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Orlando, Florida
Events/Things to Do
2006 Travel Article
I had not traveled to Orlando, FL in
nearly a decade. My husband and I were planning to attend t he International
Food and Wine Festival held annually through October at Epcot. I had
read and heard such wonderful things about the festival and was really
looking forward to it. We are Foodies so we love food and wine
festivals. Each year in March we attend the Hilton Head, SC wine
festival which is the largest on the east coast so we were excited and
expecting a huge Epcot affair. We stayed at the Cypress Palms Resort
in Kissimmee which was lovely and very quiet this time of year. This
is a great location just a few miles from the Disneyworld Theme Parks.
We also had many restaurants to choose from within walking distance of the
resort. As we
drove by all the restaurants on our way to the resort I was thrilled to see
the Macaroni Grille. This restaurant holds dear memories for me and I
have been looking for one since 1999. We had a lovely special dinner.
The restaurant ambience is rustic with a Tuscan flair. Large bottles
of Chianti are a huge part of the food and wine decor. The tables are
covered with white paper and crayons are provided. You never saw four
adults having so much fun with crayons. The menu is extensive and the dishes
themselves are authentic. I had one of my favorites Bolognese, my
husband had lasagna, and shrimp fettuccini was also a huge hit. The
portions were large and we all took doggie bags home. We were so full
and content as we walked the short distance back to the resort. If you
get the opportunity definitely try the Macaroni Grille.
Our first day at Disneyworld we
visited the Magic Kingdom because one of our friends had never been. We were
excited because of the nostalgic memories of bringing our son when he was 5 and
10. Now at 22, we wondered how he would feel about the park. After
entry we headed straight for Splash Mountain in Frontierland. Our son, Drew
loved this ride when he was 10 back when it was THE new ride so we wanted to head
there first and Thunder Mountain second. Not much about the park had
changed and if anything we found it a little less spotless and service
oriented. I could not go on the ride so I sat in a beautiful deck area
overlooking the lagoon. Giant herons were standing on the edge of the
deck and never even flinched when I got within a foot to snap a
picture. It was a peaceful cool respite in the soon to be very
hot day. Next we headed for Adventureland to Pirates of the Caribbean,
because we heard the ride had been updated to include Captain Jack
Sparrow, from the movie. His image was added to the pirate scenes
which was cool, but we were disappointed when the cannon fight did not
occur. For the rest of the day we meandered throughout the park with our
plan to end the day in Tomorrowland with our favorite attraction, Space Mountain. Most of
the amusements had not changed. We decided to eat at the Columbia
Harbour House in Liberty Square. We found food service to be in need of
some of the famous Disney magic for crowd control. Roped lines would
have made getting lunch much easier. It was a struggle to stay in line to
order and pay and then an even tougher challenge to weave through the crowd
with trays of food to find a table. The menu offered fried fish and
chicken baskets, chowder, and sandwiches. The chowder and ham sandwiches
were excellent.
In the late afternoon the sun and
heat took its toll on our willingness to wait in lines. We decided to
take the monorail over to the Polynesian Hotel for a cocktail and snack. The
lounge was very comfortable with huge chairs and tables. The wide
screen TV with football on made everyone happy. We enjoyed wonderful
cocktails made with fresh squeezed juices and accompanied that with a bread
and dip platter and a fruit and cheese platter. The service was superb
and a decidedly much better experience than the food service in the
park. We thoroughly enjoyed the respite and recommend a ride over to
one of the park's hotels for a break from crowds, heat and cafeteria style
service. We headed back to Tomorrowland and
then found places to watch the Disney Dreams Come True Parade. The
floats were incredible all lit up with lights and characters. We sat
wearily on the street curb and quietly enjoyed the return to magic and
childhood memories. After the parade we found a great position to
watch the fireworks over Cinderella's castle. It was a fantastic show
and topped off the day spectacularly.
The next day we planned to
"Discover the Wonder" of Epcot, as they say and spend
 late
afternoon and evening visiting the World Showcase where the Food and Wine
Festival was being held. We planned to use this for recognizance for
the next days visit back to the festival. Epcot had changed and not
all for the better. It was better maintained and much cleaner than the
Magic Kingdom, but it had succumbed to commercialism and the mighty
dollar. From entry we headed into Spaceship Earth which travels
through the history of communication. This had been updated and
remains a wonderful educational experience. From there we headed to
one of our favorites, The Living Seas. This had been changed and not
for the better. It is merely a huge aquarium minus the wonder of
diving under the sea and riding through a glass tunnel filled with fish.
