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

[VAtink]

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.

Thanks for following along! It was such an awesome trip, so glad my mom and I are such good travel buddies!

I always wonder when I'm there if I'm going to recognize someone from these boards or if someone is going to recognize me. So far hasn't happened, but I'm certain one of these days it will!

 

[bethbuchall]

My daughter and I just did our first Mother-Daughter trip and our first time at Food and Wine. We stayed at the Yacht Club, too, so I can't wait to read more about your trip.

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 2: We Finally Made it to a Ride!

Once we finished up with our pictures, we made our way over to the Festival Center so my mom could do a bit of shopping. Not surprising…we stopped for more pictures on the way!

Look how empty Epcot is!!!


The photopass photographers finally came out so of course we stopped for some pictures with them!







mmmm....wine....


At the festival center, we picked up some items and had them shipped to the hotel. They had this cool water infuser that I picked up as a gift to myself. I'm good at getting gifts for myself.

Next up we went to check out the chocolate sculpture display. I’m so fascinated by these, they are so intricate, it’s hard to believe it’s all edible!





By the time we wrapped up with the shopping and staring at chocolate it was time for our first FP of the day, Soarin!

We headed over to the land and over to the ride. There was hardly any wait and soon we were on. For the first time EVER we were finally in the first row! It was fantastic not seeing all those feet dangling in front of us for once!

While we were in the short line for Soarin, I checked MDE and noticed that our next FP, SE, was down. I asked my mom if it was still down when our FP time came up if she would be ok using the anytime FP that would become available on our third scheduled FP for the characters that was later in the day much earlier so we could spend more time at the food booths and then get rid of that third FP. She loved that idea, and when it was time for our FP for SE, it was still down so we got those anytime FPs! YAY!

We headed over to the Character meet to use the anytime FP, and this time the line was minimal! Phew! Epcot had pretty light crowds that day, and we were loving it!

We had some great interactions with all of them! Mickey was giving out lessons on how to pose, note I listened and got the foot pose right!






We were getting hungry by then, so couldn't wait for the food booths to open! We wish they opened a bit earlier. With all the walking we do first thing in the morning we get hungry early while at Disney!

Next up…we finally get into the food! ​

 

[VAtink]

My daughter and I just did our first Mother-Daughter trip and our first time at Food and Wine. We stayed at the Yacht Club, too, so I can't wait to read more about your trip.

That is so awesome...I love mother daughter trips! I hope you guys had a great time as well!

 

[mamamelody2]

Great start to your TR!
Sounds like your trip was amazing!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 3: Food Booths are OPEN!

After meeting with the characters, we made a quick hop to the front of the park to do the photopass pictures. Yeah, we are still obsessed with them!



By then it was almost time for the food booths to open, so we headed to the first booth we wanted to try, Canada! Ok, I technically already tried it, but my mom really wanted to do that first that day, so I happily agreed to get the filet mignon again! We also both got the moosehead radler, I loved it so much the day before, and my mom wanted to try it after hearing my rave review!


Once again it was delicious!


So those people in the boat there are actually fishing! I had no idea you could do that in Epcot!

Next we went over to the New Zealand booth where we both got the lamb meatballs. My mom really liked them, but I just found them to be ok. The meatball part itself was fine, had a nice spice to it, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of the pastry it was on. Just seemed like soggy bread.



Once we finished the meatballs, we went to Australia where my mom got the lamb (my mom REALLY likes lamb) and I got myself the Coopers Brewery Original Pale Ale. My mom liked the lamb, I had a taste but once again it wasn’t my favorite item. The beer was really good though!


The Lamb from Australia

My goal for this trip was try at least one item from each booth, so at the booths where none of the food stood out to me, I just got a drink. Thank goodness the drinks are small because there were a bunch of booths I didn’t care for any of the food, so I ended up ordering a LOT of drinks!

After the lamb, my mom decided she was full, but I still wanted to try one more thing, so we slowly made our way around WS. We ended up stopping first at Farm Fresh and each got the cider flight. I loved the raspberry cider in it, but I wasn’t a fan of the other two, they were just too sweet. My mom however loved the ones I didn’t. Haha!


The cider flight, and my beer from Australia.

