The Aussies Are Running Wine & Dine 2019

[pkondz]

LOL That's totally OK and I understand. Funny enough 3 years ago I was strictly a non runner.

I started non-running about 35 years ago and have been carefully cultivating that ever since.

I love the idea of the Boardwalk stroll/tour. I actually read recently about a DTD food crawl and have included that in our plans - more details to come - so maybe I need to include something similar for the Boardwalk area resorts?

Where did you read about the food crawl?

we were hoping to catch an Orlando Magic basketball game as we're big basketball fans

Cool! I've never been to an NBA game. Might never.

we're also planning on heading to a Walmart and the Disney outlet to pickup Disney march without the inflated park prices.

"I like this sweater. How much is it? Oh... $149.99"
<later, at the Disney outlet> "Oh! Here's the same sweater. It's $4.85.)

Us Australian's have a real fascination and love affair with Walmart. We don't have anything like it in Australia so walking in and finding absolutely everything you could imagine under one roof is absolutely fascinating.

Huh! Didn't know that.

 

[Sinders99]

I started non-running about 35 years ago and have been carefully cultivating that ever since.
Where did you read about the food crawl?

I subscribe to WDW Magazine and they did a Disney Springs food crawl in last months issue.

I think they included 6 different places and the idea was that they split a snack or entree at each place they visited instead of having a full meal. Off the top of my head the stops included The Chicken Guy, Morimoto Asia Street Food, Pizza Ponte, Amorette's, Wine Bar George & I can't remember the last spot.

I've seen a similar Bay Lake/Monorail idea as well so I was thinking of making time for all 3 - Boardwalk area crawl / Bay Lake Monorail crawl and Disney Springs crawl I kinda like food LOL

 

[Sinders99]

My husband and I will be at POP from 10/28-11/5 and we are doing the Wine & Dine races as well. Hubby does all 3 and I do the 5K.
I'm enjoying your report....

I'm so unbelievably excited about running my first onsite Disney races. I've got so many ideas for things I'd like to plan for this trip and even though we've got 18 days I have to keep reminding myself that you're never going to do it all

Gives me an awesome excuse though to come back again!!

 

[pkondz]

I subscribe to WDW Magazine and they did a Disney Springs food crawl in last months issue.

I think they included 6 different places and the idea was that they split a snack or entree at each place they visited instead of having a full meal. Off the top of my head the stops included The Chicken Guy, Morimoto Asia Street Food, Pizza Ponte, Amorette's, Wine Bar George & I can't remember the last spot.

Kinda liking that. Good idea!

I've seen a similar Bay Lake/Monorail idea as well so I was thinking of making time for all 3 - Boardwalk area crawl / Bay Lake Monorail crawl and Disney Springs crawl I kinda like food LOL

Who kinda doesn't!?!?

 

[bearybubba]

I'm so unbelievably excited about running my first onsite Disney races. I've got so many ideas for things I'd like to plan for this trip and even though we've got 18 days I have to keep reminding myself that you're never going to do it all

Gives me an awesome excuse though to come back again!!

It sure does and we keep going back! After our 10th trip, we finally realized that we really cannot see it all and just do what we can, knowing that we will be back again. We're lucky this year since we are doing the Star Wars Rival Run this weekend and going down again for Wine & Dine.

 

[Sinders99]

We're lucky this year since we are doing the Star Wars Rival Run this weekend and going down again for Wine & Dine.

My husband and I are big Star Wars fans. I'd love to do a Star Wars race weekend.

We'd also love to be close enough to visit twice in a year but alas we have to make do with a magical visit every 2 or 3 years.

This trip we're actually going to go and book in a DVC presentation and look at all the benefits of ownership. I don't know that we're ready to buy just yet but we'd like to get all the information. I also don't know that we'll buy direct from Disney or via resale but again at least we'll have started gathering the information we need to make an informed decision. The biggest portion of our visits to WDW are accomodation and this trip is no exception

 

[Sinders99]

CHOOSING OUR DATES (AGAIN!!)

As typically happens when planning trips, everything is open to change just like park hours, events and new land openings. When we started out on this planning journey we thought it was going to be a Christmas trip BUT if you've read through earlier posts and replies you will have discovered that our plans have in fact changed.

I started out on a running journey about 2 years ago that was all started by my discovery of Run Disney races. I won't bore you with all the details of my journey or challenges but I have a training journal over on the RunDisney forums if you'd like to follow along

I've been a member of the BOGP (Be Our Guest Podcast) Lizards Running Team for about 18 months now and every RunDisney weekend I enviously watch from Australia as other Lizards flock to Disneyworld to run marathon weekend, Princess, Star Wars or Wine & Dine. In January this year I'd had enough of watching from the sidelines and although we were already in the process of planning a December trip it just wasn't soon enough LOL!!

