The Magic Cure: Day 17 More Food and Wine Gluttony

[Niki T]

1st Sept

Epcot F&W

Ok, so I have a confession before we start, I have 3 lines of notes for today, plus our F&W booklet describing what we ate and our pics. Most of this is from memory, so here goes...

My notes start by stating we were at the park for 8:20, TT was down and remained so for most of the day on and off. Before the booths opened we had a wander around Future World riding Soarin', Living Seas and Spaceship Earth. I'm sure, if you've read along, you know by now we will have collected some photopass pics, here is a selection for your perusal.

I did note we had a Starbucks, I opted for a vanilla bean creme with coffee and J had his usual Java chip $10.

Our AP was causing us some issues with photopass and all our pictures we had previously had taken were missing . As we got the platinum pass, photopass is included, so they should have been there. We decided to ask at the photopass place at the front of the park to see if we could get them back. We were there for ages - about half an hour - but the guy found them and transferred them over...or so we thought. I checked the app and they were still missing . When I told him he said it may take an hour, so we decided to go to the festival centre and check back if there was an issue. At least they were all on still in the system.

In the festival centre there was an artist designing name plaques. They were amazing and I really wanted one. With a frame it was around $50 and these were personalised with your choice of characters. Our surname is 8 letters long so we chose:
Mickey
Minnie
Donald
Goofy
Pluto
Figment - as we were at the food and wine
Stitch - he's our fave
Cheshire Cat - as he is my fave and he's a cat

As it has our surname I won't post a pic, but it is amazing and looks great in our living room.

There was an almond milk health smoothie to try, so we picked one up each. It was vile We headed round the corner to bin and discovered a binful of drinks...it wasn't just us then . To get rid of the taste, we had our sample of Ghiradelli's, yum. We wanted to try using different guises to get more, but weren't brave enough. Instead we lined up for the AP F&W pin. The line was quite long for this. There was a lot of Dooney purchases happening around us, one total was over $1000, I don't think they were a personal shopper either as they weren't buying multiples . As we bought our pin we were told to make sure we pick up our AP buttons from around the festival booths. We did do this, but they are a bit naf, just a small badge with AP on it in different colours.

All that took around an hour, we checked the app and still no photos . Back to the photopass shop we went .

This time we had another CM who said he couldn't help us as they were taken before the pass was activated. I said we had had an Ultimate ticket, but he wasn't for helping us . To be honest, I think he thought we were working some sort of photo scam - although what I don't know.

Guest services it was then. We got in the queue and were seen within about 5 mins. We explained what had happened and how much of our day had been wasted - we were very polite about it...not like mad man from HS. She couldn't do enough to help. She got on the phone and retrieved our tickets. We were there for a while and chatted about our favourite rides, Epcot in the past, we felt like old friends we were there so long. During this exchange she asked what we had been on and we told her, she was surprised we hadn't done TT as we had said it was our favourite. We explained it had been down. She added bonus FP to our MDE and asked us to check. It was a lovely surprise as we didn't know she had done that. She also asked if we were staying in the park to watch illuminations. Our plan was for the firework dash - have you do this? You watch Illuminations from the halfway up the path between the lake and the ball. As it finishes you dash to the monorail where you hop to MK. You arrive at MK just in time to watch Happily Ever After. It's a bit of a tradition. We said we were, but we didn't say about the 'dash' bit. She disappeared and arrived back telling us we had been added to the exclusive viewing area near Italy. What a fab CM. There would be no dash for us tonight, but a lovely quiet area to watch Illuminations from would be perfect. We skipped out of Guest services with our bonus FP, pictures in tact and our viewing area treat .

That was our morning, so are you ready for our food pics? Same as yesterday, we have written them in order and starred the best items. Hope you enjoy...

1. Coastal Eats. Baked shrimp scampi dip served with a sourdough baguette. It was absolutely amazing and earned itself a star.

