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

Great report! Same here for our November trip. I have the suitcases out and only a few things are in there. Ears, Disney shirts, some toiletries. Not much but I'm almost there!

I'm glad I'm not the only one with luggage out for a trip weeks away! It does feel nice to have it out - now that we have the guest room set up and well, no guests ever, might as well use the bed for something!

Congrats on the new job!!! My trip is coming up quick which means that your November trip is also fast approaching! Your Universal must-do's sound great! That rip rocket ride looks SCARY I don't blame you for passing on that one!

Thank you! I'm really enjoying my new job. I don't feel exhausted all the time so its really exciting. Yes! You get to have your awesome 30th birthday trip soon!

I like scary usually but that experience years ago was enough for me to never ever do it again. I don't like that type of scary!

I don't know if I've quoted yet, but I enjoyed your Trip #1 report!

I felt the same way the first time I did it at Universal Hollywood. Did you have the 3D goggles then? Because I did it again when they switched away from 3D (in Hollywood and Orlando) and it was much much better!

Thank you for enjoying Report #1! I can't wait til I"m able to start Trip #2 - which those updates will probably start during the actual trip especially since we will have some downtime.

There weren't 3D goggles when we did the ride at Hollywood. I just think it was because it is constant motion ride after motion ride that does require 3D glasses that hit us. I'll probably take some motion sickness meds before we get there since there are so many more intense experiences. As I've gotten older, I can't do them as well as I could as a teenager. I'm glad we did it once though!
 
At the end of September, I left my aerospace engineering job. Lots of reasons went into this decision but I’m happy that I made my choice. I started working in the government sector on October 1st. It’s nice having a job that is a true 40 hour work week.
Congrats on the new gig and welcome to the public sector!!! Though unfortunately in mine I haven't seen a 40 hour week in years :scared1:

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We have this exact same luggage set!!!
 
Congrats on the new gig and welcome to the public sector!!! Though unfortunately in mine I haven't seen a 40 hour week in years :scared1:

We have this exact same luggage set!!!

Well - anything is better than 11 hour days, remote support when out of the office and the stress I was under. I'm probably working a bit more than 40, it just feels like a lot less!

Too funny about the luggage! It's a good set!

I have the same luggage, too!

Love it! Its taken its abuse well over the past few years.
 


I’m impressed that you have your luggage out already. I’m leaving in around 9 hours and haven’t packed yet.
I wasn’t paying attention to the one ADR we have for tomorrow and it is at noon. We can’t drop the dogs off till 8 then we will hit the road. Hopefully it will take 3 hours not 4.

Congrats on the new job.
 
I’m impressed that you have your luggage out already. I’m leaving in around 9 hours and haven’t packed yet.
I wasn’t paying attention to the one ADR we have for tomorrow and it is at noon. We can’t drop the dogs off till 8 then we will hit the road. Hopefully it will take 3 hours not 4.

Congrats on the new job.
While they are out, I haven’t added anything inside of them since the post.

Hope you have good traffic on the way up! We will totally be the annoying pet parents that will be outside the boarders before 7:30 waiting for them to open.

Have a great trip!

13 more days for us!
 
Trip #2 - Last Pre-Trip/Updated Detailed Plans

My name is Dis_Yoda and I am an overpacker. I’m fully packed for the trip except for two pairs of pants I will need to wear for work this week. My husband hasn’t packed his suitcase yet but that’s on him. I'll harass him about it tonight so hopefully he'll do it while I'm at Tricks class with Gantu. Something else has come up so our plans on Monday changed a bit. That’s ok though! I want to try to adjust some of our FP+ plans but we’ll try those on the fly. Have to keep the trip report interesting right?

Thursday, November 1st
Animal Kingdom: 9:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 8:00AM - 9:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 9:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 9:00AM - 8:00PM

7:00AM - Leave Home
7:30AM - Drop Dogs off at Camp
10:30AM - Arrive at WDW & Head to RunDisney Expo
...pick up bibs (most likely not buying anything)
11:30AM - Head To Disney Springs
12:30PM - Lunch @ Enzo’s Hideaway
1:45PM - The Void - Star Wars Experience
3:00PM - Head to Animal Kingdom Lodge
...Unpack for next 3 nights
5:05PM - Sanaa
...looking forward to that bread service!
8:00PM - Bed/TV

Friday, November 2nd
Animal Kingdom: 9:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 9:00AM - 10:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 9:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 8:00AM - 8:00PM