The
Land was the least impressive when we visited last but now it is one of the
best and a must see. Scientific agriculture is explained as you ride
quietly through different climates. This is in our opinions one of the
best places to grab lunch in the park. Sunshine Seasons provides
seasonally inspired soups, salads, sandwiches, wood-fired specialties and
desserts. The food service and dining tables are well thought out and
waiting lines move much more smoothly. An area for customers to peruse the different menu
options, select hot entrees or ready made grab and go items, beverages, etc
made for easy selection and payment. Wine and beer are also
offered. The tables are set up in a huge semi-circle perfect for
people watching. We were all very pleased with this restaurant. The NEW and
BEST attraction is also located in The Land. It is called Soar and it
is a definite do not miss for all ages. The premise of Soar is
hang-gliding over incredibly accurate scenes of California. San Francisco,
Napa Valley, Monterey and much more vividly lay beneath you almost touching your feet
sometimes. We loved it. We went right to the Fast Pass machines and
scheduled a second ride. The Fast Pass allows visitors to schedule
ride times instead of waiting in line. You are assigned a time to
return to the attraction resulting in little or no wait time. It is great
for the very popular rides which usually have the long wait lines. Not
getting a Fast Pass can result in even longer waits as the Fast Pass people
walk right by the line you are in. You may only reserve one Attraction
at a time using Fast Pass and we recommend using it sparingly so you don't end up a slave to
your schedule.
The remaining attractions were mostly
disappointing because the educational value has been lost to entertainment
and in some cases very poor and contrary to Walt Disney's concept of
entertainment. Test Track presented by General Motors, offers two
difficulty levels for a speedway race car and was a favorite of the younger set. Mission Space presented by
HP, also offered two levels of difficulty. Basically, you are in a
spaceship taking off for Mars. Each person in the ship is assigned a
job such as pilot or navigator and a trip to Mars is simulated. It was
fun, but not very educational. At the higher level some strong G-Force is
experienced upon take off.
Tired, hungry and hot we headed off
to the World Showcase and the much anticipated Wine and Food Festival which
was advertised as "Savor the flavors of over 25 nations. And groove to
live music from bands that really cook. Get ready to dance, dine and
sip some wine." held Sept 29 to Nov 12 in 2006. I was ready. I
had been ready since we made the reservations several months ago. We
headed off to England. The huge tent offering many wine and food
samples did not appear. I kept looking around to make sure we were in
the right location. What we found in the United Kingdom was a small
tent offering 3 different samples of wine and three different samples
of food. The prices ranged from $2 to $5 for wine and $3 to $10 for
the food samples. We quickly realized this was going to be very
expensive and decided to keep exploring. We decided to have a libation
at the Rose and Crown Pub. A piano player added lively pub music and
some of the British crowd sang along. We enjoyed the fun and rested
for a bit with Ale and wine. We then set out to discover more of the
festival around the world. We found the same small kiosk in each
country we visited. We did try some Moroccan wine and sat by the lake,
a little discouraged by what we found and too tired to keep up the journey.
My husband realizing our disappointment headed off somewhere. A short
time later he returned with a baguette under his arm and a huge pastry box
filled with croissants, sweet butter and pastries. We were so happy.
He found a French Bakery and it was the perfect picnic experience sitting by
the cool lake indulging in the wonders of a French Bakery. Genius and inexpensive, at least
compared to the other prices. We ended our night on a deck near Canada
and watched the Illuminations Reflections of Earth, which was impressive.
Once again we headed back to the resort tired and this time a bit achy.
The next and last day after a
great deep dish Chicago style pizza at Uno's we decided to skip the Food and
Wine Festival and go to MGM Studios instead. In my opinion this park involves a lot
of walking and not much bang for your buck. My husband and friend
wanted to go on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and the Rocking Roller
Coaster. They both looked a little green by that time. We then
headed off all the way across the park for the stunt show which we did not
make in time. There is no transportation between venues in this park
and apparently timing is everything. We went on a few more rides, ate
a quick dinner at the ABC Commissary which served burgers, fries, etc.
The wait for food was long, the many televisions in the huge room kept
repeating the same 10 promos and tired children screamed everywhere. For me,
it was a long miserable experience. We decided it was not worth the
long walk to and from the nighttime illumination and headed back to the
resort's warm welcoming pools to relax our aching muscles and bandage our
blisters.
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