Walt Disney World...for Food & Wine lovers?

No, you're not seeing things--for a wonderful food and wine experience, look no further than Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida!

From late September through early November every year, Walt Disney World holds their annual Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. On top of the 11 countries normally housed in the World Showcase, Disney brings in food and wine from up to a dozen other countries, as well as highlighting one US state--for instance, when I experienced the Food and Wine Festival in 2004, they highlighted Florida, and this year, it was Oklahoma.

The great thing about the Food and Wine Festival is that you can purchase samples of the different wines to drink, or samples of the food to eat. The wines run from $3-$8 a glass, depending on the type, and the food samples are all snack-sized portions that cost $3-8, depending on what you are ordering. There isn't just wine, either--this year they highlighted some great beers (my favorites were a Turkish beer that I do not recall the name of and Brahma, a Brazilian beer) as well as some mixed drinks (such as frozen Irish coffees that were to die for!). The wines I have tried over the years have ranged from sweet Australian and German Reislings to American Rose champagne to Norwegian Cherry Wine, Polish Honey Wine, Chinese Plum Wine, and Floridian Mango Wine. The food highlights this year for me were the Canadian Cheese, Bacon, & Potato soup and the seared buffalo steak strips over creamed onions at the Oklahoma booth.

If you are on the Disney Dining Plan, the food samples at the Food and Wine Festival count as snacks on the Plan, and what a great way to use your snack vouchers!

At the end of the day, you can head over the Food and Wine Center to purchase special Food & Wine Festival glasses, pins, t-shirts, and other memorabilia--or even bottles of the wines that you sampled that day! The wine bottle prices are actually very reasonable for Disney.

I would also like to mention that unless you are going over a Fall Break weekend in October, the fall season is a great time to go to Disney. The crowds are not as large as they are over major holidays and in the summer, and the weather tends to average 85-90 degrees and mostly sunny--much preferable to the 95-100+ degrees of the summer or the unpredictable cold snaps of December through February!

However, if you cannot make it to the Food & Wine Festival, there are plenty of other ways to enjoy food and wine at Disney. Having worked in the restaurant industry for some years, and having traveled extensively, in my opinion Walt Disney World still offers some of the best culinary experiences out there. For example, there are two amazing steakhouses on property--Shula's at the Dolphin Hotel and Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Although both a bit pricey, you will likely never have a better steak than the Shula's filet or the Jiko filet with macaroni & cheese and red wine sauce. Shula's souffle dessert is world-famous and you will rarely find a better selection of different appetizers than what Jiko offers.

For those on a lighter budget, there are plenty of other restaurants to choose from at Walt Disney World that still offer amazing food. One of my favorites is the 'Ohana dinner at the Polynesian Resort, where the food is plentiful and served family style and you will never have a better light salad, sweet and sour shrimp, or bread pudding! For another great experience, try the Coral Reef restaurant at Epcot--if you have a small party (4 or less) you may get lucky and sit right next to the aquarium window. My husband and I got to do so on our recent trip and not only was the food amazing, but it was so much fun watching the sharks, stingrays, giant sea turtles and other fish swim by while we ate! You can also experience food from around the world at the restaurants of the World Showcase--namely the San Angel Inn in Mexico, the Biergarten restaurant in Germany, Nine Dragons in China, Teppanyaki Dining Room in Japan, and Le Cellier in Canada.

Most of Disney's restaurants offer differing and wide wine selections, and for the more adventurous, the bars of the World Showcase offer a wide array of drinks to choose from--amazing Margaritas in Mexico, great beer choices in Germany, champagne in France, tangerine daquiries in Morocco, and sake in Japan, just to name a few.

So the next time you think that Disney is only for families with children, or that you won't be able to find any great culinary experiences there, think again!

Bushmills 8

N. Ireland Golf Trip

Just fresh back from a week in Northern Ireland, playing some of the greatest golf courses on the planet. It all started back in Feb of this year, after a round w/a few friends and a cocktail or three. We had all heard many great things about the area, and so being in the travel business, I was put to task of planning the trip.