3:00AM - Wake Up (Dis_Yoda Only)
3:15AM - Head Downstairs for Bus
5:30AM - 5K Starts
7:00AM - 5K Over
...head back to resort & clean up
8:00AM - Head to Magic Kingdom
9:20AM-10:20AM - Haunted Mansion FP+
10:30AM-11:30AM - Space Mountain FP+
11:30AM - Lunch @ Tony’s Town Square
12:10PM-1:10PM - Meet Mickey Mouse FP+
12:30PM - Leave Magic Kingdom & Head Back To Resort
3:30PM - Head to Disney Springs
5:00PM - Dinner @ Boathouse
6:00PM - Back To Animal Kingdom Lodge for Evening
8:00PM - Bed/TV

Saturday, November 3rd
Animal Kingdom: 8:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 9:00AM - 10:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 9:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 9:00AM - 8:00PM

2:45AM - Wake Up
3:15AM - Head To Buses
5:30AM - 10K Starts
8:00AM - 10K Over
..head back to hotel & clean up
9:30AM - Head to Animal Kingdom
9:35AM - 10:35AM - Expedition Everest FP+
10:45AM - 11:45AM - Na’vi River Journey FP+
11:30AM - Lunch @ Yak & Yeti
1:00PM-1:15PM - Up! A Great Bird Adventure FP+
1:30PM - Back to Hotel
...relax (Sauna/Kidani Pool/Nap)
5:40PM - Dinner @ Jiko - The Cooking Place
8:00PM - Bed/TV

Sunday, November 4th
Animal Kingdom: 9:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 9:00AM - 9:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 9:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 9:00AM - 8:00PM

2:45AM - Mr. Dis_Yoda Wakes Up
5:30AM - Wine & Dine Half Marathon Starts
...Mr. Dis_Yoda should start in Corral B & should finish in a little over 2 hours
8:00AM - Mr. Dis_Yoda returns from Wine & DIne Half Marathon
...while he is relaxing, I’m going to try to get a quick load of laundry done to get the smelly run clothes all cleaned & thrown in a suitcase
10:30AM - Check Out of AKV & Head to Boardwalk for Check In
...after luggage drop off, taxi/uber/lyft to Contemporary
12:00PM - California Grill - Brunch at the Top
...Drink a lot
4:00PM - Check In At Boardwalk Villas
...I’m hoping we can get into our room earlier than 4PM but I know there will be a lot of checkouts post half marathon/weekend F&W goers so depends on the turn around
5:00PM - Head to Hollywood Studios
5:20PM - 5:35PM - Voyage of the Little Mermaid FP+
6:00PM - 7:00PM - Alien Swirling Saucers FP+
7:00PM - Star Wars Dessert Party
10:00PM - Bed/TV

Monday, November 5th
Animal Kingdom: 8:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 9:00AM - 9:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 4:30PM
Hollywood Studios: 8:00AM - 8:00PM

9:00AM - Meeting
11:00AM - Head into EPCOT
...First Visit Around The World for Booths
1:00PM: Back To Hotel To Relax/Swim
3:00PM: Head into EPCOT
4:00PM - Hibachi Experience (Study in World of Beef) - Food & Wine Festival Special Event
7:00PM - Head back to Hotel To Relax

Tuesday, November 6th
Animal Kingdom: 9:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 8:00AM - 9:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 9:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 9:00AM - 8:00PM

8:00AM - EPCOT
9:45AM - 10:45AM - Spaceship Earth
11:00AM - Enjoy a handful of booths
12:00PM - 1:00PM - Frozen Ever After
1:30PM - Italian Food, Wine vs Beer Pairing - Food & Wine Festival Special Event
5:00PM - Bourbon Tasting at Top of the World (DVC Member Event)
...this is going to be tight time wise to get to this tasting but hopefully through the use of taxis, we’ll make it!
6:30PM - Appetizers around the Monorail if we’re hungry
...I’m not sure how hungry we are going to be because of the F&W Event at 1:30PM. No point in having a reservation this evening!

