The Girls Do Food and Wine Trip Report! ****COMPLETED****

I've looked at the menu several times and I keep changing my mind. Now I want the pancakes....

Well, Nadia finally came by today with her $$$ for her tickets. I was afraid waiting so long we wouldn't get the fast passes I wanted. Guess what........ I got everything I wanted! Is it Food and Wine time yet??????????

See, this is my problem, people are always posting things I don't know about and I keep changing ADRs and adding more and more and more to my list of must dos!

This is happening, TOMORROW! I am still tired from the last trip. I've powered thru the last 2 days at work and now one more... I am hoping it is not a late day. I need some good sleep. I did get packed last night so that is out of the way. I decided not to take the laptop so I will post a recap when we return. I can't believe Food and Wine is finally here!!!!!

Hi all! We made it. Saratoga Springs is nice. But all of our transportation experiences have been awful so far... buses and boat took FOREVER. I will be driving today...

Dinner at Bongos was wonderful. Who knew coconut flavored tequila was soooooo good?

It seems overly packed again this weekend and I hear lots of rain is forcasted this aftenoon. I hope it holds out.

I drove yesterday to avoid slow transportation. Animal Kingdom then a very rainy Epcot for F&W after... we fought theu it, ate a couple soggy items... lol but it was fun. Cleared up a bit then stormed again. Up getting ready to go back now. Soarin this morning followed by the Festival Center amd more food!!!

I would have rather been sitting in a Subway. The crowds were AWFUL. I was expecting it but this was ridiculous. We gave up after 4 booths and left. I saw so many complaints across the boards and facebook groups that made me realize it wasn't just me overreacting. I will give a full run down when I get home! Hope all is well.

Ps. Finally visited the Wilderness Lodge. I may have fallen in love with it...

Well, I am back home again, safe and sound and already counting down to the next one. Just made Fast Pass selections for November and now working on this.

Thursday, I OVERSLEPT AGAIN!?!?!?!? I set my alarm before going to bed, I still don't know what happened, it said alarm set for 7 hours from now... When I heard JOE'S go off at 5:50 I knew I was in trouble as Nadia was supposed to be here at 6... I jumped up and started running around like a maniac! In my half awake, half asleep stupor and rush, I left my toothbrush, snack bag and my beautiful color coded and typed itinerary at home...

But, we survived... Nadia was a few minutes late thanks to a train and we were still pretty much on time when we got to pick up Kerry and Erica! We made a pit stop at the Florida Welcome Center for free orange juice samples and tons of pics. They had more of the coupons for the free Shutterfly books and we grabbed a few each! Then we headed on to Orlando where our first stop was the Character Outlet. As I was in line to check out, one of the CM's had the last Orange Bird pin I needed to complete my collection. Luckily I was buying pins and immediately made a trade with her! We browsed around a couple more stores and decided to head on to Saratoga Springs to rest. Our room wasn't quite ready but she told us which building it would be in so we parked and headed to the Paddock Grille for lunch since we never stopped. I had the Pork Belly sandwich, Kerry and Erica both had the Turkey Sandwich and Nadia the Vegetarian Sandwich. Our sandwiches were really good but we all wished we had gotten the slaw instead of the rock hard fries!

We got a text that the room was ready as we were eating so we went to the room when we were done. We were 4th floor with a perfect view of Characters in Flight! Room was very similar in size to the AKL room minus the huge wardrobe thank goodness. Kerry and Erica chose the pull out bed and we were going to switch off but they said it was quite comfy so we never did. We relaxed a while before heading to Disney Springs for dinner. We decided to take the bus... BIG MISTAKE. It was around 5 and we waited and waited and waited and waited.... When we got on the bus, we were there in like 5 minutes. We should have walked but I wasn't sure of the distance or direction... I will know better next time. We spent time shopping and people watching before our ADR at Bongo's! WOW, it was really good! The Cocoa Cabana Margarita was amazing! Coconut Tequila may be my new favorite!!!!!! We decided on getting several appetizers including the avocado salad, bacon wrapped plantains, empanadas, black bean hummus and the crispy pork bites. WOW, it was all great. We drank, we sang, we ate and we danced. It was a wonderful evening! After we walked and shopped more and stopped for gelato at Vivioli il Gelato. Nadia thought it was pretty close to authentic so she was happy. All of the flavors we had were really good!

