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!