My Favorite Time of Year

I know it's a little early to be thinking about Halloween, but I figure you need to start planning early for trips to the World. My favorite time to go to Disney World is the end of September-beginning of October. It's a chance to experience a lot of Disney fun in one quick trip. We've gone to Disney three times during September/October and loved it every time.

It's fun to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, dress up in Halloween costumes and go trick-or-treating around the Magic Kingdom. Bean's favorite part is the Boo to You Parade. The parade begins when the Headless Horseman rides down the parade route on his horse and holding a flaming pumpkin. At the end of the night, cast members will top off your trick or treat bag. The last time I went, they were topping off with Ghiradelli caramel squares... the big ones. We always come home with a huge pile of candy, some of which we give out at Halloween, as there is always too much.

For the adults, try the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, which runs during this same time period. It's a great chance to try a lot of food from a lot of different nations and see what appeals to you. My favorite mini plate is the cheese plate with three types of cheese, brown bread, Irish butter, and chutney from the Ireland stand. I eat it every time I go. I liked it so much that I have started buying Dubliner cheese at home too. My sister's favorite is the lamb slider from New Zealand. There are so many fabulous things to try that it would be impossible to pick just a few. I would recommend going as a group and having each person purchase one food from each nation and then everyone trying a bite. That's what we usually do and you get to try so many more things that way without getting overwhelmed.

You'll probably find something that you may want to eat even after you get back home. Fortunately, there are several websites that have recipes from the Festival. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but they sound fantastic. Several of the countries offer demonstrations of various recipes and styles of cooking popular in their homelands.

Each year is themed, so a few years ago, there were stock pots and characters from Ratatouille everywhere. Another year was Alice in Wonderland. This year's theme is "Delicious Discoveries". They are changing the Goebel store in Germany to a Werther's Candy Shop and the new Via Napoli restaurant in Italy opens in September. There are also a lot of beautiful displays and decorations representing each of the countries. In all, its a fabulous Festival with something for everyone. And that's what make this my favorite time of year to travel to Disney World!