[mickaholic4077]

but if I tell you all that the best part of my Disney day today was going to Wal-Mart on the way home to get some Godiva icecream,I think you might get some idea of how the Food and Wine festival went,at least to me.

We(mother and I)got to Epcot around 11am. As we were walking to the entrance,we saw an overflowing trash can,not the prettiest sight. Going through security was a breeze as always. We went to get ADR's for the Biergarten,then went on Soarin',which was great as always(we actually smelled the orange scent for once!!). Then we went to The Odyssey to get in line for the chocolate seminar. We got there at 12:10,and already at least a dozen people were on line for the 1:30 seminar. Would you like to know what time they started letting us in for the 1:30 seminar? 1:34 by my watch!! How I wish that they would give out tickets for these things so you don't have to waste time in line!!!

We got into the room where the seminar was being held and managed to snag the front table. The Disney hostess for the seminar was Pam . She was the rudest,most obnoxious CM I have come across in a long time. She constantly interrupted the chocolate expert and never let him finish a thought,and when the floor was opened up for questions,she ignored me twice when I had my hand up,even though she could clearly see my hand. On the upside,the chocolate was delicious!! When we were walking out,I asked a CM if Pam was going to host the 5:15 Twinings Tea seminar with Stephen Twining,and when she said yes,I said to my mother,"Forget it,we're not coming back here to listen to her interrupt the tea expert constantly!" The CM then told us about the tea tastings that the UK pavilion would be holding every Thursday to Sunday. We then decided to go to the UK tea tastings when we come back in October for my birthday trip.

[mickaholic4077]

We headed to the WS to get to Germany,and on the way,we decided to check out the food booths for when we're on the dining plan. We started out in the booths around Mexico and made our way to AMerican Adventure. None of the booths on that side of the WS had the displays of what the choices looked like,so if you wanted to see what the food looked like,you had to watch what people were buying,which I thought was very awkward. I finally mentioned something about that to one of the CM's working the South Africa booth,and she said that the booths on the other side of WS had food displays. Okay,so after late lunch we would continue that way and see them. Our ADR at Biergarten was delicious as usual. Their pretzel bread was every bit as good as,if not better,than Le Cellier's,and when we came out,the German chocolate shop was giving out chocolate samples!!!

[cinderbella]

yummy-licious chocolate samples!

[gingita]

Note to self: Avoid Pam (I cannot stand people like that)

I can't wait to hear about the rest of your day Mick! I wanted to go today, but the packing and moving prevailed.

[Dana]

Sounds like a not so good experience for you today alma. Sorry to hear that. Hope you and your mother had some magic.

[mickaholic4077]

We managed to get to see the last performance of The voices of Liberty. In all the years I have been going to hear the Voices,I have never heard them sing Battle Hymn of the Republic. One of my favorite male voicers sang it so nice that it brought tears to my eyes!! I went up to him after the performance and told him that his version was the best I had ever heard that song done(even better than Elvis' version!!!)

When we came out of the AA,we got on line for the 5:45 Survivor show. We were past Italy when we got on line!! They didn't start letting people in the theater until 5:35!!!! When we walked into the theater,we saw that the entire shaded section was blocked off!!!! Now this seriously PO'd me!!! The left side of the theater was for Party for the Senses people and the right side,where we were,was for "press only" according to the CM standing there.(an absolute cutie pie,Markus from Norway,who was trying his darndest not to upset people who wanted to sit in the roped off section) And now we come to what really ticked me off towards Disney. The right side of the theater under the shade had less than a quarter of the people it could have,yet Disney refused to open that section to the public once the show began!! The show itself was okay,just waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too loud for me. After coming out of the theater we continued around WS to check out the food booths. Only some of the booths had a display for the food so people could see what it looked like before they bought. I did enjoy the UK pavilion,because they were so nice in confirming for us that there would be tea seminars throughout the festival. We had originally thought we would stay for Illuminations,but we were both too tired,so we decided to go home,stopping on the way home for some of my favorite ice cream.

[mickaholic4077]

There were some magical moments for us today:

Smelling the oranges on Soarin'

The chocolate samples themselves(in Italy as well as the seminar and Germany)

The superb food and service at The Biergarten

The Voices of Liberty


I just really wish that Disney would give out tickets to the free seminars with a time to come back for them so people wouldn't have to waste an hour of their time waiting on line. Also,they really should have opened up that area of the theater when the show started,so all the people standing up could sit down.

All in all,the good outweighed the bad,and hey,we were in Disney,right??

[Dana]

Well I hope it is just like your title say "weekend jitters"....sorry for the not so magical time at the F&W festival. I know your birthday trip will be much better.

[Dana]

Originally Posted by mickaholic4077

I just really wish that Disney would give out tickets to the free seminars with a time to come back for them so people wouldn't have to waste an hour of their time waiting on line. Also,they really should have opened up that area of the theater when the show started,so all the people standing up could sit down.

All in all,the good outweighed the bad,and hey,we were in Disney,right??

I'm acutally surprised that they don't do something like that...it would be a bit more organized that way I would think. YEs, even not perfect disney is better than no disney.

[gingita]

Glad you still had a good time. I definitely hope they give out passes or something, because I really don't want to have to wait forever. They are masters of the fastpass, why not apply it here.

[mickaholic4077]

Exactly!! The person next to me in line and I were discussing that very thing.

[Jen]

Sorry the whole day wasn't pure disney magic for you ~

I agree, standing in line for that long when tickets could be easily issued??

Hope your birthday day is million times more magic!

[iluvwdw]

Alma, sorry your day wasn't totally "Magical". But like you said, you were in Disney, it couldn't have been THAT bad, right??

I totally agree with you...they should have a better system of letting people in for the free seminars. It would be MUCH more organized!

Did you speak to anyone in Corporate about how rude the Disney Rep PAM was?

I hope you enjoyed your Godiva ice cream!

[mickaholic4077]

Yes,I enjoyed the Godiva icecream,and no I didn't speak to anyone because I'm sure it was just my impression,not anyone else's. My mother didn't think Pam was rude,so I didn't really pursue it other than make that comment I did to the CM manning the little spot outside of the seminar where they sold books,etc.

[gcbdad]

Great report Alma. Thanks for sharing. Sorry to hear about the issues that you experienced. We are tentatively planning on going to EPCOT on 10/8 for the day or at the very least the afternoon. Our plan is to just get small items from the different booths. I hope the second weekend is better than the first.