In late July, as a result of our monthly trip planning this past year, I decided that in order to celebrate my birthday milestone during the month of October, we would make a flying trip down to Disney World to visit EPCOT's Food and Wine Festival and the Magic Kingdom's Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.
Pictured: Heather and Augie at the entrance to EPCOT.
In order to keep costs down and maximize our two park days, I opted to once again rent a room at the Air B&B site that has served us well for our other 2 trips to the parks. This was a great decision, since 27.5/58 hours we were in Florida were spent in the room, and 85% of that time was spent sleeping (I actually did the math on this one)! While this particular lodging was not how I would prefer to spend an entire week at Disney, it put a roof over our head and provided us a place to clean up after a sweaty park day.
Pictured: Toby and Harper take a mirror selfie in our Air B&B before heading to EPCOT for the day.
We had great success flying Allegiant out of Rockford and renting a car from National. Both were relatively cheaper (and far more convenient) alternatives than flying out of Chicago and trying to navigate bigger city issues including heavier traffic and higher expenses.
Pictured: Augie, Harper and Heather waiting not so patiently on the airplane to de-board.
Thursday, October 13: EPCOT Food & Wine Festival
We began this park day by getting through security and tapping into the park by 9:10am. For reference, we left our Air B&B and hit up Starbucks at 8:35am! That's pretty phenomenal timing for not being on property! We paid extra for preferred parking ($45), and scored a beautiful "end of row" parking spot. From there, we went directly to Soarin', where we had about a 35 minute wait.
Pictured: A very fuzzy picture of Augie in the Soarin' queue.
After Soarin', we were headed directly to Cosmic Rewind thanks to our spot in the virtual queue. This spot in line was reserved at 7am by my former student and current Disney cast member. He added my entire family to his My Disney Experience app, where he was able to log on and snag our spot. We had an approximate callback time of 10:36am, but by 8:21am, our group was already being called! Fortunately, once you have your spot in line, you can still use it at any time, so there wasn't a rush to get to the park and head to the ride or the fear of losing our spot in line! We only had a 30 minute or so wait in the line, and because we were traveling with cast members, they knew to ask for the "best" seats in the queue (row 9 was the agreed upon favorite)!
Pictured: Toby and Augie outside Cosmic Rewind.
Pictured: The Johnson family on Cosmic Rewind, which clearly made Toby and I very happy, Augie concerned, and Harper check her glasses!
This ride is probably my new favorite at Disney, surpassing my love of Rock n' Roller coaster at Hollywood Studios! At this point, we decided to start enjoying festival foods and pause our rides in favor of flavors! If you want to know more about the items listed below, visit Disney Food Blog's list of all of the items, including pictures. My reviews are listed on my Facebook and Instagram pages as well.
We started with the adobo yuca fries from the Fry Basket and the PB&J wings from Brew-Wing.
Pictured: Adobo Yuca Fries & PB&J wings.
From there, we made our way toward the entrance of World Showcase and quickly hit up the Hawaii and The Noodle Exchange for a Kalua Pork Slider and Char Siu Pork Udon.
Pictured: Kalua Pork Slider from the Hawaii booth
Pictured: Char Siu Pork Udon from the Noodle Exchange Booth.
We entered World Showcase and began in Canada and Refreshment Port, ordering the braised beef poutine, Le Cellier filet mignon and the cheddar bacon soup. These were some of my favorite foods from the entire day. If I could only afford one stop, it would be here in Canada!
Pictured: Braised Beef Poutine, Filet Mignon, and Cheddar Bacon Soup (partially devoured)!
Our next stop was to attempt ride #3 for the day: Remy's Ratatouille Adventure; however, the line was outdoors with a posted wait time of nearly 105 minutes! We decided to try to come back later, hoping the line would go down so we could enjoy the newer ride.
We did, however, then try to cool off in Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie, where a KidCot stop also is. I left my family to try to cool off while I stood in line at the France booth, where I purchased the creme brûlée with raspberry jam and a three cheese beignet, one of the most controversial items on the food list this year. As evidenced by our garbage can pic, the beignet was one of the worst items we tried. Would. Not. Recommend.
Pictured: A three-cheese beignet and creme brulee.
At this point, I was incredibly hot, and Harper was willing to attend the Beauty & the Beast sing along. It was an 11 minute wait and a 15 minute show, so Toby and Augie stayed at the KidCot stop to cool off and color, while Harper and I attended the sing along. It was a perfect way to cool off and see some neat costumes in the holding area before entering the show.
We left France and headed toward the Brazil and Belgium booths, where we got a waffle with chocolate ganache and beer-braised beef with smoked gouda mashed potatoes. Toby snagged Brazilian cheese bread. We met up at a table between both booths and sat and snacked on these items.
Pictured: Braised beef and potatoes and a Belgium waffle from the Belgium booth.
Pictured: Brazilian cheese bread.
It was still pretty warm at this point, and the kids were getting full, so we decided to wander gift shops and meander through the World Showcase. We did not do this last time, so it was fun to really immerse ourselves in each country. We also watched the drummers perform in Japan, which was fun!
We prioritized grabbing the carrot cake from Hops & Barley in the America pavilion, also hitting up the restrooms there.
Pictured: The warm carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. The best $4.50 spent at the festival!
We continued wandering through World Showcase and thoroughly enjoyed a juggler and street performer in Italy. His highly entertaining and immersive show captivated our family for a few minutes, allowing us to enjoy this little slice of World Showcase. We also picked up an order of gnocchi with vodka sauce, which my family promptly demolished! This was probably the most kid-friendly item we ordered!
Pictured: Gnocchi with vodka sauce.
