It’s Disney, Four Hours of Sleep is Normal! Mother Daughter 2018 F&W TR! (Updated 9/22!)

[VAtink]

Oh that's comical!

Oh my goodness I know! I wasn't sure if I should tell them they were at a beer place!

Gotta love a CM that not only upgrades your tickets easily but gets you some money back. Nice!

Seriously, we were shocked she did that for us! Wish we got her name before we left so we could compliment her!

I know you don't like olives but I would have been in heaven with that serving of them from Baseline. It looked so good.

If I liked olives I would definitely have been happy with that dish! There were SO many of them! Glad my mom loves olives so was able to enjoy. I got to sneak some things off her charcuterie plate instead as a trade.

 

[suse66]

Awesome start to your report! I always enjoy your reports and am looking forward to reading along!

 

[annie170]

I love your tank top!

I didn't know that Baseline Tap House doesn't have servers. I find that rather strange.

On our December trip, we are planning on starting one day at HS (EMH), then going to Epcot around noon. Do you think it would be quicker to take a boat or bus?

 

[Cloe Colton]

What a great start to your trip!

It would be nice if Baseline kind of monitored who was sitting there because its so frustrating when you want a table and can't get one!

 

[VAtink]

Awesome start to your report! I always enjoy your reports and am looking forward to reading along!

Aw, thank you! And !

 

[VAtink]

I love your tank top!

Thank you! I may have gone a bit overboard with the pre-trip etsy orders!

I didn't know that Baseline Tap House doesn't have servers. I find that rather strange.

We were so surprised by this as well! I'm surprised they don't, especially with the offerings they have, if you order a beer flight and something else it's super hard to carry back to a table!

On our December trip, we are planning on starting one day at HS (EMH), then going to Epcot around noon. Do you think it would be quicker to take a boat or bus?

Hmmm, well my first question is are there buses between HS and Epcot? I've never done a park to park bus so I have no idea. The boat isn't bad, and we learned to get off at the first stop at the Swolphin and just walk, regardless of where you are going, even Epcot. We've beat the boat to where we are going every time!

 

[VAtink]

What a great start to your trip!

, and it was such a great start to the trip! We were so happy everything worked out with our flights!

It would be nice if Baseline kind of monitored who was sitting there because its so frustrating when you want a table and can't get one!

Yes! We thought this as well, we were lucky and got there early enough to find a seat, but soon after it filled up and we saw people coming out with their food and drinks and not being able to find a place to sit.

 

[VAtink]

Day 1, Part 3: Our First Minnie Van, and Trader Sams!

After getting off the boat at the Swolphin, we quickly made our way back to the BC, totally beating the boat back too!

We swung by bell services to grab out checked bags, then made our way up to see our room for the first time! We were in room 4540, which was quite a haul from the lobby, but as we would soon discover, was steps away from the staircase leading down to the path right by Epcot! Perfect for us since we were there for Food and Wine!

Here are some pictures of our room:




We booked a garden view room again, and once again garden view = tree. HA!

This actually ended up working out well though since our room also had the blinds rather than the blackout curtains which I’ve read let a ton of light in, so having a tree immediately in front of our balcony blocked any light outside so it stayed nice and dark in the room at night!

Also, upon entering the room, I was shocked to find that my luggage was already in there waiting for me! It was so fast this year!

We had a bit of time before we had to leave, so we spent some time unpacking.

Every year I like to have a little gift for my mom appear in the room, so while my mom was setting up stuff in the bath area, I snuck the yearly gift onto her bed!



They are actually bath sponges! So cute!

Alright, moving on. I wanted to leave around 2:30 for our next adventure so we’d have time to explore the Poly prior to getting in line, so around 2:15 I pulled up the app and ordered us a Minnie Van!

We were so excited to try this. We wanted to last year, but since it was only for certain hotel guests, they had to send out a code for it to work on your phone. We tried to do that, as did a handful of people at the front desk, but for some odd reason the code wasn’t working on my phone. So we were thrilled this year to finally be able to use it!

The ETA was 15 minutes for the van, so my mom and I got ready quickly, then made our way downstairs to wait for a polka dot car! It arrived right on time and we piled in and were off to the Poly! Our driver was awesome, we had a great conversation with her. Turns out she used to work front desk at the GF! We mentioned we were going to Trader Sam’s for our first time, so she made sure we knew exactly how to find it which was much appreciated!

We arrived at the Poly around 2:50, and made our way instead and over to Trader Sam’s just to make sure we could find it! It was super easy to find, but since it was still so early there was no line yet, so we made our way outside to explore the grounds.

Unfortunately it was super hot out that day, so our exploring didn’t last long, so I suggested we go explore the lobby instead to be in the AC. We headed back in through the door by Trader Sam’s, and were shocked to see a line had already started to form! It was only 2:56!

Not wanting to miss out, we also hopped in line to wait for a very long long hour!

Around 3:30 a CM came out to take our name and phone number so we could leave and come back at 4, but we didn’t really have anywhere to go, so opted to just wait, which most people in line also did.

At 4, the CM came out again and called the people ahead of us, then finally it was our turn!

