The website had the “pleasure” of reviewing more than 250 items at this year’s Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. Below, you’ll find an index of these reviews along with the menu at each Marketplace, starting with Flavors From Fire in Future World and then continuing up to World Showcase beginning with Shimmering Sips and Australia. For each Marketplace, I’ve also included a picture of my favorite item, mostly to help break up each review. To the right of each food/cocktail item’s price, you’ll see two numbers in bold representing my rating first on taste and then on value. The best value propositions on wine/beer are also italicized. Of course, tastes differ, as does the quality of the dishes served throughout the Festival. I might have been served a fresh dish made by a competent chef, while yours ends up being the very last of a thousand meatballs served that day. The following should still offer a pretty good idea about what to expect from the Festival’s many offerings.

Flavors From Fire

Smoked Corned Beef

Food:

• The Steakhouse Blended Burger: Blended Beef and Mushroom Slider with Brie Cheese Fondue, Arugula, and a Truffle and Blue Cheese Potato Chip on a Brioche Bun – $5.25 – 5/3
• Smoked Corned Beef with Crispy Potatoes, Cheese Curds, Pickled Onions and Beer-Cheese Fondue – $5.25 – 9/9
• Charred Chimichurri Skirt Steak on a Smoked Corn Cake with Pickled Vegetable Slaw and Cilantro Aïoli – $7 – 8/7
• Chocolate Picante: Dark Chocolate Mousse with Cayenne Pepper, Paprika and Mango-Lime Compote – $4 – 8/8

Beverages:

• Bell’s Brewery Porter – $4.50
• Edmeades Zinfandel – $5.00
• Swine Brine featuring Jim Beam Bourbon – $9.50

Continue reading “Epcot 2019 Food and Wine Festival Review Index and Menus”

We’ll stop by Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, which is currently finishing up a years-long room refurbishment. All rooms at the resort are currently refurbished or in the process of being refurbished, so if you book a Movies room moving forward, this is what you’ll see.

While the aesthetics are a little different, what we see here is virtually identical to the makeover that Pop Century completed a couple of years ago. Above is the refurbished All-Stars room.

Continue reading “Review: Refurbished Rooms at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort”

We pick things up on the morning of September 12, 2019, on what may be my most successful day of morning of touring of all time (of all time), due in large part to the Extra Extra Magic Hour from 7am to 8am. Part One, which covers the rope drop experience to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, is located here, with Part Two, covering Tomorrowland and Frontierland, here.

Up until now, I’ve accomplished:

1. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 7:02am – 7:14am
2. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 7:15am – 7:28am
3. Peter Pan’s Flight: 7:30am – 7:38am
4. Peter Pan’s Flight: 7:39am – 7:47am
5. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: 7:49am – 7:58am
6. Space Mountain: 8:06am – 8:20am
7. Tomorrowland Speedway: 8:22am – 8:38am
8. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin: 8:39am – 8:48am
9. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: 9:08am – 9:22am
10. Splash Mountain: 9:33am – 9:48am

My longest wait so far was at Tomorrowland Speedway, thanks to Disney loading and unloading just four cars at a time. I haven’t waited longer than ten minutes anywhere else, with the majority of my waits under three minutes each.

We continue to enjoy what may be record-low September crowds.

Continue reading “Late Morning Touring at Disney’s Magic Kingdom After Extra Extra Magic Hour”

We pick things up on the morning of Thursday, September 12th, 2019, at 8:02am. In Part One, we started our day in Fantasyland for Extra Extra Magic Hour, which ran from 7am to 8am. During that time, I was able to do:

1. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 7:02am – 7:14am
2. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 7:15am – 7:28am
3. Peter Pan’s Flight: 7:30am – 7:38am
4. Peter Pan’s Flight: 7:39am – 7:47am
5. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: 7:49am – 7:58am

With the early open, and virtually nobody willing or able to arrive at the most popular theme park in the world this early, I was able to accomplish quite a bit. Mine Train’s peak wait still exceeds 90 minutes most days, with Peter Pan’s Flight still averaging about an hour. Winnie the Pooh’s average wait is around a half hour. So in just the first hour of touring, I’ve saved about 4.5 hours in line compared to waiting for those same attractions later in the day.

Only Main Street, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland are open during (Extra) Extra Magic Hour at Magic Kingdom. Come 8am, we could elect to stay in Fantasyland and experience some of the low- or moderate-priority attractions like The Barnstormer, Dumbo, and the like. Meeting the Princesses at Fairytale Hall or at Ariel’s Grotto would also make sense. I could also head to Frontierland for Big Thunder and Splash Mountains or over to Adventureland for Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. From a touring efficiency perspective, visiting Fantasyland during the whole Extra Extra Magic Hour makes the most sense. I’ve elected to go to Tomorrowland next, hitting Space Mountain first, followed by Tomorrowland Speedway and Buzz Lightyear.

Continue reading “Touring Disney’s Magic Kingdom After Extra Extra Magic Hours in Fantasyland”

We venture out to Magic Kingdom Park to check out their version of Extra Extra Magic Hours (EEMH), each of which begins at 7am for eligible guests every day through November 2nd. Previously, we had a tremendous amount of success at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, when we visited Avatar Flight of Passage first thing after the EEMH there began at 7am. You can read all about that experience here. We also saw what it takes to rope drop Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at 6am at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for EEMH in this post. We then returned last week for an alternative touring plan, beginning the day with Toy Story Land with plans to ride Smugglers Run right before the Park opened to everyone, which I cover in this post.

Continue reading “Extra Extra Magic Hours at Disney’s Magic Kingdom with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train First”