Snapshots Tampa Bay
We’re Candace, Lisa, and David — real estate partners, local experts, and foodies with a deep love for the communities that make Florida’s west coast so unique. Whether you're moving here, considering a visit, or already a local looking for your next favorite spot, we’re your go-to guides. Finding Your Home in Tampa Bay is about more than houses — it’s about building friendships, discovering community, and creating the perfect place to belong.
Snapshots Tampa Bay
From Halloween Parades to Drinking Around the World: Disney's Fall Festivities
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Ready for a taste of Disney magic without leaving the Tampa Bay area? Join Candace and Lisa as they take you on a virtual journey to Walt Disney World's spectacular fall festivities - all just a quick drive away!
We're diving into the not-so-spooky world of Mickey's Halloween Party that kicks off in mid-August (yes, August!) while temperatures still soar above 100 degrees. Learn about this special ticketed event where families can experience the Magic Kingdom transformed with unique character experiences, trick-or-treating, and a Halloween parade unlike any other. As Tampa locals with Disney connections, we share insider tips on planning your visit around these special event nights.
Food lovers won't want to miss our breakdown of EPCOT's International Food and Wine Festival running from late August through mid-November. Discover the strategic approach to "drinking around the world" (never start in Mexico!), sample culinary delights from global cuisine stands, and experience special chef demonstrations. For the fitness enthusiasts, we also cover the Run Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend in late October - though we freely admit we'll only be cheering from the sidelines with our "0.0" stickers proudly displayed!
Whether you're planning a move to Tampa Bay, checking out the area, or a local looking for seasonal fun, these Disney experiences offer magical memories just a short drive away. Subscribe and follow for our upcoming episodes, including our holiday special where we'll share how to experience Disney's Christmas magic without paying park admission!
Have questions about the area or suggestions on a topic, send us a text here!
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Welcome to Snapshots Tampa Bay
Speaker 1Hi everybody and welcome to Snapshots Tampa Bay with Candace and Lisa. Get ready to dive into the exciting and colorful world of the greater Tampa Bay area. Whether you're sorting out a military move, checking out the senior living scene or just on the hunt for the coolest local spots, let's get started and have some fun. Just on the hunt for the coolest local spots.
Speaker 2Let's get started and have some fun.
Speaker 1Well, hello, lisa. Well, hey, welcome to our first official full-on podcast. It is our first official one and it's a rainy day, so this is perfect. We are sitting in this nice place, so I am super excited about what we're going to talk about today, because both you and I are major Disney fans. We love to go there. We have friends who are still working there, so I am super excited about what we're bringing to the table today, and it's a quick short jump from Tampa over to Disney.
Speaker 2So I have a lot of friends over in the Tampa area that have season passes to Disney and go all the time because it's such a short drive.
Speaker 1Well, besides us, because we just like to go over there, Well.
Speaker 2I have friends that can get me in and there's free stuff to do as well. So it's not just the theme park.
Disney's Fall Events Overview
Speaker 1There's other things to do as well, and that's something that we can talk about, too, because last year we went with a couple of our friends and we decided that we wanted to get the spectacle of the Christmas spirit yes, we love Christmas, we love it.
Speaker 1So we decided to jump on buses from Disney Springs because, hey guys, parking there is free and there's little green dots, so you know where the open spaces are. Um, so we hopped on the buses at Disney Springs and we just went over to different hotels, resorts, resorts, and looked at their Christmas decorations.
Speaker 2Yes, and gingerbread houses, gingerbread houses. I wanted to live in the gingerbread house.
Speaker 1Well, with that smell we would be 10 000 pounds because we'd just be eating all of it. But yes, so, so cool. So we'll do more of that. Closer to the holidays, we'll bring another episode of what you can do for free, um, but today is a little bit more information on another holiday.
Speaker 2It's the fall holidays at Disney, including Halloween.
Speaker 1I know, so we're filming this today. It is August 22nd. Yes, it is August 22nd, but guess what? Everybody? The Halloween parade has already started at the Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 2Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party on Select Nights has already begun. It has. That's crazy, yeah, I mean, I'm just sending my kids to school. Yesterday was 105 degrees.
Speaker 1You know, being a Floridian, having the Florida life, is completely different from any other life. And when you get down here, if you do move from a northern state, it's very different, because we basically have summer most of the year long and then we have fall.
