Disney's All-Star Music Resort

Recently for our trip back in October, Ean and I stayed at Disney's All-Star Music Resort. We loved it! (When do we NOT love a Disney resort, now that I think of it...)

Growing up, I only ever stayed in Deluxe resorts- Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk Villas, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs, and more recently we'd stayed at moderate resort Port Orleans Riverside.

It wasn't until May of this year that I stayed in a value resort for the first time. Ean and I stayed at Pop Century during our Star Wars Weekends 2015 trip. This time we chose to save a little more moolah and stay at an All-Star resort. We really loved Pop Century back in May. Sure the room wasn't cushy and plush like I'm used to, and it didn't have amenities out the wazoo, but the value resort was NOT bad! We were excited to try a new one!

There are several different sections you can stay in. We stayed in Calypso. It was closest to the transportation area (which is why we chose it). During the day, fun Caribbean-styled music played over the speakers in the hallways and at the cute pool area. The outside walls were a bright, fun green, and the area was decorated with giant drums and maracas.

The inside wasn't super overly themed. One wall was the Calypso green, and the rest were tan. There were musical "things" everywhere, such as the wallpaper, the photo on the wall, and the shower curtain. It was all just music, and not specifically Calypso.

Other sections of the hotel included:

Jazz, complete with shadows of men playing saxophones, a giant drum set, and cute courtyard area.

Rock, complete with giant guitars and jukeboxes, and of course, old rock music playing on the loud speakers.

Country, complete with oversized cowboy boots and Dolly Parton playing on the speakers (we felt right at home there.)

And Broadway, complete with posters of various Disney Broadway shows, and a cute street with New York street names.

A few pros of staying at the All-Star Music resort:

• Very good pricing
• Great transportation- because the value resorts are so big, they run busses VERY often
• Rarely had to share a bus with other resorts
• Inexpensive food court in the lobby that opened early and stayed open late
• Since there was just two of us, they gave us a room with a king bed at no additional cost
• In-room pizza delivery

And of course a few cons:

• No coffee pot in the room (we discovered this while staying at Pop Century, so we brought our own!)
• Only provide bar soap and a shampoo/conditioner blend
• Decreased quality of bath towels
• Decreased quality of bed sheets
• "Motel-like" accommodations
• Value resorts bring in some crazy/weird guests

For us, the pros out-weigh the cons. The cons aren't a big deal to us. If they are to you, then All-Star Music is NOT the hotel for you. We don't spend a lot of time in our room anyway, so paying $90 per night rather than $500 per night is much more logical!

Overall, our experience was wonderful.

It's that time again!

Time to prepare for another Disney trip!!

Currently, we have a little over a week to go until our next trip. Eeee!! We are so excited!!

Super happy faces from last year- can't wait to go again this year!

Last year, Ean and I went during the holiday season for our honeymoon, and it was amazing. We are going around the same time this year! This time, my parents are going with us!!

My parents, whom I love very much!! So excited they're going with us!!

Ean and I booked our trip first, and we booked it immediately after we found out that this year would be the last year for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights in Hollywood Studios. I knew that my mom would really want to go, because she and I share great memories of sitting, drinking hot chocolate, and eating a giant cookie together while watching the lights during our first ever holiday trip together back in 2012. After really convincing my dad that he would want to go as well, they finally booked their trip for the same week so that we can all hang out and enjoy the wonderful holiday festivities together!!

Me and my mom during our December 2012 trip!

Osborne Lights in 2012

Delicious cookie that Mommy and I consumed!

Ean and I will be staying at All-Star Music. Our stay in October was fabulous, so we are excited to be staying there again. My parents are staying at the Yacht Club, which is their absolute favorite resort to stay. Someday Ean and I will be able to afford a deluxe resort, but for now, we are just happy we are able to stay at a value!

All-Star Music is so wonderful!!

I'm excited to see the Osborne lights in Hollywood Studios, holidays around the world in Epcot, and to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. I look forward to traveling to different resorts to see all the Christmas decorations. I'm also super pumped that Ean and I have reservations at both Beaches & Cream and Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. Ean has never been to Beaches & Cream, and I know he will thoroughly enjoy it. Neither of us have ever experienced the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater and we are SO excited to try it out!!

