Lots of Pics, Plenty of Rum, A Few Tears... and a Bomb Scare To Boot! [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

trickiwoo

09-26-2009, 12:30 AM

We woke up at 4 am on Sunday. I was so excited to be going to WDW that I actually woke up before the alarm went off!

We had Cinnabon for breakfast.

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And because it was so early, I had an energy drink to get me going.

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We took Rosie out, gave her a treat, gathered our bags and got in my car! We drove to my parents' house and my dad gave us a ride to the airport. We didn't check any luggage, so everything we packed fit in our carry-ons. We were at the airport so early that there were no lines at all for security. Then we got to ride on those neat moving sidewalks as we went to our gate.

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We waited for a bit at the gate, then they started boarding the plane. As we were boarding the plane, there were TSA agents there doing random searches. It was pretty odd. Especially since all they did was open up the bag and look on top.

So we got on the plane and found our seats with no trouble. I had a window seat which gave me a very pretty sunrise view as we waited for everyone to board.

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Me and The Boyfriend on the plane:

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He looks really tired!

It wasn't long before we were in the air! The flight was around 1 hour long.

The view:

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I listened to my iPod a little bit. And I played my Nintendo DS a little. But really the flight was so short I didn't need a lot of entertainment! The Boyfriend played his PSP.

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The flight attendants came around with the snack cart. I got a Sprite and a Biscoff cookie. The Boyfriend got pretzels. They looked really good so I decided to get them on our next flight. They showed an episode of 30 Rock on the plane. I didn't really watch it. I mostly looked out the window. Pretty soon we landed in Atlanta!

We got off the plane and easily found our way to the gate for our connecting flight. We waited for a bit, then they started boarding the plane. The runway was pretty backed up, so we had to wait awhile before we could take off. The Boyfriend fell asleep. Then finally we were in the air again!

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They showed the exact same episode of 30 Rock that we'd just seen on the previous flight! When the snack cart started coming around, I asked The Boyfriend how the pretzels were. He said they were good. So that's what I asked for. It wasn't until after I opened my bag of pretzels that The Boyfriend mentioned they were stale. Why he didn't tell me this when I asked how they were, I have no idea! But yes, they were stale. But I still enjoyed them. This flight was also about an hour long.

I'd never been to Florida, so I had my face pressed up to the window eager to get my first glimpse of Florida! It was pretty neat! Every house had a pool!

It wasn't long before we landed in Orlando!!!!

TXAng

09-26-2009, 01:08 AM

Ok, I'm in! DH and I are DL vets, took our very first trip to WDW at the same time as you, and stayed at ASMu as well!

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip. :)

trickiwoo

09-26-2009, 01:11 PM

Ok, I'm in! DH and I are DL vets, took our very first trip to WDW at the same time as you, and stayed at ASMu as well!

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip. :)

Welcome aboard!!! Ah, that is very awesome! What section of ASMu were you in?

What did you think of WDW? The Boyfriend said his goal for the trip was to get to me to like WDW more than DL! I agreed that as a whole I like WDW more than DL, but I still like DisneyLand Park more than Magic Kingdom!

Candy30

09-26-2009, 01:21 PM

HI! We were there at the same time! I arrived on 9/16. We stayed at Pop Century. I am subbing to your trip report. Mine is in my signature. And your not a Wuss you are just thrill ride-challenged. That is what my daughter said when we were at Disney.:rotfl2: She came around to the thrill side later. I can't wait to hear more....:thumbsup2

Sleepingbooty

09-26-2009, 01:27 PM

I'm in! Love first timer trip reports!

TXAng

09-27-2009, 12:40 PM

Welcome aboard!!! Ah, that is very awesome! What section of ASMu were you in?

What did you think of WDW? The Boyfriend said his goal for the trip was to get to me to like WDW more than DL! I agreed that as a whole I like WDW more than DL, but I still like DisneyLand Park more than Magic Kingdom!

We were in the Rock Inn. Where were you?

We felt the same way - there's so much to do at WDW, and we loved it, but Magic Kingdom just doesn't feel the same as DL. Not that we didn't enjoy it, because we did, but it didn't feel like "home" the way DL does. I was mortified that I needed to use a map to find things! :rotfl:

trickiwoo

09-27-2009, 07:33 PM

trickiwoo

09-27-2009, 07:36 PM

We were in the Rock Inn. Where were you?

We were in Country Fair!

