You Get a Suite! You Get a Suite! Everybody Gets a Suite! December 2023 Trip Report! (Updated 5/21!)

[VAtink]

I love your Santa hat ears! I hate people at times as well, lol I see this happen so many times to Andi and I! We are both petite and short. People just swarm us at times and act like we are invisible, ugh!
I have started putting my hands on my hips and stand in a stance like don’t come any closer when we are in lines or crowds, it does work some!

Thank you! Yeah, people can really suck sometimes, I just don't get it. Since we're pretty tall, we always make sure we're not blocking anyone's view when we pick a spot to watch stuff (well except for this time ), it's not like it's hard to do!

 

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Day 5, Part 4: Jollywood Part 2!​

We last left off getting off of TSMM a bit after the party had started.

Now before the party we discussed what our must-do items were, and all agreed the special photopass were top items, so we headed over to get those.

Our first stop was the animation courtyard where they had two of the special photopass pictures/videos set up. We started with the one that pans back and forth (totally forgot what it was officially called). The line there took about 20 minutes to get through, so not horrible, but it did eat up a lot of party time.

While waiting we discussed how we wanted to pose and decided that we wanted to act like we were fighting over the present. Mom and I totally understood the assignment, my dad however was totally confused.
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https://flic.kr/p/2pQGLkf

Oh dad, we apparently needed to explain better.

Once we wrapped up with that photo/video we headed across the courtyard for the other one. This one there were two options for the shot, the slow glo and celebrate.

Once again we discussed what we wanted to do while we waited and decided to go with the slow glo and do this ta-da with jazz hands as we each stepped out to the side to reveal the person behind us. We practiced while in line, and had a good amount of time to do this since again the wait was about 20 minutes.

There was a CM who did a preview of your pose prior to the actual shot to verify it would fit within the frame since the video/picture is in portrait. Our initial attempt both mom and I jumped out too far to the side, so for the real one we made sure to not lean out too far, which lead to this masterpiece.
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https://flic.kr/p/2pQB1kF

I can’t stop laughing at this. At first it looks like it’s just my mom and me, but if you look close you can see my dad creeping in the background.

Up Next: Jollywood Part 3!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

Those are cute pictures. I love the "hidden Dad" one.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

What fun pictures!!! I'm so interested in your Jollywood experience since the reviews of the party were so bad.

 

[VAtink]

Those are cute pictures. I love the "hidden Dad" one.

Thanks! Yeah, I love the one with my dad hidden in the background, it's one of my favorites from the trip!

 

[VAtink]

What fun pictures!!! I'm so interested in your Jollywood experience since the reviews of the party were so bad.

Thanks! Yeah, we had heard not great things about it from the first party, but hoped they would have worked things out by the time we went. While it wasn't necessarily bad, there were definitely things that could have been better. The night we went there was still a lot of waiting in line, which took up a ton of party time. Plus the party felt really really short, it could have easily been double the time and would have been so much better. Also would have helped to limit capacity more, the whole night felt very crowded throughout the park. All that said, we still had a lot of fun and would probably try it again if they brought it back.

 

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Day 5, Part 5: Jollywood Part 3!​

We last left off getting the special photopass pictures in animation courtyard!

After getting the special pictures/videos we headed back out to the courtyard and saw the line for Donald/Daisy didn’t look too bad, so got in it to meet one of them.

As was becoming the norm for the night, even though the line didn’t look bad, there was a bit of a wait. Again, right around 20 minutes.

Now Donald is by far my dad’s favorite Disney character, so we really hoped we’d get to meet him, however a CM did come through the line multiple times to let everyone know that we would get either Donald or Daisy, and they didn’t know which character it would be.

It’s good that they did that to help with any disappointment for not getting the character you wanted to meet, but still seems a bit odd/cheap they couldn’t have them both out at the same time. I get Daisy is fabulous, but I can’t imagine it would cost all that much to pay her for the whole night instead of just half of it!

Right before it was our turn to meet, Donald and Daisy switched out and we ended up meeting Daisy instead. Poor dad.



It was still a great meet, and I prefer Daisy, I love how feisty she can be, and she has fabulous fashion.

By the time we wrapped up with Daisy it was already 9:30, time was flying by (while we waited in line)

At this point my dad really wanted a hot chocolate, so we asked a CM where they had some, and they pointed us to the Starbucks, so we headed over there. We entered, but quickly noped it out of there once we saw the line, it was crazy long! So far while the lines weren’t as bad as reported the first night, they weren’t great this night either.

We took a minute after exiting Starbucks to regroup and figure out what we wanted to do. We were all ready to try some of the food and drinks, and my mom really really wanted to check out some of the live music, so we decided to head over to Commissary Ln since I knew they had food and music over there.

On the way over we stopped to get picture of the mascot of the night!





When we got to Commissary Ln the band wasn’t playing but they did have the guitarist out, so we stopped to watch for a bit. He was so good, but it wasn’t my parents type of music, so we didn’t watch too long.

