2017 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Review: Part 3

Thanks for joining me for Part Three of my 2017 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Review! You can catch up on Part One here and Part Two here where I talk about my food and drink highlights from last year's festival. In this post I want to talk about the Tasting Sampler!

The Tasting Sampler was something I found out about pretty last minute while reading a couple of Disney bloggers' reviews of the festival last year. I've been to Food and Wine three times but it wasn't until reading those reviews that I discovered the Tasting Sampler. It was a little tricky for me to find all the information that I needed, so I've decided to share my knowledge in this review to make it easier for others looking into this option.

It appears the Tasting Sampler changes slightly from year to year, so this is how it worked in 2017 and that could change for this year's festival. Still, the general concept will stay the same so hopefully this information will be helpful to you.

The Tasting Sampler is a card with 8 tokens that can be redeemed for one food or drink item at any of the Food & Wine Festival booths. Of course there are some restrictions, and that's what I was most interested in before purchasing this in order to calculate if this was worth it. All of the terms and conditions are on the back of the card, but then of course you don't know any of that until you're at the festival trying to purchase it.

(Photo Credit: WDWNT)

In short, the only thing you can't use these tokens on are: flights, name brand champagne, and wine and cheese plates. It does say that pours over 6 ounces are excluded, but I didn't find any beers or glasses of wine that size at the booths. They were all 4 oz or 6 oz so that meant they were included.

In 2017, the Tasting Sampler also included an exclusive and super cute Remy pin that I adore! That seemed to be a special thing for 2017, the Tasting Sampler doesn't usually include a pin. So what about the price? The price is what seemed to vary the most from year to year. In 2017, the price of the Tasting Sampler was $65 plus tax, which brought the grand total to $69.23, making each tab cost $8.65.

I am very Type A and had a spreadsheet of my must-haves from the festival ahead of time. Looking at the prices, I knew I could save some money by purchasing the Tasting Sampler, so that's what I did. I used my tokens on the following items:

1. Crispy Calamari (Italy) - $8.00
2. New England Lobster Roll (Hops & Barley) - $8.00
3. Chilled Coffee with Godiva Chocolate Liqueur (Belgium) - $10.00
4. La Passion Martini Slush (France) - $10.75
5. Citrus Thistle (Scotland) - $10.00
6. Mai Tai (Hawaii) - $9.00
7. Mimosa Royale (Morocco) - $8.00
8. Citrus Thistle (Scotland) - $10.00

(Yes I did get the Citrus Thistle twice, it was incredible!)

Remy pin

I think it's much easier to get your money's worth by using the tokens for drinks instead of food, but it really depends of course on the value of the items. If you're interested in the $4 beers and the $8 food items, you're better off using the sampler on food. As you can see from my list, I used my tokens on both food and drinks.

I do not regret buying the Tasting Sampler because it definitely saved me a little money, but here's where I got caught out. I thought that tax would be added on top of the price of the items at the booths, but they weren't. If a drink was $10.00, you paid $10.00, whereas when I purchased the Tasting Sampler, I paid tax on top of the $65 price. So I thought I would be saving almost $10.00 overall by getting the Tasting Sampler and redeeming the tokens, however, in reality I only saved $4.52.

Like I said, I don't regret buying the Sampler because I didn't lose out. $4.52 isn't a huge saving, but did that did mean I pretty much got another F&W item for free, and I got an adorable Remy pin souvenir. Would I do it again? Maybe, maybe not. It's not a must-do because it doesn't save me enough money, and you have to be super careful about what you're redeeming the tokens on if you're going to get your money back or better yet, save money. They were so convenient to use that hubby was tempted to turn them over for everything he bought which would have been a disaster!

Maybe in the future the Tasting Sampler will work out to be even more cost effective and I will jump at the chance to buy one again. I hope you've enjoyed my 2017 Food and Wine Festival Review and thanks for reading!

Mickey Mouse Memories - June Collection

To celebrate decades of the original icon Mickey Mouse, the Disney Store is releasing a new exclusive collection on the third Saturday of the month, every month, all year long in 2018. Each monthly release will feature a Mickey plush, pins, and a mug with a new theme.