We felt the same way - there's so much to do at WDW, and we loved it, but Magic Kingdom just doesn't feel the same as DL. Not that we didn't enjoy it, because we did, but it didn't feel like "home" the way DL does. I was mortified that I needed to use a map to find things! :rotfl:

That is exactly how I felt!

deslynnpatterson

09-27-2009, 08:49 PM

i jut found your TR!! Wow i cannot believe our trips are already over-- so sad:( I have to start my TR too-- just kinda in the disney depression mode:( so sad! I am enjoying your TR so far:) and cannot wait to read more-- i think i will get motivated to start mine this week LOL!! lets hope:) Wow thats awesome that you had such a short flight:) ours was short too-- only 2 hours 15 mins so not to bad:)

trickiwoo

09-27-2009, 09:22 PM

When the plane landed, I noticed the lady in the seat next to us pulled out a DME packet! I pointed this out to The Boyfriend and said, "She's going to Disney World too!"

As soon as people started getting off the plane, I heard a little child's voice from somewhere behind me ask, "Are we at Mickey Mouse now?" and then a mother explaining that no, we were just at the airport and that we had to get on a bus to go see Mickey Mouse. I thought that was adorable!

We got our bags and got off the airplane. Then we got on the tram! I was pretty excited about that! While we were on the tram, it started pouring rain! It was really coming down hard!

After we got off the tram, we made our way to the DME! It was a fair bit of walking, and my bag was pretty heavy! So by the time we got to the DME check-in I was pretty tired and sore!

We got all checked in very quickly, but then had to wait in a pretty long line for the bus. I think it was around 30-45 min before our bus came, but it felt like ages!

The line we were in was for the bus going to all three All-Stars. The lady that was in the line in front of us was the lady that sat next to us on the airplane! And while we were in line, the rain completely stopped! The Boyfriend explained that was typical Florida weather.

Finally our bus came! We got one of the cruise line buses and not the DME buses. I liked the circle shaped windows, but I didn't like the blue seats as much as the red ones.

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So I was pretty exhausted from being up since 4 am and from all the traveling and lugging around heavy bags. The Boyfriend commented that I just didn't look that excited about going to Disney World! I guess I just wasn't feeling the magic. I did smile for the camera though:

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I was liking the video they were showing on the bus, but I really wanted to look out the window and see Florida! There were so many birds! It was really cool! Pretty soon we caught a glimpse of this sign:

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I wasn't able to get that great of a picture of the sign, but it was pretty exciting to see it none the less. Once we were in WDW, I started to feel less tired and more excited!

Pretty soon the bus stopped at All-Star Sports and a bunch of people got off the bus. I got a few glimpses of the hotel. It was pretty neat seeing it in real life since I'd seen so many pictures before the trip!

The next stop was All-Star Music! We got off the bus to go check-in! And the lady that sat next to us on the plane got off too! She was staying in our hotel! I thought that was pretty neat!

Coming up next... hotel check-in!

charming23

09-27-2009, 09:27 PM

Welcome Back. Hope your trip was wonderful. I can't believe they are over already. I get back to the "real world" tomorrow and it is so hard to think that Disney was just a short week ago. Can not wait to hear more.

trickiwoo

09-27-2009, 09:34 PM

Candy30

09-28-2009, 11:21 AM

trickiwoo

09-28-2009, 03:45 PM

I am sorry that you had a bit of a bum experience with ME. It must have been our timing. We were up at 4:00AM too. :headache: I am not a morning person. We arrived 20 minutes early and hoofed it to the ME check in. We got right on. I did notice a line at the All Stars. Keep it coming.

Even if I wasn't fully feeling the magic on the DME, I definitely appreciated having the transportation!!!! I hate to drive! So for me, a vacation from driving is the best kind of vacation there is!

trickiwoo

09-28-2009, 04:44 PM

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We arrived at ASMu and went in the lobby to check-in. Somehow I completely missed the whole Disney on-line check-in during all of my planning! I booked my hotel room online through AAA.com, so I'm not even sure if I was eligible to use the Disney on-line check-in. Does anyone know? I'll be sure to look into it when I plan my next trip!

The check-in line wasn't very long and soon we were talking to a Cast Member behind the desk! She checked us in and gave us a neat little folder filled with maps and info and stuff!

Now, we didn't make any requests for where we wanted to stay because we really didn't care that much and would be happy with any room with any view in any building. But The Boyfriend and I both agreed that the Country Fair section was our least favorite. The Boyfriend doesn't like Country music at all, plus he really didn't like the cowboy boots! I don't hate Country music or anything like that, but I do like Calypso, Jazz, Rock, and Broadway music more than Country music, so because of that I'd rather stay in one of the other buildings. But of course, we were assigned to the Country Fair section! Go figure.

So we gathered our heavy bags and dragged them all the way to the other side of the hotel complex to the Country Fair buildings. It felt like quite a hike! I didn't really take in any of the hotel because I just wanted to get to my room and put my bag down! I was so tired of carrying it around!

I admit I was a tiny bit disappointed when she told us we were in the Country Fair section, but as soon as I saw the building for the first time all the disappointment disappeared! And excitement starting setting in big time! I'd looked at so many pictures of the hotel online, but really seeing it for the first time was so much more amazing than the photos!