We took the boat back to the resort... Another mistake... We waited and waited and waited AGAIN and then had another nice long walk to the room.... We showered and settled in to be ready for our first full day in the parks!

We also had a direct view of the Congress Park bus stop, I watched several people waiting the entire time we were there... I feel like the resort was really spread out and I don't think I would choose it again. The water was out of stock on all of the machines in vending area the entire time we were there. And our refrigerator leaked the whole time, I did call them about the fridge, but nothing was ever done. The carpet was wet every day.

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Well, since you said please....

Friday was an early day. AK opened at 8 so we were up ready for the attack. We got there about 7:35 and there was no line, I thought maybe I got it wrong again about the EMH... Nope, it was already open and everyone was in. It wasn't even blocked off at the tree. So we headed right for the safari. I was a little sad as there were NO giraffes to be seen. They are my favorite and not one was out. We only saw one elephant and one rhino... BUT, we did see the lion. Unfortunately he was up "taking care of business" A kid from the back of the safari jeep yelled out "HE'S TAKING A DEUCE!!!!!" to which the entire jeep was cracking up, even our guide. But it was nice to see him up and out as I have only seen him once. After the safari we planned on FotLK but since it was still so early we grabbed Starbucks, croissants and fruit and had a nice rest. It was already hot so it was a welcome break. We even had time to walk around the trails before catching the show. It was awesome as usual and I got some slow-motion video of the monkeys and fire dancer which is really cool. After we headed to Everest for Kerry and I to ride. All of the girls decided to do it and I laughed in line the whole time. Nadia yelled at me after and Ericka cried. It was awesome! Kerry said she laughed until she couldn't laugh anymore. Next up was Its Tough to be a Bug and Nemo. It was getting close to noon and we were STARVING so off we headed to Epcot!

There was a chance of rain today and boy, was it right... Our first stop was the Chew booth and where I got my favorite of the festival. The ravioli with zucchini and ricotta. I could have had every single one they had. the sauce on top was divine! Next was the Dominican Republic and the rain... luckily we were under a hut with 50 of our closest new friends and waited out some of it. We had the pork and fish both were great! I loved the pickled onions on the pork!! I finally gave up and just walked in the rain. We hit Hawaii for the tuna poke (DELISH) which we stood in the Port of Entry shop with 200 more friends then just walked and ate in the rain after getting scallops and salmon at Scotland. The scallop and tuna were high on my list again this year! The 12 yo scotch.... WOW! I can't handle that! Nadia got the moussaka from Greece which was really good and surprisingly a little spicy while we went for filet from Canada. They could just give me a little cardboard boat of truffle butter to dip all of my food from around the world in. We stopped for Gran Ma slushes in France and headed on. Next was Brazil for pork belly and cheese bread. This was one of my favorites last year, however this time it was small and dry, oh well, moving on. We got sweet and savory waffles in Belgium and baklavah in Morocco Sake in Japan was next. Then we grabbed a lobster roll in the good ole US of A and were done. We planned on only half of the park so as not to fill up too much. Little did we know, hindsight is 20/20...

We were about to boat back to Future world when the thunder and lightening started again... We decided to walk as there was a long wait for the boat... We slipped into the Cool Spot where I convinced everyone that the Beverly is delish and got some great video of Kerry calling me an a**hole after downing a whole cup! LOL Nadia said it wasn't bad but she knows of nothing like it in Italy. SpaceshipEarth had no wait so we hopped on then after decided on grabbing a bite at Sunshine Seasons instead of getting caught in the impending storm in the parking lot. We relaxed a while, Kerry and I didn't get anything while the girls settled on fish tacos and the veggie sandwich. The storm passed and we headed to the car and back to SSR to rest up for the rest of F&W or shall I just say Magic Kingdom.

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Oh, the hot air balloons.... We saw tons of them this trip. Every morning from the balcony we saw several lifting off and more as we drove to the parks. They are so pretty just floating around up there. I've never seen so many on other trips.