Wednesday, November 7th
Universal Studio: 9AM - 7PM
Islands of Adventures: 9AM - 7PM

7:30AM - Leave Boardwalk
8:15AM - Arrive at Universal Orlando
...expecting traffic
...handle trading in Regal Movie Tickets
...pick up Express Passes
9:00AM - Head Into Universal Studios
12:00PM - Hogwarts Express to Islands of Adventures
3:00PM - Leave Universal Studios
...relax!
6:45PM - Flying Fish

Thursday, November 8th
Animal Kingdom: 9:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 9:00AM - 11:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 6:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 9:00AM - 8:00PM

9:00AM - Magic Kingdom
9:00AM - 10:00AM - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
10:00AM - 11:00AM - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
11:10AM - 12:10PM - Pirates of the Caribbean
12:15PM - Afternoon Tea at Garden View Tea Room
3:00PM - Disney Springs Time (Movies/Bowling/Bar Dining)

Friday, November 9th
Animal Kingdom: 9:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 9:00AM - 10:00PM
MK: 8:00AM - 6:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 9:00AM - 8:00PM

9:00AM - EPCOT
9:25AM - 10:25AM - Test Track
10:40AM - 11:40AM - Spaceship Earth
12:00PM - Mexican Tequila Lunch (Food & Wine Festival Special Event)
2:00PM - Relax at Hotel
5:30PM - Candy Sushi Making
7:15PM - Il Mulino

Saturday, November 10th
Animal Kingdom: 9:00AM - 8:00PM
EPCOT: 9:00AM - 10:00PM
MK: 9:00AM - 11:00PM
Hollywood Studios: 9:00AM - 8:00PM

9:00AM - Hollywood Studios
9:35AM - 10:35AM - Rock’n’Roller Coaster
11:15AM - 12:15PM - Slinky Dog Dash
12:25PM - 1:25PM - Star Tours
2:00PM - Pack Up Room/Relax/Swim
3:30PM - Head to Animal Kingdom
5:15PM - Evening Safari Experience

Sunday, November 11th
7:30AM - Wake Up & Drive Home
11:00AM - Pick Up Puppies!
1:30PM - Mr. Dis_Yoda gets 3rd section of new tattoo worked on

Here's his tattoo as of 2 sessions:
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Yay! I hope you have a wonderful time. We will be at Yak and Yeti about 45 minutes after you. I think some of our other days are going to overlap too.
 
Sounds like you have a good plan. We just did most of our fastpass for our next trip. I have to remind myself the trip is for my toddler nephews ( they are 2 1/2) so are only going to Magic kingdom and hollywood studios with them. I thought my FIL and his wife were staying the night after they left to go out with my girls while DH and I celebrated our anniversary, but yesterday they said they were not. I just hope they double check that they don't have a DVC room booked.
 
Busy days! But sounds like tons of fun. And Mr Dis_Yoda's tattoo looks awesome! Boba Fett FTW! :)
 
Yay! I hope you have a wonderful time. We will be at Yak and Yeti about 45 minutes after you. I think some of our other days are going to overlap too.

I’m so ready! You get to leave tomorrow! Yay! Hopefully we’ll see each other at some point!

Sounds like you have a good plan. We just did most of our fastpass for our next trip. I have to remind myself the trip is for my toddler nephews ( they are 2 1/2) so are only going to Magic kingdom and hollywood studios with them. I thought my FIL and his wife were staying the night after they left to go out with my girls while DH and I celebrated our anniversary, but yesterday they said they were not. I just hope they double check that they don't have a DVC room booked.

Yes - trips with toddlers would be a different experience! Less thrill rides there!

Hope you guys have a great meal for your anniversary! I haven’t even started planning January out. We haven’t done this long of a trip in two years so I’m excited.

Busy days! But sounds like tons of fun. And Mr Dis_Yoda's tattoo looks awesome! Boba Fett FTW! :)

Yes! Balanced busy though - there will be naps and relaxing for us!

Thanks! My husband is really happy with that tattoo work!
 
Sounds like an awesome line up. Hope the 5K went great for you today. Can't wait to hear about it all!
 
Sounds like an awesome line up. Hope the 5K went great for you today. Can't wait to hear about it all!
Thanks! The 5K was a good experience (although my on-course photos make it seem like a different experience - those will never be shown).
 
Drive-Bys

I woke up naturally around 5:45am but that was a bit too early to get on the road as the dogs couldn’t be dropped off until 7:30am. Around 6:30am, my husband woke up and we got ready to leave. Packed his truck and got the dogs in before leaving the house around 7:20am. After we dropped the dogs off, we filled up his truck and headed north towards Disney. We arrived at the Wide World of Sports a little before 11AM where we proceeded to rearrange the truck to move the luggage into the backseat since we didn’t want it left in the bed of the truck while we were at the Expo. Well, we had too much stuff for that so we left the cooler in the back and hoped nobody stole our water/beer/wine/diet mountain dew (spoiler alert: no one did)

At the expo, the bib pickup location had moved from the HP center to the new arena which was nice. They had decorated the walls leading to the bib pick up area.