We wandered toward Norway and hit up the Alps booth for warm raclette with riesling-soaked pears and wine-braised figs, which was an item I was very excited to try! How can you go wrong with warm cheese???
It was a total disappointment, however. Firstly, my poor kids had to cover their noses as we walked by the Alps booth. The cheese smell was that strong! Secondly, because of the cheese smell, it impacted the flavor experience. Maybe if I had gotten the ham dish, I would have been better off. Needless to say, this dish was not for us.
Pictured: Warm raclette Swiss cheese with figs, pears, and pecans.
We decided to pause our food quest and try getting in line for Frozen Ever After. This ride had a posted wait time of 95 minutes, but my Touring Plans app said the expected wait was 78 minutes, so we decided to give it a try. It. Was. A. Disaster. Not only was the queue still quite warm, but it was a nearly 2 hour wait! While the ride was very cute, it was nothing terribly exciting, and the single longest line my family waited in. There was near mutiny. The Lightning Lane movement felt like it prevented us from making any progress. There was so much time between us moving in line that we had time to sit down. In line. I'm grateful the little girl in the picture below, who was next to us in line, enjoyed herself; however, as you can see from Toby and Augie's faces, this ride was not worth 2 hours in line.
Pictured: The Johnson family on Frozen Ever After.
After 2 hours waiting in line, we all needed to use the potty and get something to eat and drink. Augie was begging for popcorn or a pretzel, so the kids and I made our way back to Germany to grab a Mobile Order from Sommerfest. I picked up a giant pretzel and quite a few cups of (FREE) water, and we snacked on the pretzel while Toby grabbed the crispy paneer from the India booth and met us in Germany. I also decided to place a Mobile order for Karamel-Kuche for a caramel flight and a caramel chocolate cookie. I was desperately hoping the gingerbread caramel cookie would be available, but it wasn't when we were there (although I see it is available now :( ....)!
Pictured: Caramel flight and chocolate caramel cookie from Karamell-Kuche and Augie with a giant pretzel from Sommerfest.
Pictured: Crispy paneer and mango ketchup from the India booth.
At this point, it was nearly 7pm, and with Harmonious scheduled for 9am and us still not having ridden Remy, our day was winding down and we had so much left to do! We decided to visit Treasures of Xandar to see the gift shop, then hit up Club Cool to try the infamous Beverly, as well as the Creations Shop for Epcot 40th merch, followed by our final cheese crawl stop and "free" gift. We had to do all of this in time for our end of day shows/rides that we didn't want to miss.
We hit up Flavors from Fire to round out our "cheese crawl," and purchased our 5th and final cheese-related festival item: smoked corn beef with potatoes and cheese curds. We ate these while walking to Treasures of Xandar.
Pictured: Corned Beef and potatoes from Flavors from Fire.
We wandered over to Xandar, where Augie picked up a Yondu piece, which comes with an arrow that lights up when you whistle!
Pictured: Augie with his Yondu "do" in front of a Xandarian Star Blaster.
We hustled over to Club Cool to take a shot of Beverly, where all of us turned up our nose at its bitterness, then indulged in a sip of some of the more palatable flavors.
Pictured: Harper holding a swig of Beverly...
We walked through the Creations shop, where I purchased a tee shirt that I'd been eyeing since our last trip, and I snagged a photo with Figment!
Pictured: Heather and Figment.
Heather and Augie sat outside the Creations Shop to have a minute, while Harper and Toby ran to Shimmering Sips for the cheese crawl "prize": cheesecake in a souvenir cup!
Pictured: an empty cheesecake cup
It was 8:15pm, and we knew that we had a long walk if we wanted to get to Remy's and see Harmonious. The posted wait time for Remy's was still at 45 minutes, which would mean that we'd miss Harmonious. Harper didn't want to miss the show, and Augie didn't want to miss Remy, so Toby stood in line with Augie, and Harper and I found a viewing spot for Harmonious in Morocco. Harper and I reveled in Harmonious, which was an incredible nighttime show, and Augie and Toby got to ride Remy (although the ride went down while they were in line, thus prolonging their wait)!
By 9:45pm, the park was clearing out, and Harper and I waited in an empty France for the boys to be done riding Remy. Have you ever seen such an empty park? It was quietly glorious!
Pictured: Harper captured a beautiful shot of the empty France pavilion in World Showcase.
At 10:00pm, one hour after park closing, we hit up the bathrooms nearest Spaceship Earth, and our last photo ops before leaving the park for the day.
Pictured: Heather and Toby waiting for Augie in the bathroom outside Spaceship Earth.
Pictured: Augie and Heather at 10:08pm before exiting the park!
All in all, day 1 was an incredibly successful 20,000-step day with lots of food. While all 4 of us weren't able to ride all 4 rides or see all the desired shows, by dividing and conquering, everyone left the park happy. There were a few food booths we wanted to try but didn't get to, as well as some extra foods we hadn't planned on eating, but with the exception of Beverly and the cheese beignet, it was a successful food festival day!
I'm sure you're wondering about cost, so I want to be clear: each festival item runs between $4.50-$9.50/per item. However, because we shared food all day and only bought two bottles of water, refilling them as much as we could throughout the day, we spent $175 on all food and drink. While this is an absurd amount of money to spend on food in one day, it averages to about $58/per person for the day, which isn't too shabby, considering we did all of our eating in park and brought nothing in with us! We paid more than that for one table service lunch in Magic Kingdom last year! If it's in your budget, I'd highly recommend visiting the EPCOT Food and Wine festival. It was an awesome adventure that our entire family enjoyed.
Stay tuned for day 2 trip recap, where we visited 3 parks in one day!
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