Since we were right by the ABC commissary, I decided to pop in and get a drink. I ended up grabbing the old fashioned (although I think it had a fancier name). I was pleasantly surprised that we finally found a place with no line! It took all of 2 minutes to get my drink.



After getting the drink we stopped to watch the guitarist a bit more, and my parents decided to dance to the music!



It was so fun watching them get into the party vibe and dance! Sadly this song was the last in the guitarists set, so after he stopped playing we were once again presented with the question of what to do next.

Next up: Jollywood Part 4 - More Music, More food!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

They needed a better place to serve hot chocolate than Starbucks. That place always seems to have a long line.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I adore that your parents danced. What a sweet memory!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Darn it, Donald! You couldn’t have stayed for just a few more minutes?! Nonetheless, it’s a nice picture.

Not as amazing as the picture of your parents dancing, however! What a wonderful moment!

 

[VAtink]

They needed a better place to serve hot chocolate than Starbucks. That place always seems to have a long line.

Definitely agree with this, I'm really surprised there wasn't another location we could get some at!

 

[VAtink]

I adore that your parents danced. What a sweet memory!

It was so cute! Love how they got into the party vibe!

 

[VAtink]

Darn it, Donald! You couldn’t have stayed for just a few more minutes?! Nonetheless, it’s a nice picture.

Haha, right? Oh well, guess this just means my dad will have to come on another Disney trip with us to meet Donald!

Not as amazing as the picture of your parents dancing, however! What a wonderful moment!

Isn't that so cute? It was so much fun watching them get into the music and the whole party vibe!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

The food and beverage options at this event (excluding Starbucks, apparently) were really fantastic. I just hope the event is longer this year so there's more time to try things.

 

[VAtink]

The food and beverage options at this event (excluding Starbucks, apparently) were really fantastic. I just hope the event is longer this year so there's more time to try things.

Definitely agree! Funny enough, I was just finishing editing the next post about the food we tried, and then I saw this and momentarily questioned if I had already posted it! But yes, all the food we tried this even was really good. I also wish the event was longer, there were a bunch of items we wanted to try but just didn't have time to.

 

[VAtink]

Hello everyone! Mini real life update.

Today we had an event here, the Taste of Nova, which was basically a mini food and wine fest with some amazing food (dare I say better than actual F&W?!? )

It was our first time going to the event, but it's apparently pretty big, they said they sold 2000 tickets, which just seems crazy for how small the venue was, but it somehow all worked out! It was put on by a local magazine (Northern Virginia Magazine) and featured restaurants and wineries from, obvs, northern Virginia.

My friends and I decided to splurge and get the VIP tickets so we could get in an hour early to start eating, and I'm so glad we did. Even with the "limited" VIP crowd, the food lines built quickly, and tables were hard to come by! Fortunately people were super friendly, so we ended up sharing tables throughout the afternoon with others and it ended up being so much fun chatting with everyone.

I tried to be good and take tons of pictures, but after a while it became too hard to try to balance multiple food dishes, my phone, my clutch, and the drink/s I was carrying, so eventually my phone went in my bag and no additional pictures were taken. But I did get some of the first handful of food items we tried to share!

First up is my friend and myself, gotta get the selfie before the humidity doubles the size of my hair!



Ok, next up, this is one of my top two dishes of the day. The one on the right here is a short rib lettuce wrap, and my goodness, this was amazing! It may not look like much, but it packed a ton of flavor, and had a nice amount of spice to it. The crazy thing, it was from a restaurant in my town, only like two blocks from my office! I'd never heard of it before, but will definitely be going there to get food now!



They had such an amazing variety of food, we ended up getting some spring rolls, candied bacon, oysters, gazpacho (there was oddly a lot of this at various booths), ravioli, swordfish, pork belly, and the list goes on and on. The event went on for four hours, so we had plenty of time to take a break from eating to digest before heading back in again. They also had a ridiculous amount of alcohol. Since we were VIP we got access to a special tent where they had special drinks for us, we ended up getting the bourbon one, it was sooo good!

There were also a ton of local wineries and breweries there, so we got to try a lot. It was definitely a boozy Sunday!

Here are some pics of other items we tried, only a small selection since I gave up trying to take pictures after a while with the balancing of the plates and drinks!


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[2xcited2sleep]

Wow! What a fun event. Everything looks absolutely delicious and, I agree, way better than F&W. Going back to our earlier exchange, I thought the Jollywood food was better than F&W too. I think it must have to do with the volume and there are just too many people walking around EPCOT all day so they need to do simpler dishes that they can mass produce easily. There's a similar outdoor event here in FL called Field to Feast -- it's held on a farm in Mount Dora and George of Wine Bar George does the wine and the chefs are from various different Disney restaurants (Jiko, Flying Fish etc.) and the proceeds go to charity. You'd need a car to get out there but if you're ever here when it's happening, I think you'd love it.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

That food event looks delicious! Thank you for sharing the pictures!

 

[Wood Nymph]

It all looks good.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

You need to get one of those plastic plate things I've seen people with in Epcot. It has a side holder to put your drink in. And that description is as clear as mud. My excuse -it's Monday. But I'm sure I'll be able to describe it better later.