The International Cheese Kiosk at the Food and Wine Festival

For me, the best part of visiting Epcot is the opportunity to visit each country in the World Showcase – sampling food and beverages from all of the countries along the way.  The annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, which kicked off this past weekend, is a great opportunity to sample even more delicious cuisine.  I visited on Sunday, and ate my way around the festival.

Despite it’s name, the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival offers more than food and wine – you’ll also find international and domestic beers (including craft beers) as well as nonalcoholic beverages from the participating country.  Kiosks are placed all around the World Showcase where you can purchase little sample sizes of food.  If you are participating on the Disney Dining Plan, many of the samples can be purchased with snack credits, and if you aren’t on the dining plan, I’d recommend purchasing a wrist gift card at one of the kiosks.  It makes buying easier because you won’t need to keep reaching for your wallet at each stop.

So, what type of food should you expect?  You’ll find pierogies at the Poland booth, linguisa at the Portugal booth, and Tuna poke at the Hawaii booth (conveniently located near the Aulani DVC booth).  It took about 4-5 samples to fill me up for lunch – share them with someone if you’d like to try more.

The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival also offers guest lectures, cooking demos, and a concert series.  If you are staying on property and want to spend lots of time at the festival, I’d recommend staying at Disney’s Beach or Yacht Club, the Boardwalk Inn, or the Swan/Dolphin Hotels.

The Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios

While most people think of Walt Disney World as a destination for families with young children (and it certainly is!), adults can also have a wonderful time visiting without children.  Here are my top five things to do on an adult trip to Walt Disney World!

1 . Thrill Rides!

I love thrill rides, but my kids are still a little too small to fully enjoy them.  So, when I travel without my kids, I always make sure I hit the thrill rides first.  My favorites?  The Hollywood Tower of Terror and the Rock N Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

2. Eating and Drinking Your Way Across the World Showcase

The International Food and Wine Festival makes wining and dining around Epcot’s World Showcase very easy, but if you aren’t traveling during the festival, you can still do it.  For drinks, I recommend the margaritas in Mexico (go inside to La Cava for the best ones), the beer in Germany, and the wine in France.  My top food choices are funnel cakes in the U.S., crepes in France, and pretzels in Germany.

3. The Boardwalk

Now that Pleasure Island is closed, the Boardwalk is your best choice for evening entertainment.  I love Jellyrolls, a dueling piano bar with a fun, casual atmosphere.

4. Fine Dining

While most of the restaurants at Walt Disney World are completely kid friendly, there are a few restaurants where I’d prefer not to bring the kids.  In fact, Victoria and Albert’s actually has a policy where kids’ aren’t permitted.  In addition to that, I’d recommend Jiko – the Cooking Place (at Animal Kingdom Lodge), the California Grill (at the Contemporary), and Artist’s Point (at the Wilderness Lodge).

5. Spa Treatments.

Several of the Walt Disney World resorts, including the Grand Floridian and Saratoga Springs resorts offer full-service spas and spa treatments.  It’s the perfect beginning or end to your day!

Photo credit: Jodi Grundig

I don't care how fair she is...

Someday her prince may come, but it ain’t gonna be today, lady.

At Walt Disney World there are plenty of places to stand in line and have your photo taken with your favorite Disney characters, but you really can’t beat the impromptu, by chance meetings that occur around the parks like this sweet moment with Snow White in Epcot.  That’s how the real memories are made.

Well, for some kids.

For more family-friendly travel photos visit DeliciousBaby’s Photo Fridays.

Photo by Whit Honea

This is the first in a series of posts about my family trip to Walt Disney World that will be running periodically over the next few weeks. It’s full of tips, fun and lots of stress. Also, the proverbial Disney magic.

Our hosts.

Like many families that visit Walt Disney World (WDW), we planned it for years. Okay, months. We had books. Lots of books.  We visited websites. Daily. We had countdown apps on our phones and desktops.  We set aside a fund to pay for the trip. We thought we had it all figured out. Top of the world, Mickey!

Here’s what we learned — we didn’t allow for everything. Shortly after we made all of the major purchases required for a trip of this magnitude my wife and I lost our biggest account at work, roughly 80% of our household income (that’s what this is about). It was, obviously, unexpected. Did I mention that the major purchases we made were non-refundable?

We had airline tickets, park tickets and a hotel room bought and paid for, all without a paycheck in sight. The money that we had saved toward the trip now had to go toward bills. Suddenly, our air of anticipation was replaced with the foreboding of fear.  For the record, the anticipation was a lot more fun.

Luckily, we had already taken some steps to ensure that our trip was relatively sound, financially speaking. Relative being that we were planning a cross-country family vacation for four to Walt Disney World, quite possibly a once in a lifetime trip, and some corners couldn’t be cut.

How we did it: Read More »