Once we had finished the ciders, we continued around WS, stopping at the Mexico booth so I could try the spicy apple margarita. It was ok, but not my favorite.

I sipped on that as we continued to make our way around WS, peaking at menus of the booths as we passed them in case something stood out to us. Finally at the China booth I found what I wanted to be my final snack of the day, the chicken pot stickers!


The potstickers from China and the margarita from Mexico (per usual when we got tired we forgot to take a picture before taking a bite...oops!)

They were really good, but basically just the same stuff I can get at home, so not exactly special. Still I’m glad I got them! One more booth checked off my list!

It was so hot by that point, and we were getting tired, so decided to head back to the YC for some quality rest and pool time!

We made our way out and back to the YC. As we walked by stormalong bay we were thrilled to see it wasn’t crowded at all! So we ran upstairs, quickly put on our bathing suits and headed back down for some pool time!

The pool was still empty when we got down there so we had no issues finding some chairs. It was soooo nice to be back in that pool! We absolutely LOVE the sand bottom and could spend hours wiggling our toes in it! What a perfect afternoon break!

Next up…Boo to you! ​

 

[VAtink]

Great start to your TR!
Sounds like your trip was amazing!

Thanks! It was such a great trip, we just love heading down to Food and Wine!

 

[DisBride572011]

I cannot wait to try the filet in Canada!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 4: Boo to you (and big boo to Disney buses)!

Wahoo, two updates in one day!

After a fantastic mid-day break, we started getting ready for the Halloween party! Yay! This year we both dressed up as pumpkins!

We got changed into our costumes and were out the door a few minutes before 2:30. I wanted to get to MK a bit early to do some pictures, ride some rides and do some shopping. Unfortunately the Disney bus Gods had different plans for us.

We arrived at the bus stop at 2:35, and there was no time listed on the board for MK yet, but there were a bunch of people standing around in costume, so we assumed a bus would arrive soon since there were so many people already waiting.

Soon after arriving the time updated and showed the bus arriving at 3:01. Ok, that seemed like a rather long wait, but we figured we, and the others there waiting, had just missed the bus. As we were waiting I kept checking the time board, and the arrival time kept getting further out! What!?!?! Suddenly it was up to 3:13, then 3:18. Oh my goodness, did the driver get lost????

At around 3:00, I decided it would be a good idea to try out the new Minnie van service, so went to the front desk to get that set up on my phone. The CM at the front desk typed a bunch into the computer, then sent me a text with a link to click on to get my Lyft app updated to include the Minnie Vans. Sadly, I followed her instructions and the Minnie Van option never showed up. Ugh. She took my phone and played around a bit, had another CM come over to try to get it working, but neither of them could figure out why the option wasn’t showing up. Grrr….technology fail. So I headed back out to the bus with the bad news that Minnie Vans were not going to happen on this trip.

Finally at 3:18 we see the bus coming! You would think we’d be whisked away in a moment, but oh no, this was not our lucky bus day!

Just as the bus was turning into the bus stop, a truck decides to pull out in front of it completely blocking the road! Um…seriously?

The truck then proceeded to attempt to back up into what I assume was a loading dock, but I suspect this was a novice driver and he could not for the life of him get the angle right so had to keep pulling out again to retry. This whole time the MK bus just sat there, blocked by this dumb truck.

Finally, at 3:26, 51 minutes after we arrived at the bus stop, the bus pulled up! Worst experience with bus service at Disney ever.

We all loaded onto the bus, then we were off to BC to pick up a ton more people. The bus was packed, not surprisingly!

We arrived at MK right around 3:45. By that point I really had to use the bathroom, so I suggested since we had park hoppers we just head in the normal gate so we wouldn’t have to wait for the Halloween party gates to open. My mom liked this idea, so we headed over to the entrance on the left.

I got through no problem, but my mom kept getting the blue light. I had headed into the park thinking she was right behind me, but then I turned around and she was talking to a CM who was ushering her over to the Halloween party line! Um no.

So I ran back over to them and told the CM that she has 6 day park hopper tickets just like me, and that I got through no problem, so she should as well. He scanned her band again with his tablet, and told me he only saw her party ticket, no park hoppers. Fortunately I had MDE pulled up and showed him, and he finally, rather begrudgingly said “fine, you can go in.” Um, hello grumpy CM, I just proved we weren’t lying and you still have that attitude with us?

