Day 1 – Epcot

We decided our first day would involve heading to Epcot to take in round 1 of the Food and Wine Festival.  We had visited during Food and Wine a few years ago and loved it.  We definitely were excited to enjoy it again.

We got up super early to make sure we would make it in time for Rope Drop.  We caught the first bus that came by and got to Epcot well before rope drop.  This was our view from our spot at the turnstiles.

Our plan was to catch some of the rides at the front of the park, visit the festival center in Horizons, then start to visit all the food booths to enjoy the various offerings.  Once we were allowed in, we headed for Soarin (because we didn’t have a fast pass for it).  After riding Soarin, we headed right over to Test Track to ride in the single rider line.

Riding Test Track was a unique experience.  We ended up in three different cars.  I was in the lead car with our youngest daughter.  Nancy was two cars behind and our other daughter was right behind her.  Our car had just gotten outside when it came to a sudden stop.  The entire ride had stopped and to make a long story short, it didn’t come back online.  Here was Nancy’s view of the ride.

After about 15 minutes, a cast member came to evacuate us from the car.  We excited the vehicle and walked back towards the building.  Right before the building, there was a stairwell that took us down off the track.  We entered the back of the building and went through a few nondescript hallways.  We eventually popped out into the exhibit hall at the end of the ride.

We all received FastPasses to use anywhere in the park (except for Frozen).  We made our way to the Festival Center to look around, then went for a ride on Spaceship Earth.  We also checked out Mouse Gear before starting to visit all the food booths. 

Our plan was to visit all of the booths and get at least one item to share at each booth.  Sometime, this was a bit tough since our oldest daughter is a vegetarian.  We did manage to get one or two items from each booth until we had visited about half of the booths on this day.  We hadn’t scheduled lunch or dinner since we knew we would eventually fill up at the booths. 

After eating, we decided to just return to the room to sleep off our food comas.

Day 2 – Animal Kingdom/Epcot

The next day was a half day visit to Animal Kingdom followed to another half day at Epcot to finish off the Food and Wine Festival.  Our plan was to rope drop Flights of Passage.  As you can see from the below picture, which we took upon arrival in Pandora, we did pretty well with rope drop — we beat the crowds and got on one of the first rides of the day.  We didn’t get any FastPasses for Animal Kingdom and instead saved them for Epcot later in the day. 

As soon as we exited Flights of Passage, we got on the Navi River Journey.  It was a bit short, but still enjoyable.

We rode a few other rides at Animal Kingdom before heading back over to Epcot to finish off Food and Wine.  I don’t even remember what this dish was, but we ate it.  We finally managed to get one thing at very booth over the course of the two days we went to Epcot.

We stayed at Epcot for quite a while to use our FastPasses, then caught the bus back to All-Star Movies to rest and get ready for the next day.

Day 3 – Magic Kingdom

We were pretty excited for Magic Kingdom since we knew the park would be decorated for Christmas and we were not disappointed.

We definitely made a point to stop and watch the Muppets America show, which I only caught part of during out August Trip.

We also made sure to stop and get this pineapple upside down cake with dole whip on it.  This is quickly becoming a family favorite, even over the normal Dole Whip float.

We also made sure we fortified ourselves with the cinnamon buns from Gaston’s Tavern.

I won’t go over everything we did at Magic Kingdom, but we definitely hit up Jingle Cruise.

We also made sure to stop on Main Street on the way out to take in all the lights.

Dinner that night was at Kona Cafe, one of our favorite restaurants, located at the Polynesian resort.

Day 4 – Animal Kingdom

This was our second trip to Animal Kingdom for this visit.  We actually had FastPasses for Flight of Passage on this day, so we weren’t running quite so much at park opening.  In fact, we spent the morning here at Expedition Everest to get in a lot of rides before the crowds arrived from Pandora. 

We made sure we got a ride in on the Kilimanjaro Safaris as well.  Because it was early in the day, the animals were all out!

We got in our ride on Flights of Passage, then decided to rest for a while.  Flights of Passage was our third FastPass of the day, so we were eligible to get another one.  I looked for some for a party of three (Nancy gets motion sickness from Flights of Passage), but couldn’t find anything.  I decided to see if I could just get just two and scored some for 4:55 to 5:55.  I then searched for one more and found one from 5:25-6:25.  As long as we went from 5:25-5:55, we could all ride together. 

Our dinner for the evening was at Tiffins, which is located in Animal Kingdom.  We’d never had dinner there before, so we were excited to try it.  Our first course was the “Selection of Artisanal Cheeses” and the Tiffins Signature Bread Service.  We liked the cheese, but didn’t think the bread service was that special. 

I got the Pomegranate-lacquered Chicken and it was fantastic!

Our younger daughter got the grilled swordfish and really enjoyed it.

Our older daughter ordered the Gobi Manchurian and Aloo Ko Achar sides (she is vegetarian).  The Gobi Manchurian is breaded and fried cauliflower.  It was fantastic!  Everyone tried it and really enjoyed it.  The Aloo Ko Achar was fingerling potatoes.  They were good, but not as good as the Gobi Manchurian.

 

After dinner, we decided to head over to Disney Springs to walk around a bit.  We did visit the World of Disney store, but didn’t end up buying anything.  By the time we walked around Disney Springs, we were pretty tired, so we just took a taxi back to the resort.

Day 5 – Magic Kingdom

We thought we would spend the last day of the trip at the Magic Kingdom.  That was how we spent the morning until the crowds starting to come in.

We made sure to take a ride on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin to keep up our target practice!

As the park started to get more crowded, we decided to hop on the Monorail and head back over to Epcot.  It was less crowded there and we just wanted to walk around a bit.

We haven’t ridden the Monorail to Epcot in quite some time, so we really enjoyed the view as we arrived.

We spent a few hours at Epcot before heading back to the resort in order to get on Magical Express.  We had enjoyed 5 full days in three of the parks, skipping only Hollywood Studios.  We got to experience the Food and Wine Festival, which is one of our favorites as well as see the Christmas decorations (although we still miss the Osborne Lights).  It had been a great trip, but now it was time to head home.

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