2. Active Eats. Loaded mac'n'cheese, this was loaded with pepper bacon, cheddar cheese, peppers and green onions. It was gorgeous. It had a lovely spice to it - I could eat it now! Definitely a star.

3. Earth Eats. I had to had the peanut butter and white chocolate mousse again, so that came next. We didn't think we would do a savory and sweet trip today, so we just mixed and matched.

4. Flavours from Fire. We had to have the Piggy Wings again, well, J did. He doesn't like mac'n'cheese, so I had had most of that. I was a good wife and didn't make share.

5. Australia. Grilled sweet and spicy bush berry shrimp with pineapple, pepper, onion and snap peas. This sounds lovely, but didn't get a star. I don't remember it being offensive though. Perhaps it just wasn't quite as good as some of the other offerings we had had that day.

6. Canada. Before I describe what we had, a bit of background. Le Cellier used to be our favourite restaurant on Disney property, before they converted it into a signature. I used to always have mushroom fillet mignon which was a fillet steak on a wild mushroom risotto. It was amazing, but they have since "fancied it up" and it isn't as good. Sadly, it has fallen from our list.I was very excited about the Canada booth as they served my old classic. Refusing to share, I had a mini meal of my old favourite: cheddar cheese soup with a pretzel roll and wild mushroom beef filet mignon. It was as good as I remember.

It looked so good J went and got one for himself - minus the soup!

7. Morocco. Spicy hummus fried with cucumber, tomato, onions and tzatziki sauce. Incredible! J really didn't fancy them, but they were a stand out surprise.

8. Light Lab. We returned here for a different drink T=C2 (that 2 = squared). This was vanilla tonic water and cotton candy. We like this more than the previous days choice, they made it in front of you so the cotton candy disintegrated into the drink.

9. China. Beijing roasted duck bao bun with hoisin sauce. Absolutely gorgeous. I've not been mentioning stars, but I think everything earned a star today!

We couldn't resist another portion of pot stickers either.

10. Barley and Hops in America. We had a new England Lobster roll which was beautiful. There was loads of lobster which was cooked to perfection - I'm now a seafood connoisseur - the bun was also lightly toasted.

We also had smoked beef brisket and pimento cheese served on griddled garlic toast - I am drooling as I remember this - yum!

11. Ireland. Warm chocolate pudding with warm Irish cream liquor custard. As a fan of Baileys - who isn't? - I had to give this a try. It was quite nice.

After this we waddled back to use our magic TT FP. Here's our bizarre cars..

We still had a few dollars on our card, which I assume we had topped up that morning, so spent it on a scotch egg from the Odyssey Centre. It was just ok, but the mustard sauce was lovely.

We explored Epcot - although doing what I am not sure as I don't have any notes. As evening drew in I had a couple of cheeky drinks including a grey goose slush and a Kahula coffee...

J, more sensibly, opted for a shaved ice cone from Japan.

The alcohol made me peckish and I fancied pizza, so had a slice from the pizza window from Italy. I didn't like it, it tasted like school pizza.

J wanted to eat at the CS in America, and he had a burger. I am so ashamed to say we ate more food after all that we've consumed today, but it was our last day and we were going back on diets when we returned - well, that's my excuse.

Before the fireworks the rain came, I mean really came. It was our last night though and we had our special viewing of the fireworks so we hung around sheltering from the rain. We don't have any further pictures for today due to said rain, or perhaps we were too sad as it was our last day...nothing like a bit of pathetic fallacy! I will leave you with a positive though. Today, at some point, J bought a HM reveal / conceal set and completed the Haunted Mansion bat. So this trip, although we are still looking for Happy the Dwarf from 2014, we've managed to complete all the 2017 hidden Mickey pins and this little beauty...

[i love jack]

Another bit of Disney magic
Some lovely looking snacks there, I could definitely eat those potstickers!