I've been posting each month's release in this collection since January, and today marks the release of June's collection, inspired by peace, love, and tie-dye of the 1960s. A Mickey plush, pin set, mug, and sketchbook ornament are available for purchase in Disney Stores and Shop Disney, retailing from $16.95 to $29.95.

We have also been given a preview of next month's release, "inspired by bold colors and textures of the 1970s". The July collection will be released on July 21.

Mickey Mouse Memories May Collection Mug

After sharing February's Mickey Mouse Collection mug, I was not as excited about the next two releases in March and April. I liked April's mug because I'm a reservist in the Air Force so I took an interest in the retro aviation theme of that mug. But I didn't love it enough to buy it. It's definitely not my favorite so far and there will be 12 of these and I can't have them all! April's I didn't like at all but when May rolled around I was in love with another mug again!

May's mug is inspired by retro themes of the 1950's and let me tell you - I am all about the 50's! I love the clothing styles from that era, the music, and the decor. The second I saw this mug I wanted it! It gives me 50's Prime Time Cafe vibes from Hollywood Studios and I just love that! The design is perfect for the theme and I love the colors too!

I wanted the plush this month also for the same reasons, and after February's debacle, I figured getting to the store 30 minutes before opening would secure me a Mickey Mouse Memories plush. Once again I was wrong. I don't know what it was about May but it seemed like the craziest month yet for people trying to get there hands on Mickey Mouse Memories items.

By the time I woke up at 7am EST the plush was sold out online but I still had hope that I could get one in store. I thought about staying up late to buy online but I really like to support my local Disney Store whenever possible so that's what I chose to do. Turns out my local store got less of a shipment than they usually do, starting out with 25 plush, they were down to 10 in May with no explanation or advance notice. I was 12th in line and therefore missed out. What really made it hard to let go was 1) the Cast Members did not seem apologetic about the situation, simply yelling "I sold the last one" after the 10th customer and telling customers to try online (it was sold out, they should have checked before advising people of that) or to try a store in a city 4 hours away from our location, how unrealistic. And 2) the 10th person in line was bragging about how "ugly" and "stupid" he thought the plush was but he didn't care because he was going to turn around and sell it for over $100 on eBay. I know the CMs can't really do anything about that but it pissed me off to hear him bragging about it like that in front of a line of people who missed out.

Hopefully the rest of the Mickey Mouse Memories Collection will not appeal to me so that I can stop getting disappointed over missing out on these items ;)

New Marvel Vans Collection Launches Today

Queue the Avengers music - Vans has launched a new Marvel collection featuring some of your favorite Avengers (and more!) and it's available now at a reasonable price. There are numerous shoe styles to choose from including: lace ups, canvas slip-ons, flip flops and high tops, for men, women and kids. You can even customize your own pair with a few Marvel prints.

Some of the characters with their own styles include: The Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Black Panther, and Deadpool. There are also clothing items and accessories available in the Marvel collection, from t-shirts, long sleeved tees and hoodies, to backpacks and lunch totes.

Shoes range from $65-$75 for adult sizes, or $24-$40 for flip flops, with Customs starting at $95. You can purchase items from the Marvel collection online and in-store at Vans, Zumiez, Tillys, Pacsun and Journeys, who also have a Thanos slip-on exclusive that I think is awesome!

I adore this collection and love so many items! I could buy several pairs of shoes and love the Captain Marvel style even though I wouldn't buy them for myself. My top favorites are the Black Panther high tops, Spider-Man canvas slip-ons, Deadpool high tops, and Black Widow slip-ons. I also adore the Spider-Man long sleeve tee, Marvel icons lunch tote and women's comic hoodie. I wish I could buy it all!

If you are interested in making a purchase from this collection - don't delay! Expect this collection to sell out fast!

2017 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Review: Part Two

Thanks for joining me for Part Two of my 2017 Epcot Food & Wine Festival Review! You can catch up on Part One here where I talk about my food highlights from last year's festival. In this post I want to talk about my drink highlights!

I hear people complain about the sizes of drinks a lot at F&W, but for the most part I thought the size of the pours were decent. The festival is about trying new things and re-visiting your favorites, so I definitely want something more on the size of a sampler. You can always get more if you like it and if you don't, you don't have to waste your drink. I was also surprised to find that the beers seemed a lot larger than the size sounded.

