pepperandchips
[melinda]
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2014
Hey, nice to meet ya! I'm Melinda.
This is me, living my best life, actually wearing lipstick and lanyarded-out in front of the bubblegum wall outside of Spaceship Earth. Don't let this trendy photo fool you, check out the messy hair and set your expectations lower. I love all things Disney, the Canada Beer Cart, the Country Bears, podcasts, Burudika Band, signature restaurants, the Peoplemover, Animal Kingdom, tiki culture, Spaceship Earth, and cannot resist the siren song of a food kiosk in Epcot.
I am back and am starting fresh with a brand new dining funanza. I expect this DR to cover my annual fall food and wine pilgrimage (extended cut, featuring a new-to-y'all character added to the cast, my friend Sarah), a trip for my first food and wine classic with my mom (remember that bit about lowering your expectations?), and an upcoming two day stopover at Disney on our way down to R's family's for Christmas.
Speak of the devil, introductions are in order.
Pictured with me above is R, my fiance (which is still weird to say). He's been part of the regular cast over the last few years, and we love to travel and eat together. We are getting married in May.
This is Sarah, my friend and fellow Disney fan. We met in 2012 and have made and cancelled Disney plans together a few times since then. This time the plans were hatched over cocktails... well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just say the trip worked out. She'll feature in the October part of this dining report.
Since 2014 I've visited WDW for a "longer" stay during Food and Wine, as I normally just make quick weekend jaunts down from Atlanta. This year was no different and I booked a stay during R's fall break at my home DVC resort, the Grand Floridian Villas. This was my first stay at my home resort on my own DVC points and so that was extra cool. I have a really small contract that will either let me take a longer trip every 3 years via banking and borrowing or I can take a long weekend every year. This was a banking and borrowing trip, and I really liked staying at VGF. I may not plan to use my VGF points for Epcot-centric trips in the future due to the necessity of two monorail segments to get there, but overall I love my home resort and was happy to stay in my "place" there.
Just after I got back from my previous Disney trip, I got in a minor fender bender on my way to work and was so frustrated and frazzled that day that I cashed in some Skymiles for R and I to fly to WDW this time. We stay offsite pretty regularly, but since we knew we had no plans to go offsite and could get Magical Express to the Grand Floridian, it was an easy choice. We took a 7:55 pm flight from Atlanta and were on the ground in Orlando by 9:15 pm. Unlike my previous experiences with DME, this time we had apparently just missed the prior bus and so we were first in line, first on the bus, and waiting a long time watching the trivia videos. No worries, I was just happy to be in Orlando! If you haven't had the pleasure of watching the full trivia loop, this is where the report title comes from, as the trivia video gives comically bad "incorrect options" for the trivia questions, one of which is "Hunky Tuna Tostada", a horrible quote from Iago back when the Tiki Room was the abominable Under New Management version.
Magical Express dropped off at the Poly and CR before dropping us at the Grand. We schlepped our stuff to our room and passed out for the night.
Well, I think that's enough background. Now pour yourself a beverage and settle in for the food pics!
Next installment: What's our view like? Did we make it to our much-anticipated first meal at Disney? Will we ever meet up with Sarah?
This is me, living my best life, actually wearing lipstick and lanyarded-out in front of the bubblegum wall outside of Spaceship Earth. Don't let this trendy photo fool you, check out the messy hair and set your expectations lower. I love all things Disney, the Canada Beer Cart, the Country Bears, podcasts, Burudika Band, signature restaurants, the Peoplemover, Animal Kingdom, tiki culture, Spaceship Earth, and cannot resist the siren song of a food kiosk in Epcot.
I am back and am starting fresh with a brand new dining funanza. I expect this DR to cover my annual fall food and wine pilgrimage (extended cut, featuring a new-to-y'all character added to the cast, my friend Sarah), a trip for my first food and wine classic with my mom (remember that bit about lowering your expectations?), and an upcoming two day stopover at Disney on our way down to R's family's for Christmas.
Speak of the devil, introductions are in order.
Pictured with me above is R, my fiance (which is still weird to say). He's been part of the regular cast over the last few years, and we love to travel and eat together. We are getting married in May.
This is Sarah, my friend and fellow Disney fan. We met in 2012 and have made and cancelled Disney plans together a few times since then. This time the plans were hatched over cocktails... well, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just say the trip worked out. She'll feature in the October part of this dining report.
Since 2014 I've visited WDW for a "longer" stay during Food and Wine, as I normally just make quick weekend jaunts down from Atlanta. This year was no different and I booked a stay during R's fall break at my home DVC resort, the Grand Floridian Villas. This was my first stay at my home resort on my own DVC points and so that was extra cool. I have a really small contract that will either let me take a longer trip every 3 years via banking and borrowing or I can take a long weekend every year. This was a banking and borrowing trip, and I really liked staying at VGF. I may not plan to use my VGF points for Epcot-centric trips in the future due to the necessity of two monorail segments to get there, but overall I love my home resort and was happy to stay in my "place" there.
Just after I got back from my previous Disney trip, I got in a minor fender bender on my way to work and was so frustrated and frazzled that day that I cashed in some Skymiles for R and I to fly to WDW this time. We stay offsite pretty regularly, but since we knew we had no plans to go offsite and could get Magical Express to the Grand Floridian, it was an easy choice. We took a 7:55 pm flight from Atlanta and were on the ground in Orlando by 9:15 pm. Unlike my previous experiences with DME, this time we had apparently just missed the prior bus and so we were first in line, first on the bus, and waiting a long time watching the trivia videos. No worries, I was just happy to be in Orlando! If you haven't had the pleasure of watching the full trivia loop, this is where the report title comes from, as the trivia video gives comically bad "incorrect options" for the trivia questions, one of which is "Hunky Tuna Tostada", a horrible quote from Iago back when the Tiki Room was the abominable Under New Management version.
Magical Express dropped off at the Poly and CR before dropping us at the Grand. We schlepped our stuff to our room and passed out for the night.
Well, I think that's enough background. Now pour yourself a beverage and settle in for the food pics!
Next installment: What's our view like? Did we make it to our much-anticipated first meal at Disney? Will we ever meet up with Sarah?