So I set to work coming up with a plan that avoided Star Wars Galaxies Edge opening, took in a race weekend and made best use of low crowd numbers and that's how we came up with .....................................

26 October - 13 November 2019

The big joke is on us though. Everyone was expecting a Nov/Dec 2019 or even a Jan 2020 opening for Star Wars not SUMMER!! Ahh hello Disney??? For a week we considered cancelling but then realised the following:

1. There's no such thing as a low season at Disneyworld anymore
2. The crowds at Galaxies Edge probably aren't likely to subside for 18-24 months (just look at the lines they still have in Animal Kingdom for the Pandora rides and it's been open 2 years!!)
3. If everyone's flocking to Galaxies Edge who's in the other parks?
4. The dates we've chosen allow us to take in the last of the Halloween parties and the first of the Christmas parties as well as Food & Wine
5. We avoid the sky high prices and crowds that come with Christmas travel

So we're settled. There's no going back from here. We've booked and paid our RunDisney race registrations - STRICTLY NON REFUNDABLE -
and we've already paid a big chunk of a DVC rental booking but more about that in our next update ​

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I feel the same way about SWGE crowds- they're not going anywhere any time soon so we
just have to deal with it.

 

[Sinders99]

I feel the same way about SWGE crowds- they're not going anywhere any time soon so we
just have to deal with it.

Completely agree

For us Australians it's like saying you'd only travel to a certain country when the exchange rate is good. Problem is our exchange rate against the major currencies is never good so by that logic we'd never travel LOL!

 

[Corrine 1973]

MVMCP, MNSSHP, and Food and Wine!!! I think you are going on my dream trip!!! I agree with the GE opening. I lucked out and am going at beginning of August but even if it was after opening I would still go. DHS will definitely be busy (at least in that area) but because of GE the rest of the parks will probably not be so bad.
I love the lessons you learned. We are staying at CBR but mainly only because we are a family of 5...and the kids like the water slide. We love the dining plan but are definitely a family who enjoys a good sit down meal. We always seem to have snack credits at the end though so I really need to work on that. We did get the free QS dining this year (upgraded it but might go back to QS)so we had to upgrade the park hopper. Never done the park hopper before so I am not sure how we will use it. I did end up upgrading to the plus so we can go to Typhoon Lagoon one day.

Great PTR so far. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Sinders99]

A LITTLE BIT OF MAGIC!

Wouldn't you know it, life has gotten in the way of trip planning recently but we have made some progress on our planning AND we've had a little bit of pre-trip pixie dust.

My DH has been in the IT industry for over 10 years since leaving the Australian Navy and when he discharged after 10 years of service he had to start at the very bottom of the IT ladder and work his way up. Things haven't always gone his way and there's been plenty of people on his journey who have taken him for granted and exploited his hard working nature for their own benefit. When we moved to Melbourne 16 months ago we did so purely so that he could progress in his career and make the steps forward he needed to get to a Senior or Management role in the industry.
Last week it finally happened!!

A company approached him via social media to interview for a Senior role. He went to the interview with nothing to lose and within 12 hours he was offered the position!
He's so excited and I'm so proud of him. It's been a difficult journey but he's finally reaching the heights he's always wanted and the 40% pay increase that comes with his new position will really help us add some Disney magic to our trip

Untitled by Jennie G, on Flickr

So what planning have we been up to?

WE LOCKED IN OUR MNSSHP DATE!

So on the 1st, 2nd & 3rd of November we'll be running the Wine & Dine races so the MNSSHP dates on the 31st Oct and 1st Nov were out because we need early nights for our races. So the only other dates we would have been able to attend were the 27th Oct or 29th Oct. We fly into Orlando (yet to book our flights) on the 26th so we felt like the 27th - after a 26 hour flight - would be too much and we may still be suffering from jet lag. So the 29th October it is!
I LOVED this party on our trip 3 years ago but I mentioned in an earlier post that we lost 3 hours of party time due to a huge storm and we really didn't get to see the stage show, trick or treat or see the full parade. We still had an amazing time though and we can't wait to do it again. Now we need to come up with costume ideas!!

The other bit of Disney magic that happened this week was that we secured a group rate at POP Century that saved us over $440 USD!!
WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!