Christmas in Germany back in 2012

Christmas in Mexico (last year)

Kristoff in the VMCP parade!!

You even get to see SANTA!!

I'm very excited for my dad to see all the Christmas stuff. He's never been during the holidays and I know he will enjoy it. He's always kinda mehhh about Disney because he hates the crowds and he hates standing in line in the hot sun for hours for a ride, but when we go in December, we do very few rides, the crowds are always far fewer than when we go in the summer, and the heat is never too extreme.

I'm super super super excited about this trip (and a good break from work!!!) and I can't wait to write about all the fun we have!

Food & Wine Festival 2015: Canada

Oh Canada! The 7th stop of the day, and 18th and final stop of our trip!

Canada is always popular since it is a resident country of the World Showcase, and everyone loves going in the little Canadian shops. The Festival booth brought crowds because of its delicious offerings. It definitely did not disappoint! That's for sure!

In Canada, we got the Canadian cheddar cheese soup. It did have bacon in it, which you know I don't care for, but the soup was very delicious. I'd tried it before, so I knew it would be okay. Ean really loved it. That's because it is so good! You know it has to be good if I liked it and I don't like bacon. But let's be real, MOST people in America are obsessed with bacon, so of course this soup is going to appeal to pretty much everyone.

Canada also had chicken sausage with creamy polenta and Minus B onion jam (whatever that is!). That, of course, didn't sound too appealing to me because chicken is not my favorite. I don't think Ean would have liked it because what the heck is onion jam? Lol! But I did see a picture of it on DisneyFoodBlog and it just didn't look like something we wanted to try this time. The other food dish they had was "Le Cellier" wild mushroom beef filet mignon with truffle butter sauce. I'm sure Ean would have liked that, and I would have tried a little nibble if we got it. The cheddar cheese soup just sounded like the best option of the three!

The drinks that Canada had were Moosehead Lager, Neige Premiere apple ice wine, Inniskillin Vidal Icewine, and Tawse Vineyard cabernet franc. I honestly don't know what any of those are, but I definitely expected to see something like Moosehead Lager in Canada. Of course they will have something with Moose in the name.

And thus concludes our food journey around the world! I can't wait until we (hopefully) go next year. I want to do this again and again! The Food and Wine Festival is such a fun experience!!

Food & Wine Festival 2015: France

Finally, at our 17th stop of the trip, I got an ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE!! Eeep!!

France was our 6th stop of the day on Tuesday, and it was definitely time for an alcoholic beverage. I mean, 3pm isn't too early, right?!

France had a couple of tasty looking alcoholic beverages, but I had one specific one in mind. I knew that if I didn't try any other alcoholic beverages the entire trip, I had to at least get this one.

But before we get to the wonderful beverage that Ean and I so thoroughly enjoyed, let me first speak of the French beverages that we did not try. First of all, France had a Kronenbourg Blanc beer. They also had two wines- Macon-Villages, Vieilles Vignes Mommessin chardonnay and Chateau Bonnet, Bordeaux cabernet sauvignon. Then there were three wonderful looking mixed drinks. The two that we did not get were the "Ice Pop Pomme" which was apple juice, vodka, and Saint Germain Luqueur, and the "La Passion Martini Slush" which was Grey Goose Le Citron vodka, cranberry juice, and passion fruit juice. France was actually incredibly popular, mainly because of the drinks. The food looked interesting, but the drinks were definitely the top seller here.

Which brings me to the super fabulous drink that we had the absolute pleasure of consuming: the sparkling pomegranate kir.

I'd tried this drink when I went with my mom, so I already was obsessed. For some reason, this was one of my all-time number one favorite things about the Food and Wine Festival, and I really don't know why. I'm a huge pomegranate fan, random, I know. But I absolutely love pomegranates. Whatever pomegranate juice and whatever champagne or sparkling wine they mix together to make this drink is like a little taste of nectar sent down from the heavens by God himself. I mean, truly, this drink is a blessing in a glass.

