Hello again everyone! I realize it's been a while since I've blogged but
my recent trip gave me some new things to blog about. Instead of the
format I used of going day by day in my last trip report, I'm just going
to divide my trip into certain topics.
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| View from my room at Bay Lake Tower |
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| Contemporary at night from Bay Lake Tower's entrance |
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| The Grand Canyon Concourse in the Contemporary |
We stayed at Bay Lake Tower at The Contemporary Resort and The Boardwalk
Inn. Our home DVC resort is The Contemporary so I knew what to expect
there, but it was the first time I stayed at The Boardwalk. I was in a 1
bedroom Villa with my family at both resorts. Going from Bay Lake Tower
to The Boardwalk made things pretty apparent that The Boardwalk rooms
are kind of dated. I'm guessing they haven't been majorly renovated
since their opening in 1996. The villa was noticeably smaller than Bay
Lake. Both were one bed room Villas but Bay Lake's was far more spacious
and modern. Another sign of being dated was the lack of chargers at the
BWI. I had to unplug the alarm clock to have a free outlet for my
phone. BLT also had 2 full bathrooms while at BWI there was only one
bathroom. It had another area right outside of it with a whirl pool and
extra sink, but this area had no door between the main bedroom, so you
were out in the open.
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| Kitchen in The Boardwalk Inn |
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| Living Room |
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| Bedroom |
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| Bedroom |
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| Sink/ whirl pool area with bathroom through the door to the left |
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The Food and Wine Festival
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| 1996 Epcot map- first year of the food and wine |
On to the trip itself. It was my first year visiting
during the festival and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was the 20th anniversary of the food and wine festival this year! I was able to get a free pass-holder commemorative wine glass. You just had to get a book stamped twice and collect it on the third day. Be aware that they don't ship the glass to your resort (at least they didn't for me) so you're going to be carrying it around all day. It was in a box that kept it safe though. The main event of course is the food! Food highlights
included the cheese fondue and cheese trio at the Cheese Studio, and liquid nitro chocolate almond
truffle at the Chew Lab were a true highlight, especially the latter.
It's unlike anything I've ever had, like a truffle meets moose.
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| Fondue |
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| The Chew Lab Dessert |
Beijing
roasted duck in China, and buttered chicken with naan in Africa were
familiar enough to me but still great. The sausage and cheddar cheese
soup in Canada is what is served at Le Cellier and did not disappoint.
The Kahlua pork slider in Hawai'i, and Beef empanada at Patagonia were
pleasant surprises. The slider had Asian infused flavors while the
empanada was tastier than I could've imagined. The Belgian waffle in
Belgium, and warm chocolate pudding in Ireland were great desserts. I tried a few more foods but these were my favorites.
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| The Odyssey Center |
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| Inside Odyssey |
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| Festival Center |
Also open were the Odyssey Center (formerly Odyssey Restaurant) which
had some beer flights and snacks, and The Festival Center (formerly
Wonders of Life pavilion). Inside they have a wine shop, a making of the
festival video, a ghirardelli chocolates area, and a booth. The main
draw though is the tasting seminars. I was able to book one the day before I
went to it. The chef was
from Boma at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. He cooked a short rib dish served on mealie pap, sort of like corn meal.
Although it was smaller than it appears in the photo it was very good.
About the size of the other food options at the festival, and it came
with red wine.
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| Short rib dish |
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
This was also the first time I visited during Mickey's Not
So Scary Halloween Party. It was a nice event with very low wait time
for rides and a special parade, shows, fireworks, and of course trick or
treating at different spots. Cast members gave out candy which included
classics like Snickers, Kit Kats, Butter Fingers, Baby Ruth's, Airheads,
etc. Craisins had a stand in Tomorrowland giving away chocolate covered
Craisins, while Werther's Caramel was in front of The Little Mermaid
ride. The lines weren't too long, and the CMs gave you about 5 or so
pieces at each stop. In case you're wondering, no I did not dress up. That's just not my thing.
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| Parade |
I had dinner at The Columbia Harbour House (I usually only go for lunch) and was able to get the chicken pot pie there. It was outstanding. I liked the use of panko bread crumbs instead of a top crust. They also had specialty snacks for the event. I had a candy corn ice cream cone. It was just vanilla soft serve with orange dye on half of it. It also had candy corn at the bottom. Unfortunately the bottom of my cone got too soggy and it started dripping out.
The new hub design allowed me to watch HalloWishes
from Main Street for the first time in a while. It included The Haunted
Mansion Ghost Host Narration, projected Halloween images on the castle,
and a 180 of fireworks at the end (meaning the surrounded the whole area behind the castle). With the low wait times I was also able to
go through the new queue area for Peter Pan. It looks a little different
in person than from the videos I've seen online, but it's really well
done with great new effects.
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| HalloWishes from Bay Lake Tower |
Disney's Animal Kingdom
With so much work going on at The Animal Kingdom, here's a little photo update of the progress as well as some pictures of the new Harambe Market.
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| Avatar Construction area |
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| Soon to be floating mountains |
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| The new shop Zuri's Sweet Treats connects to the store already there |
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| Harambe Market |
Disney's Hollywood Studios
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| The view now that the hat's gone |
Of course DHS is getting a major expansion including a new Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land. The Great Movie Ride has been updated now that Turner Classic Movies is sponsoring it. The pre-show and end montage are new and the narration has been updated. I had a meal at my favorite restaurant here; The Hollywood Brown Derby. I had the classic Cobb salad as an appetizer and it was great as always. For dinner I always ordered the duck, but it's no longer on the menu so I had the new beef wellington. It was really good and worth coming back for.
This was my first trip visiting The Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios new Starbucks locations as well. The Animal Kingdom's is African themed and really nice. They have the paper straws there like all other locations in The Animal Kingdom. Hollywood Studios has a new seating area next to the Starbucks. I was able to watch the citizen's of Hollywood performing across the way from there.
Disney Springs
I
went to Disney Springs one night and ate at Fulton's Crab House for
the first time. I ordered the jambalaya and it was very good. I'm not
the biggest seafood eater but wanted to try something interesting. I
got a look at the new Morimoto Asia and it looks amazing. I hope to go there
when I come back in January. They aren't taking reservations yet though. For dessert I went over to Ghirardelli's where I got cookie's and cream ice cream with Ghirardelli hot fudge on it.
Trader Sam's Grog Grotto
This was also my first visit at Trader Sam's. I sat at the outdoor area where I tried the spikey pineapple alcohol drink exclusive to the outside bar. It tasted just like a dole whip. For food I had the Kahlua pork tacos, the pan fried dumplings, and corn battered Portuguese sausage. It was all really good but pretty small, so don't expect to have a full dinner there, more of a late night snack.
So that's everything! Please share comments or questions below and follow me on twitter. By the way, I had said earlier that I would do a blog about the Milan Expo and never got around to it. There doesn't seem to be much interest, but tell me below if you want me to write it. If there's enough interest, I will!