After a few days of tweaking the itinerary based on available t-times, and days that Gringo’s can play, we had a firmed up trip.

Our trip began w/a flight into Belfast, on a non-stop flight from Newark. There were eight of us, and we were met by our driver and guide Nigel. A couple of words of advice; I’ve done many many golf trips to Scotland and Ireland. Two foursomes is ideal, it’s manageable and mobile. Of course having the right group of guys makes a difference, but once you get over eight, you start having too many people to make happy. Second word of advice, hire a driver and van or bus. The driver actually acts as more than your driver, he handles dinner reservations, recommendations and helps load and unload luggage. I like to think of them as “enablers”; forget your deodorant and don’t want to waste precious range time, no worries your enabler will handle it whilst you are chasing your orb around the links. Granted it costs an extra couple of hundred of bucks for the service, but it makes for a brain-free trip.

Once we got our luggage loaded in our Mercedes Van, we headed to our first course. As luck would have it, it was an afternoon t-time which left us just enough time for a swing by the Bushmill’s plant for a tour and tasting. A couple of hours later, and a couple of drams fuller we were off to our first course Port Stewart.



http://www.portstewartgc.co.uk/
Port Stewart is set in a beautiful little town right on the north coast of Ireland. It was unanimous in our group that the Strand course is the most scenic first nine holes of golf any of us had ever played. A few more things about golf in Ireland, you don’t get a cart (buggy) unless you have a medical certificate. Pull carts (trolley’s) are available and only cost $6-8 to rent. You can request caddies in advance, but don’t beat your farm that they will be there. It’s a request @ best. Most of the caddies in N. Ireland are actually members of the club. Don’t expect white gloved service, they don’t offer to clean your ball or wipe your clubs like American caddies. They do hump your bag, help with yardages, and generally add a lot of charm to the experience. But most importantly, they help you look for your ball. The rough at all the courses we played could only be described as severe. The caddy fees range but a good average is 25 pounds sterling (currently $54) plus tip. Speaking of tip’s, here is one for you, ask the pro before teeing off what the caddie fee is, and what is the range of tips. We had a few in our group who asked the caddies at the end of rounds how much they should pay and astonishingly enough it was about double what the pro said. No wonder they love American’s so.

We stayed in Derry the first two nights @ the City Hotel. Certainly adequate enough, but on the lower end of 4 star hotels I’ve stayed. The location in Derry is great though. You are in walking distance to lot’s of resteraunts and plenty of bars. Our plan included a full –Irish breakfast which are big meal. The City Hotel had an extra good breakfast buffet. Our next day was a trip to Ballyliffen. Ballyliffen is a great spot, with two great golf courses, the Old and the Glashedy. We were scheduled to play @ the Glashedy course, but as luck would have it, we ended up playing the Old Course which our caddies said was slightly better than the other. This is another outstanding links course that is set on the Northern most tip of Ireland. The views are tremendous and the course is great. I’m not sure why this one isn’t ranked on the top 100 world courses. Our next course is currently ranked 12th in the world according to Golf.com http://www.golf.com/golf/courses_travel/topcourses/top_100_world/2007/0,29923,orig-10,00.html and it is Royal Port Rush.


RPR is a very proper club, with a great facility. This was probably the most elaborate clubhouse of all the courses we played. Port Rush is a spectacular area, with lot’s of great vistas. They say you can see Scotland on a clear day from the club. This is a very difficult golf course, the rough is very penal, it’s a must to have a caddie here. There are several blind shots, that could ruin your day if you don’t know where to hit it.

From here we drove to just outside of Belfast and stayed at the Culloden estate. This is great property; it’s an old manor house converted into a four-star property. Unfortunately, we arrived late and left the next morning and didn’t get a great deal of time to enjoy the facility. Our next morning took us another 80 minutes down the road to the jewel of Ireland, Royal County Down.

