Our Fall 2014 Trip Report - Coming to You Barely Live from Orlando About This Page:

[shazza]

Update: Day 3, Part 2 Moving to the Boardwalk and More Food!!!


If you're keeping track, we are missing Day 3, Part 1. That is the Wild Africa Trek. Which we did go on, and I will post all about it. But, since I need to download the photos from the WAT website, we'll wait for a later post. I'm going to skip ahead and talk about the rest of our day.

After we finished up at Animal Kingdom, we made a short detour off property to pick up some drinks and snacks for the rest of the week. This was good, because it gave us an opportunity to come back through the welcome sign:






Our destination was the Boardwalk Villas. This is our first stay at the Villas, although we've been to the Inn before. Awesome. It just felt so much more like Disney as we entered the lobby. I will give a summary of our Bay Lake Tower stay at the end of this report - it was good, but the Boardwalk felt like "Home."

We checked into our awesome room, which was ready before 3pm (more details to come later). We just relaxed, took a short nap, and then we were ready to go. Our destination was dinner at the Rose & Crown. When we checked in, we received all of the items for the F&W Premium Package. This included new Magic Bands (remember this). The view from our room in the late afternoon:

We caught the boat over to Epcot at 6:30pm. It's a short walk, but who in our family can resist a boat ride?






It might have been drizzling on and off:






We were soon at the Gateway to Epcot. Guess who's Magic Band no longer worked? Yep, that would be Grumpy Bear's. He was not happy, as a man with an iPad tried for 20 minutes to sort things out (he could see all our passes, etc. on his iPad, but couldn't get the band to work). He finally sent us in, with the suggestion we check in at Guest Relations. By this time, we were already at our ADR time, so we just went to dinner. Grumpy Bear was a Grump, and I am thinking, "Can I NOT put two successful events together in a day?" (foreshadowing - the WAT was a success).


We waited a short time, and were buzzed in. The host took us through the side patio, down onto the main patio, and to the perfect table on the bottom terrace. This is the spot you die for if you want to watch Illuminations from here, and we hadn't even requested an outside table. I snapped a photo with the iPhone:






Grumpy's mood began to pick up, especially when he hit it off with our server, Matt. It was only Matt's second week here, but he was excellent. Lou started with the salmon for his appetizer, and I chose the classic Scotch Egg:











Both were delicious. I chose the Fish & Chips for dinner, Lou went with the Steak & Fish. I am not exaggerating - the Fish was some of the best we've ever had. Lou's steak was good, too. But, he raved about the fish. Excellent!











We skipped dessert, but did have coffee. By this time, we decided to stay for Illuminations, and Matt had no problem with that (we did make it worth his while). I'll just finish by posting a bunch of Illuminations photos ...

Yeah, that's a lot of Illuminations Photos, but Darlene said it was okay

Needless to say, this turned out to be a special evening. I mentioned in my PTR that the Rose & Crown is a nostalgic favorite of ours, being the first restaurant we ever visited in Epcot many years ago. So glad it did not disappoint!


Up Next: Our First Visit to Food & Wine, or The Wild Africa Trek - not sure which one will come first.

[lauriep]

I'm so glad Boardwalk was a thumbs-up for you! I love short stays at other resorts, but I only feel like I'm "home" when I'm at BW. You could almost manage a boat ride to MK if you boat to Epcot, walk to the monorail, then take the ferry to MK..... it's a stretch, but I've done it! What a pain with the magic bands! Sounds like a great meal at Rose and Crown and what a spot for Illuminations! Love the photos.

[Grammy Grumpy]

Spectacular pictures from R&C! Sorry about the band problem!

[chezp]

Sorry about the mess-up with the Magic Bands. I hope you were able to get that resolved. Glad you had a wonderful meal at the Rose and Crown - love your photos of IllumiNations!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great ending to your day! Awesome pictures!

[lfredsbo]

for early check in at BW and a great view!

For magic bands making Grumpy even grumpier

for a fantastic dinner with an even better view of Illuminations!!!

[disneydreamer33]

Your Illuminations pics are gorgeous! I cannot wait to see this finally!!!

