“I do not deal with my problems like I know I should” - F&W Fest 2018 - Update 1/20 Going Home

Rainy Dessert Party

After our wonderful lengthy nap, we headed towards Hollywood Studios around 5:30PM. I knew there was a risk of rain so in my DSLR bag, I put two ponchos. I mean, if I brought them it wouldn’t rain right? We walked which ended up taking forever since the entrance is so messed up for Hollywood Studios currently, but I think all my readers know and have experienced that pain. We went through the gates and headed straight to the one FP+ we hadn’t missed. It was dark and crowded in Toy Story Land but we were going to head to AS* through all the crazy.

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Toy Story Land

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Toy Story Land

We stopped for a very nerdy photo putting three of my alien loves together. I made the photopass photographer smile as he said we did something he hadn’t seen before. That comment made me smile!

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Yes, I know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek

We headed into the Fastpass Line for Aliens and it wasn’t too bad of wait until we were being whipped around. I like this ride more than other spinning type rides but I would have rather had been able to get a FP+ for TSM or Slinky Dog and just deal with the wait here.

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Once we were done, we headed over to check in to our dessert party about 30 minutes prior to our reservation time. We were told we could be sat in about 15 minutes so we looked around the Launch Bay Store.

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Buffet Photos:

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Our first visit was one of the most important of the night. The bar! It was the same bartender from June so I made sure I tipped him well and he took great care of us all evening! I went with and stayed with the Cosmic Citrus Trist all evening. My husband started with the Lightspeed Margarita but he did try the Galactic Punch on one round before he went back to the Lightspeed.

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Drinks!

Our tablemates were were lovely mother/daughter pair from Scotland. They were lovely to talk to over the course of the event and were visiting for I believe 3 weeks! Such a nice long vacation!

All my photos of our food plates didn’t come up well but we ate our fill of prosciutto, mozzarella, ice cream, flatbread, and some desserts. I stayed more savory than dessert but when you love prosciutto and mozzarella as much as me, why waste stomach space on desserts. I also visited BB8 during the event as the line was only about 10 minutes. My husband didn’t meet with me as he had his character fill that morning so I was awkward by myself.

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Meeting BB8

At 8:00PM, we were gathered up to head to our reserved show area.

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Blurry Stormtrooper

We got a nice seat on the ground for the Movie Magic Pre-Show. It started lightly drizzling so I got our ponchos out to put them on. I didn’t take as many photos as I had planned which made me sad as this was one of the two events I specifically brought the DSLR for (typically I’m too lazy to carry it around)

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As it was lightly raining, we all were standing before the Star Wars fireworks. I only got a couple photos with my phone before the skies opened up and began unleashing its rage on us so the phone went away and we just enjoying the show as we got soaking wet. Despite the rain, my husband really did enjoy the show and stated he would have liked it better without the monsoon. Maybe we’ll head out for a nighttime show next time we aren’t there for a race weekend which probably won’t be during 2019.

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As it was still pouring rain, we left the park after the fireworks along with most of the crowd. It was a crowded unenjoyable experience but we ducked into a store so that I could rolly my pants up as my bottoms were dragging due to the rain and to move my bag in a way that I knew the camera would stay dry. The boat launch was a madhouse so we walked back to the hotel in that horrible heavy rain. We did get inside the hotel using a side entrance near the croquet lawn to save us some time out in the rain but either way we were soaked to the core. We both ended up stripping down in the foyer of our room and hanging our pants and ponchos to dry some. We also stuffed our shoes with towels to help soak up the water as they were drenched! I took a long hot shower afterwards to warm up!

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Goodies Back In The Room
 
I really like AS2, it is a cute ride. I wouldn’t wait to long for it. Sorry the rain put a damper on the SW galactica, literally, lol!
 
Aside from the rain, sounds like a fun party night! I'd like to try that party next time we go--though hopefully we have nicer weather than you guys!
 
I really want to try the Star Wars party some night since we've never seen the show this they changed it a few years back and I know Jason would love it. But I've never booked it because I've always been worried about if we had bad weather. That certainly doesn't look like fun, but I'm sure we'll get there some day.
 


I really like AS2, it is a cute ride. I wouldn’t wait to long for it. Sorry the rain put a damper on the SW galactica, literally, lol!

It is a cute ride! I'm with you on not wanting to wait long for it but I also don't like to wait for most rides either. At least we went into the evening knowing that rain was possible. I was very happy I was wearing some tennis shoes and not flip flops as that would have not been a fun walk home!

