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The much anticipated International Food and Wine Festival begins in Epcot on September 30th, and this year promises to be bigger and better than ever. Some hotly anticipated food marketplaces will be joining the festival this year, along with a fresh new host of classes, tastings and demonstrations.

Highlights for the 2011 Food and Wine Festival include a brand new Hawaiian Marketplace, complete with savory pulled pork sliders and tropical Mai Tais; the tempting new dessert trio offered at the International Gateway booth includes a tart lemon chiffon, sweet white chocolate macadamia mousse and a classic tres leches terrine.

The casual visitor can simply enjoy flitting from booth to booth, and sampling small, savory morsels from around the world, some hot kiosks from previous years include specialties from Greece, Portugal and Japan’s always packed sushi station. The more dedicated foodie can visit several handcrafted and boutique world beer stations, or head to one of several wine tasting booth. The food booths are scattered throughout World Showcase, and a detailed Festival guide is available at the park entrance.

If you are serious about your food, want to learn more about exotic or specialty items or want to take a cooking class, then visit the Festival event center in Future World. Epcot houses the International Food and Wine Festival classes and programs in the usually closed Wonders of Life Pavilion. Even if you are not enrolled in a class, this is one of the only opportunities you’ll have to get a blast from the past — you can still see the now-closed body, nutrition and sports related exhibits in this area, along with the queue area for Body Wars.

Other special events are available as well; if you are interested in sampling some of Disney’s best food, consider attending the Party for the Senses, a culinary extravaganza offered on select nights during the Festival. This is a private, upscale dining event that requires a separate ticket and is ideal for the serious gourmet.

This is always a fun time of the year. The busy season is starting to wind down and now we can breath a little easier and start looking forward to 2012. The first thing we do when preparing for a new year is talk to all of our current hotel partners about rates. There is some good news heading into next and some bad news:

1) The hotels are expecting the travel business to stay relatively hot for the next couple of years, and they do expect hotel rates to rise a little bit. Now when I say a little bit, we are talking about $5 to $6 per night…nothing drastic. That is the good news.

2) Extra fees…almost every Orlando hotel is adding a resort fee and some are adding parking fees. Now, some of these fees are valid as to run a shuttle bus to Disney 3 or 4 times a day is not cheap, and to offer free internet and business services are not free either. However, you do need to watch yourself because many hotels are using the resort fees as a way to make a lot of money. Some hotels have even suggested that they might even go to a resort fee of $15 a night…now that is ridiculous. This is the bad news.

All in all, a Disney World vacation is going to cost about the same in 2012 as it did in 2011, with maybe a slight increase of 1% possibly 2%. Our promise to you is that we are going to fight as hard a we can to offer you the cheapest rates possible on Orlando hotels and Disney World tickets.

Disney recently released their numbers for 2010 and it showed that 2010 was the best year ever for Disney as far as attendance goes. Now many people might find this quite interesting especially with the economy the way it has been the past few years. However, Disney has really done a great job of marketing their product to potential guests, and they have also greatly reduced their prices to make a vacation to Disney much more attractive. If you are looking to come to Disney then there is not a better time than now. Many experts believe that the price of a Disney vacation is going to start to go back up. The only thing keeping the prices low right now is the high gas prices, but once those stabilize Disney will start to inch their prices up to a more profitable level.

Many of the hotels, including the Downtown Disney World hotels, are offering discounts for guests to come this summer. Many of these properties are offering gas cards or gas rebates if you stay with them for 7 nights or longer. These marketing gimmicks are nice, but shop their rates as you might be paying more for the room even with the rebate than you would if you just got the room by itself without the rebate.

Typically, the summer gas prices tend to go up during labor day weekend and then they usually settle back down. Most travel experts are not expecting the fuel prices to have much of an impact on the attendance. Sure, it might be a deterent to a few families but for the most part once a family has decided to go on a vacation they usually will stick to it.

It will be a miracle to visit Disney World and find empty lines at the entrance to rides and other fun spots. Before arriving at Disney World, condition your mind to accept the fact that there will be long queues and as such, prepare for it adequately. Kids are not known to be patient with lines especially on a hot afternoon. So how do you keep your kid occupied while waiting in line at Disney World?

Prior to your arrival at the park, get an electronic game that you are sure will captivate your kid. As the line move slowly, interact with the kid on strategies to win the contest, scores, and every other thing relevant to the game.

While on the line, describe the history and functions of rides you see. For instance, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror has an enthralling lobby, with all sorts of attractions. Buzz Light-year and Star Tours have interesting queues. Dinosaur’s line is like being in one of the best natural history museums. Also, several attractions have “pre-shows” where you’re actively entertained while you wait. The Tiki Room has a nice show. And don’t forget the Haunted Mansion stretching rooms, the Tower of Terror parlor, or the “training” rooms at Test Track, Mission Space, and Dinosaur. All of these and more will surely be worthwhile for you and your kid as the line moves slowly.

Engage in reading with your kid. Children love it when their parents read to them; so come along with picture-filled books with interesting stories and keep the child occupied till it’s your turn to climb the ride.

It is, however, also very important that you know how to avoid the queue in the first place. Arrive early, at least one hour before opening time; use a fast-pass if available; only go to Disney during off-season periods when the crowd is minimal; and try to visit attractions that have fewer crowds in the mornings and come back to the star attractions later in the day.

We are proud to announce that we have just worked out a deal with the Best Western inside Disney World to offer Disney firework view rooms. The Best Western is located just two short blocks from the Downtown Disney World area and a third of this hotel has a great view of EPCOT. As you well know, every night EPCOT has a grand fireworks display which last for 20 to 35 minutes. If you choose to stay in one of these rooms you will have a great view of the fireworks show without having to actually be a the theme parks.

These Disney view rooms sell for $10 over the price of a standard hotel room, which is a really good deal for if you go to the front desk at the hotel they sell these rooms for $20 more per night. If you have small children in your party or if you do not like staying at the parks until 9pm every night these rooms are great. Don’t wait since only a third of the hotel has an EPCOT view these room types sell out extremely fast.