We opened and closed Epcot on Saturday for the International Food & Wine Festival.

At rope drop we headed to Test Track. It was my first time riding since it reopened. I think the littles would LOVE it and can’t wait to bring them back. We also hit Spaceship Earth and Soarin’… …before heading over to the Ghiradelli Chocolate experience. Oh my stars, there are no words for the divine drinking chocolate. And look who we bumped in to!!! Jamie Deen before he gave his presentation. :-) By this time the world showcase was opened and we hit the ground running on our eating and drinking tour of the world. One of our front runners was the mongolian beef on steamed bun in China. We had every single cheese plate and cheese dish offered in every country… Ireland, Greece, Brazil and the craft beers and hops & barley destinations. So, we obviously like cheese. I already mentioned all the cheese (do not miss the griddled cheese with pistachios and honey in Greece) and China. Other favorites were the beef empanadas in Patagonia, chicken potstickers in China, lemongrass chicken curry in Singapore, boeuf bourguignon and crème brulee caramel fleur de sel in France, cheddar cheese soup in Canada, cronut at the Refreshment Port, The kalua pork slider and Aulani sunset in Hawaii were two more favorites. After eating our way around the world, we were stuffed and sweating like pigs. We popped into the Chase character spot for a quick pic before heading back to spend the afternoon at the Coronado Springs pool. We headed back to the festival around six for our supper tour around the world. Another stop in the character spot yielded two more of the fab five. It wouldn’t be Disney without a visit with Mickey!! The sun was setting over France and we stopped for dessert first. Hello, chocolate macaroon ice cream sandwich. You changed my life… We had reserved seats to Sister Hazel Eat to the Beat concert, which was really a lot of fun. The highlight for me was when the band performed Let It Go. So funny! After a few more stops for favorite dishes, we headed to the Illuminations Sparkling Dessert party. It was a reserved viewing area, a variety of desserts and champagne. I will say that this is the only special event I’ve done at Disney that I wouldn’t truly recommend. There were no seats and the deserts were just ok compared to all of the delish things available in the world showcase. Next time I would pick up a yummy cocktail and dish of my choosing and scout out my own place to watch the fireworks. Regardless, it was an amazing day!! We had hoped to hop over to Magic Kingdom for a few hours after Epcot closed but the monorail was down and after waiting for a while we decided to just catch the bus back to Coronado Springs. xoxo
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