Aside from the rain, sounds like a fun party night! I'd like to try that party next time we go--though hopefully we have nicer weather than you guys!

It was a good party night! Much better than that rude couple in June. I hope you get nicer weather as well! Unfortunately Florida and weather are't nice sometimes.

I really want to try the Star Wars party some night since we've never seen the show this they changed it a few years back and I know Jason would love it. But I've never booked it because I've always been worried about if we had bad weather. That certainly doesn't look like fun, but I'm sure we'll get there some day.

It is a lot of fun and I know your husband and your daughter would love it as well! The weather wasn't fun but we made the best of it. So glad we were staying where we get free laundry as that needed to be handled the next day.
 
Grand Morning

So, after 3 mornings of waking up between 2:45AM & 3:15AM, you would think we would sleep in right? Not these people. My husband woke us up at 5:30AM to go running! Yes, my husband is crazy. He was loud as he hadn't prepped his clothing the night before so it woke me up. I did take this time to do another round of laundry due to the soaking of our clothes the night along with still having his race outfit in a clear plastic bag. The Boardwalk is the one hotel that I have had issues with laundry before so I brought my iPAD down with me and I watched some of my tv shows from the DVR to keep me occupied. There were a fair amount of people doing laundry early on a Monday morning but I think that is more so due to the rain. One guy was desperately trying to dry his shoes as he only brought one pair with him and they were still soaked. They kept opening up the dryer door on him so I helped by putting my foot on it to let it go for a bit even if it got me some strange looks. I’m just glad we had multiple pairs of shoes! Once laundry was done and put away, I had gingerbread for breakfast as why not?

Around 8AM, we headed over to the Grand Floridian for a meeting that was informative but not in our budget at this time, especially since I now work in the public sector. But before we had that, we did get to look around the main building some. We saw the start of the gingerbuild house going up!

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I Want This Car

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Soon This Will Be A Gingerbread House!

We drove back to the Boardwalk and parked the truck. We headed straight into EPCOT and went on our first ride. I’m sure you all will be so thrilled with it too.

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I have a special place in my heart for this ride. I’m not sure why but it makes me smile even though I know it is nothing like the original Dreamfinder! I’m one of the few that people got to experience the version without Figment back in my high school days so the Figment Version is much better.

But that’s all for now as it was time to finally start enjoying the wonderful thing called Food & Wine Festival!
 
Neat to see them building the Gingerbread house! Also, I kind of agree with you about Journey into Imagination--I love the song, even if the ride is a bit...tired.
 


Neat to see them building the Gingerbread house! Also, I kind of agree with you about Journey into Imagination--I love the song, even if the ride is a bit...tired.

It was neat! We never got back to the Grand Floridian during the trip so it was nice to see it at least once even if it wasn't much.
 
First Round Around Festival

It wasn’t 11AM yet so the booths weren’t officially open. We headed to what was open early, The Light Lab, even though we weren't’ in the light lab but rather the lovely air conditioned space between the character spot and the Light Lab. We debated between the two flights and ultimately went with the RGB flight since I had the cider flight during my first trip and we knew we shouldn’t get both flights as we wanted to drink more around the showcase. My favorite of the three was the Red Cherry Tart. My husband enjoyed them all although the kiwi and blueberry were very similar in taste.

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RGB Flight - Playalinda Brewing Company Red Cherry Tart, Grasslands Brewing Company Green Kiwi Blonde, MIA Beer Company Blue-berry Golden Ale

From there, we headed to the Eats area and split up. I went with Coastal Eats where I got shrimp as it had been almost 24 hours since my last shrimp and I was starting to get the shakes. That baked shrimp scampi dip is amazing although I do wish there was more bread. The wine paired nicely as well.

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Baked Shrimp Scampi Dip with Sourdough Baguette
A to Z Wineworks Pinot Gris


My husband headed to Active Eats where he got wine and mac & cheese. I know the loaded mac’n’cheese got very varied reviews this time around but he enjoyed it well enough. The chenin blanc was also nice.

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Loaded Mac’n’Cheese with Nueske’s Pepper Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Peppers and Green Onions
L’Ecole No. 41 Chenin Blanc Old Vines


We backtracked to Flavors from Fire as they were now open. I wanted the Piggy Wings whereas my husband wanted the smoked corned beef nachos. The piggy wings were only ok. I keep getting them thinking that they will be what I want them to be and I keep being disappointed. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now? My husband had the winning dish but we already know that as those corned beef potato chip nachos are amazing.

