 Hey friends. Today, I am hanging out at Epcot. It is Food and Wine Festival, but we are here to actually explore the festival of the holidays. Disney invited us out to a special closed-off area so that we can get a sneak peek of all of the festivities the festival of holiday is gonna offer this year and we get to just sample some of the food, see some of the entertainment, some of the merchandise. I'm excited. Let's go do this. And like I said, it is still food and wine, but world showcase already started decorating. We have nice ornaments and reeds all over the United Kingdom Pavilion. I like it a lot. And now we are going backstage. How cool is that? Camera's off. But check this place out. Wow, so cool in here. I can see they have tons of different stations that we can go up and get some stuff. I'm excited to see what they have to offer. And there are tons of different media outlets, bloggers, bloggers, podcast, super-enthused. And it's really cool because you can just get around and just mingle with everybody. Say hi, get grouped up into a table. I feel like I'm at a wedding reception. This does feel like a wedding reception. They have a stage right here and also on the other side, a whole bunch of merchandise that we get to check out. So basically we just get to go up and try the actual food that they're going to be offering at the Festival of Holidays. And I'm going to look at this one right here. Oh, what do we got here? Yeah, we have a potato pancake with sour cream. Potato pancake? Oh, that's the sample. Oh. I'm going to do one first for you. Oh my word. So we have on the other side with salmon salad. Oh, wow. That looks fantastic. Oh, none of the sauce. What's that ranch? No sour cream. Oh, no sour cream. No sour cream? You need to try it. Just put it on the side. Oh, put it on the side. Yeah. I like the way you think. Look at that. Thank you. They got some schnitzel also I can tell by Jackie and Sam's plate. So I'm going to go grab myself a schnitzel. A Bavarian holiday schnitzel, huh? Oh, wow. Wow. That looks good. Fantastic. Thank you. Look at that. We got those potato pancakes in the schnitzel, but definitely something to drink. What do we have here? Chocolate peppermint shake, eggnog, eggnog with spiced rum. I'll take the peppermint shake. Yes, yes. Look at that. What's inside of the peppermint shake? So we've got the Twining's Tea peppermint and it's chocolate shake with whipped cream vodka. Oh, the best one right here. Whipped cream vodka. Oh, man, unbelievable. We're pairing up peppermint shakes with potato pancakes and schnitzel. What a combination. I'm diving in for the schnitzel. Watch out. I got to say I love this schnitzel. That's really some good schnitzel. Oh, and I stumbled on to the Hanukkah pasta beer. Look at this. I can't wait to try this. Oh, boy. So the beer is actually a little bit too hoppy for me, but if you're a hops kind of guy or girl or girl, you actually might like this. It's the Hanukkah beer. It's a pretty cool name though, past the beer. So they just made an announcement for everyone to return to their seats because the presentation is about to begin and we got a table right next to the stage. Hopefully we get a good shot or whatever's happening. I mean, we don't know. I just like being in here because of the Christmas music. It actually feels like very special. I don't know why. Well, because it is. Starting us off with a little jingle bang. Please welcome the Mariah K. Cobre as they present the vibrant traditions of Las Posadas. So that wraps things up here. Oh, it is so great to meet you. Oh, the kids are excited. Oh, I am Mark. You're Mark Daniel, 25. Oh, oh, oh, you, you know me. Oh, from the, uh, from the nice of us, I'm sure. Sure. So the presentation actually ended and then all of a sudden Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Belle all came out and their holiday dress up. So we rushed over so that we can get some photos taken because that's awesome. You don't get to see Mickey and Minnie together in Christmas get up very often. Belle is set up over there, but we are actually waiting for Mickey and Minnie, but Minnie had to go inside, but I'm excited to see Mickey. Look at him. He looks fantastic. Mickey is a lot of fun. We're going to hop right over and check out Goofy. Well, hi up, pal. Goof? That was a bad one. I'm not really good at it, but, uh, you know, I'm very, uh, flatter that you like it a little bit though. Oh, yes. Look at this. Is this your tree house or cabin? Cabin, I like it. Oh, very nice, sir. Goofy and Mickey were fantastic. I didn't get to see Minnie because she