Ean and I took the drink over to this area that was surprisingly secluded and empty. We just hung out by the World Showcase Lagoon and had the most spectacular view of the entire World Showcase. It was incredible. We couldn't believe that there was no one over there because it was so relaxing and quiet. We could have stayed there the rest of the day!

We debated trying some of the French food. I'd had the creme brulee before and it was wonderful. That is the only thing we would have gotten. The other options were boeuf bourguignon, which was braised short ribs in cabernet sauvignon with mashed potatoes, or croissant aux escargot, which was an escargot croissant with garlic and parsley. For those that don't know what escargot is, it's snails. I've never tried escargot before, and I would maybe be willing to give it a taste, but this trip was not that time.

For now, I'm happy just sipping on my delightful pomegranate kir. I need to recreate this drink asap!

Food & Wine Festival 2015: Brazil

As our journey around the World Showcase continued, we needed something savory to have after our little sweet treat (not sure why we were in such a mood for savory food and not really for sweet... normally it is the other way around for me!).

We decided to stop in at Brazil. That made this our 16th stop of the trip, and the 5th of the day.

Brazil had some interesting cuisine. We tried the pao de queijo, which is Brazilian cheese bread. It tasted very wonderful, but the texture started to feel funny to the mouth after a few bites. It had a very wonderful flavor, however, the cheese just had a weird consistency. Though I was still a little hungry, I couldn't finish my little roll cause the chewy cheese felt weird in my mouth. It was disappointing, too, because it tasted so good.

The booth also offered crispy pork belly with black beans and tomato, which I tried when I went with my mom in 2013, escondidinho de carne, which is a layered meat pie with mashed yucca (not sure what yucca is... put it looked almost like mashed potatoes, so I'm sure it was good), and cocada, which is Brazilian coconut candy.

The drinks looked very tasty, too. They had Kaiser brewery Xingu black beer, Carnaval Moscato sparkling white wine, and frozen Caipirinha featuring LeBlon Cachaca. I had the Caipirinha with my mom before, and it was good. She told me I needed to get it again, and I almost did! But I knew I was about to get the one alcoholic drink I was SO looking forward to, and I didn't really want to get two alcoholic beverages in a row!

Food & Wine Festival 2015: Belgium

After shopping around the world for a little bit, we stopped by the Belgium festival booth to FINALLY try a sweet treat! Belgium was our 4th stop on Tuesday, and our 15th stop of the trip.

At the Belgium booth, the only food you can get is a Belgian waffle. Of course. What else would you expect from Belgium? There were several options you could choose from. They had a potato and leek waffle with beer-braised beef and smoked gouda cream (looked very savory and stew-like), a Belgian waffle with warm chocolate ganache and whipped cream (honestly almost got this one because of how chocolatey and amazing it looked), and the dish we got, which was the Belgian waffle with berry compote and whipped cream.

It was a very good choice, indeed.

I've had this waffle before, back when I went with my mom in 2013. I loved it so much I knew I had to get it again. We honestly debated if we should get the chocolate one since I wanted to try it too and I'd never tried it, but my memories of the waffle with berry compote won and we settled on that.

Belgium's drinks were Hoegaarden (I don't even know, but it sounds very interesting, hahaha), Leffe Blonde, Palm Speciale Belge amber ale, Stella Artois Cidre, and chilled coffee featuring Godiva chocolate liquer (probably tasted absolutely amazing).

Belgian waffles are the best. This dish is getting recreated for sure.

Food & Wine Festival 2015: Italy

For our 3rd stop of the day, and the 14th of the trip, we went to Italy!

Italy is another place that is part of Epcot's World Showcase, but that didn't stop us from visiting the delicious Festival booth! 

One of the menu items, I was going to absolutely love. That was the cannoli al cioccolato: chocolate-covered cannoli filled with sweet ricotta, chocolate, and candied fruit. I really like cannolis. It used to be my favorite thing on the menu at Altruda's back in the day when we visited that restaurant frequently. We also have one that we serve at Bradford Catered Events, which is also quite delicious. However, Ean isn't as fond of them as I am so we did not get it.