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Piggy Wings: Roasted Pork Wings with Korean BBQ and Sesame Seeds
Smoked Corned Beef with Warm Crispy Potatoes, Pickled Onions and Blonde Ale Beer Fondue


At Hawai’i, I disowned my husband as he wanted the spam hash. I guess he liked it but I just have it out against spam. My mai tai was good though but he ended up having most of it.

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Teriyaki-glazed SPAM Hash with Potatoes, Peppers, Onions and Spicy Mayonnaise
Mai Tai with Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum with DOLE Pineapple Juice


Since I had little of my mai tai, we stopped at Thailand for food and wine. I had enjoyed the peanut chicken on trip #1 so I went with it again. This time there was enough peanut flavor throughout. The wine paired nicely!

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Marinated Chicken with Peanut Sauce & Stir-fried Vegetables
Maison Willm Gewurtraminer


We took a short break from eating and drinking to visit Mexico and see Donald before they eventually change the ride to something that I won’t be much of a fan of as I just don’t like Coco.

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We found Donald and the gang then made our way to Germany where we had more wine and my husband got his apple strudel. The rieslings were sweet but that is what rieslings are. It paired with his apple strudel though.

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Riesling Flight
Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce


As I didn’t have any of the apple strudel, I had us stop in Italy where I tried the Fritto Misto. This was a wonderful dish from Italy who is usually known for sub-par dishes during the festival. The shrimp was perfectly crispy. It had a nice kick to it as well!

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Fritto Misto: Crispy Shrimp, Zucchini and Sweet Potatoes with a Spicy Sauce

When we hit America, we were full but hot. We wanted to get something to cool off with so I had a lovely red stag lemonade while my husband had a root beer float. Simple for both of us but it worked on keeping us cool as we made our way out of the park for a bit.

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Red Stag Lemonade

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Root Beer Float

We went back to the room where I headed to the pool for a bit before getting a little nap in before we were heading out to our first Food & Wine Festival special event!​
 
This was our favorite spot for beer last year and this totally looks like something up my alley. Jason has been in beer making mode lately and made a really good sour cherry that I'm sure you would like!

. I went with Coastal Eats where I got shrimp as it had been almost 24 hours since my last shrimp and I was starting to get the shakes. That baked shrimp scampi dip is amazing although I do wish there was more bread.
Oh, this was one of my favorite things last year. Glad to hear that it ensued you didn't have a serious case of the shrimp withdrawals :P

My husband had the winning dish but we already know that as those corned beef potato chip nachos are amazing.

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Another one of my favorites from last year (the nachos not the wings). Of course there isn't often that a combination of chips, cheese, and meet isn't a winner!

As I didn’t have any of the apple strudel, I had us stop in Italy where I tried the Fritto Misto. This was a wonderful dish from Italy who is usually known for sub-par dishes during the festival. The shrimp was perfectly crispy. It had a nice kick to it as well!

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Yum! I hadn't seen this at all. You are so right Italy is normally a big ole skip it but this looks like they are maybe redeeming themselves.
 
I had to help my husband with some of his costume which also meant, I was wide awake and there was no hope in going back to sleep anytime soon.

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Mr. Dis_Yoda’s Costume

Awesome outfit!

I also saw some people just hanging out in the laundry and I wonder how much of that to do with this story that came out later that day:

https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/abandoned-newborn-baby-handed-to-guest-at-animal-kingdom-lodge/

PSA: People are crazy

I saw that happened and was thinking how crazy it was!

We took our luggage to the truck to load up for our switch to the Boardwalk a little before 10AM. During our drive over to the Boardwalk, I received the the room ready text message and email. I was shocked! I also was very happy about this as it meant when we were done with brunch, we weren’t going to be camped out in the lobby.

Wow, you got really lucky!

That CG brunch looks amazing! We cancelled on our last two trip so we still haven't made it there :sad2:

I'll have to come back and catch up later as I'm off to work!
 
This was our favorite spot for beer last year and this totally looks like something up my alley. Jason has been in beer making mode lately and made a really good sour cherry that I'm sure you would like!
Oh, making beer is fun! I'm too lazy for that, especially since my husband can just bring home beer daily from work. I bet I would have liked that sour cherry!

Oh, this was one of my favorite things last year. Glad to hear that it ensued you didn't have a serious case of the shrimp withdrawals :P
It is so good! I need to figure out how to make it myself so that I can bring it to one of my holiday parties I'm going to.