I entered and quickly found a table that was conveniently set up for just 2 people, the only one in there, so that was perfect!

Our waitress came by quickly, and we ordered drinks and food! I got the hippopotomai-tai, mom got the Rosita’s Margarita, and we got the sliders and dumplings to share.






(ate some of the dumplings before we remember to take a picture, oops!)

The food was good, I preferred the sliders to the dumplings, the dumplings were a bit too crispy for me. The drinks were sooooo good! A little too good, they went down fast!

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in there, it was just the right amount of cheesy-ness for us! I ended up ordering the Krakatoa punch as well, which was even better than the mai tai!





While enjoying our drinks, and all the happenings around the room, this guy comes in by himself. Instead of sitting at the empty chair at the table near us, he grabs the chair, then pulls it over to our tiny little table and asks if he can sit with us instead of the other table.

Um. Why?!?!? Was there something wrong with the table you just dragged that chair from?

Being the nice people we usually are, we let him sit with us. Well, that may have been a mistake. First, he orders a ton of food items, and when they came out they completely took over our table so there was no room for our drinks! Ugh.

Ok, sharing is caring, we can share the table…I don’t mind holding my drink…really not a problem…

But the worst part was, he was one of those Disney know-it-alls, who also has to one-up you with everything! He kept going on and on about how he’s been there thousands of times, and how he knows everyone who works there, and how he knows all the secrets and blah blah blah.

Now I can handle the know-it-alls, we’re all (well most of us) big fans of Disney, so I get it, some people are just much bigger fans and want to know everything there is to know. What I hate is when you say you did something, and that person tell you they did too, but did it WAY better than you. What is the point of that? Can’t we instead talk about how great the experience was rather than you lecture me on how I did everything wrong?

Yeah. So no surprise, we left soon after that guy commandeered our table.

We still had a great time regardless, and fortunately the guy didn’t show up until we had already been there for about 2 hours, so we needed to head out soon anyways.

So we finally paid, picked up my tiki mug, and headed out to the monorail for our next adventure of the night….Food and Wine!!!

Next Up: Our First Taste of Food and Wine!​

 

[missangelalexis]

Those bath sponges are SO cute!!

Wow that guy sounds super annoying. Such a weird situation! I'm glad it happened towards the end of your time there so you could still enjoy the experience.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I love reading about your mother daughter trips. Sounds like a good start to the trip!

 

[DaisyLuv]

I'm enjoying following along! Why in the world did that guy join your table if there were other tables available?! Too funny! lol

 

[dnllmz]

While enjoying our drinks, and all the happenings around the room, this guy comes in by himself. Instead of sitting at the empty chair at the table near us, he grabs the chair, then pulls it over to our tiny little table and asks if he can sit with us instead of the other table.

Um. Why?!?!? Was there something wrong with the table you just dragged that chair from?

That's a little strange. Maybe if he was just ordering drinks and wanted people to talk to but I find it weird that he ordered all that food and basically took over your table very weird.

I didn't realize that Trader Sam's has a line that starts that early. I hear a lot about it in reviews but it's somewhere I haven't been.

 

[VAtink]

Those bath sponges are SO cute!!

Aren't they? I was looking for something small and cheap this year, and found those on sale!

Wow that guy sounds super annoying. Such a weird situation! I'm glad it happened towards the end of your time there so you could still enjoy the experience.

Haha, I know! I kinda wonder if maybe he was being so weird because he figured he'd scare us off and get the table to himself!

 

[VAtink]

I love reading about your mother daughter trips. Sounds like a good start to the trip!

Aw, thank you! And ! Hope you enjoy this TR as well!

 

[VAtink]

I'm enjoying following along! Why in the world did that guy join your table if there were other tables available?! Too funny! lol

Thanks! We have no idea why he did that, it was so strange! I mean, maybe my mom and I just looked fun to hang out with?

 

[VAtink]

That's a little strange. Maybe if he was just ordering drinks and wanted people to talk to but I find it weird that he ordered all that food and basically took over your table very weird.

Yes, exactly! So odd! Maybe he just didn't realize how rude it was to completely take over the table...some people are kind of oblivious to these things!

I didn't realize that Trader Sam's has a line that starts that early. I hear a lot about it in reviews but it's somewhere I haven't been.

Yeah, it was our first time there, and I had heard the line usually starts around 3:30. I feel like we may have gone on a freak night, other people in line with us who had been before were shocked how early the line formed that night. We were talking to one of the families in front of us, and they mentioned since they had kids with them, they wanted to make sure they got in right at opening so they could be there for a long as possible before the kids got kicked out which is why they ended up lining up before 3:00!

 

[VAtink]

Day 1, Part 4: Our First Taste of Food and Wine!

After wrapping up at Trader Sam’s, we wandered/tried to find the path to the monorail.

It wasn’t actually too hard to find, but it was a bit longer than expected!

We went through security when we got to TTC, where I had a fun conversation with the security guard about all the good drinks over at Food and Wine this year. While chatting with him I suddenly look up to see my mom has gotten super far ahead of me and was about to get on the wrong monorail! So I said a quick goodbye to the guy I was chatting with, and rushed after my mom to make sure she didn’t go the wrong way!

