Wine & Dine at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival
Guest post by Lourdes Gutierrez of Orlando Fun Tickets
Get your appetite ready and head over to Walt Disney World’s Epcot Food and Wine Festival for a dining experience featuring cuisine from around the world. This event is a food-lover’s paradise and great for anyone visiting Epcot from September to November. The best part about this festival is the incredible amount of special events going on. It’s not just about the food!
The Eat to the Beat series features a variety of concert performances that let you enjoy your food and listen to music from hit acts like Richard Marx, Billy Ocean, Vanessa Carlton, Boys II Men and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Make sure you pick up your festival guide for concert listings—you wouldn’t want to miss your favorite performer! Food wise, get ready to explore cuisines from around the world.
The World Showcase Pavilion is converted into a food marketplace with kiosks representing the foods of over 25 countries. These kiosks serve up tapas-sized portions of regional cuisine. This year there are some new food kiosks being added to the mix. You will be able to sample foods from Rio De Janiero, Brazil and Bangkok, Thailand along with a brand new Desserts and Champagne kiosks for those of you with a sweet tooth.
If you would like to learn how to make some of the delicious foods you are eating, or maybe get one of your favorite cookbooks signed, there are also plenty of seminars and celebrity appearances at the Food and Wine Festival. Tastings are another popular event. There are plenty of wine and cheese seminars you can look for in your festival guide. One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the new tequila bar in the Mexico pavilion. La Cava de Tequila is going to feature delicious Mexican appetizers and 70 varieties of tequilas for you to enjoy. During the Food and Wine Festival there will be a tequila master on hand to teach guests about the tequila making process and the history behind the legendary drink.
Overall this is a great Disney theme park event to attend, so get your discount Disney World tickets before you head into the park. Many of the Food and Wine Festival’s events are free with admission to the park! Bon appétit!
Photo: Orlando (About.com)
Add comment August 25, 2009
Top 5: Scents of Walt Disney World
Welcome to another post in our Top 5 Series! Walt Disney World is full of wonderful scents – some put out during rides on purpose, others not so intentional. No matter what though, scents from Walt Disney World are always a pleasant memory to me. When I get a “Disney scent” outside of “the world”, it always bring back wonderful memories. Here are my top 5 scents of Walt Disney World.
5. Spaceship Earth (Burning Rome): A great smell that is distinctly “Disney”. A classic that most can recognize – it had to make this list!
4. Soarin’ (Orange and Pine): Soarin’ is one of my favorite rides ever. And anytime I’m in the “real world” and get a whiff of orange or pine scented air freshner or spray, it instantly takes me to Soarin’.
3. Monorail (Air Conditioner): You know the smell. You are waiting in line for the monorail in the hot Florida heat. The monorail finally pulls up and you enter the wonderful ice-cold monorail car that has that air conditioner-ish smell.
2. Hotel Rooms (Clean scent): You’ve walked up stairs or taken the elevator with luggage. Hunt your room down, and when you find it, you walk in to that clean smelling (most of the time) room that welcomes you to relax and turn on the TV to watch Stacy.
1. Water Rides (Chlorine/Water smell): Any ride that has water: Living with the Land, it’s a small world, Pirates of the Caribbean and the like. Walking into the building that houses the ride, you get closer and closer to the actual attraction and the smell of chlorine in the water lets you know you are there.
These are just a few of the wonderful scents of Walt Disney World. They play a big part in helping remember the magic!
Are there more? Leave a comment and let us know what your favorite Disney scents are. Think I’m crazy? Leave a comment too!
Photo: armadillo444
22 comments August 12, 2009
Poll: Which Attraction is Worth the Longest Wait?
It’s time for another WDW Central poll – and I want to thank you for the votes – keep them coming! If you’ve missed a previous poll or would just like to check the stats of a poll, simply visit the WDW Central poll archive.
Add comment August 4, 2009
The (Motionless) Yeti of Expedition Everest
When Expedition Everest of Disney’s Animal Kingdom was being developed and built, I can remember reading about the Yeti. That was the main attraction, so to speak. I can also remember watching the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” before Everest opened and watching Imagineer Joe Rhode talk about the complexity of the attraction and the Yeti anamatronic.
The first few times I rode Everest (actually until the past few times), the Yeti was pretty realistic. He was huge, he clawed at you, and you only saw him for a brief second. Then, there was some talk on the internet a while back about the Yeti not moving anymore – being stationary. A few months ago I went to Animal Kingdom to get my own opinion of this change. It stinks.
This isn’t new news, I just thought to write an article about it now. If you haven’t been on Everest lacking the Yeti’s motion – you should.
I’m sure you can imagine – you’re at the climax of the attraction – you barely escaped the Yeti as he ripped up the track in front of you, you plummet and somehow get back in the mountain without dying (pretty realistic, right?), then you come face to face with him as he tries to rip you to pieces. Except for the fact that he’s not moving.
The Yeti no longer looks like a sophisticated anamatronic. He looks like a big stuffed animal.
I’ve heard things recently from the Yeti is back moving again full-time to only some days he moves. None of these things are confirmed, though.
Have you seen the motionless Yeti? If so, what did you think of it? Why do you think Disney stopped it from moving? Share your thoughts in the comments now!
Photos: Joe Shlabotnik, Andy Castro
2 comments July 23, 2009
Why Walt Disney World is Great – Part Three
The Company’s Philosophy
When I say the “Disney philosophy”, most of you probably think of the way they treat their guests. While this is true (and will probably show up here soon), this isn’t the philosophy I’m talking about.
The philosophy I’m talking about goes along with the theming of their rides and attractions – but a bit beyond that. You see, Walt Disney World thinks of all their rides as a production.
