Sunday, October 08, 2017

The Happiest Place on Earth

Every other year for the past six, my family's packed up the truckster and headed to Orlando. My now 16 year-old daughter (as of today, to be exact) dances with a local company, and the whole lot of them head to Disney to do a workshop with Mickey's professional dancers and perform on a stage at Downtown Disney. For all my kvetching in advance of our first trip back in 2011, the entire experience is a blast.

Among the things that makes it so is the timing. I imagine there's never a time when Disney parks are truly less than crowded, but late October/early November is, in my experience, at least tolerable. The weather is moderate and the flights are reasonable. And, much to my surprise (the first time) and giddiness (every subsequent time), the annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival always corresponds with our visit.

Thirty-five different pop up food venues representing countries, regions, and food-based folkways from around the globe ring Epcot's mammoth perimeter. The food is almost universally good, and there's local beer, wine, and booze at just about every stand. You can snack your way around the globe while catching a more than proper buzz if you're of a mind to do so.

And I was amazed to see on my first visit that a lot of people are of that mind. For a place that bills itself as a family attraction, this little corner of Disney turns into a pub crawl-style shitshow during the evening.

Just last week, as a matter of fact, that shitshow featured one of American sports' most prominent ladies. U.S. Women's National Team (and Orlando Pride) star Alex Morgan, her husband, Orlando City FC midfielder Servando Carrasco, and a large group of their teammates and friends made the rounds at the Food and Wine Festival. Judging from reports, they got their money's worth.

Did they get overserved and a little bit belligerent? I mean, it certainly looks that way. Morgan's, "I know the Orlando SWAT team" version of "Do you know who I am?" is a bit of a giveaway. But who amongst us hasn't wandered around drinking copiously on a beautiful day in the company of friends?

Getting escorted out of Epcot is a nice touch, a feat that most (all?) of us can't claim. But we've all been politely asked to leave worse joints. I just need to keep my wits about me next month when I make a return trip.

Meet me at Epcot, anybody?

39 comments:

TR said...

If I were you, I would not keep any Whits about you if you want to avoid being kicked out.

TR said...

Very cool moment to start SNL last night. Cold open was Jason Aldean onstage, singing Petty's I Won't Back Down.

Marls said...

Late to the game, but Washington is a lousy town filled with horrendous people, with the exception of Teej and his clan, Mr. KQ and the Cougars in the Outfield, of course.

The rootability factor is also low. Their insistence on claiming any and all baseball history related to the city is annoying as fuck. They fly a Washington Senators World Series banner, have Sandy Koufax banner on the concourse (for some highly suspect relationship to DC) and are no going to put Ivan Rodriguez and Tim Raines in the ring of honor - presumably because they used to be the Expos not because I-Rod’s 155 games he played for the Gnats.

zman said...

Marls channeled some vintage zman bitterness in that comment. In my experience there are annoying people everywhere. D.C. has mild winters, good infrastructure, free world class museums, plenty of new construction homes and friendly people. All of that is in comparison to Boston and metro NYC.

Marls said...

I learned from the best Z.

Ask Teej about the infrastructure. They have really let the metro go to shit.

That said, fair points in relation to Boston and Metro NYC. Additionally, contrary to Whit’s ratings, the restaurants in the DC area are now top notch - not that we go very often now that we live in the country.

zman said...

To be fair, the pizza/bagel/deli situation is a travesty; the place has no edge; too many people are bland; and they football mascot is atrocious.

Shlara said...

college game day heading to Harrisonburg next weekend

zman said...

Jets/Browns and Jints/Chargers at the same time. All four teams are 2-14 combined.

Whitney said...

Enjoying Bob Corker's comments. Keep 'em coming, Senator.

rob said...

enjoying somewhat less his record of voting with trump 88% of the time

Whitney said...

I'll take what I can get at this point.

Nice theatrical, melodramatic move by the VP leaving the Colts game. Right in line with some of the behaviors of my teenage daughters' circle of friends.

rob said...

it's infuriating. a) the press liaison told the press corps to stay in their vans because 'there might be an early exit', b) pence has a fundraiser in california, so he had to leave early regardless, and c) pence tweeted a picture with him and his wife in colts garb making it look like they were there and excited to be so - the pic was actually taken in 2014. it was a planned, gross misuse of taxpayer money, and poorly executed to boot. the trump administration in microcosm.

zman said...

