Of Mice and Moments

Sure, Valentine’s Day is more about romance of the couples variety — and it’s on a Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the excuse of a candy-filled holiday to take a mini-vacation. Am I right?

Personally, I’m a fan of the family theme park outing. Disneyland and Walt Disney World (dinner at Victoria and Albert’s, anyone?) always have something up their, um, glove(?) for Valentine’s Day, which means fun for the whole family. What? Disney is totally romantic. Read More »

We talk a lot about the Disney theme parks on here — hey, they’re the ultimate family vacations destination, we couldn’t avoid them if we wanted to. Luckily, we don’t want to.

There is a lot happening in the Disney parks right now, and to make sure you’re in the loop I’ve compiled a list of interesting items that you might find magical. I’m good like that.

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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.

Fantasyland is getting a makeover in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, respectively. The above photo is of a model of what the Magic Kingdom will look like when it’s all complete. Except the park will be bigger. The picture was taken at the D23 Expo.

Among the new experiences at Walt Disney World will be a new Snow White roller coaster, a second Dumbo ride with an interactive queue between the two, and a couple nods to Beauty and the Beast. Goofy’s coaster is also getting a makeover. The Magic Kingdom Fantasyland will also get a version of the new Little Mermaid ride that opened this summer in Disney’s California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort.

Magic never rests, folks.

This post is part of UpTake’s Friday Family Series.

Photo: W. Honea