Speaker 2Yeah, we have a little bit of fall, but that's until January, that's when other people are drowning in snow.
Speaker 1Drowning in snow, I told my husband, but the official fall yes Period, it's now yes, so we're overdue with our smells and we're overdue with our decorations here and pumpkin spice.
Speaker 2Everyone likes the pumpkin spice coffees, not me. I prefer the caramel flavors.
Speaker 1But that's, all already out.
Speaker 2We're all drinking it even though it's 105 degrees outside. It's not 105. I mean, I'm exaggerating a little bit.
Speaker 1No, you're not, it just feels like it.
Speaker 2No, you're not so yeah. So we have the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. It's a really fun event for people with kids. Your kids get to come dressed up. You have meet and greets with the characters there. There's all kinds of goodies and Halloween stuff going on.
Speaker 1And then there's a parade. There is a parade. I do know that they do close the park down and you have to have an extra ticket to go into that. So for anybody who's thinking about going, make sure that you check the dates, make sure that you check on the Walt Disney World website to make sure it's not one of those days that it's closing down early, unless you want to go there. It is a separate park ticket. It's a separate park ticket but it's only select nights.
Speaker 2It's not every single night. So there are still nights that regular people who don't want to partake in that can still go to the parks, if you're here for vacation.
Speaker 1Correct? I remember my son was three years old and we went with my girlfriend Gina. My son was three years old and we went with my girlfriend Gina and her son was five years old at the time, and my kids dressed up for the whole day and they were so excited because they saw their same characters on the floats and everything. So it's really really a fun time. Great family fun time.
Speaker 2It's one of the things I've never done because my husband and I don't have kids and even though he worked there for 20 years, I couldn't get into that for free. So I'm not going to go if I don't have kids. It looks a little weird to adults.
Speaker 1No, it does not, nikki, I don't know, come on what? No, it does not, nikki, I don't know, come on, what are you talking about? Would it be okay for just adults to guess.
Drinking Around the World at Epcot
Speaker 2Okay, what are you thinking you have to go, because, well, I would normally just go to the International Food and Wine Festival at Epcot.
Speaker 1Well, of course you would, because that's a very adult thing to do. Well, it is very wine and it's going on at the same time. It is time, as the Halloweens at the Magic Kingdom Correct, and that is something I've actually never been to.
Speaker 2I've never been to the Food and Wine Festival, so you've never drank around the world, then?
Speaker 1I didn't say that, just not during the Food and Wine Festival. Okay, so for those of you who do not know what drinking around the world is, let us explain it to you, and you have to be very strategic about it, because you do not want to start in Mexico.
Speaker 2No, you do not want to start in Mexico. Okay.
Speaker 1So drinking around the world is when you go to Epcot Center and they have different areas of Epcot Center but they have the World Pavilion and it's a big circle. And so what you do is when you come in, you go past what everybody calls the golf ball. You go past the golf ball, straight past the fountain, and that's where I used to do my show. It's at that fountain, but then there was a big circle.
Speaker 2Go to the right Start on the right, Next go to the left. You want to start in.
Speaker 1England, and then what you do is you grab a drink that that country that you're going to is well known for. So you have a drink in each country. Now, if you actually make it to Mexico, if you make it to Mexico I've seen people not make it yes, that is drinking around the world, just so everybody knows.
Speaker 2Yes, but there's also food and I highly recommend, as you're drinking around the world, that you also eat some of the food Right. That's not just through the drinking I think we need to do this this year. Yeah, that would be fun. I haven't done it in a long time. But yeah, the International Food and Wine Festival my husband's actually worked it when he worked for Disney for many years and he actually worked in the section where the golf ball is at the Earth. That's what it really is.
Speaker 2They bring in celebrity chefs and do chef things. I think they still do. I'd have to look it up to be sure. They still do, but they do like these little. It's a separate little event that you can schedule to do, so it's fun. I like doing it because it's a separate little event that you can schedule to do, so that's it's fun. I like doing it because it forces you to kind of try things from different countries that you might not normally try.
Speaker 2Because they have little carts set up Instead of having to go into a restaurant. There's little carts set up around the world.