I don't understand how Trump and Pence choose which nouns to capitalize in their tweets. The flag is "Flag," our country is "Country," health care is "HealthCare," the national anthem is the "National Anthem," first responders are "First Responders," and so on. His twitter feed reads like a post-lobotomy stream-of-consciousness journal by John Adams.

Whitney said...

Hunter S. Thompson used to do that shit randomly. Which makes some sense. "Pass the ether, Mister President?"

Mark said...

Catching up on a number of previous comments.

- Dan was right. It was hot as fucking shit in the Swamp yesterday. One of the hottest games I’ve ever been to.

- Playing “Won’t Back Down” over the PA between the 3rd and 4th quarters last night was
a really cool moment. 90k fans all standing and belting it out.

- As has been discussed before, Food and Wine is the shit. When you going, Rob? Maybe I’ll drive over. Probably not, but maybe.

- When the Alex Morgan news broke last week. Bomani Jones tweeted something to the effect of “Epcot? Really?”. His mentions were immediately filled with everyone informing that Food and Wine is great and people get hammered. To which he then tweeted “So Epcot is crackin?”. This sequence brought me great joy.

Mark said...

Also, Florida Football makes me sad. I’m just glad I’m not a student during this (very long) era of offensive ineptitude.

Danimal said...

Saw the Petty sing along today...hair raising.
Sunday day drunk today. Go Jags. If you are a better, put all your marbles against them next week.

Danimal said...

Carrie Umderwood wears short shorts.

Danimal said...

Better as in, bettor.

Danimal said...

And yes, as Shlara mentioned, gameday in the Burg next wkd....Harrisonburg that is.

rob said...

i made a pork tenderloin with a fig jam reduction for dinner this evening. i thought of phil mickelson.

Mark said...

Rob is fancy.

Marls said...

Los Angeles is a soulless craphole that just happens to be pooulated by really attractive women. Given my current status as a happily married denizen of the east coast, if this is were rocket man wants to sent the first salvo, I might be ok with that. After I leave of course.

All kidding aside, Trump is just trying to bait the NKeans into doing something stupid so he can claim they made the first move and he can respond with nukes to prove how big a dick he has, isn’t he?

zman said...

It wouldn't surprise me if deep down inside DJ Trump wants to fire a nuclear missile just for the experience of doing it.

I'm also not surprised that Deshaun Watson appears to be a good NFL level QB because the Bills passed on him to trade back for a CB.

Danimal said...

soulless craphole fits perfectly marls, and yes that is what trump is doing with zero doubt about it.

Danimal said...

Viewed the first 15/20 min of SNL yesterday a.m. - the Wonder Woman girl - hubba hubba.
And the first skit quite funny...will effort to post it later.

zman said...

If you're in midtown today please do this for me (don't worry it's safe for work).

https://tinyurl.com/yaw8jtrz

Whitney said...

Zman and his prancing horses

Mark said...

The Oline/Hooker/Cocaine story is peak Miami. And might be my favorite sports story of the year. Who the fuck does that AND films it in their office?

Also, I’ll be in Louisville the next three days. Feel free to throw me recommendations.

rob said...

the url for gtb is resolving to gheorghe.blogspot.sg for me. did teejus move us to singapore, or are the russians infecting my computer via asian cutouts?

Dave said...

i really hate the weather in new jersey. and i don't see any way to leave in the near future.

zman said...

You could teach English as a second language in New Zealand.

zman said...

RIP YA Tittle.

Whitney said...

Zman's comment reads like a bully's threat of a purple nurple

TR said...

Nice timing on that comment, Whit.

Dave said...

i assumed ya tittle died years ago. pleasantly surprised that he died recently.

TR said...

Yankees' +/- is +10 in the playoffs when I don't watch and negative a lot when I do watch. Never been happier to have a delayed train home.

rob said...

joel embiid has played 31 nba games. he's wildly talented, but a complete crapshoot in terms of his ability to stay healthy. today he signed a 5 year, $148m guaranteed contract. i'm thinking the nba's teams are generating a decent amount of cash.

TR said...

The Embiid deal seems to be the dumbest deal in the history of ever. As I do every time something insane happens, I went to Twitter to monitor the craziness. It was less intense than I expected.

Zero chance that this contract will work out. It's almost like there's such a bromance b/w Embiid, Ben and Fultz that mgmt wants to keep the good vibes going. There is at least one team doc whose career reputation is on the line for this.