Family, travel, mom blog | Theme Park Mom (Leigh Caldwell)

The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin has announced a new event: the Food & Wine Classic. This event will be held during the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival this fall.

On Friday, Oct. 8 and Saturday, Oct. 9, the Swan and Dolphin will offer beverage seminars, live music, and tastings from some of the great restaurants at the resort, including Todd English’s bluezoo, Shula’s Steak House and Kimonos.

The beverage seminars include education on wine blending, rieslings, sake, craft beers, champagne and mixology.

You can attend the Food & Wine Classic as part of a package with a hotel stay, or you can buy a ticket to just come to the festival. Here are your choices:

• Hotel packages come at a special (great!) rate of $169 per night, which includes a beverage seminar for two plus unlimited food and beverage samplings. You can book this for one or two nights – the tasting stations will be different each night of the event.
• Advance purchase event-only tickets are $50, which include one beverage seminar and unlimited samplings for one night of the event.
• You can also buy food and wine samplings a la carte – tickets are $2 each or 25 tickets for $45. Or you can buy a wristband that gets you unlimited samplings for $50 on the day of the event.

For reservations, call 1-888-828-8850 and refer to rate code FWCLAS. For seminar reservations only, please call 407-934-1609.

I am beyond excited about this event and trying to rearrange my October schedule right now so that I can be there both nights. I am a huge fan of the restaurants at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, and I’m sure this event will be top-notch.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is one of my favorite parks for younger children because of all of the animal sightings and the great shows. Here are a couple of rides that the preschool set will enjoy:

Kilimanjaro Safaris: Climb into an off-road vehicle for this safari through 100 acres of savannah in Animal Kingdom’s Africa area. You and your child could see giraffes, elephants, flamingos, rhinos, antelope and maybe even a lion or two. This attraction is best experienced in the morning, when the animals are more active and easily seen.

Triceratop Spin: Little ones will enjoy making their dino go up and down on this circular ride in the DinoLand U.S.A. area of Animal Kingdom. This gentle ride is similar to Dumbo the Flying Elephant in the Magic Kingdom.

Wildlife Express Train: What child doesn’t love a train? This one runs every 5-7 minutes and takes you between the Harambe, Africa area and Rafiki’s Planet Watch. You can get off the train at Rafiki’s Planet Watch to take part in some educational activities and learn about animal conservation.

This post is part of “Under 5 Friday,” a series of posts with my best tips for taking young children to Walt Disney World.

Are you planning your first trip to Walt Disney World? One of the best ways to be sure you are getting the most out of your vacation (and your time and money) is to use a a travel agent who specializes in Disney vacations, like the folks at Enchanted Destinations.

The Macy’s Celebrate Moms sweepstakes winners were treated to a VIP viewing of the Festival of the Lion King show at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom on Thursday morning.

In the photo above, Robert Olivares, who came on the Disney World trip with California winner Martha Olivares, was chosen out of the audience to demonstrate the sound a warthog makes.

The winners from every state and their families were (more…)