By the time we got in, they had started letting the party lines in. Since most people were still getting their wrist bands, we popped quickly over to the photopass photographer at the front of the park to get a shot before all the party people streamed in.



Next up we finally made it to the bathroom! That was a long uncomfortable wait!

Since it was after 4:00 at that point, we headed over to Tomorrowland Terrace to pick up our lanyards for the dessert party, but no one was there yet to hand them out. We then decided to head over to Tomorrowloand to pick up our wristbands and our trick or treat bags. There was a bit of a line there, but it moved pretty fast, the wait was about 10 minutes.

Once we had our wrist bands and treat bags, I suggested to my mom that we head over to our ADR to see if we could be seated early for dinner. She loved that idea since we could then get into the party activities a bit earlier than planned to make up for arriving almost an hour after we had planned. On the way over, we walked through Tomorrowland Terrace again, and this time a CM was there to hand out the lanyards for the dessert party, so we picked ours up and continued on our way to the Jungle Skipper Canteen for dinner!

Next up: It’s starting to feel like Halloween!​

 

[VAtink]

I cannot wait to try the filet in Canada!

It is SO good! It's been our favorite two years in a row now! And if you like grapefruit or lemon-y beers, I also highly recommend the Moosehead Radler. So refreshing!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 5: It’s starting to feel like Halloween!
(and my goodness, what a busy day, we're already on part 5 and we're not done yet!)

After getting our lanyards for the dessert party, we made our way over to Jungle Skipper Canteen for our (hopefully) early dinner! On the way over to dinner we stopped by some photopass photographers (of course)!





We got to dinner right after 4:20. Our reservation wasn’t until 4:40, so we were just a bit early. When we arrived there was a family ahead of us also checking in, they had reservations at 5:30 and wanted to check in early too, and the CM let them, so I was certain they’d allow us to as well!

Not surprisingly, the CM did let us check in early, and within 5 minutes we were seated! Alright, luck was turning around. Phew!

It was our first time eating there, and we really liked the theming of the restaurant! If you have read any of my previous trip reports, you know how much I love cheesy jokes, so not surprisingly this place was a hit! Our waitress was great with all the cheesy jokes, it was awesome!

For dinner my mom ordered the noodle bowl with chicken and I got the sustainable fish. The fish was excellent, and my mom really liked the noodle bowl but was surprised by how spicy it was!


My fish!


Mom's noodle bowl (and me)!

I also ordered a glass of wine with dinner and my mom got a blue moon. It’s so odd being able to order alcohol in the MK now, but we like having a drink with dinner so we are happy we can!

We wrapped up with dinner right around 5:30. As we were waiting for the check I took a look at what the wait times were for the rides. I was surprised at how low they were already! Last year they seemed a lot longer in the pre-party hours!

The wait time for Pirates was listed as 10 minutes, so we decided to head over there since it was so close. The wait ended up being a bit longer than that, I think we waited closer to 20 minutes, but it was still pre party time so not horrible! As usual we loved this ride!

It was about 6:00 when we got off, so we decided to make our way over to see if Donald was meeting yet or if they line had formed. Meeting pumpkin Donald was one of our top priorities since our costumes matched this year!

We got to the tents close to 6:15, and went to ask a CM there when Donald would be out to meet. He informed us that the meeting wasn’t in the tents, but down the stairs by the circus carts instead, and that he wouldn’t be out until after 7:00. Oh, well that put a wrench in our party plans. We had read on these boards that Donald had been coming out to meet around 6:20, so this was a bit of a surprise.

There didn’t seem to be a line yet, and we didn’t want to stand around for 45 minutes, so we decided to head back to HM since the wait time was listed at 10 minutes.

This time there was absolutely no wait, and we were on our doom buggy in no time! We love riding this at the start of the party, really sets the mood for Halloween!

Once off we stopped at the photopass photographer there to get our hitchhiking ghost shot!