[rhinohunter]

We did not get to see Illuminations during our visit in September. Glad you were there and got such great pix. We will definitely do it during our visit in December.

[travismom]

Your photos are absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! Please don't stop posting them.
I think we were seated at R&C about the same place you were and I have to agree...a prime location for Illuminations!
Sorry about the bands not working. That is my biggest fear. Remember the plastic cards...my fear there too!!
Although I'm not a steak lover, your dinner at Artist Point looked pretty good. I believe my son and husband would like to eat there someday!!!

[nanajoyx2]

Once again, the best Illuminations pictures I've ever seen.

[KimmyAnn1147]

Bummer! My post got eaten by the cloud-monster!

Your AP wine is from my area of Oregon, the Willamette Valley. Glad we are represented at WDW!

Artisanal-made by artisans using traditional methods and without automation machinery. I don't know if this has to be true for products to get this designation, I think they can slap in on anything that seems "rustic".

Oh man!!! I can't wait to enter Epcot through the IG....With no park-hoppers and staying off-site, we arrived by monorail, though I did leave through the IG one time. That was quite a view from the R&C, and the food looks amazing. Is that a yorkshire pudding or an onion ring on your husband's plate?

[shazza]

Originally Posted by lauriep

I'm so glad Boardwalk was a thumbs-up for you! I love short stays at other resorts, but I only feel like I'm "home" when I'm at BW. You could almost manage a boat ride to MK if you boat to Epcot, walk to the monorail, then take the ferry to MK..... it's a stretch, but I've done it! What a pain with the magic bands! Sounds like a great meal at Rose and Crown and what a spot for Illuminations! Love the photos.

We agree about BW - definitely enjoyed our time there. Fortunately, the meal and Illuminations saved the evening - although he wasn't really all that upset about the Magic Band; it's just annoying.

Originally Posted by Grammy Grumpy

Spectacular pictures from R&C! Sorry about the band problem!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by chezp

Sorry about the mess-up with the Magic Bands. I hope you were able to get that resolved. Glad you had a wonderful meal at the Rose and Crown - love your photos of IllumiNations!

Magic Band update on the way soon.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

What a great ending to your day! Awesome pictures!

Thanks, Marnie.

[shazza]

Originally Posted by lfredsbo

for early check in at BW and a great view!

For magic bands making Grumpy even grumpier

for a fantastic dinner with an even better view of Illuminations!!!

A good dinner and fancy fireworks made Grumpy Bear a happy camper

Originally Posted by disneydreamer33

Your Illuminations pics are gorgeous! I cannot wait to see this finally!!!

Thanks - oh, you will hopefully enjoy it. It's my favorite of all the shows.

Originally Posted by rhinohunter

We did not get to see Illuminations during our visit in September. Glad you were there and got such great pix. We will definitely do it during our visit in December.

Thanks - for some reason, the Illuminations photos are showing up quite a bit more saturated in the uploaded versions compared to the ones on my computer - but you get the idea. Illuminations is a good show to photograph, because it's not that hard to get a good spot to set up your tripod.

Originally Posted by travismom

Your photos are absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! Please don't stop posting them.
I think we were seated at R&C about the same place you were and I have to agree...a prime location for Illuminations!
Sorry about the bands not working. That is my biggest fear. Remember the plastic cards...my fear there too!!
Although I'm not a steak lover, your dinner at Artist Point looked pretty good. I believe my son and husband would like to eat there someday!!!

Thank You! I won't stop posting, I just always worry about overdoing it It was funny to get such a good seat at Rose & Crown, since we didn't even ask for outside seating.

I don't have steak a lot anymore, but the filet at Artist Point was very good.

[shazza]

Originally Posted by nanajoyx2

Once again, the best Illuminations pictures I've ever seen.

Thank you - it helps to get a good seat. I was even able to sit down in my chair while taking the photographs, which makes it more comfortable.

Originally Posted by KimmyAnn1147

Bummer! My post got eaten by the cloud-monster!

Your AP wine is from my area of Oregon, the Willamette Valley. Glad we are represented at WDW!

Artisanal-made by artisans using traditional methods and without automation machinery. I don't know if this has to be true for products to get this designation, I think they can slap in on anything that seems "rustic".