Another menu item, Ean was going to love. That was the filetto di pollo con funghi al marsala: chicken tenderloin, cremini mushrooms, marsala sauce, and ciabatta bread. We have a chicken marsala dish at Bradford Catered Events that he really likes. I've actually tried it, not any of the chicken, but I've scraped the breading off it and eating a bite of breading, mushrooms, and sauce. It's good, but this dish wasn't one I was wanting to try.

Then there was one item we'd both enjoy. To save time, money, and stomach space, we decided to go with that one. It was a ravioli alla caprese: cheese ravioli, tomato sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, and basil. YUM! It tasted very wonderful. Who doesn't love a good ravioli? It was super hot and very cheesy. Honestly though, it wasn't really anything out of the ordinary. A lot of the stuff at the festival, I'll only ever eat here in Epcot. The ravioli was something that could be very easily duplicated, or even bought in the frozen section of the grocery store. That didn't stop it from tasting super amazing, though!

Italy had many beverages you could try. They had Moretti lager beer, Moretti la rossa beer, Placido pino grigio, Montegrande corbinello, Placido chianti classico, Montegrande moscato fior d'Arancio, Bosco del Merlo prosecco, and a frozen margarita with limoncello and tequila. I've never tried limencello before, but I hear it packs a good punch.

While eating at our cocktail table in Italy, we noticed a group of medical cast members across the street attending to an old man who was laying on a stretcher on the ground. Some other official cast members were standing around kind of blocking the view. Honestly, the man looked dead. It was horrifying. I really thought he wasn't gonna make it. But after working on him a little bit, he finally started to regain consciousness. We figured he had to be alright because the medical workers weren't hurriedly rushing him away, and the two ladies with him didn't seem too worried. But there was a moment in there that I thought he was gone! It was very scary to watch! It was definitely a moment I won't forget!

Food & Wine Festival 2015: Poland

The 2nd booth we visited, and the lucky 13th of the trip, was Poland!

Apparently pierogies are a popular food in Poland because both dishes offered at the booth included pierogies! The two dishes you can try in Poland are kielbasa with potato pierogi and carmalized onions topped with sour cream, and sauerkraut pierogi with pork goulash. We tried the kielbasa and potato pierogi. I ate all the pierogies and Ean ate all the kielbasa! I did try a little taste of the kielbasa and it did have very good flavor for a super greasy meat! Ean definitely enjoyed it. I had this dish a few years ago with my mom, and it is just as good as I remembered it. Ean tasted the potato pierogi and liked it, but definitely loved the kielbasa better. We shared the caramelized onions, and they were delicious, of course. Caramelized onions always are!

Poland had three drink options, one of which looked very good. They had Okocim Brewery Okocim O.K. beer, Donausonne Blaufraenkish Hungarian wine, and a frozen szarlotka. The frozen szarlotka was the tasty looking one! It's apparently a frozen "apple pie" and it was made with zubrowka bison grass vodka. Sounds interesting. It looked like it would be a sweet and tasty drink!

The area that Poland was located in is one of my favorite parts of the World Showcase. It was right between Germany and Italy. The area is never crowded, and it is a wonderful place to sit and look out on the Showcase Lagoon. Plus there is a super cute little "German town" in the area that's always fun to look at.

Food & Wine Festival 2015: China

After spending the morning in Magic Kingdom, we decided to head over to Epcot for some good eats! We also had to get our 3rd day stamp in our Festival Passport so that we could get our free annual passholder wine glass. The glass is super cute! We just love these little passholder perks!

Our first stop of the day on Tuesday, the last day of our trip, was China! It was our 12th stop of our festival journey, and it did not disappoint.

The dish we tried in China was another spicy-ish one. Like I said in a post before, a lot of the dishes had some kind of spice to them! We tried the black pepper shrimp with sichuan noodles. The shrimp was sort of a breaded shrimp (I say sort of because it wasn't like a super thick breading), and it was topped with cilantro, which we all know I hate. Luckily, the cilantro was in very big leaves, so I just picked it off my portion. And honestly though, I did have one bite of noodles with a piece of cilantro that I missed, and the other spices that were on the noodles had such a good flavor that it covered up most of the gross cilantro taste (lol, I'm so mean to cilantro! It isn't THAT bad, but it certainly isn't my fave!).

