skier_pete
DIsney-holics Anon
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
Due to popular demand - or at least a 69% to 31% vote - here's our last trip of the Quadrilogy - posted as part of the existing TR. I hope you like pictures of food!
Well, here we come to our fourth trip in 12 months – and one that we were really looking forward to. Though we enjoy our trips with our daughter, it’s these adult trips that really got us to realize that we are DFFLs (Disney Fan For Life). While this is the third time we’ve taken a couples trip for Food and Wine (2014 and 2017 were the previous ones), this was the first time we were able to book at our new “home” at Boardwalk. We had purchased 75 points here last May when I got a big promotion and I got the points for DWs XX birthday. Because of the need to book so far in advance, it took 17 months before we could USE the points. And because we were staying so close to Epcot, I had pushed for us to ONLY go to Epcot. DW said we shouldn’t just do Epcot, but we probably spent 90% of our time there. We also ended up adding on some stuff that we weren’t expecting when we planned the trip. (More on that later.)
These long weekend trips we stretch the trip as much as we can, and this one was no different. 6:20 AM flight meant we were out of the house by 5 AM. DD was being watched by DMIL so no issues there. Happy to be all set at the airport on time.
Hoping to enjoy some alcoholic beverages this trip (and I tallied 47 of them) we started early with Mimosas.
We made it safely, and we were at the airport on the shuttle by 9 AM.
Then 67 minutes later, we were walking through THESE doors…
Very excited for our first true trip “Home”.
I just really love this resort – I’d way rather be here than across the lagoon at Beach/Yacht Club.
We got really lucky with this buy. I got the small contract purchased last fall at $105 a point, now you’d be lucky to buy that same contract under $125 a point. It’s only got a 24 year lifespan left on the contract, but even factoring that in – the 2018 points would cost us roughly $12 per point including maintenance fees. The result is the trip cost us 44 points, or $528 for the 4 nights, or $132 a night – which is deal that can’t be beat.
We actually dawdled a little bit in the lobby – mostly because World Showcase doesn’t actually open until 11 AM, and we were sort of too early for it to be open. After filling our water bottles, we decided to head out and we saw there was no boat coming, so we walked to Epcot.
A shot of the new Ratatouille ride
For comparison, here’s what it looked like two months earlier.
And away we go…
You have two choices when entering at International gateway – left to England or right to France. So we started off going…a droit.
This is the first food we got. Carbonade de Bouef (braised beef) with potatoes, Crème Brullee with Raspberry and a legendary Grey Goose slushie (Drink #2).
We always rate the foods on a scale of 1-5 and these samples got a 4 with a 5 for the slushie. We were also very organized, and had taken a book from back in August, and put our ratings of the various foods in there from 2014, 2016 and 2017.
In addition, one of my goals for this trip is to “Drink Around the World” – NOT in a single day – that’s too rough – but across the entire trip. We have 11 countries to get through – and this was the first one.
Hey look, it’s the International Gateway.
Next stop was Brazil.
We tried the Moqueco – a seafood stew with scallops, shrimp, fish, and steamed rice (rated 3). And then we finally tried the Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans (rated 4).
I am usually terrified of the idea to come to F&W on a Saturday, but apparently if you are going to do that – come at 11 AM, the crowds didn’t start out too badly.
I had to get a good shot of DWs new shirt. Not really the correct park for it, but she got 4 or 5 compliments on it in the few hours we were there.
A quick shot across at the Gaurdians ride…I think it is not a rare prediction to say this is going to be a big ride.
We don’t typically wait in long lines for characters, but Belle’s line was really short. So we decided to say hi. We talked about the different books we like to read, of course. She signed our Food & Wine guide.
Continued in next post...
Well, here we come to our fourth trip in 12 months – and one that we were really looking forward to. Though we enjoy our trips with our daughter, it’s these adult trips that really got us to realize that we are DFFLs (Disney Fan For Life). While this is the third time we’ve taken a couples trip for Food and Wine (2014 and 2017 were the previous ones), this was the first time we were able to book at our new “home” at Boardwalk. We had purchased 75 points here last May when I got a big promotion and I got the points for DWs XX birthday. Because of the need to book so far in advance, it took 17 months before we could USE the points. And because we were staying so close to Epcot, I had pushed for us to ONLY go to Epcot. DW said we shouldn’t just do Epcot, but we probably spent 90% of our time there. We also ended up adding on some stuff that we weren’t expecting when we planned the trip. (More on that later.)
These long weekend trips we stretch the trip as much as we can, and this one was no different. 6:20 AM flight meant we were out of the house by 5 AM. DD was being watched by DMIL so no issues there. Happy to be all set at the airport on time.
Hoping to enjoy some alcoholic beverages this trip (and I tallied 47 of them) we started early with Mimosas.
We made it safely, and we were at the airport on the shuttle by 9 AM.
Then 67 minutes later, we were walking through THESE doors…
Very excited for our first true trip “Home”.
I just really love this resort – I’d way rather be here than across the lagoon at Beach/Yacht Club.
We got really lucky with this buy. I got the small contract purchased last fall at $105 a point, now you’d be lucky to buy that same contract under $125 a point. It’s only got a 24 year lifespan left on the contract, but even factoring that in – the 2018 points would cost us roughly $12 per point including maintenance fees. The result is the trip cost us 44 points, or $528 for the 4 nights, or $132 a night – which is deal that can’t be beat.
We actually dawdled a little bit in the lobby – mostly because World Showcase doesn’t actually open until 11 AM, and we were sort of too early for it to be open. After filling our water bottles, we decided to head out and we saw there was no boat coming, so we walked to Epcot.
A shot of the new Ratatouille ride
For comparison, here’s what it looked like two months earlier.
And away we go…
You have two choices when entering at International gateway – left to England or right to France. So we started off going…a droit.
This is the first food we got. Carbonade de Bouef (braised beef) with potatoes, Crème Brullee with Raspberry and a legendary Grey Goose slushie (Drink #2).
We always rate the foods on a scale of 1-5 and these samples got a 4 with a 5 for the slushie. We were also very organized, and had taken a book from back in August, and put our ratings of the various foods in there from 2014, 2016 and 2017.
In addition, one of my goals for this trip is to “Drink Around the World” – NOT in a single day – that’s too rough – but across the entire trip. We have 11 countries to get through – and this was the first one.
Hey look, it’s the International Gateway.
Next stop was Brazil.
We tried the Moqueco – a seafood stew with scallops, shrimp, fish, and steamed rice (rated 3). And then we finally tried the Crispy Pork Belly with Black Beans (rated 4).
I am usually terrified of the idea to come to F&W on a Saturday, but apparently if you are going to do that – come at 11 AM, the crowds didn’t start out too badly.
I had to get a good shot of DWs new shirt. Not really the correct park for it, but she got 4 or 5 compliments on it in the few hours we were there.
A quick shot across at the Gaurdians ride…I think it is not a rare prediction to say this is going to be a big ride.
We don’t typically wait in long lines for characters, but Belle’s line was really short. So we decided to say hi. We talked about the different books we like to read, of course. She signed our Food & Wine guide.
Continued in next post...