Moore Time in Florida with the Clarks - Day 1

[Nettings]

Epcot today! All the Clarks, Mum and Chris went off to the park for the day – Chris and I for a very long day there, as we were attending the Party for the Senses event in the evening.

We arrived mid-morning and the plan was that we were all going to Beaches and Cream for a Kitchen Sink, but unfortunately that fell by the wayside as we ended up doing more than anticipated in the “ride” side of the park.

We rode the wonderful Test Track and Soarin’ – thankfully we’d had forethought to send Gez off for a fast pass for Soarin’, we also rode Living Land, Nemo and Gez and Ben very bravely rode Mission Space!

For the very first time (didn’t know about it previously! ? !) we sampled the flavours of Coke Cola at Club Cool – yep, Italy’s is disgusting! We liked Israel the best.

At about 2pm Gez, the boys and Mum went back to Villa (as the boys had plans for the early evening) and Chris and I stayed on in the Park.

We had a little wander around the countries with the intention of grabbing a Belgian waffle and a vino from one of the numerous Food Festival stalls. However, the crowds and queues were horrendous – I’ve never experienced Epcot busy! Chris and I therefore settled for a hot dog and beer from a catering stand next to Mexico!

After suffering the crowds for a while, we finally decided to “pop” over to Broadwalk – I’d never been before. What an oasis that was and we sat in the shade watching the world go by for an hour or so before venturing back into the Park.

Howard Jones was playing as part of Eat to the Beat Concerts in the America Gardens Theatre so we managed to get perched on a wall to watch but after just one song, Howard’s organ failed! And as we were sitting in the sun with no shelter, we decided to leave. But what we’d seen of Howard’s performance, he was very good!

Now, this is where we came across Disney’s lack of organisation for the first time. Chris hadn’t been given any paperwork for the Party for the Senses, but after asking a CM discovered that 1, we could have had preferential seating at Howard Jone’s concert!, 2, we had to go to a certain CM Stand to check-in for the Party – We knew nothing of this.

Anyway, we finally found the correct CM to check-in with (hidden behind masses of people who happen to just be standing there – no sign, no order, nothing to indicate what she was doing there!).

As we were seated in the Wine View Lounge (i.e. we’d got a named table which was ours for the evening), we were also given preferential entry into the event. CM’s were there to greet us and offered us – what I thought they said was Prosecco and Tequila! Yuk! – I like a drink, but that was disgusting! Chris and I found a table to stand at and out of all the guests we stood with, we chose another English couple to stand with!

The CM’s then showed us to our table and we were given a Crab brulee – mmm, different! However, apart from the first drink and this concoction, everything else we sampled was delicious!

The Party consists of lots of stands with Chef’s making their specialty dishes and at each end of the collection of stands were wine producers giving you samples of their wines to accompany your dish/es.

The food was delicious, my favourites were chilli marinated Wagyu beef with forbidden black rice and miso-black bean sauce, sweetcorn and lobster ravioli and bacon dusted crispy pork and steamed seasonal fish with salted black bean mousse, jasmine rice, chilli oil and Hong Kong sauce(below right) - the one on the left was lush too, garlic roasted lamb with kurri squash and Asian pear-jicama slaw.

I must admit, and some certain people on Dibb will be very surprised at this! , I only tried two wines all night! (Ok, I’ve not put how many I had – but it was only two! ). Zee Wines Cabernet Sauvignon as my red choice and Fess Parker Ashley’s Chardonnay, yum, yum, yum.

I did change my drink to a more suitable dessert accompaniment when I sampled some of the lush desserts and found the wonder that is Belvedere Ginger Lemon Drop! It was a lemon vodka slushy! I was a good girl though, I didn’t do what the bloke seated behind us did, after getting his slushy he was then going up to the bar and having an extra shot of Vodka! OMG! Needless to say, he was a bit worse for wear!

Now I know I’m going to disappoint a lot of people here, but I’m not much of a dessert kinda girl and to be honest, looking at my menu, I can’t for the life of me remember what I had – I know it was nice, and chocolatey! And no, I’m sure it wasn’t due to the amount of alcohol I’d consumed that I can’t remember because what I do remember is we also had some glorious Irish Kerrygold cheese, though my menu doesn’t list the names of those on offer that evening – which is really annoying! Because it was lush.

Entertainment for the evening was provided by Cirque De Soleil – which consisted of musical and acrobatic performances. It was a really lovely evening. Chris was wonderful company – thanks Cuz! On leaving we were given goodie bags containing Twinnings Tea samples, pastries, Red Stag whiskey (which Mum reports as being lovely! ), and various other items. We were also able to take our engraved wine glasses home – unfortunately mine didn’t get home in one piece – I was gutted!

Another example of Disney’s lack of planning was to befall us trying to find out where the guest drop off/pick-up was – No one knew! Chris finally gave up trying to find his Dad, who was collecting us, and befriended a Mexican couple – he was like Forest Gump, he sat there giving them Werthers Originals out of his goodie bag! Unbeknown to us, it was because of their beloved son, that Colin had been delayed. Horacio just wouldn’t cross the traffic leaving Epcot and sat in his car for half an hour before Colin finally had enough and drove round him! Of course once he’d been shown what he needed to do, Horacio followed suit! Grrrr! We laughed!

Gez, the boys and Mark had spent the evening at the brand new Amway Center (the home of Orlando Magic – Basketball team).

I had found that there was a match that night and managed to get tickets for $22 each (bargain because a week later the same seats were $100 each! ).

They had a fabulous time – meeting the cheerleaders – need I say more, watching the game and watching the cheerleaders! Ben was in his element buying a basketball top and getting the “babes” to sign a poster he’d bought. Needless to say Jack, Gez and Mark didn’t hurry Ben up – they enjoyed the scenery too!

[KarenG]

Wow! Sounds like an incredible evening!

I'd take the food over the cheerleaders, myself

[scotsprincess]

sounds like you had a great time at Epcot

[Cinnabon]

Thanks for the great report, I was tempted to book one of these evenings for us, but we ran out of available time.

[Clare]

What a fantastic day and evening - thanks so much for posting the event as I'm considering this for next year and it's good to see what is actually involved

[AmandaB]

Sounds like you had a great day in Epcot. Thanks for the photo's.

[Christopher_Ro]

I must say that I didn't miss out on the eye candy of the cheerleaders, as Cirque had 3 performances plus their band. One of their performances included a women throwing herself around a bed wearing the barest of clothes. All bending and stretching. Needless to say our prefered seating upfront really came in handy for that!

What a fantastic day and evening - thanks so much for posting the event as I'm considering this for next year and it's good to see what is actually involved

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Clare you will have an excellent night if you do decide to do this. It is also perfect for the solo traveller (if you go solo again), there were loads of people seated in the wine view lounge on their own but also because you can mingle and chat to other guests and the famous chefs.

[macdonald88]

Wow looks like you had a fantastic evening and the boys enjoyed their game

[Nettings]

Originally Posted by Christopher_Ro

I must say that I didn't miss out on the eye candy of the cheerleaders, as Cirque had 3 performances plus their band. One of their performances included a women throwing herself around a bed wearing the barest of clothes. All bending and stretching. Needless to say our prefered seating upfront really came in handy for that!

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Mmmm I'd forgotten about her

Put ya tongue away Chris!

If I'm ever over in Orlando at Food Festival time again, I'd definitely try and get to the Party for the Senses again! Highly recommend!

[Christopher_Ro]

Originally Posted by Clarks

Mmmm I'd forgotten about her

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I hadn't!