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Our trip to the Wine & Dine Expo was really quick. All we did was print our waivers, pick up bibs, buy a Race Weekend Shoe Keychain, get our shirts and leave! We were done in about 30 minutes. As our room wasn’t ready at Animal Kingdom Lodge, we headed over to Disney Springs. The construction of the new parking garage changed the entrance pattern for the Lime Garage as you now can only enter it from one direction and they had the 2nd floor closed. We parked on the 3rd floor along the edge and again hoped nobody stole our cooler (spoiler alert: no one did!) I may have gained a little hope back in humanity that day.

At Disney Springs, our first stop was to Sephora. Why? My husband needed things. He needed a make up setting spray as he has to cover his tattoos behind his ears for work and we’re tired of paying the extra cleaning fee from the dry cleaners to remove the stains! The wonderful ladies there recommended CoverFX High Performance Spray so I guess I’ll eventually let you know if it was worth the $31. He also needed new lotion for his tattoos. I took it upon myself to pick up some face and foot masks along with a new face cleaner as my current one is running low but as most of the trip was for him, he had no problem holding the bag for us!

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We were hungry so we headed to our lunch reservation 15 minutes early but Enzo’s had no problem seating us as they were pretty much dead. There were only 2 other parties in the restaurant.

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Menu

We ordered drinks as we were on vacation officially and that means we should celebrate. I had a wonderful old fashioned while my husband kept it simple with a beer.

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Hazelnut Old Fashioned - Knob Creek, Frangelico, Orange, Luxardo Maraschino Cherry

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Unibroue

My husband went with the two course lunch option. He went with the casare where he ended up disappointed. About half of the lettuce was brown but he didn’t want to complain so he just picked around it.

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Casare - Mixed Romaine Lettuce, Sourdough Croutons, Crisp Prosciutto

I went with two appetizers for my meal. The first was two decent sized meatballs on top of whipped ricotta. Enzo’s knows how to make great meatballs! I had them gone in no time!

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Polpettine - Classic Meatballs, Whipped Ricotta, Parmesan Cheese

My second appetizer I had for my meal was fried fontina. This is a different take on the popular friend mozzarella and I actually liked it more. Despite being fried, it didn’t feel that heavy. The salsa verde was a nice compliment as well.

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Fontina In Carrozza - Fried Fontina Cheese Fritters, Salsa Verde, Spicy Marinara

My husband’s entree was Chicken Parm. He commented that it needed salt and pepper but as we had it at our table, he quickly fixed that. He thought it was just ok and only ate about half of it.

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Chicken Parm - Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast, Tomatoes and Mozzarella Served Over Penne Pasta

I think in the future, we will only go to Enzo’s at dinner or keep lunch to a busy weekend date. It is obvious they have their ‘B’ crew working at lunch during the week. Our server wasn’t really present much. While I really enjoyed my meal, my husband struck out. The 40% discount annual passholders get did help make up for it just being meh.​
 
fter we dropped the dogs off, we filled up his truck and headed north towards Disney. We arrived at the Wide World of Sports a little before 11AM where we proceeded to rearrange the truck to move the luggage into the backseat since we didn’t want it left in the bed of the truck while we were at the Expo.
Is it usually pretty easy to park at the expo? Jason (and Casey!) are doing the princess races and my best friend will be joining them and have a car. Wondering if that would be easier than getting a bus.

At Disney Springs, our first stop was to Sephora. Why? My husband needed things.
That is certainly something you don't hear every day :-)

We ordered drinks as we were on vacation officially and that means we should celebrate. I had a wonderful old fashioned while my husband kept it simple with a beer.

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No vacation officially starts without a drink!

Yum!!!! Now of course I as a good Italian American think I make the best meatballs in the world, but I'm sure thee are good too :P

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Fontina In Carrozza - Fried Fontina Cheese Fritters, Salsa Verde, Spicy Marinara
Now this I cannot make. Sounds like a great twist on fried mozzarella!
 
Is it usually pretty easy to park at the expo? Jason (and Casey!) are doing the princess races and my best friend will be joining them and have a car. Wondering if that would be easier than getting a bus.
It is really easy to park at the expo. We've never taken the bus to the expo as we like doing things on our own time. You don't have to wait for a bus to pick you up at the hotel or expo when you drive. Depending on when you arrive -you may have a further walk but we never found it to be that bad.

That is certainly something you don't hear every day :-)
We all know he's special.

No vacation officially starts without a drink!
Oh and drinks have been had!