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And those cowboy boots were so much bigger in real life than they looked in pictures!!

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And The Boyfriend's initials are CF, so he liked that the building said "CF" all over it!

Our room was on the 2nd floor in building 5, and we found it pretty easily. We stepped in the room and dropped our bags on the floor. We were both so excited when we got in the room! The first thing we both did was grab our cameras and start snapping away!

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The beds! I took the one without the towels because it was further away from the door, and I felt safer having the man closest to the door!

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Towel Mickey!!!

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Table and chairs

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The room reflected in the mirror

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The bathroom with the very loud power flush toilet! (The Boyfriend said the noise was like announcing "Somebody pooped!" whenever we heard one of the neighboring toilets flush!)

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Artwork

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Light fixtures (Yes, I was very thorough with my picture taking!)

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And of course, the view from our room

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It's official! We're on vacation now! What do we do first?

Disney_Aggie

09-28-2009, 05:05 PM

trickiwoo

09-28-2009, 05:15 PM

subbin. Being from Texas, I could totally vibe with CF:charac2:.

I have an August 2010 trip planned for ASMu.....how far is the walk from CF to the Food Court/bus stop area. Some say 10 min, I just walked a mile in 13 min so it's scaring me a bit :tiptoe:.

Thx!

It's really not that far at all! I was really worried about the walk too, but it wasn't bad at all! I want to say it's about a 5 minute walk. Probably even less. Google maps says it's a 6 minute walk and it's about 1/3 of a mile.

trickiwoo

09-29-2009, 03:41 PM

Well, considering now it was well after 1 pm and neither of us had eaten since 4 am that morning, our first priority was lunch! We headed over to the Intermission Food Court.

First we picked out our refillable mugs! We decided to get different colored lids/handles so we could tell our mugs apart. I chose black and The Boyfriend chose red. The mugs were actually a lot smaller in person than they looked in pictures I'd seen. Which was a good thing, since I don't like cups that are too big!

The Boyfriend got a bacon cheeseburger.

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He said it was not very good at all. At the end of the trip, he said it was the worst thing he'd eaten on the whole trip. But at the time he was so hungry, he really didn't care.

I had the chicken alfredo pasta.

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It was so good! The chicken was perfect. Probably the best quick service chicken I've ever had. The sauce was yummy. The pasta was just the right texture.

I was starting to get a little sleepy, so I filled my mug up with Vault and it woke me right up! I also tried some of the hot chocolate which was very yummy!

Then we headed back to our hotel room to drop off our mugs and figure out what we wanted to do next. The walk to our room felt much shorter when we weren't carrying around heavy luggage bags!

When we got to the room, The Boyfriend took a nap and I left to go wander around the hotel and check everything out!

The hotel was so cool!!! I had so much fun walking around taking pictures of everything.

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Then I went and checked out the gift shop!!! It was pretty big and had so much cool stuff!!! Then I went and checked out the arcade! The arcade was pretty big too! It had Mario Kart which made me happy! And it had Guitar Hero which I thought was pretty cool! We never did end up having any time to play games at the arcade during the trip, but it did have a lot of really cool stuff! If only we'd had more time to spend at WDW...

Then I went around taking pictures of the flowers at the hotel.

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There were lizards everywhere!!! I thought that was so cool!

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I saw a dead bug on the ground that was HUGE!!!! Haha, no, I didn't get a picture since that'd be pretty gross. But I was very impressed with the size!

I did find a cute little squirrel in a tree though

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At that point I was SO excited!!! I was about to burst, and I just had to share my excitement with someone! So I called my mom! She was very surprised to hear from me so early on in my trip! But I told her about how awesome the hotel was and about how Florida was making my hair super frizzy. She told me that she'd gone shopping at the grocery store where The Boyfriend's mom works and had seen her there working. They'd stopped and talked, and The Boyfriend's mom said she'd checked on Rosie before work that morning and taken her out and said that she was doing fine.

After getting off the phone with my mom, I went back to the hotel. I expected to find The Boyfriend still asleep, but he was sitting in bed watching tv. (He was watching that program they have about the Disney Must-Do's.) I told him Rosie was good and he was really confused. He asked, "You talked to my mom?" and I explained, "No, I called my mom and she saw your mom at work earlier."

Since he was up and awake and good to go, we decided to head over to Downtown Disney!

coltink

09-29-2009, 04:18 PM

subbin'. Looking forward to the rest of your trip. I have 103 days left to go!

heaven2dc

09-29-2009, 04:20 PM

trickiwoo

09-29-2009, 05:04 PM

subbin'. Looking forward to the rest of your trip. I have 103 days left to go!

Oh, I hope those days go by quickly for you!!!!

trickiwoo

09-29-2009, 05:08 PM

Great pics and TR so far! :thumbsup2 Don't you just love that feeling you get when you realize you are in WDW!!