That idea was started by Walt himself and the company has been using that mindset ever since. The keyword here is quality. Instead of placing rows and rows of big buildings housing the rides and attractions, they “plus” it as Walt would say. They decided to actually give it a realistic feel. They want to give you the whole experience – and the experience begins the minute you see the attraction.
Let’s take The Haunted Mansion for instance. If Disney just decided to be lazy and not worry about the exterior of the ride (similar to Universal’s E.T. Adventure and such) – the entire attraction would be spoiled. Here’s the Disney difference: Universal tries to make their attractions entertaining, while Disney tries to entertain while making it realistic and believable.
The Disney Haunted Mansion experience begins long before you get on the ride. You go through a queue next to the creepy house, hear wolves howling while waiting, see the thunder and hear the lightning (at night), go through the mini-graveyard with amusing but creepy little tombstones, and more – all before you even get on. Although you haven’t gotten on the Haunted Mansion, you have been experiencing the attraction from the moment you walked up to it – wether you realize it or not.
Every ride and attraction is treated like the set of a movie. There are backstage areas, but what the viewers (guests) see/experience is what counts – and Disney takes that into account by making the theming and details count. That’s what Disney does best, and that’s just another reason there is no comparison to Walt Disney World.
Photos: About.com, Devil Elephant
Add comment July 18, 2009
Disney Fans United: Honoring Austin on Twitter
I honestly believe that the Disney community is one of the best on Twitter. We’re all friends in the happy community, always willing to help each other out, and always ready to make someone’s day a little better.
I was amazed at such a wonderful community effort when @DisneyFrankness suggested that we attempt to make the #Austin hashtag a trending topic, in honor of Austin Wenneberg, the monorail pilot who passed away in the tragic accident involving two monorails colliding.
After almost two days of putting #Austin at the end of all our posts – it worked! #Austin became a trending topic for about two hours. We honored a man who was passionate about his job, ready to help others, and always doing anything to make guests’ trips as magical as he could.
If I remember correctly, I believe I rode up front with Austin once, and I distinctly remember him telling us cool facts regarding the monorails and such. He put a smile on my face, as I’m sure he did for many others. He took pride in his job – something that deserves being honored.
In fact, should we make this an annual tradition? I think every July 5 we should add #Austin to the end of our tweets. Not so much to make him a trending topic, but simply to remember and honor a person who made our visits magical.
THE AUSTIN BADGE. If you would like to honor Austin on your blog, Disney related or not, for the pride he took in his job & smiles he brought to many faces, click here. By Jahfer.
8 comments July 9, 2009
All Monorails Are Officially Back in Operation
The Walt Disney World Monorail System is back in full operation as of 2:00PM this afternoon. Disney cast members received a note this morning that announced this, and also said that additional safety measures have been added to monitor track switches.
It is now clear what was going on at the time of the incident. One monorail was stopped before the Ticket & Transportation Center station waiting to be transfered off the EPCOT track (into a maintenance bay). This is when the collision occured.
“We have completed a thorough safety inspection and system checks to verify that it is safe to operate the monorail for our guests and cast,” Disney said. “We’ve added additional verifications of these track switch positions, supplemented our safety procedures and protocols for these operations, and communicated these changes to our Transportation partners.”
For more information, read the new Orlando Sentinel article.
1 comment July 6, 2009
Monorail Crash at Ticket & Transportation Center, Driver Killed
A tragic monorail accident occurred this morning at 2:00 AM near the station of the Ticket and Transportation Center. According to many sources, monorail Pink crashed into monorail Purple which was for some reason stopped before the station in an unusual location. Austin Wenneberg, 21, was piloting one of the monorails.
Wennenerg died at the scene, while the other driver was taken to the nearby Florida Hospital Celebration, with minor injuries. There were six passengers on board the monorail at the time of the crash, none of which were seriously injured.
All monorail services are suspended temporarily until further notice so an investigation may be done. You must use a bus or ferryboat to travel around the Resort.
WDW Central wants to keep you informed. Here is a collection of photos, videos, and articles all relating to the accident for more information.
- Orlando Sentinel article
- Examiner article with more pictures
- Photos of the Scene
- Video after the Incident Shot by Guest (Viewer Discretion Advised)
Stay tuned to WDW Central, as we will continue to post more updated on this terrible accident as they are announced.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those involved in this terrible accident.
3 comments July 5, 2009
Video: President Obama Recording Speech for the Hall of Presidents (Behind the Scenes)
Above you can see a behind the scenes video released by the White House showing Present Obama recording his speech that will be in the Hall of Presidents. Also included, are quick interviews with some of the Imagineers from the Walt Disney Company on the history and importance of this classic attraction.
Add comment July 3, 2009
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New Features: Rating Posts and Comments
As of now, you can rate posts & rate comments. It’s no secret that this blog is in need of some user interaction. Plenty of readers, yes, but not many comments. Maybe you’re too busy – I understand. That’s why I enabled this tool. It’s not hard clicking on a star or a thumbs up button, is it?
Ratings for posts are as you guessed, stars. You can rate the post on a scale of 1 to 5, one being the worst. Please be completely honest in your ratings. If the post was the lamest thing ever, tell me!
Ratings for comments are a bit different. Under each comment is a thumbs up or a thumbs down. No stars. Rate the comment on quality – not if you like the user’s blog. If the comment helps, gives an opinion, or states something useful – give it a thumbs up! If it looks like spam, or simply says “cool” – give it a thumbs down. The number of thumbs up/down will be shown as well.
What do you think? This post is a perfect one to test the rating system. Like the rating system? Give this post high stars! Also feel free to comment and share your opinion that way. Ratings for comments aren’t to “judge” you, simply to build a user community based on the content presented.
2 comments July 12, 2009