"What A Desolate Place This Is" - August 2020 Dining Report - Update 9/29 Wine Bar George

Introductions

We never were planning on going to Disney at the end of August. We originally were supposed to go to Disney in April for Star Wars Rival Run Half Marathon weekend but the parks closed, the race was cancelled, and we all know how the world shut down.

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My husband works in a retail business deemed essential so he worked a lot of hours and was promoted to General/Store Manager in the midst of this chaos. I became really glad I switched industries away from aerospace back in 2018 to something that is steady and consistent even if the pay was a little less. We pretty much go to work, play/train the dogs, do lots of puzzles and watch lots of TV.

So with extra DVC points and needing a mental break, we decided we would book a long weekend once my husband's silver pass was unblocked. As one of the other manager's in his store was going the weekend of 19th to 23rd, we settled on the last weekend of the month due to the points being a little lower than earlier in the month. We pretty much had our choice of DVC studios to book but my husband said, hey, we haven't stayed at BLT in years, why not that one? I agreed and liked that we would be able to walk to MK instead of having to deal with buses/ferry/monorail situation.

Part of us is a little nervous about going to the theme parks but as we already live in Florida in a tourist area and have stayed healthy using masks, hand sanitizer and avoiding people, we are willing to take the risk. We're also driving so we don't have to rely on any Disney transportation. Following twitter and various other reports, we're excited to finally go do something fun!

Our plans are as follows:

August 27th
Park: EPCOT
Lunch: Taste of Food & Wine Festival
Dinner: Tutto Italia

August 28th
Park: Hollywood Studios
Lunch: Unknown?
Dinner: California Grill

August 29th
Park: Magic Kingdom
Lunch: Skipper's Canteen
Dinner: Wine Bar George

August 30th
Park: Animal Kingdom
Lunch: Nomad's Lounge?
Dinner: Home!
 
Yeah! So excited to see you on here and glad to hear you all will get some much needed Disney time. Can't wait to hear all about it.
 
I will be happily following along.....it is going to be a long time before there is any Disney fun for us Canadians!
 


WAHOO!!! A new dining TR!! You have the best ones and I'm going to live vicariously through you as DH and I were supposed to go in June for a family trip which is now pushed to December. Then we booked a mini trip in late Aug for just us, but cancelled it in early July and now.....

I'm even afraid to say it out loud as I might jinx myself but DH said last night that we could look at October for a trip for just us since we have extra DVC points just hanging around too!

WAHOO!! AND you have a several dinners that we'd be interested into! Cali Grill (a favorite of ours), Wine Bar George (a new one for us) and we haven't been to Tutto in over 10 years!

Bring it on!
 
Yeah! So excited to see you on here and glad to hear you all will get some much needed Disney time. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Yes! We are very excited we are getting much needed Disney time and just a mental break from life/work! I probably haven't been this excited for a trip to WDW in a long time. I know its going to be different but at least we know what we are getting into so we must make the best of it!

I will be happily following along.....it is going to be a long time before there is any Disney fun for us Canadians!

I feel for all those outside the states or in states subject to quarantine orders. It will be a long haul before it's all back to normal. We originally wanted to go back to Italy in 2021 but we decided to push it back until 2022 because who knows if it will be ok to travel internationally in 2021. I'm so grateful we did our big France trip in 2019 and didn't push it out to this year like was a thought for a bit.

WAHOO!!! A new dining TR!! You have the best ones and I'm going to live vicariously through you as DH and I were supposed to go in June for a family trip which is now pushed to December. Then we booked a mini trip in late Aug for just us, but cancelled it in early July and now.....

I'm even afraid to say it out loud as I might jinx myself but DH said last night that we could look at October for a trip for just us since we have extra DVC points just hanging around too!

WAHOO!! AND you have a several dinners that we'd be interested into! Cali Grill (a favorite of ours), Wine Bar George (a new one for us) and we haven't been to Tutto in over 10 years!

Bring it on!

Thank you for that compliment! The every changing trip plans. I feel that is a story many around here have. If we didn't live in Florida where its already hot and humid - we might not have been ok making the trip to WDW in August. October is a much better time of year and yes - extra DVC points! We rented some of our extras out but at the end of the day, we want to have fun too. I hope you get your October fun and December should be awesome as well.

Its been a while since my husband has been to California Grill. I've been twice in the past year once with my mother and once solo. Since refurb, its been hit or miss for us but I'm hoping for a hit since so many of the signature dining options are shut down. Wine Bar George is wonderful! Its a much lighter meal since they are more focused on appetizers than entrees but that works for us! Tutto is a favorite of ours. I know they have a modified menu but better than nothing! We have a 9 night trip in November - hopefully more restaurants open up by then but we may end up venturing off-site to some other local places if they don't.

Yay for a Disney trip! I hope you guys have a fantastic time. Can't wait to read all about it!

Thanks for reading along! I'm so happy to know that this time next week I will be in EPCOT tasting and drinking around the World Showcase.
 


Following! We were there last month and ate at a few of the places you have on your list :) Hope you have as good a time as we did!
 
So excited to see a new report from you! Your plans sound great! Hope you have a fantastic time. And congrats to Mr Dis Yoda on his promotion!!
 
Checking in to save my spot! Sounds like a fun lineup!

I'm hoping it will be! 40 more hours until we are on the road! Tomorrow is going to feel like such a long day at work.

Joining in, love a dis Yoda dining report, pandemic or not!!
Yay! Pandemic life will just add some flair to my usual reporting. I know you had to cancel your planned trip but I hope you get to take your maybe on later this year if not 2021 will be fun!

Following! We were there last month and ate at a few of the places you have on your list :) Hope you have as good a time as we did!