Our timing couldn’t have been better, the Walker cup had just concluded from being played there five days prior, and their Club Championship was held just the day before. Needless to say the course was in great “nick”, and we Americans had a lot to be proud of since our boys had just won.


The weather was refreshing cool, and the winds were gusting up to 50 miles and hour. Oh, did I mention the greens were “stimping” at 14 before the winds picked up. The course was brutal, the fairways were intentional very firm and running fast. All but the most accurate, controlled tee-shot would wind up finding 12-18 inch rough. The greens were very firm on top of being lightning fast. I actually had a ball blow off the putting surface and back down a short-sided swell, after it had come to rest for a couple of minutes. In most cases you would need to play a wedge shot ten yards short of the green to hold it. Even though the conditions were extreme (no one came close to breaking 90 in our group), it is a spectacular course in a breathtaking setting. I’ve had the good fortune to play many of the top courses around the globe and I can’t think of one any more special.

We left shortly after our round (2 Guininess) for another 1.5 hour bus ride down to Portmarnock, which is just outside of Dublin. The Portmarnock hotel is on the grounds of the original Jameson (of whisky fame) home. It’s a good property, with adequate but limited facilities. It was definitely a step down from the Culloden. We played Portmarnock Golf Links the following day which is another top rated course. One bit of warning, there are two courses with very similar names. I would recommend playing both, but if you only have time for one make sure you play Portmarnock Golf Links.

All in all probably the best golf trip I’ve taken, and a must for any avid golf traveler.

Western Caribbean - Carnival Cruise

Had the best time on this cruise! Cayman Islands, Cozumel Mx, Belize, and Roatan Honduras. Roatan was the most fun. Carnival is truly the funship, the staff is great but remember to pay the extra $40 per person for unlimited softdrinks while aboard, kinda got juiced out, other than that it was great.

The ports of call and shore excursions were alot of fun, there is never a shortage of fun things to do on any of these stops or while on the ship.

The staff at Putnam Travel were exceptional from start to finish especially Glena Arve. Glenda went above and beyond our expectations for our trip and added the personal touch that exemplifies quality customer care. I will definately use Putnam again thanks to Glenda.

Our Magical Disney Cruise

Wow - where do I begin? We had promised our kids a cruise a couple of years ago when my husband and I took a anniversary cruise by ourselves. We decided back in January that this would be the year. We decided on the five day four night cruise. With an 11 and 6 year old we weren't sure how tummies might handle the waves, so we opted for a shorter than longer cruise this time around. As our trip approached we all began to get very excited. We could hardly wait til we boarded the Disney Wonder. As we boarded they announced our family name and home state. It was very clear from that moment that we were beginning a "Magical " vacation. The food, staff and ship were excellent.

Our trip to Castaway Cay was somewhat disrupted by rain. On the island we had planned to snorkle in the lagoon in search of the hidden Mickey. We didn't let a little rain stop the Richardson's. We had so much fun that day. The kids both participated in the Crab Race - which was so cute. After lunch we all swam out to the floating playground and let the kids play for a while. Soon it was time to say good bye to Castaway Cay and enjoy our "Pirates in the Caribbean" theme dinner. But before we even let the island the Captain came over the intercom and apoligized for the weather and informed us that we would be leaving shortly but we be turning aroung the next day and doing it all over again. What an awesome surprise! Apparently this is called Disney Double Dipping. This does not happen very often but it happened during our cruise. We woke up on Wednesday morning back at Castaway Cay. We had beautiful weather and even more fun the second time around!

Disney sets the bar very high. The shows were over the top. The last show was beyond words. It actually snowed in the Wal Disney Theatre. Real snow - not paper! Where else could you find snow in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? I would highly recommend a Disney Cruise to anyone with children or grandchildren. It is way better than just going to Disney World. I just keep telling everyone that it was "Magical". You just have to experience it to understand. We're going for the 7 day next time around and we can't wait!