (both security & the magicband tapstiles). That seems basic to me.

Seeing your F&W pictures is bitter sweet. I love, love, love that time of year. Like you, I have a fall trip planned (actually just made ADRs) but it was hard to really get into planning as I'm not at all certain the trip will happen.

Lastly, what in the holy heck got into that housekeeper? Blocking you from your room?? Wow. You'd think she'd be excited that there was one less room to have to clean (I would be!)!
 
I'm so sorry about your surgery! I hope you are feeling better!

Wow what a horrible situation with the mousekeeping!! I'm glad you were able to tell someone about it but it stinks that there was 1) nothing they could do since she was already deep into the cleaning but also 2) that they didn't offer you anything to make up for the inconvenience!
 
I hope you are feeling better after your surgery and it was nothing serious!

UMM i would have been so annoyed at mousekeeping, and i would have complained, i am not a huge complainer, but when its bad i will complain! Honestly she was being completely unprofessional and rude! I am so sorry!
 
I hope you are feeling better after your surgery and it was nothing serious!

Thanks! Feeling a lot better. Still can't believe the bad timing of this whole thing. HA!

UMM i would have been so annoyed at mousekeeping, and i would have complained, i am not a huge complainer, but when its bad i will complain! Honestly she was being completely unprofessional and rude! I am so sorry!

I was soooooo livid. That woman was the worst. I'm glad the manager stopped by so she knew what was going on, but still, what a pain to have to deal with this!
 
I'm so sorry about your surgery! I hope you are feeling better!

Thanks! Feeling so much better! Was an interesting few weeks though!

Wow what a horrible situation with the mousekeeping!! I'm glad you were able to tell someone about it but it stinks that there was 1) nothing they could do since she was already deep into the cleaning but also 2) that they didn't offer you anything to make up for the inconvenience!

Yeah, it was so ridiculous. I still cannot believe how rude the mousekeeper was, I have never seen anything like that from a CM there!
 
Oh my goodness! Your pandemic "vacation" sounds like quite a doozy! I'm so sorry about all of it, especially surgery! Glad to hear you're home and on the mend and hopefully things start looking up! And I officially declare you get a do-over vacation as soon as possible!

I love the idea of a do-over vacation! Hopefully sooner than later!

Back to your TR. I guess the skyliner isn't as bad as I feared but it's just not for me. It does add to the IG crowd and for the life of me I can't understand why, at rope drop especially, they aren't staffed to have all lanes open (both security & the magicband tapstiles). That seems basic to me.

Yeah, I still do really wish it went to the front of the park instead of the IG. Fortunately we didn't experience a huge increase in crowds at the IG when we were there, but it had just opened to the public and we also didn't rope drop. I do have to say leaving at night and seeing the line for the skyliner wrapping around and extending over the bridge to the BC was pretty shocking, and also made me very happy that I was a short 7 minute walk from my room!

Seeing your F&W pictures is bitter sweet. I love, love, love that time of year. Like you, I have a fall trip planned (actually just made ADRs) but it was hard to really get into planning as I'm not at all certain the trip will happen.

Oh I know. I finally have free time to finish this TR, but it's hard getting in the mood for it. Hate all the unknown for this year. I miss the days of planning for F&W!

Lastly, what in the holy heck got into that housekeeper? Blocking you from your room?? Wow. You'd think she'd be excited that there was one less room to have to clean (I would be!)!

Haha, right?!? I still cannot believe how she acted. It was bizarre and so frustrating!
 

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