Some other super interesting dishes you could try in China were Beijing roasted duck in a steamed bun with hoisin sauce, Gaoli beef slider, and chicken pot stickers. Pot stickers are super tasty (without chicken or pork, of course) so I bet Ean would have loved those, but we decided to just try the one dish that I could actually have.

China had some really awesome looking beverages. You could either get a Tsingtao beer, Francis Ford Coppola Sue Yuen riesling, Ritzy Lychee with cognac and vodka, Happy Peach with peach liqueur and dark rum, Kung Fu Punch with vodka and triple sec, and mango jasmine tea with bubbles. I would have definitely tried either the mango jasmine tea or the Kung Fu Punch because both looked so super tasty.

We were able to snag a cocktail table while enjoying our food from China. It wasn't that busy on Tuesday afternoon, which was good. The less crowded it is, the more we can enjoy! Plus it makes it easier to divide the food between both of us when we have a table we can portion it out on.

Boo to You! Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!! In honor of one of my favorite holidays, I've decided to share with you our experience at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Ean and I went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP as I'll refer to it from now on) on Tuesday, October 13, during our anniversary trip. It was our last big hoorah before we left on Wednesday morning. We almost didn't go because we wanted to save up money to go to the Very Merry Christmas Party when we go to Disney in December. We did that last year and loved it. Ean has never done the MNSSHP, so he didn't know what to expect. Since he's done the Christmas party and loved it, we knew we wanted to do that for sure again. I did MNSSHP several times when I was younger with my family. It was always fun, but I knew that I loved the Christmas party more. However, a little over a week before we left, we decided the Halloween party was a must-do.

And I'm so glad we did!

We spent the morning in Magic Kingdom, then hit up Epcot one more time to get in a few more Food & Wine Festival eats, then headed back to our hotel to get ready for the party. I dressed up as a girl Darth Vader, and Ean was Captain America. It was a humid night so my hands were sweating like crazy in my gloves, and Ean was burning up in the Captain America suit, but I'm super glad we dressed up.

We made it to the park at about 6:30, and the party officially started at 7. We went to Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe for dinner and to formulate a plan for the evening. Our plan ended up working out perfectly, and we got to do everything we wanted.

Beautiful view of the Halloween Castle!

Main Street was all orange!

We started out by going trick-or-treating at all their treat locations. I know it sounds super childish that a young married couple in their 20's would dress up and go trick-or-treating, but there were SO MANY kids at heart there just like us. I promise you we weren't the only adults in costume getting free candy.

All the candy locations were marked with a big lighted Mickey pumpkin lantern. There were 15 locations in total. They were all listed in our party guide map, so we knew exactly where to go.

One of the treat locations' lantern.

Since we started with the candy, and most everyone else was doing the same, we had to stand in some long lines at times. They all went really quick, though. The cast members were really efficient in getting everyone through the line and quickly as possible. Since we were in Tomorrowland for dinner, we just started with the 4 Tomorrowland treat locations- Tomorrowland Speedway, Space Mountain, Carousel of Progress, and Stitch's Great Escape. They had the Carousel of Progress and Stitch's Great Escape closed down because the treat line went through the line of both those attractions.

After that we headed to Adventureland- Jungle Cruise (also closed during the party), the Tiki Room (which had two candy locations, one in the queue and one inside the attraction, where they had all the birds "alive" and singing), and at Pirates of the Caribbean.

After Adventureland, we hit up the candy stations at Frontierland, located outside of Splash Mountian and on the deck to Tom Sawyer Island. We then headed over to Liberty Square where they had a station set up on the dock next to the Liberty Square Riverboat.

From Liberty Square we walked over to Fantasyland to get the last few stations, located by Peter Pan's Flight, next to Under the Sea~ Journey of the Little Mermaid, and at Pete's Silly Sideshow (where characters are normally located). There was a Fantasyland treat trail that started in the Storybook Circus section of Fantasyland and connected to Tomorrowland. They had several different stations set up on that trail.