Moving on to Saturday or the day I gave up. We headed to Epcot early for our Soarin fastpass. Nadia did much better this time. The Character spot had a 5 minute wait so we met the gang. They were so much fun this morning. We got to spend a lot of time with each of them with no line and they were all very happy and active. Mickey lined us all up and posed up then stood in front of us and posed for a pic of just him LOL After, we thought we would run into Starbucks really quick for coffee but it was packed. With nothing else to do until booths opened at 11 we just waited. We browsed Mouse Gears then hit the Festival Center. We arrived at Florida Farm Fresh at about 10 after 11 and this is where the waiting began.... about 10 minutes later we had our mac and cheese. While it was good, I still prefer the bacon hash and hope they bring it back! I tried the Raspberry Cider and really liked it. The pumpkin reminded me a little of Fireball but still, I'm not a fan of "pumpkin" anything.... We split up and hit the Australia, Patagonia and New Zealand booths, this took about 25-30 minutes. We had the lamb chop, venison, meatball, mussels and salmon. Everything was good but we were so hot already the 4 of us were pushing it to eat it all. I wanted sweet corn cheesecake BAD but the line... ok BOTH lines for Mexico were madness. We regrouped, decided the lines were not going to get any better and decided to grab a margarita from La Cava. It was not open yet and the line was out the door. We hoped in a boat for a short ride around Mexico and decided to hit the outside Margarita booth... Again a mistake. We walked over to La Cantina de San Angel hopped right in line and got margaritas, guacamole and a table. We decided to head to MK and not look back. It took for ever just to get to future world. It was body to body. I knew it would be busy but I never imagined it this bad...

On the way to MK, I decided I wanted to check out Wilderness Lodge since I never have. OMG, I LOVED it!!!! Other than the heat, when we walked out back I didn't even feel like I was in Florida. So pretty. I have already told Joe I must stay here! We headed to the parking lot for MK and decided on hitting the Poly for Dole Whip first. Another needed break from the scorching sun before heading in. MK was busy but not as bad as Epcot and not as busy as last weekend.

We started looking for food. I finally got a chicken waffle and we also tried the prosciutto one. And tracked down the cheeseburger springrolls. Pirates was open and had a 50 minute wait, we didn't have a FP until 2 hours later so we hopped in line. We waited maybe 20 minutes! YAY I didn't notice much change either but my shoes did get soaked... again... We walked all around the park, we rode The Little Mermaid, took the train all the way around the park, and used our FP for Haunted Mansion. We decided to leave before fireworks and caught the Mine Train with a 40 minute wait. This one did not work in our favor, it was at least an hour but it was fun!

Question, last week and this week, we used the "back exit" from the park it goes from Tomorrowland and behind Main Street. Has this always been there??? It is awesome!

Again, one week later, same time and same place, I was watching Wishes from a ferry. One night I will make it thru an actual Wishes show in the park. It will have to be a day we stay in and go to MK late LOL.

Tomorrow is checkout.

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Sunday, we were pretty tired and slept in as much as we could. We packed, watched more balloons and headed out for breakfast. I decided on Captain's Grille since I saw the pic of the lobster omelet.

After lounging around, we still arrived an hour early but they weren't packed so we got a table. I ordered the lobster omelet of course, Kerry and Ericka got the poached eggs with crab and Nadia got the buffet. I wish I had gone for the poached eggs. The omelet was teeny tiny and so bland. The hash browns were the saving grace with the sweet potatoes in them but they were a little overcooked too. Needless to say, this was not a favorite of mine. We hit the gift shop, the ladies room and got a couple last pics then hit the road for home.

In all, it was a really fun successful trip.
I would never do F&W on a weekend again... I would never do F&W without the dining plan again (especially now that you can exchange for snack credits)...

I mentioned it on Joe's Birthday trip report, I saw lots of smoking the last 2 trips... I don't care if you smoke, just go where you are allowed. I understand they have taken away some smoking spots but still... walking thru the parks, on the train, in lines it seemed out of hand these last couple trips

There was more people coming thru lines again this time... I almost decided to do the same, excuse me, excuse me, my family is up ahead, excuse me... ugg

Countdown is on for Thanksgiving, made FP selections last night! WOO HOO

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