I hope we have a good time too! We're going in with a lets make the most of it attitude which I know helps. It may be different than normal but I'm looking forward to not having sweaty people I don't know touching me in line.

Following, looks great!

Welcome!

So excited to see a new report from you! Your plans sound great! Hope you have a fantastic time. And congrats to Mr Dis Yoda on his promotion!!

I'm excited to have a report to do! And thank you! He worked very hard for the promotion and I'm so happy to see that it paid off.

Following! We're FL Residents too and going up in a week. :D

Hope you have a wonderful time as well!

Following along! We hope to be there soon so I’m excited to hear about your trip!

I hope you are able to be back soon too! We all need our happy place!
 
I hope we have a good time too! We're going in with a lets make the most of it attitude which I know helps. It may be different than normal but I'm looking forward to not having sweaty people I don't know touching me in line.
I was thinking the exact same this morning :stitch2:, cross fingers they keep going with the social distancing in lines, its such a breeze.

Let’s raise our glasses to Mr. Yoda, a promotion during this rona era, pretty dope.
 
We went at the end of July! I cant wait to read your report - hopefully with lots of pics! 😋
 
I was thinking the exact same this morning :stitch2:, cross fingers they keep going with the social distancing in lines, its such a breeze.

Let’s raise our glasses to Mr. Yoda, a promotion during this rona era, pretty dope.

It was so nice for the social distancing in lines. yes, it makes the lines look a lot worse than they are but personal space! I know it will be probably the first thing to go when the world returns to normal.

can't wait to hear about your trip!

thank you for following along!

We went at the end of July! I cant wait to read your report - hopefully with lots of pics! 😋

Yes, trying to remember to take lots of photos!
 
Taste of Food and Wine Festival

At 5am, Qi’ra decided it was time to get up for breakfast. You see, we’ve created this monster as 4 days a week, my husband gets up at 4am for work. I got up, fed the dogs, and got ready for the day. At 6:25am, I left to take Qi’ra to her breeder’s house as I don’t really want to board her given she’s intact and a show dog. She has a first time dam with pups on the ground so we decided against Gantu being there. When I returned, my husband had already gotten his truck loaded up with everything but our boys so I walked them and we headed to their boarding facility.

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We dropped them off at 7:40am and hit I-75 after a quick gas station stop. I had a breakfast of champions with Twix bars and a Coconut Berry Redbull while I drove to WDW. Mr. Dis_Yoda had an Amp and Trail Mix.

On the road, I got a push notification around 9:30am that our room was ready so when we arrived at 10:45am, we parked at Bay Lake Towers and got settled in the room. Not a bad view for “standard” although I do wish that there were stairs you could easily access to take to the ground floor since we are only on Floor 2.

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It was then off to EPCOT. We decided to drive rather than deal with buses and we were happy to see how close we were parking. I was shocked to see people wasting money on Preferred when it was a 3 row difference.

Temperature Check and Security were a breeze and upon arrival at EPCOT, we headed to the World Showcase for our lunch of Taste of Food & Wine Festival.

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Walls Everywhere!

First booth we stopped at was for Hawaii where we just got alcohol as why not? It wasn’t too strong but can you really go wrong with vodka and pineapple juice? The cup was cute but no way was I going to carry that for the next few hours so it was tossed when we were done.

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Aulani Sunrise: Vodka, Dole Pineapple Juice and Grenadine

The next booth was the Citrus Blossom as I knew if I was going to be drinking, I needed something decent on my stomach. This was eh. The chicken was very dried out and bland so when a bite didn’t have aioli or the greens, it wasn’t very pleasant. I finished it as I knew at least it was something to keep me going but I wouldn’t get it again.

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Crispy Citrus Chicken w/ Orange Aioli and Baby Greens

Next we walked over to the World Showplace to see what fun they had in those booths.

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World Showplace

First stop for us was Desserts and Champagne. I wish my husband told me he was only going to try some of his choice as we could have ended up splitting. The cake pops were very rich and we each could only have about half of our respective choices. The Whipped Cream Vodka on top of the Frozen S’mores was not very well mixed but who doesn’t like doing shots at noon on a Thursday?

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Liquid Nitro Chocolate Cake Pop w/ Crumbled Twix
Liquid Nitro Chocolate Cake Pop w/ Crushed M&M’s
Frozen S’mores w/ Whipped Cream Vodka


We then visited the Apple Orchard where we were both pleased with most of the charcuterie and cheese plate even if we have zero idea what they actually were cheese wise. The Raspberry Lemonade cider was wonderful as well.

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Charcuterie and Cheese Plate featuring Burton’s Maplewood Farm Applejack Brandy Barrel Aged Maple Syrup
3 Daughters Raspberry Lemonade Dry Hard Cider


That said, we kinda failed at enjoying anymore of the festival after this booth. I would have gotten stuff from France but no one was manning the booth when we walked by. The heat killed our appetites for more as we walked the World Showcase heading over to do some rides. At Frozen, we had about a 20 minute wait 6 of which was watching them do a ride cleaning cycle with the spray. We were next to ride after that occurred which unfortunately meant the seat was very wet so I walked around EPCOT with a wet butt the rest of the day. It happens!

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Frozen Selfie

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Troll Selfie

As we entered Mexico, we caught a random Princess encounter which was cool to see.

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Princesses

After a ride on Journey into Imagination, my husband was tired, it was the hottest part of the day so we decided it was a good time to visit the DVC Lounge for the first time ever. We knew we could get some caffeine and relax for about 15/20 minutes in the AC. It isn’t a full mask free relaxation station but you can take them off as you are enjoying your free soda. The tables are far enough from each other as well.

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DVC Lounge Free Soda
 

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