Yum!!!! Now of course I as a good Italian American think I make the best meatballs in the world, but I'm sure thee are good too :P
Well...if I ever try your meatballs, I'll let you know which is better. I've been on a meatball kick for the last year so I always like trying more! Enzo's is still my favorite.

Now this I cannot make. Sounds like a great twist on fried mozzarella!
It was! Different flavor profile but still cheesy goodness!
 
Inside The Void

After lunch, we had a little time to kill before heading to The Void. We decided to review the wine list at Wine Bar George to see if my husband wanted to enjoy anything there. While we didn’t get anything now - we made note of it to come back later in the trip as being able to get an ounce of a $2,000 bottle of wine for $90 would be worth it. We also noted they use the Coravin System for those wines to ensure they are properly kept.

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Wine Bar George Wines By The Ounce

We headed over to The Void on the other side of Disney Springs and checked in about 15 minutes early for our check-in time. This wasn’t an issue.

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We signed our lives away with the waiver and were given our wristbands for the experience.

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We got paired with a party of 6 for our time slow which ended up kinda sucking because we got split up as a party of 4 goes through the experience together. It ended up not mattering to use too much as we both were so immersed into becoming that Stormtrooper, killing other Stormtroopers and finding the artifact that us being seperated didn’t matter. It just meant we weren’t going to buy photos at the end since buying two photos instead of one is nonsense, so jokes on The Void. We only ended up getting an email for my husband’s results and not mine. We loved the experience though and would totally do it again. I know that Wreck It Ralph is going to start having an experience as well so we may do that in January!

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Results

Afterwards we did some shopping at The Lego Store and World of Disney which was nice.

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Didn’t buy but debated on

Here are the photos of those spoils (along with our race stuff) from later that day:

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Our room still wasn’t ready according to My Disney Experience and we hadn’t gotten the text message yet, so we killed some more time by going to Amorette’s Patisserie where I got a Millennial Pink Sparkling Cocktail.

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It’s pretty which makes it fun!

We decided despite not yet getting a text, we would head to the hotel and just wait in the lobby. We dropped our stuff off at the front as we didn’t want to deal with lugging it from the parking lot up and I visited the front desk who told me my room would be ready ‘soon’ So we settled into the comfy chairs and waited about 15 minutes before our room was ready. Thank goodness as it was 4pm!

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AKL Ceiling

We got one of the value studios that overlooked the people pen/savannah so that was nice but not many animals out whenever we looked. We spent the next bit getting settled into the room before we would head back out for dinner.
 
We got paired with a party of 6 for our time slow which ended up kinda sucking because we got split up as a party of 4 goes through the experience together. It ended up not mattering to use too much as we both were so immersed into becoming that Stormtrooper, killing other Stormtroopers and finding the artifact that us being seperated didn’t matter. It just meant we weren’t going to buy photos at the end since buying two photos instead of one is nonsense, so jokes on The Void. We only ended up getting an email for my husband’s results and not mine. We loved the experience though and would totally do it again. I know that Wreck It Ralph is going to start having an experience as well so we may do that in January!
Aw, bummer that you got split up! But glad you enjoyed it anyways. That email is super cool! Neither Trevor nor I got it when we did it; I didn't even know they sent that! Neat. :)

Our room still wasn’t ready according to My Disney Experience and we hadn’t gotten the text message yet, so we killed some more time by going to Amorette’s Patisserie where I got a Millennial Pink Sparkling Cocktail.
Cute! I love all the stuff at Amorette's.
 
We got paired with a party of 6 for our time slow which ended up kinda sucking because we got split up as a party of 4 goes through the experience together. It ended up not mattering to use too much as we both were so immersed into becoming that Stormtrooper, killing other Stormtroopers and finding the artifact that us being seperated didn’t matter. It just meant we weren’t going to buy photos at the end since buying two photos instead of one is nonsense, so jokes on The Void. We only ended up getting an email for my husband’s results and not mine. We loved the experience though and would totally do it again. I know that Wreck It Ralph is going to start having an experience as well so we may do that in January!
Wow that is crazy they would split you up! They should have had the party of 6 split to 4 and 2! Next time you do it, you should make sure to not let them split you up! Oh and you can always ask for the photo to be just you and your husband, though it's not super special since you are in a big helmet!
 
The wonderful ladies there recommended CoverFX High Performance Spray so I guess I’ll eventually let you know if it was worth the $31.

If he hasn't used it, it's really great! I was a DIEHARD Model in a Bottle user, but this one works so much better and is at a better price than MiaB.
 

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