That's basically our MNSSHP and MVMCP tickets for free! Don't you just love Disney math


Right now we have 186 days until we arrive and in 6 days our dinning reservation window opens for the first 10 days of our trip. Before DH got his new job we were trying to economise by eating mostly QS meals, but now that we'll have considerably more money to play with he's told me to book all the TS meals I really wanted to do but had economised on. He's a good man

So at the moment I have the following on my reservation list:

27 Oct = BOG Lunch
1 Nov = 50's Prime Time Lunch
3 Nov = Liberty Tree Tavern Lunch (NEW)
4 Nov = Whispering Canyon Cafe Dinner (NEW)
5 Nov = Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre Dinner (NEW)
8 Nov = Plaza Restaurant Lunch (NEW) & Trail's End Dinner (NEW)
9 Nov = Turf Club Bar & Grill Dinner (NEW)
10 Nov = Raglan Road Irish Pub Dinner (NEW)
11 Nov = Bay Lake Progressive Dinner with Apps & Drinks at Trader Sams, Entree at Grand Floridian Cafe & Desert at California Grill (ALL NEW)

I've marked all of the new restaurants to us above so that you can see just how many new restaurant experiences we're looking forward to. I've also built in a couple of nights eating our way around the Food & Wine booths for dinner and I've also planned a progressive Disney Springs dine around for the 7th Nov.

The idea of the Disney Springs dine around is to target about 6 quick service restaurants and share appetisers from their menu so that we can sample a little bit of everything. For that dinner I've planned the following:

The Daily Poutine
Coca Cola Store for a drinks flight
Chicken Guy
Jock Lindsays Hangar Bar
Pizza Ponte
Ghirardelli's

I'd love to hear everyone's dining recommendations though and also if you'd have any additional places we should try on our DS dine around??​

 

[pkondz]

Congrats to Adam! Hard work pays off in the end.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Congrats to your husband and yay for more Disney money!

For Disney Springs I suggest adding Morimoto Asia to your list. You can sit at the bar and order appetizers to share. It's by far our favorite place to eat in DS!

 

[Sinders99]

TO PARTY FOR THE SENSES OR NOT??

Hmmm I really need to do updates more regularly it I NEED HELP!!!

We have an opportunity to go to the Party For The Senses event on 9 Nov but I’m not sure it’s worth it? Has any of my followers here done it and if so, did you think it was worth the cost??

 

[pkondz]

TO PARTY FOR THE SENSES OR NOT??

Hmmm I really need to do updates more regularly it I NEED HELP!!!

We have an opportunity to go to the Party For The Senses event on 9 Nov but I’m not sure it’s worth it? Has any of my followers here done it and if so, did you think it was worth the cost??

Not me. Sorry!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

TO PARTY FOR THE SENSES OR NOT??

Hmmm I really need to do updates more regularly it I NEED HELP!!!

We have an opportunity to go to the Party For The Senses event on 9 Nov but I’m not sure it’s worth it? Has any of my followers here done it and if so, did you think it was worth the cost??

I haven’t done it but I’ve always heard good things. There’s a Food and Wine thread in the Restaurants board that’s pretty active right now. Maybe you can get some reviews from people there

 

[VeronicaMarie]

Following and chiming in! Your trip is nearly a replica of the 2019 trip I was intending/dreaming to take with my boyfriend, best friend and her husband. Halloween, All the Wine & Dine Races, and early Christmas for two weeks. But life had another plan when best friend was blessed with a baby and my boyfriend proposed to me! So all our finances were quickly diverted LOL. I can't be too sad because its for amazing reasons. So we are just postponing this Disney Dream trip (as I like to call it) for a few years. I am excited to get to follow along and vicariously live through you! Sounds like an amazing plan so far. I really like the progressive dinner plans - are you self organizing these? Would love to know how you are working that all out. I want to EAT.ALL.THE.FOOD when I next go.

 

[Sinders99]

I haven’t done it but I’ve always heard good things. There’s a Food and Wine thread in the Restaurants board that’s pretty active right now. Maybe you can get some reviews from people there

Ooooo I hadn't realised I'll definitely head over there for a look now.

I really like the progressive dinner plans - are you self organizing these? Would love to know how you are working that all out. I want to EAT.ALL.THE.FOOD when I next go.

Congrats on your engagement and your friends pregnancy!! What fantastic things to look forward to!
I subscribe to WDW Magazine and in a recent issue they had a writer who did a Dine Around DisneySprings route. The idea is that you share a snack/appetiser at each stop so that you don't get too full and get to enjoy a little bit of everything. I've picked out places and menu items that hubby and I would like to try and will map out our route closer to our departure I need to do another thread updates with new plans and progress, so I'll be sure to include our plans as I've had a lot of people interested in this aspect of my planning

 

[Sinders99]

THAT MAGICAL 180 DAY STRESS!!