had to tuck away a little bit, but she came back out eventually, but they're really fun. Overall, I'm having such a great time here. It's so fun and festive. I think now I'm going to actually head over and check out some of the cool merchandise they have for Festival of the Holidays 2019. There seems to be a little bit of a line, but it's worth to get a good look, especially if I could buy some. Let's take a look at some of the merchandise. Look at this Festival of the Holidays, and they actually have Magic Bands, and they're limited to $2,500, a limited edition pin. Also, the nuts for the holiday spirit jersey. The best gift is the world. The best gift is the world. And I like the hoodie. Wow, a lot of cool stuff. Also some exclusive pass holder merchandise too. And here is the pass holder shirt right here. I like it a lot. I like that and the actual spirit jersey. Ooh, we also got a figment ornament. Look at that. I like it. Living with the land, merry and bright nights. That is so awesome. We are getting a holiday overlay for living with the land. And here are all the cookies. These are all for the cookie stroll, right? Yes, this is our second year of the cookie stroll. Last year we sold over 135,000 cookies, so we're trying to beat our record this year. But we have five different cookies, and then once you purchase those, then you get that Mickey Completer cookie at the hands. Oh no, that's the good one. I like them a lot. Now we are actually going to make some of our own cookies. Look at this. You can actually make a gingerbread here. How awesome is that? We're showcasing cookies and making cookies. Nifty. Oh man. What do I come on this side? Yeah. All right, all right. And this is what we got here. Our gingerbread cookies, all we do. All right. Give them a face. Some squiggles. You did better. It's very sharp and it's gorgeous. And then, it's a very special time of year, and people brought on very fancy dates. Yeah. Dress them up with some very important red dots. Gotcha. Very dapper red dots. Dapper red dots. Fan tested. You did such a good job. Look at that. Wow. Do I get to eat him now? You do. If you want the icing to draw, come back in about 15 minutes. If you want to eat it now, you can. You're going to save my cookie for me? I'm going to save your cookie. I'm going to take your name. Thank you. So look at all these actual cookies that everybody made. I do want to point out, there's Michael Kay's cookie right there. Michael, and then Lou's cookie. Everyone's cookies are over here, and I'm just creeping at them. Looks like another stage show happened. Okay. Got to head back up and get my cookie. I need my cookie. Are you taking a cookie? I'm going to get my cookie too. Oh yeah, the hot wine is really good. This is my favorite drink, and it's because it doesn't taste like alcohol. Dev likes the hot wine. It's so good. Oh, all right. Let's find, oh, that's me. That's Taylor. Where's Dev? Oh, here he is. Hey, Dev. Cheers. Cheers. I wasn't a big fan of how my gingerbread turned out, so I ate his head off. Now it looks kind of decent. Look at Taylor's gingerbread. That came out perfect. I don't know. I don't know what happened to my guy. So basically, here is everything that we tried two nights, and you can get it in a little bit of a better look. We had the salmon potato pancake. We had the snitzel right here, the regular potato pancake. The soup, which I absolutely love this almond soup. That's the beer we had. There's the warm red wine. I don't think we had any of that, though. I don't know. What is that? It is a trio of ice wines that will be found in Yukon near Canada. Oh, okay. Found in Yukon. And we've already talked about the cookies, but I did learn that this year that's the only plant-based cookie, which makes it very fancy. Yes. Thank you. Also, look at all the frozen stuff right here. Look at this. Frozen cupcake. You're going to find that in the bakery in Norway. And wow, this is all about Frozen 2. It is Frozen Friday. Check it out. They got new magic bands coming out, Alex and Annie's. Lots of cool, frozen stuff. They also decided to give us a little gift baggie and check out what they put inside this bag. I'm going to set it down right here because it's so beautiful. But we've got some Twinning's tea samplings. Then we've got an actual Alex and Annie bracelet. That's really nifty, along with this great Epcot Starbucks ornament for the tree. I'm going to try to open it up. Look at that. Wow. I like it a lot. Oh, it's so good. So you know how I said it was kind of like a wedding that they have here? You know, at the weddings, you