It was around 6:40 by the time we wrapped up with the photopass photographer, so we decided to make our way back to meet with Donald. Our party plan was falling apart fast, originally the goal was to avoid running back and forth like that, but at least we were able to get more steps in! Just to note, I totally destroyed everyone in my fitbit workweek challenge this week, thanks in part to all this running back and forth!

Next up: We finally meet the ducks!​

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 6: We Finally Meet the Ducks!

We made it back to meet Donald by 6:50, there was a line of people sitting on the wall, so we went and got in that line. I asked the couple ahead of us if that was the line for Donald and they confirmed it was. As we were waiting about 4 groups in front of us got up and just walked away. Eventually the couple I had inquired about the line earlier also got up and left. Odd. I started to worry that maybe we were in the wrong place, they had no signs or anything, so we just assumed that couple knew what they were doing!

So I asked the family that was now next to us if they were in line for Donald, they were not. Uh oh. So we walked by them, and I asked the next group. This next group fortunately was and confirmed we were in fact in the right place, phew!

Donald ended up coming out around 7:05. There wasn’t a long line ahead of us, maybe 15 groups, but the wait ended up being about 40 minutes because Donald and Daisy spent a lot of time playing around with each group.

Finally, it was our turn! YAY!!!!

Donald immediately noticed that we matched! We had such a fun interaction. Daisy was not happy that Donald liked our outfits so much, so Donald had to protect me from her!



Then for some odd reason Donald decided he wanted us to squat with him? Haha, not sure what was going on, but we couldn’t stop laughing!


Daisy does NOT look happy!

Finally, we grouped up and got a nice shot of the four of us.


It was a longer wait than expected, but we’re glad we did it, we had so much fun!

Next up, we headed back towards HM again (yeah, we didn’t do this well...SO much running back and forth!). I had wanted to go over to Big Thunder, but as we were walking by HM I saw they were doing the lantern photo, so I insisted we stop!





We wrapped up with those photos around 8:00. BTMR was still showing a wait time of 40 minutes, and my mom was worried about being late for the dessert party since they told us to be there by 8:30. So we decided instead to make our way to Main Street to take some pictures while waiting for the Halloween party to start.

Next up: Desserts and Happy Hallowishes!​

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 7: Desserts and Happy Hallowishes!

We made our way to Main Street, but still had time to burn, so we stopped by a bunch of photopass photographers on Main Street. Love getting the pictures of the castle all lit up!







Around 8:20 my mom started getting antsy and wanted to go get in line for the dessert party. I thought it was a bit early, and didn’t want to lose so much party time, but I finally agreed.

When we arrived they were already letting people in, so it’s good we got there a bit early! We were lucky we were a group of two, since they were seating all the groups of two along the railing looking out to the castle, so we had a great view of the show!


Our view of the castle for the dessert party and fireworks!

We got our welcome glass of sparkling apple juice, then went up for some desserts! I started out with a bowl of ice cream, then later went and got more of the goodies!





It was actually a really nice break to sit there and have some snacks and just rest for a bit. Although after a while we did start to get antsy. Having it start at 8:30 is just way too early, we ended up being there for two full hours!

Eventually the show started! My mom decided to film the whole thing!

The fireworks were great as always, and we loved being able to watch them while sitting down in a nice calm environment!

After the fireworks, we left through the back entrance and headed over to Tomorrowland!

Next up…We get Competitive!​

 

[DisBride572011]

That’s a great view of the fireworks!

 

[VAtink]

That’s a great view of the fireworks!

The view was great, it was fantastic not to have anyone in front of us, and to be seated and have desserts to nibble on made it so amazing!

BTW, I see you're only a few days away from your trip! So exciting!!!! Hope you have a fabulous time!

 

[DisBride572011]

The view was great, it was fantastic not to have anyone in front of us, and to be seated and have desserts to nibble on made it so amazing!

BTW, I see you're only a few days away from your trip! So exciting!!!! Hope you have a fabulous time!

Thank you!! I am sooooo excited!!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 8: We get Competitive!

After the fireworks dessert party we made our way over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz! In the past I could never beat my mom, like ever. Last year was the first year I ever beat her. Well, my shooting skills have clearly improved because this year I beat her easily on our first ride!