Another one of my favorites from last year (the nachos not the wings). Of course there isn't often that a combination of chips, cheese, and meet isn't a winner!
You are right about that! I love cheese and carbs. I'm sad I'm missing the holiday festival this year at EPCOT and their lovely fondue!

Yum! I hadn't seen this at all. You are so right Italy is normally a big ole skip it but this looks like they are maybe redeeming themselves.
This dish redeemed them for this year. It was so nice to have texture and flavor from them! Hopefully next year, they are also amazing again.

Awesome outfit!
Thanks! Now, I don't know what we are going to do with a real chef outfit. Maybe it will end up reused next year

I saw that happened and was thinking how crazy it was!
I think in the end, it was an overtired mother who was very overwhelmed. Still sad and crazy though!

Wow, you got really lucky!
I know! I'm so used to having to wait until almost 4PM for a DVC room. I'll take my luck when I get it though and this was the perfect time! Drunk naps are best done on beds and not lobby furniture.

That CG brunch looks amazing! We cancelled on our last two trip so we still haven't made it there :sad2:
It is amazing! That is sad you had to cancel your last two trips. One day you will though!

I'll have to come back and catch up later as I'm off to work!
Lucky! I have to work all 5 days this week. I won't have off during the week until Christmas Eve! I'm trying to work ahead in the evenings so I can post every 2 to 3 days as this report is a long one.
 
Hibachi Experience - Part 1

A little after 3PM, we headed back towards EPCOT and walked through the International Gateway.

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As we were a bit early to head upstairs to our Hibachi Experience, we looked around the shop downstairs where I ended up just buying the items off of Amazon that I wanted due to the cost savings. Just a tip in case you want something as well. The normal puzzles were out of my price range as the one I wanted was almost $80!

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Red Panda

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Train

When we headed upstairs, it was around 3:45PM and we were one of the last of the group to arrive (except for 2 people that showed up in the middle of course 1 at the table) The server quickly brought us our beer and welcome snack. It was true Japanese pub food as it was the Japanese version of a cheese stick. Little fried pieces of cheddar wrapped in seaweed! My husband wasn’t a fan but he doesn’t really like seaweed so that just meant I got his second piece! We were able to get a refill of the beer as well before we were lead to our private room.

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Echigo Premium Red Ale

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Shiso & Cheddar Harumaki

A little after 4PM, the groups were called by name and led into the very back of Teppan Edo. Back there they have a private dining room with two tables and it is the perfect place to have this event as it is secluded from the masses of the restaurant. One of the parties in the group hadn’t arrived yet but they weren’t going to wait for them as they had a schedule to keep. In front of us were our menus, chopsticks, chopstick holders and an origami crane. All of this we were given to keep at the end of the meal.

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Table Setting

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Menu

We were given a toast to start with the manager of the restaurant. The toast was a sparkling whiskey cocktail that I enjoyed immensely! The candies on the bottom helped make it a bit sweeter which worked for the toast.

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Toast

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Whiskey Seelbach feature Akashi Single Malt Whiskey

After our toast, the two chefs came out and began to start cooking our first dish. When my husband saw it on the menu, he was very excited as he always wanted to try Okonomiyaki. For those that don’t know, it is a savory Japanese Pancake. It was topped with raman, an egg, fish skin (to give it texture and salty flavor) We both really enjoyed it! It was paired with a Mojito that was so fresh that we were very happy we were given seconds of it! Towards the end of cooking this dish, the final party arrived and they were seated. It was a daddy/teenage daughter date and the dad refused to drink since he was with his daughter. The restaurant ended up making them special mocktails for each of the courses which was nice for them.

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Starting With A Mickey

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Prepping The Pancake

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Cooking The Lobster

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Hiroshima-Style Okonomiyaki with Lobster Tail

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Fresh Clementine Mojito

As we enjoyed our first dish, our chef got started on the next dish with quail. It was grilled with a lovely seasoning. We had the option to eat the quail legs or not but most of us decided to go for it. It was a great light dish despite having a good amount of meat in it.

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Cooking the quail

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Mixing the salad

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Mojito Refill

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Salad with Grilled Quail and Yuzu Dressing

Our next course started and these lovely huge scallops were put in front of us while he also started on the white asparagus.

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Huge Scallops

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Cooking Scallops & Asparagus

During the cooking, we were served the Mexican Samurai cocktail. This cocktail was strong! Very close to just being a tequila martini.

