Travel Day 1
We had a pretty uneventful trip from Dallas, TX to Biloxi, MS. Well if you count traveling with 2 dogs, an 81 year old grandma and a husband who could only have liquids to eat uneventful 
. We made it to my parents around 8pm.
Disney Day 1-Going from bad to worse
We were up and on the road around 7:30am. We stopped in Tallahassee, FL for lunch and arrived in Orlando around 5pm. The hint of things to come started at the guard gate when we tried to get in. "I'm sorry ma'am we don't have a 'Graham' listed for check in today" 
the nice man at the gate stated. I started fumbling around with my iPhone trying to find my confirmation email but he waived me thru before I could find it. We gave our luggage to the bellman and headed to the front desk. I kept thinking it just had to be a problem when I transfered the resrevation from All Star to Boardwalk. While waiting in line I was finally able to open my reservation and had quite a shock. The agent had changed my dates from Oct 10-14th to Oct 31st-Nov 4th when she changed my reservation from All Stars to Boardwalk. Of course I did not have the original paperwork from the reservation at the All Stars because it was the same conformation number and I left it back in Dallas. I didn't look at the email reservation when it came it; I just did like I always do and filed it away in case I needed it. How the dates got changed I have no idea. Never once were those dates mentioned and they were not the orignial dates booked. Finally it was my turn and I explained the situation to the nice CM. I was shaking and visablly upset. I just kept thinking its a holiday weekend of Food and Wine Festival there is no way we are getting a room here. The fear of having to stay off property started creeping up on me. 
Raymond was very helpful and called his manager over. I gave them the conformation number as well as the post it note that I had with the dates and conformation number. I also gave them the letter with my MNSSHP tickets on it for the date of Oct. 13 which was dated May 6th. TJ, the manger, took all this information and went to the back to call CRO. I don't know how long I waited a the front desk but it felt like hours. Finally, TJ came back and said that they had a big convention here this weekend but based on what they could see was a mess up with CRO they were going to literally give us the last room they had. 
What a relief! We completed our check in and headed to room 3319. Lesson of the day: ALWAYS CHECK THE DATES. This is something I have never had a problem with but I can assure you that going forward I will be opening each and every conformation email Disney Destinations ever send me.
We waited for our bags to arrive in the room,packed up the backpack, and then began the walk to EPCOT. Boy is it nice to walk to EPCOT and not have to worry with a bus. We started to walk clock wise around World Showcase, first stop Canada for some Cheddar Cheese soup and a glass of wine. Since hubby was still on a liquid diet, I let him have the majority of the soup and I had a greek salad from Greece. We continued around World Showcase stopping by the Margarita bar for a Fiesta Margarita and then the bottom fell out It started pouring! We made it to China before it really got bad and took refuge under the tea cart. Hubby was starting to get really grumpy. He wanted a beer (but couldn't have it due to the fill of his band on Wed.) and was upset about not being able to really enjoy much of anything at the Food and Wine Festival. The rain was just the icing on the cake. Finally it started to taper off and we made the decsion to ditch the F&W for the evening and go to SpaceShipEarth. Just when we got on the ride a close friend of my husband called and said they had just arrived at EPCOT and were headed to China to eat dinner. We told them we would meet them when we finished the ride. We walked over to the Lotus Blossom to grab a quick bite. It was nice to see our great friends and their little girl. The food was suprisingly good and it was a place we had not tried before. It was almost time for Illuminations so we walked straight out towards the lagoon to watch. It was EMH and we had though we were going to try and stay but between all of the draining expereiences we just decided to call it a night. We stopped by Canada on our way out and picked up another soup this time for each of us and walked back to the Boardwalk.
Tomorrow's plan: Disney's Hollywood Studio and more Food and Wine
Let's remember it all started with a mouse
--especially with the entourage with which you were traveling!
When I first stayed in an Epcot resort it was like Nirvana! 