Our boat luck apparently transferred over to the monorail, and we arrived just as one was pulling away. Oh joy.

So we went to one of the gates to wait for the next one, which fortunately was only about 10 minutes. We had a nice ride over, and once at Epcot made our way quickly through security and into the park. Somehow we were still hungry, which was good because my goal for this trip was to try every single food booth!

Our original plan had us going to light lab to get the RGB flight, but after all the drinks earlier in the day, that seemed like too much. So instead we started at Flavors from Fire.

I ended up getting the corned beef there. The beef was good, but I was not a fan of the chips. Maybe if there was more beef and few chips I would have been a bigger fan of this one, but it was a few small pieces of beef, with a big pile of chips. Still, the flavors were good, just needed a better ratio of the main ingredients!





Next up we made our way to the Eats booths area where my mom saved us a table while I ran to the booths to get food. We got the salmon from active eats and then the scallops from coastal eats.

The salmon was amazing. One of my favorite dishes from this year’s Food and Wine!



The scallops were great, but after trying the salmon, did not compare!



We were starting to get really tired at this point, hard to believe that just a few hours earlier we had landed in Orlando, felt like we had been there for days already!

On the way out, I made my mom swing by the Cheese Studio because I had my eye on a special dessert. I picked up the Maple Bourbon Cheesecake as well as the blueberry sparkling wine.

Oh my goodness. This was amazing.

It was also a HUGE serving! With both mom and I eating it we could hardly finish!



The wine was also really good, and a perfect finish to our first evening at Disney!

Once we finished up our amazing dessert, we were both ready to crash for the night, so slowly made our way home to the BC to finish unpacking and finally get a good nights sleep! On the way up to our room we swung by the front desk to inquire about transportation to the EMM the next morning at HS, and he assured us the boats would be running by 6:00AM to get us there.

We shall see about that….

Next up: We’re off to EMM at Toy Story Land!!!

​

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 1: We’re off to EMM at Toy Story Land!!!!

We ended up waking up very very early on our second day, so it was fortunate we had gone to bed so early the night before!

At 5:45 we made our way downstairs to the lobby. I wanted to check with the front desk again about the boats since I didn’t believe the previous CM about them running at 6 AM!

The CM that was at the desk that morning didn’t know about any transportation that early, so went back to get a manager. The manager confirmed my suspicions that no, there would be no boats to HS that early, even with an event. He also mentioned that they were told that they would NOT be providing transportation to this event!

WHAT?!?!?

I mean, he’s a manager, he should be believed, right? Or….maybe he wasn’t really a manager…

(spoiler alert, later in the trip we did discover busses for HS start running from the BC at around 6:15AM, guess they run those until the boats start!)

Anyways, back to the present. Upon hearing there would be no transportation, my mom and I did what we do best…panic!

HA.

Ok, not true. We immediately came up with a new plan. The first was to call for a Minnie van. But we found out after the “manager” called them that they don’t start running until 6:30.

Alright, option 2. We walk.

I had heard with all the construction the walk was significantly longer now, but I figure it was still early and relatively (for Florida) cool outside, so we decided to try it out.

The walk was actually surprisingly easy, and really fast considering how slow we were walking while taking pictures along the way! We left the BC a few minutes before 6:00, and were at the front of HS before 6:20.


Ugh, love how pretty this place is at 6AM!






One of the rare pictures of me this early with my eyes actually open!

Not surprising, we were the first ones there, besides of course all the CMs! There were a ton of them, mostly very official looking, guess they were all there to make sure the first EMM at TSL went smoothly.

While we were waiting one of those official looking CMs came to chat with us, and we ended up talking about getting there, and he mentioned that they certainly had arranged for transportation from every resort on property, so our “manager” had been a bit wrong about that!

About 10 minutes after we arrived a few more people showed up, and around 6:40 a CM came over to let all the media people know they needed to check in over to the far right.

Everyone behind us followed him over to the media check in. HA! I joked with my mom that we were the only non-media guests there that morning!

Eventually some more of us normal guest showed up, but really it was a very light crowd. I tried counting as we were waiting, but didn’t get far. I’d estimate there were maybe 150-200 people in line with us. By the time we were let in, there was just two lines that stretched from the tapstiles back to the ticket windows, so really not a large crowd at all!

Around 6:45 they gave us our wrist bands for the event, then we went and waited at the tapstiles to be let in.

At 7:00 they let the media in. It was definitely interesting to watch. The went to the left instead of the right towards TSL, guessing they may have been going to the commissary first to see the food options before seeing the land?

Alright, hate to cut this short, but I gotta do work!

Next up: EMM at Toy Story Land, Part 1!

​

 

[VAtink]

Quick real world update....we just booked our next F&W trip!!! Yay! Next year we're going a bit later in September, and I'll be doing my first split stay! Starting September 25th at the Swan, then moving the next day to the YC for the rest of the week!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a great time at Epcot eating some great food items!!

It always amazes me when CMs don't have good information. But I'm glad it was a quick walk- and a scenic one!

Congrats on booking next year's trip!!