I can hardly believe we've already flown past our 180 day planning point. On our last trip this was the first big milestone of our planning and the point where we realised that our trip was really going to happen and it's exactly the same this time. Booking dining is always a really fun part of the planning and Disney dining is one of our favourite parts of any trip. The meals we remembered the most from our last trip were those experiences that you could only have at Disney - Be Our Guest Lunch, 50's Prime Time Cafe - Crystal Palace Lunch - Yachtsman Steakhouse.

I guarantee the list will change as we get closer - it always does - because it's inevitable that Disney will add events, change park times or add new experience. With Galaxies Edge opening only 7 weeks before we arrive we're sure of 2 things - 1. The crowds will be crazy and 2. There will definitely be new challenges to overcome at Hollywood Studios.

So what did we book? Below is the list as well as some information on some of the extra magic we're adding to our trip We'll be purchasing 1 Annual Pass as well as a Tables In Wonderland card

26 Oct
Arrival Day
Everything POP QS Dinner

27 Oct
Be Our Guest QS Lunch
Chef Art Smiths TS Dinner

28 Oct
HS QS Lunch TBC
Food&Wine Booth Dinner

29 Oct
MNSSHP
QS Lunch TBC
Colombia Harbour House QS Dinner

30 Oct
Yak&Yeti TS Lunch
Satuli Canteen QS Dinner

31 Oct
Wine & Dine Expo & Packet Pickup
Polite Pig QS Lunch
QS Dinner TBC

1 Nov
Wine & Dine 5km
Food & Wine Culinary Demo - Beef
EPCOT QS TBC
Landscape of Flavours QS Dinner

2 Nov
Wine & Dine 10km
Flame Tree BBQ QS Lunch
Everything POP QS Dinner

3 Nov
Wine & Dine Half Marathon
Wine & Dine Afterparty at EPCOT
Liberty Tree Tavern TS Lunch
Food&Wine Booth Dinner

4 Nov
Contempo Cafe QS Lunch
Whispering Canyon Cafe TS Dinner

5 Nov
Les Halles Boulangerie QS Lunch
Sci Fi Drive In Theatre TS Dinner

6 Nov
Artists Pallet QS Lunch
Garden Grill TS Dinner

7 Nov
50's Prime Time Cafe TS Lunch
Disney Springs QS Dine Around

8 Nov
Chip & Dales Campfire Sing Along
Christmas Sleigh Ride (if available)
Marceline To Magic Kingdom Tour
MK QS Lunch TBC
Trails End TS Dinner

9 Nov
Offsite Lunch
Turf Club Bar & Grill TS Dinner

10 Nov
Sassagoula Floatworks QS Brunch
Raglan Road TS Dinner

11 Nov
AK QS Lunch TBC
Yachtsman Steakhouse TS Dinner

12 Nov
MVMCP
HS QS Lunch TBC
Tony's Most Merriest Town Square Party

13 Nov
Departure Day TBC

Want more details on that Disney Springs Dine Around? Below is the list of what I think we'll include:

The Daily Poutine
We're fascinated with how anyone could team french fries/gravy & cheese curds

Coca Cola Store
Stopping in for a photo with the bear and a drinks flight. Hubby is a huge coke drinker.

The Chicken Guy
A serve of chicken tenders and some of those dipping sauces

Jock Lindsays Hangar Bar
Appetisers and libations! Again Hubby's a big fan of the Indiana Jones movies

Pizza Ponte
Nothing like a slice of slightly overpriced pizza but we've been assured it's worth it.

Ghirardelli's
I LOVE GHIRADELLI's CHOCOLATE (especially the dark chocolate and raspberry squares) and we can't buy it in Australia So we definitely have to stop here to stock up big on supplies to bring home and to split an amazing sundae for desert

We'll be staying at Saratoga Springs at this point so the idea is to stroll to Disney Springs and just soak it all up. One thing we realised on our last trip was that time at Disney is full of activity and fun and craziness but rarely did we just relax and enjoy our surroundings, so this trip we're going to make more of an effort to enjoy our resort, leave some meals and plans open to chance and relax a little more.

Oh and this weekend I'm running a Half Marathon!!​

 

[pkondz]

So what did we book? Below is the list as well as some information on some of the extra magic we're adding to our trip

Pretty good choices in there!

Oh and this weekend I'm running a Half Marathon!!

Good luck!