She would not accept defeat so insisted we ride it again. Good thing there was no wait! We rode it again, this time she controlled the spinning since she was positive that’s how I won. Once again, I beat her! HA!

She still refused to accept defeat so we rode again, this time we switched seats since she now thought it was the seat that won, not my mad alien shooting skills. I yet again beat her though!






(I swear this isn't how I kept winning!)

I’m pretty sure my mom could have kept ridding that until she did eventually win, but I wanted to do some trick or treating and ride some more rides, so she agreed to leave, just as long as we made sure to play again later in the trip!

We headed out and through Tomorrowland. We stopped for a few minutes to watch the dance party! It was so cute watching Mike and Sully dance! If we had more time we totally would have joined in, but we were on a candy mission!

As we made our way around the park, we stopped at all the trick or treating stations we passed. It was after 11 at this point, so I was surprised to see how many people were still trick or treating! Last year by the end of the night there was hardly anyone still doing that, but this year there were still lines at some locations! Although, the party felt more crowded than it had last year. We figured we had a bunch of people at ours who had rescheduled from the hurricane the previous week to bump up the crowd level.

When we got to 7DMT, we decided we might as well hop in line for a ride! The posted wait time was 40 minutes, but we only ended up waiting about 20. We ended up in the last row and it was so much fun!




It was around 11:30 when we got off the mine train, so decided to continue making our way around trick or treating. As we were making our way through Fantasyland I noticed they were doing the Rapunzel lantern shot, and there was only one family in line! YAY!!!!! So we hopped in line as well. I had SO wanted this shot, but wasn’t sure we would have time for it, so we were SO happy we got it!





Next up we swung by HM again to get the photopass picture.



By that point it was about 11:45, but I still wanted to ride BTMR! So we hightailed it over there to get on. It was fun as always!

It was about 11:55 when we wrapped up there, so decided to hit up as many trick or treat stations as we could as we made our way to the front of the park. We ended up getting a ton of candy, but it wasn’t as good as last year where hardly anyone else was trick or treating and the CMs just dumped handfuls of candy in our bags. This year there were a lot of people still out, so we only got small handfuls at each station. Sadness. (although I don’t know why I care, I still have candy left over from last years Halloween party!)

We finally made it back to Main Street, and decided to pop into the store to pick up the Halloween party ornament, then we made our way to the front of the park.

This is where I made a big ol mistake. The one photopass picture I wanted that we didn’t have time for was the headless horseman at the front of the park. Last year we had planned on getting it when we left at the end of the night, but the photographer was gone by then. So when we left at 12:10, we figured the photographer would once again not be there. Ugh, big mistake. After we exited the park I look back to see they photographers were still there! NOOOOOO!!!!!

Although there were very long lines for those shots, the place was still packed that night, definitely a lot more crowded than our party last year!

We made our way to the bus, and this time didn’t have to wait, which was really nice! Soon we were on our way home to rest up for another full day of fun!

Next up: Well that was an unexpected wake up!​

 

[kastoney]

Hi there, just finding your report and it looks like you and your Mom have the best time together. We're headed to F&W after a 3 year gap next month and you're getting me so excited for all the goodness. Can't wait to hear more

 

[suse66]

I am enjoying your trip report so much! I remember reading all about your adventures with your mom last year and am excited to hear all about this years! You certainly had an amazing time at MNSSHP and I love those pics with Donald and Daisy. You two are also staying at one of my favourite resorts!
Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[VAtink]

Hi there, just finding your report and it looks like you and your Mom have the best time together. We're headed to F&W after a 3 year gap next month and you're getting me so excited for all the goodness. Can't wait to hear more

Thanks for following along! I'll get back to posting about all the food goodies in my next post. So exciting you're heading down to F&W soon! Hope you have a great trip!

I am enjoying your trip report so much! I remember reading all about your adventures with your mom last year and am excited to hear all about this years! You certainly had an amazing time at MNSSHP and I love those pics with Donald and Daisy. You two are also staying at one of my favourite resorts!
Looking forward to hearing more.

Thanks, and welcome back ! The party was so much fun, and the ducks were hilarious! They definitely seem to interact more with the guests at the party, which was awesome!

Isn't the YC fantastic? We love that place so much!