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Mexican Samurai Cocktail

This scallop was almost as close to perfection as you could get and I’m picky on scallops.

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Whole Scallop, Grilled Vegetables

While we were enjoying this, he started cooking the shrimp and shrimp heads separately. I declined the shrimp head as despite my love of shrimp - I do love good beef as well and I wanted to save all the room for that.

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Cooking Shrimp

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Fresh Kuruma Ebi

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Cooking The Shrimp Head
 
Hibachi Experience - Part 2

As we finished the shrimp and scallop course, one of the lead chefs came out with a huge hunk of wagyu beef. He prepped it in front of us trimming off the fat along with portioning it out correctly. After it was done, they sang a song of celebration.

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It then became time for the wonderful cooking of the Wagyu! It didn’t take long for the steak to be cooked as you don’t want to over cook this steak. Two people requested their meat well done and I may have cried on the inside for them.

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During the short cooking time, we were poured the saki that would be paired with the dish. My husband wasn’t a fan of the saki as it was a very dry one. I liked it well enough but I was feeling the effects of the other cocktails we had.

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Toji-Futsu-shu Sake

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Grating Yuzu On Top

The wagyu was everything you hoped it to be. It melted in your mouth and the portion was very large! I struggled but I made sure I finished it.

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Smoked Wagyu Tenderloin with Yuzu Zest

If you think that was it for the wagyu we would be having, you would be wrong. We were about to have our mind blown more.

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Prepping

Before we would have the amazing dish, we had to have an onion volcano as it isn’t a trip to a hibachi restaurant without one!

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Building The Onion Tower

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Onion Volcano

We were brought out rice in the cutest containers while the steak was cooked in thin strips.

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We were able to use the rice along with the steak to make our own hand rolls. That steak was every better than the tenderloin strips were given. I’m sure it was because of the sauce used.

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Sukiyaki Beef Hand Roll

A german butter cake was placed on the hibachi and then it proceeded to get soaked in whiskey. Nothing wrong with that! The cake was served with a matcha tiramisu. The tiramisu wasn’t sweet but that worked well with the whiskey soaked butter cake. It was a perfect note to this meal.

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Matcha Tiramisu

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At the very end, we had a chant.It was a nice way to end the meal. We were allowed to keep the box the dessert was served in as well. On the way out, we were allowed to have the chefs sign the wooden saki box to add on to the souvenir.


Overall, this event was a win! While it is expensive, it is very much worth it due to the amount and quality of the food and drink you are given. It also is very fun and the staff at least really acts like they are having fun too. Probably a nice switch up from the day to day! While we won’t be able to do it next year - we’ll plan on it in 2020 for our big Disney trip.

After the meal, my husband and I split up. He headed back to the room and I headed to the festival center through the massive crowd to meet up with @lovinggeire and Jan. Along the way, I judged people as you don’t need 4 service dogs at once time. I hate seeing people abuse the service dog allowance and this was clearly that. If you need to socialize them for crowds during training - doing it late at night during the Food & Wine Festival seems like a bad idea.

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I made it to the festival center and hung out with my buddies for a bit. I was totally buzzed at this point but we had a good time.

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As they headed to their next fastpass or shopping, I fought the crowd back to the Boardwalk where I took a shower and headed straight to bed after my shower.​
 
O-M-G!!! What a awesome dinner! I’m crying at the seafood as I can no longer enjoy due to this new allergic reaction, wah! Ooh the mojito sounds yummy! I was crying inside at well done beef too! What a fun night and then to meet up with friends!
 
WOW! That dinner looks amazing...... yum.

It then became time for the wonderful cooking of the Wagyu! It didn’t take long for the steak to be cooked as you don’t want to over cook this steak. Two people requested their meat well done and I may have cried on the inside for them.
oh gosh, i would have cried on the inside too, so sad.
 
Oh my the hibachi experience looks amazing, all the food and drinks yummy! I love the seafood and wagyu courses.
My husband (if he ever came to Disney) would love this meal!

I agree with the service dogs, why 4, I feel bad for those dogs!
 
Wow, just wow! That may well be one of the single greatest Disney dining experiences I have seen. Of course you had me at Scallops and Wagyu, but that Japanese omelet thing sounds divine. And booze too! Sign me up for 2020 with you :-) Just be sure to note on the reservation that I need to bring my 5 service dogs with me :P
 

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