always take the centerpiece home with you. So we're just going to put it in the purse. Put it in the purse. Put it in the purse. The crazy thing is everybody waited in line earlier to get a look at all the merchandise that they have coming out. And now there are no lines. I mean, it's officially ended in here. But wow, you can just walk up and take photos now. Well, that was absolutely amazing. I had such a good time in there. Now we're going to head over to the land because we're going to check out the land holiday overlay. That is so cool that we're going to get a sneak peek at that. And then we're doing an Epcot Forever Dessert Party. This is turning out to be a really nifty day at Disney. And here we are for living with the land. A little bit of a holiday layover. I'm very excited. It's not quite time yet, but I'd rather be here early than late. All right, we are getting on living with the land. How will we meet tomorrow's growing needs for food production yet still respect the needs of the land? Some of the answers are being discovered just ahead. To help us maintain these carefully controlled ecosystems and for your safety, please remain seated in your mode at all times. Welcome to our living laboratory where scientists from Epcot and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are exploring innovative ways to produce bountiful harvests now and into the future. The tropics are home to the greatest diversity of plants on the planet. A thousand edible plant species in the world, most of us are only familiar with the handful that make up our everyday diet. The common grains growing here, wheat, maize, sorghum, and millet plus rice account for nearly two-thirds of our global food consumption. Learning how to increase yields of these stables is an important goal of research around the world. These plants are definitely on their way up. Innovative growing techniques like these increase yields while more efficiently using resources like water, fertilizer, and pesticides. Another innovation at work here is our integrated pest management program by populating our greenhouses with beneficial insects that prey on harm use over 27,000 heads of lettuce a year in this one. The future of agriculture may include innovative ideas like this vertical growing system. Plants grown in this way use a fraction of the space required by traditional production. The aquaponics system on your left combines hydroponics with iron for the fish. It's another great way to produce more while using less. In our lab, Epcot scientists are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a number of innovative projects. The goal of these efforts is to produce higher yielding and better quality plants. We enjoyed the living with the land holiday overlay. I think they're calling it merry and bright. It was really good. Lots of multi-color lights. They had some snowman in there. I wish there was like a hint of Christmas music, but I mean I'll take whatever you can get, especially that we're seeing more holiday layovers at popular attractions. I think that's fun. I mean the Christmas version of Space Mountain I haven't done it yet, but I cannot wait. And then of course like the Halloween overlays, there's so much potential there Disney. You can do it. Night monorail. Night monorail. Now it's time that we head on over to our Epcot Forever dessert party. Disney actually added that onto it as well. They are really doing a lot. I am so happy I'm actually here and I'm glad they invited me out because I get to experience things I've never done. I've never done a dessert party for Epcot Forever. So it'll be my first time and I guess it'll be my first time showing you. So the actual dessert party is over here in the Fastpass area and I can see they have so much stuff out here. I am so excited. I have a couple minutes to wait, but that's okay. I'll just wait here like a good boy. Look at this. A joyful, a celebration of the season. I like how they have it all decked out over here. We got coffees and teas and then some specialty drinks here. Oh, what is this? Fruit punch. Fruit punch. Thank you. I'm missing. Thank you. So I actually really love the key lime tart but it's this almond cookie and then I add a little amarela anglaise and it actually makes it pretty delicious. I'm going to try doing this one-handed. You are a champion. Look at that. Thank you so much. Oh, it's starting. Lights. So much Disney friend. But I'm excited for Festival of the Holland Renditions and Santa Claus and the different countries. There's a lot to offer. Love the way she lives. We'll see you next time.