[collybird]

I’m so glad the managed to find your photos, that would have been awful if they’d been lost. See, the guys from HS needs should know that if you are polite to CMs then it will pay you dividends! We had an issue with OH’s Magic Band last year and had to go to Guest Service in MK, it was really busy and the CM gave us 3 extra FP as an apology and even contacted Be Our Guest to let them know we had been held up for ADR. I’m certain that the guy who walked into Heritage House ranting that he needed to talk to someone now to make a complaint didn’t get the same treatment.

[OB1LukeLucas]

I thought I may as well get this out the way and just be starving! Fabulous food again. I’m so pleased you got the photos sorted and what a nice bit of magic to finish your day. Pins are great now I’m starting to understand the collections-thanks for all your help. Can’t believe the holiday is coming to an end, I’ve really enjoyed reading but the Easter holidays are also nearly over so I’m glad you have got it finished for us

[Mexy02]

How did I miss this one . Pascal ! he’s normally in mk
Oh the peanut dessert got me drooling all over again... your teasing me lol but where on earth did you put all that food lol.
So glad you got your photos , I’d have been devastated but I agree you get much further being nice to a Cm like getting crt dinner refunded and and an mnsshp ticket because my mum took ill . They didnt have to but we’re fantastic with us and so understanding , we also got the Italy viewing and it’s a fab spot .

[Niki T]

Thanks all for reading, and your comments

Originally Posted by i love jack

Another bit of Disney magic
Some lovely looking snacks there, I could definitely eat those potstickers!

See more...

Me too, they were amazing. I've never found them in England as these were pork ones, I've seen prawn

Originally Posted by collybird

I’m so glad the managed to find your photos, that would have been awful if they’d been lost. See, the guys from HS needs should know that if you are polite to CMs then it will pay you dividends! We had an issue with OH’s Magic Band last year and had to go to Guest Service in MK, it was really busy and the CM gave us 3 extra FP as an apology and even contacted Be Our Guest to let them know we had been held up for ADR. I’m certain that the guy who walked into Heritage House ranting that he needed to talk to someone now to make a complaint didn’t get the same treatment.

See more...

Completely agree, a smile goes a long way. That was great treatment for you in MK - Disney service at its best

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

I thought I may as well get this out the way and just be starving! Fabulous food again. I’m so pleased you got the photos sorted and what a nice bit of magic to finish your day. Pins are great now I’m starting to understand the collections-thanks for all your help. Can’t believe the holiday is coming to an end, I’ve really enjoyed reading but the Easter holidays are also nearly over so I’m glad you have got it finished for us

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I know, nearly back to work , not long though and we'll be writing another

Enjoy future pin trading, it's such fun

Originally Posted by Mexy02

How did I miss this one . Pascal ! he’s normally in mk
Oh the peanut dessert got me drooling all over again... your teasing me lol but where on earth did you put all that food lol.
So glad you got your photos , I’d have been devastated but I agree you get much further being nice to a Cm like getting crt dinner refunded and and an mnsshp ticket because my mum took ill . They didnt have to but we’re fantastic with us and so understanding , we also got the Italy viewing and it’s a fab spot .

See more...

What great treatment. I think it goes a long way when you are grateful. There are too many people who expect. When I went back to slimmers on return I definitely saw a difference on the scale, bye, bye target weight

[Goldia]

What a pain that the first guy didn't actually sort out the photos and you had to go back, still at least it was all fine in the end. More tasty treats, apart from the pizza it does look very doughy!

[Niki T]

Originally Posted by Goldia

What a pain that the first guy didn't actually sort out the photos and you had to go back, still at least it was all fine in the end. More tasty treats, apart from the pizza it does look very doughy!

See more...

I was really disappointed with the pizza, we had always meant to do an reservation here, but I'm not sure we will now. There is an irony in the fact that both of our worst pizzas came from Italian inspired places - the Italy pavilion and PBH

Thanks for reading

[mick]

Some nice Disney Magic today


Some of your food looks lovely

Joan

[yellowrose78]

The mac n cheese and the peanut butter one look amazing! Great bit of magic getting the FP and viewing, glad you managed to get your photos back