Let's start with one of my absolute favorite drinks of the festival - the Citrus Thistle from Scotland. I don't really like gin all that much, but this was one of the best things I drank and I got more than one of these throughout my time at F&W. It was $10.00 so definitely not the cheapest offering at the festival, but it was a good size and made with the real deal, Hendrick's gin. I purchased this with my Tasting Sampler (more on that in Part Three) so that made it cheaper.

Pictured above is the Bunratty Meade Honey Wine from Ireland. This was a lot stronger than I anticipated but I really liked it. I was curious to try meade and I'm glad I did. I thought $5.50 wasn't bad for a glass considering the alcohol strength.

Please forgive this picture being taken on a trash can, but on this particular occasion we had trouble finding a table. My first drink in Canada was the Moosehead Radler, infused with Grapefruit, Grape and Lemon Juices. Oh my gosh so incredibly delicious! It was fruity and refreshing, but still tasted like beer, it was amazing and I think I got this two or three times at the festival. I thought $4.00 was a fair price and it seemed like a really decent amount of beer. Thankfully I discovered one liquor store (that may or may not be on the corner of my street) that sells this at home ;)

Also in Canada I tried the Neige Premiere “Apple Ice Wine” and it was really good! Another drink that was stronger than I expected but also very fruity and refreshing. I will say however, that this was the one and only time we were shocked by the size of the pour. Labeling it "wine" implied to me that it would be a glass, but this was basically a shot glass, which you can probably see by looking at the size compared to Remy. Definitely not worth $6.00.

Another high ranking favorite of mine, this is the Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen Pomegranate Beer from the Brewer's Collection. This beer was fantastic and I wish I could buy this at home! I should have gotten it again. At $4.00 I thought that was a very reasonable price for a German beer.

Over in Morocco, this Moroccan Sangria gets an honorable mention! It was $6.00 and really, really good! Probably the best sangria I've had. It was fruity but also plenty alcoholic.

Up there in my favorites list is this Chilled Coffee featuring Godiva Chocolate Liqueur from Belgium. I love coffee and I love coffee with liquor in it, so what's not to love about this one? Godiva is delicious and you could taste both the coffee and the chocolate liqueur so it was perfectly flavored and balanced. Not to mention, being frozen made it an ideal beverage choice in the Florida heat. I would get this again! It was $10.00 but that's a typical price for coffee and booze, and the brand was a more expensive choice.

There were two drinks that I enjoyed in Hawaii. The first was the Florida Orange Groves Sparkling Pineapple Wine. It had a definite pineapple taste without being overpowering and it still tasted like wine and not like fruit juice. This actually reminded me of champagne or a sweeter version of prosecco. Really good and not bad at $6.00.

The second drink I enjoyed in Hawaii was the Mai Tai featuring Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum. Absolutely delicious! $9.00 is a little pricey but hey, it's Food & Wine. Cocktails in my home town will set you back $8.00-$10.00 and the only difference is they may be a little bit bigger in size. Food & Wine prices are not outrageous by any means. This may have been the least alcoholic drink I had during the festival, or maybe it just seemed that way to me after already having a drink or two before sampling this one. Still I'd get it again.

Going back to Ireland, the one and only non-alcoholic drink I purchased during the festival, but highly recommend, was the Twinings Pumpkin Chai Tea and Caramel Shake. There is however an alcoholic version, Twinings Pumpkin Chai Tea Frozen Cocktail with Caramel Vodka, that I did not try. I had read reviews that said the drinks tasted near enough the same so one was just a more expensive version. I can't comment on the accuracy of that statement, but hearing it is what made me choose the non-alcoholic version. That and tea with vodka sounded weird. The non-alcoholic version was $4.75 and the alcoholic version was $9.75.

I don't drink tea, and you could definitely taste it in this shake, but it wasn't bad. This was a perfect fall offering because it had a great pumpkin flavor, and again it being a frozen drink was perfect for the Florida heat. It was more filling than I expected, and while it seemed strange to me that this drink cost more than most of the beer offerings despite being non-alcoholic, there was a lot that went into this one and it was delicious. I'd recommend it and I would get it again.

Thank you for reading Part Two of my Food & Wine Festival Review, all about drinks! Please join me for my third and final installment where I will be reviewing the Tasting Sampler.