Speaker 1Okay. So is it a different cost to get into the Food and Wine Festival or do you buy the food at the carts and any guest into Epcot?
Run Disney Wine and Dine Marathon
Speaker 2Yes, Any any guests into Epcot can do it. You just have to pay for whatever food and drinks that you want to. Fantastic, it's fun, it's a lot of fun. It's fun to go like with a big group of friends too, and you can take kids too, because kids can eat the food. They just can't, obviously do the alcohol part of it. Well, yeah, but you can eat the food, so so that's fun. If you're athletic and you're coming this time of the year, there's also the Run, disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon.
Speaker 1Ooh, I know a lot of people who do the Disney marathons.
Speaker 2Yes. So yeah, you come, and then there's a 5K, a 10K and a half marathon. It's all weekend long and it's usually late October. The dates vary depending because they do it on the weekend, so it's a whole weekend thing. And if you do the half marathon I think actually if you do any of the events there's also an evening party at Epcot afterwards for anybody who has participated in the in the run.
Speaker 1Okay. So let me ask you this so you have to have participated in the run, yes, okay, well, um, I'm not participating in the run. Yeah, that that's not me either, either. I actually. I used to have a 0.0 sticker on the back of my car. You know how people have 13.1 and 26.2?
Speaker 2I had 0.0 on the back of my car. I think I need that sticker.
Speaker 1That's funny. Look, I'm not running, unless a dog is chasing me. I mean, I already had my knee replaced once, I can't do it again.
Speaker 2I just can't. So if you see me running, you better follow me. You better start running too. Oh yeah, there's a bear or a gator or something.
Speaker 1What if I just give water to people? Can I go?
Speaker 2in then I don't know. I think that's Dizzy Employees doing it. I have to research it.
Speaker 1Okay, we should research that and then come back to it, because, the Lord knows, we're not running the marathon. Hey, if anybody knows any of this information and they want to go ahead and tag us and give us some more information on the marathon, because we are not runners, we don't know.
Speaker 2Nope, not at all. So those are the three big fall events at Disney. It's the International Food and Wine Festival that runs end of August through mid-November. Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party that runs usually mid-August to October 31st. These are select nights for the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. And then the Run Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend, and that's usually late October.
Future Episode Teasers and Closing
Speaker 1So those are the three fall events, and then, as soon as October is over, it is then the holiday time. The holiday time, the Christmas holiday time it goes into Christmas.
Speaker 2Now, the International Food and Wine Festival does run through mid-November, so before Thanksgiving, yeah, but usually it's done before Thanksgiving starts.
Speaker 1That way, you can prepare your body for all the food that you're going to be eating on Thanksgiving. There you go. You can actually just go and start prepping for that. That's a good idea. Stretch the stomach and start prepping for that that's a good idea.
Speaker 2Stretch the stomach. If you've been to any of these events and you have any comments to make, please comment. Oh, yeah, definitely, and then don't forget to subscribe and follow for our next episodes Look.
Speaker 1I love that we get to talk about this. I hope that it helps somebody out, and also I want to come back and definitely do the Christmas one where we go around to all the different trees. We might need to, you know, start our YouTube channel by that time, so we can show you? Oh yeah, so we can have some visual.
Speaker 2Yeah, because they're so pretty. They're so pretty. It's so fun to be out there at Christmas time, so we'll come back An episode at probably beginning of to talk about the holidays.
Speaker 1Yeah, because I tell you what there's a couple places that the holidays are truly, truly magical.
Speaker 2This year, though, grand Floridian is not going to be Grand Floridian They'll be doing the lobby, I know, so we'll have to highlight the other resorts that are just as pretty, okay, well, remember we did find a secret bar at the Polynesian.
Speaker 1Oh, we did, but that might have to be in our speakeasy episode. That might have to be in the speakeasy episode Because now that I'm addicted to speakeasies because of MSC Cruise Line, that might have to be there. Any type of hidden bar like that? Yes, it should be fun. That'll be a fun episode. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We hope you got at least a little bit of information out of us and, um, we hope to see you guys over drinking around the world until next time. Bye, bye. Thanks so much for joining. Snapshots, tampa Bay hit subscribe to catch our latest episodes and let us know in the comments what you want us to explore next. Keep loving the Tampa Bay vibes. See you guys soon.
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