Oh man!!! I can't wait to enter Epcot through the IG....With no park-hoppers and staying off-site, we arrived by monorail, though I did leave through the IG one time. That was quite a view from the R&C, and the food looks amazing. Is that a yorkshire pudding or an onion ring on your husband's plate?

We've enjoyed a couple of visits to the Willamette Valley - nice wines! Thanks for the artisanal definition - it shows up again this week

That was yorkshire pudding with the steak.

[shazza]

Day 4 - Part 1: Let's Go to The Food & Wine Festival !!!


It's now Monday morning, and we are ready for our first visit to the Food & Wine Festival. We also had some Fast Passes to use before tasting started. As you recall, we left off last night with Lou's Special Edition F&W Magic Band acting up. Just his - mine worked fine. We walked over to the International Gateway, and fortunately there was no line at Guest Relations.

Sarah was able to fix Lou up - it did take about 10 minutes, but she was very helpful and everything worked fine from that point on. It turns out that both Premium F&W Magic Bands were assigned to me. Anyway, this issue was put to bed and stayed there the rest of the week.

I'm including this next photo just to show what a nice day it was, although it was beginning to get very warm - very, very warm. And of course, it was humid. This is a nice photo spot, but would be better if I had thought to snap the photo when the monorail went by







We walked right into Test Track using our FP+. This was our first visit to the "new" version. We both enjoyed it. Not something I need to ride every trip, but it was fun. Lou was our designer - let's just say his truck did not beat any speed records:











Once out of Test Track, we continued in Future World, aiming for Spaceship Earth. We had a FP for Mission Space, but neither one of us felt up to the trip. Along the way, we stopped for a Memory Maker Photo:






We hadn't ridden Spaceship Earth in years, and Lou was convinced it was a high speed roller coaster (I think he had it confused with Space Mountain). We had a good look into our future, although I was a bit concerned that I'd been cut out of the picture at first:






Lou is looking sporty in his future suit:






Whew - a sigh of relief; I made it to the Future, just in time for morning coffee (and yes, I took off my buff. I found the scarf, or even a hat, was way too hot at times):






And, we even had breakfast together in the Future, although I'm not sure why the tables are so high?






As we were walking towards the World Showcase, we had our first celebrity sighting. It was none other than Hanson. They had just completed an interview, and were trying to escape from the hordes of screaming fans (there were at least a dozen):






It was time for another Memory Maker Shot - Lou was getting worried, because I never want to get my photo taken (I did put my hat back on so I didn't get sunburned!):






We came up to the first "Premium" spot and had the opportunity to find out what it was all about. Wellllll ... it wasn't bad, but as I had suspected, there was no seating. And no shade in many of the areas. Fortunately, most of the areas had a bench either in or next to the reserved area, so it worked okay for us. The areas were quite small, with just a few tables - and at least one lower one which would accommodate a person on an ECV or in a Wheelchair.











They had 2 or 3 people in each area. You could order from the Kiosks they represented (usually 3 or 4 countries), you paid at the register in the reserved area, and the runners went and got the food for you. In the first area, the CM actually put the food in the big metal room service type cart - but we noticed this was skipped the next day.






We got the shrimp and rib tacos from Mexico to sample. They were good.






Here's a photo of the Australia Booth - you can see it's not too crowded, so we certainly could have picked up our own food easily enough.






We stopped in the next Reserved Section (across from China, I think), and just had a cold water and lemonade. This one had some shade. We were both starting to get really hot - to the point where neither of us felt like eating much at all:






We then stopped in Germany, where Lou had a pretzel and I had another water. Neither one of us felt like eating anything else, and we had a few more days, so we decided to go to the American Pavillion. There, we enjoyed the Voices of Liberty, then watched the movie - love that air conditioning!


Lou enjoyed the music, and spent some time after talking with one of the performers, who looks just like a friend of ours. I'm including this photo so you can see how LARGE the credentials were for the Premium Reserved seating...

That wrapped up our visit to Epcot, as we walked back to The Boardwalk for some R & R before dinner. Tonight's dinner will bring us back to Epcot to Monsieur Paul - will this dinner fall in the plus or minus category???