After completely filling our bags, we sat down for a rest in Tomorrowland to inspect the goodies and have a bite or two! You always gotta check out the loot after a successful trick-or-treating event!

While going around collecting treats, we saw so many character meet and greets happening with characters that are not normally out. We saw characters like Jafar and Jack Skellington, as well as classic Disney characters in their Halloween costumes. It would have been awesome to stop for a photo, but the meet and greets just didn't fit into our schedule for the evening. After all, we only had 5 hours to fit everything in!

Ean and I decided that we would head over to Storybook Treats in Fantasyland for a super special candy corn soft serve ice cream cone. It was a good choice, because it was delicious! It was just vanilla ice cream, but it was orange and white stripped. And the cone was filled with candy corn at the bottom! We both agreed that the treat was super tasty, but having the candy corn in the cone wasn't very practical. We both almost lost our ice cream while licking it, because it didn't have a firm base of ice cream in the cone. We were pleased, nonetheless.

Cute German costumes in the background.

Over at the castle stage, they had a new Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular show going on at 8pm, 9:20pm, 10:40pm, and 12am. It was a little after 9:20 when we finished our ice cream, so we headed over to the castle to catch the end of the show. Our plan was to view the 10:40 one, but this ended up working out much better for us. I couldn't really see it because I'm super short and everyone's kids were on their shoulders, but it was fine. I saw enough and I loved it. Hocus Pocus is my favorite Halloween movie!

Pretty decent view of the stage!

We were standing at the side of the castle, to the left if you're looking at it from the front. We were actually in a really good spot. Once the Hocus Pocus Spelltacular show ended, the crowd broke up a bit, and we were able to move closer to the castle so we could see the Celebrate the Magic show at 9:45. Celebrate the Magic is played on normal days as well. It wasn't a special party thing, but we've never seen it all the way through, and at such a good location, so we figured this was the perfect time. Celebrate the Magic is where they transform the Cinderella Castle into a "canvas of color" as they describe it. It's actually quite amazing and beautiful!

After Celebrate the Magic was the Happy Hallowishes firework show at 10. The normal firework show at Disney World is called Wishes, and they so cleverly titled this Happy Hallowishes in honor of that. Cute so cute. Happy Hallowishes was so good! Disney never fails to produce an amazing firework show. They're always incredible. This one was filled with lots of spooky Halloween tunes and darker colored fireworks and projections on the castle, like green, blue, and purple, complete with ghosts and pumpkins.

Once Hallowishes was over, Ean and I decided to run over and do the Haunted Mansion before the parade. Turns out everyone had the same idea. There was a 5 minute wait as we were approaching the attraction, but it quickly jumped to 25 minutes right when we got in line. It didn't take but maybe 10 minutes go get through the line, but right as we got on the ride and were barely even into the attraction, it got stopped. We still don't know why, but we sat there stopped for nearly 20 minutes. I was getting very anxious because I was afraid we'd miss the parade at 11:15! We ended up getting through with just enough time to find a parade spot, and we got a free fastpass that we were unable to use since we were leaving the next day.

We chose a pretty good spot to view the parade, kind of between The Diamond Horseshoe and Liberty Tree Tavern. The parade was coming towards us from the left (like from Frontierland going towards Fantasyland) which was perfect for us. We had a row of people in front of us, but where I was positioned, I could easily view the parade and take pictures while looking to the left because there were a bunch of strollers on the front row that way. There were many tall humans if I was looking to my right!

The parade was super cute. It's nearly the same as what I'd seen before years ago, but that doesn't matter. Disney's parades are always wonderful! I have the "Boo to You" song forever stuck in my head now, though! But that's okay. It's a price I'm willing to pay! I really love Goofy's candy float. It's probably my favorite!

MNSSHP overall was absolutely wonderful. We got in everything we wanted to do, saw everything we wanted to see, and rode the one ride we thought would be super appropriate for the night. Will we do this again next year? Absolutely! Everything was wonderful. They gave out amazing candy (and lots of it), offered lots of good food and sweet treats, it wasn't overwhelmingly crowded, the shows were all amazing- everything was just wonderful!

Room mirror selfie!