Food and Wine Festival (Final, and last pictures added 11/4) About This Page:

[tkd lisa]

Saturday, 14 Oct

I woke up about 5:30 and took a walk. Our room was just outside the Congress Park quiet pool, and there was a beautiful fountain by the water. I sat outside and had my devotions, then headed down to check in to our studio. I asked to stay in Congress Park so I wouldn’t have to move the van. She told me we’d be in building 16, and gave me our new keys. I headed back to the room and started getting everyone else moving. I had set a wake up call, and found out something interesting. At this resort, you don’t “self service” for wake up calls. The front desk does it for you! It took me a while to figure it out since I was looking for the self service button [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ; We got the standard Stitch/Mickey wake up call (no Haunted Mansion today [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] ).

I fixed Pancakes for the family. I realized that I hadn’t brought any butter or Pam, but the skillet in the 1 Bedroom was great! Nothing stuck and the pancakes came out really good for a “just add water” package! While the family finished packing up, I took my little cooler down to guest services to keep it in their refrigerator. DS took advantage of the gigantic shower and said it was really nice. My family definitely enjoyed the nice bathroom in the villas! All four of us took a nice bath in the Jacuzzi tub. Having the two sinks split between the shower room and bathtub room made it easier with two teens. Overall, I’d say that the one bedroom villas at SSR get a 4 star rating from my family!

We were at the bus stop for MK by 8:30 and made it to the gate just at the finish of the opening show. DS wanted to spend time at the VMK. He had two challenges to turn in, so he kept his pass and a cell phone. DD wanted to ride Space Mountain, so the rest of us headed that way. As we headed down Main Street, my mom decided she wanted to get some candy for her neighbor who was taking care of her mail. It turns out that they won’t ship food back to the resorts (or mail it to you either) since they can’t guarantee that it will still be fresh. I told Mom that we’d stop by Downtown Disney on our way home to get something there (cue the villainous laughter, since this fits right into my plans!).

Then we were off to Tomorrow Land. I left my Mom the passes so she could get FPs for Buzz Lightyear for us while DD and I rode Space standby. It was about a five minute walk through, and I realized I had NEVER ridden this standby, always FP. We rode the left side which was another first for me. Once outside, Mom was nowhere to be found. DD headed off to ride Stitch while we waited. Mom finally showed up. She had been taking pictures of kids playing in the water sprays. Our FPs weren’t ripe yet (not until 10:10) so we went through standby (about a 10 minute wait). DD rode by herself, and Mom and I rode together. We’ll just forget those scores, since they were pretty pitiful! Once off, our FPs were ripe, but DD decided to head off on her own. Mom and I rode Buzz again, and my score was a little better. She had to take a picture here though.



Then we stopped by the Stitch topiary near the TomorrowLand restrooms. Mom wanted a picture there for DD, since she loves Stitch so much.



We also took a couple of snaps for a honeymooning couple. I think this was when I realized that they had changed all the celebration buttons. I really like the new ones. The birthday buttons have a spot for your name, and the celebration buttons are more specific. They say things like "1st Disney trip" and "Happy Anniversary". Since we always try to acknowledge people who wear the buttons, it makes it easier to say Happy Birthday Johnny, or "happy anniversary" instead of just congratulations.

From here, we headed across the park. We planned to ride Pirates, meeting DD there. On the way, I detoured over to pick up FPs for Splash Mountain, which were good for 10:50-11:50. DD and Mom caught a bit of the pirate tutorial, and we headed into pirates. Both sides were open, and the wait was listed as 20 minutes, which was pretty accurate. We snapped a few pictures in this area.



As we started the ride, DD’s cell phone buzzed several times. She pulled it out and said “We’re on the ride, we’ll call you back!” This was the first time Mom and I had ridden POC since the re-hab. I really enjoyed the effects! DD really enjoyed Jack Sparrow. Oh, sorry, I mean CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow! Once off the ride, I call DS and he said “Mom, Hannah’s coming over. So I’m going over to EPCOT to meet her.” I said “Where are you?” He said “I’m going to the bus stop”. “Whoa there young man! First of all, there’s no BUS from MK to EPCOT. Secondly, you actually left the park! By yourself?! Back inside RIGHT NOW!” Sparing you all the family drama we ended up giving away our Splash FPs. DD had ridden by herself while Mom and I were meandering over to Pirates, and I didn’t really need to ride anyway. Of course, I had to stop by Aloha Isle on the way to pick up a Dole Whip Float! Yummy! $4.25 on my rewards card and a tasty treat for the three of us. We met up with DS at the train station and figured out exactly what was going on. I managed to sneak a couple of pictures of him while he wasn't looking. He's hit that camera shy stage.



Now that we were face to face, it turns out that DS’s girlfriend’s family was coming over to EPCOT for a few hours and they had arranged to meet at Test Track at 1:30. Okay. Not a problem. It was about 11:30 by now, so we took the monorail over to EPCOT. DS and DD rode up front to the TTC, then joined us for the last half of the ride. DS had cleaned up at VMK. He had two new wrist bands and a stack of trading cards. I told him he had to stay with us to eat lunch, then he could go over to Innoventions. And I promised to get TT FPs so that the kids could all ride once Hannah got there.

Up next: More eating around the world, Tea Tasting, and the Nemo ride