I would have to agree with you that the "cowboy" section wouldn't be my favorite (did you ask if they could put you in another section before you got to the room? I didn't remember if you did.) But it still looks pretty cool!

Haha, I do love that feeling! I kept squealing with excitement that I was actually there!

I didn't ask for another section. We just took what they gave us! It didn't matter to me too much where I was... I was just happy to be at Disney! Plus I just wanted to get to my room as soon as possible!

trickiwoo

09-29-2009, 09:53 PM

Before leaving for Downtown Disney, we went to the hotel concierge so that The Boyfriend could get his theme park tickets. He bought his online to pick up at will call. I already had my ticket, so I was set! We were able to get his tickets no problem. And the concierge called me a princess! We also grabbed a Downtown Disney map while we were there!

Then we got on the bus to go to Downtown Disney! This was my first time being on one of the Disney transportation buses! It was pretty exciting! I mostly looked out the window taking in all the sights of WDW! I took a picture of us on the bus.

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It wasn't long before we were in Downtown Disney!! One of the first things we saw was the play fountain on the ground where the water squirts up out of the ground. The Boyfriend told me that when he was a kid he got hit in the eye with one of the jets from that fountain!

Once we got there, we immediately started shopping!!!!

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I bought some souvenirs to bring back to my family. I bought my mom a Pirates of the Caribbean coffee mug since that's been her favorite ride since as long as she's been going to Disneyland (and she loves the movies!) and she mentioned that she doesn't have a coffee mug that's big enough... and this mug was really big! I bought my grandma some Disney "Theme Perks" coffees because she loves her coffee! And I bought my brother a Pirates of the Caribbean shot glass since I had no idea what to get him... so I figured he'd like a shot glass since he's 21 and I knew he liked Pirates of the Caribbean.

I also bought a couple souvenirs for myself!! I got some pins and an antenna topper! I really wanted to get some Mickey Mouse earrings, but I couldn't find ones I liked anywhere!

I saw these and thought they were way too adorable

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It was raining on and off the whole time we there. But somehow we managed to always be inside a store shopping when the rain would let loose. Then when we'd be done shopping the store the rain would stop! So we managed to stay dry the whole day! It was pretty neat!

At one point, we were walking around outside when The Boyfriend told me to look up at the sky! I did, and I saw a rainbow!

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I shouted, "It's Disney Magic!" pretty loudly! I'm sure everyone around me thought I was crazy! But I was very excited to see a rainbow on my first day at WDW!

We took some pictures outside the Lego store

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I took a picture of the Lego German Shepherd with my cell phone and texted it to my mom, since she has a German Shepherd. The Boyfriend took a picture of me doing this for some reason...

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We took some more pictures

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By then we were pretty hungry! We decided we were going to have dinner at the Big River Grille and Brewing Works and Brewing Works since we're both microbrew fans! So we went to the bus stop to get on a bus to the Boardwalk!

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deslynnpatterson

09-29-2009, 10:18 PM

kdzbear

09-29-2009, 10:37 PM

trickiwoo

09-30-2009, 11:10 AM

you did such a great job taking all those pictures of the resort and the rooms:) That was one thing i forgot to do! I am sorry you guys got put in the CF section:( We paid extra for the Prefered rooms in the calyspo building-- it was very nice having the short walk at the end of the night-- I think it was worth the money because at the end of the night i had no energy to walk left in me LOL!! The food you guys good at the food court looks good!! The chicken looks very good that you had-- sometimes a good old fashioned counter service hits the spot LOL Josh had a burger from the food court too-- and also said it was just okay LOL!! I cant wait to read more:)

Haha, I think I continued to take pictures of the resort every single day the whole trip! I'd just be walking to the room or to the food court and I'd see something I hadn't seen before and pull out my camera!

Yeah, I had some really great counter service meals on the trip! I planned it out so we were trying a lot of different CS options, so it wasn't just pizza and burgers every CS meal!

trickiwoo

09-30-2009, 11:13 AM

Your trip also overlapped ours, but we stayed at Pop. We booked through AAA and we were able to do the online check-in without a problem. I love the start to your trip. I took several pictures of Pop, but they did not come out since I was shooting into the sun, I guess. I can't wait to hear more about your trip! :wizard:

Ooh! Good to know! Somehow I didn't hear anything at all about online check-in until I was on the DME! I was like, "What??? You can check-in online? Why didn't I hear about this??" I'll definitely have to try that out next time!

Oh, I wanted to stay in Pop so bad! But it was all booked up! Next trip that's where I plan on staying! What did you think of it?

trickiwoo

09-30-2009, 04:44 PM

We got on the bus and headed over to the Boardwalk!

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First we stopped at the sweet shop and I got my dad some saltwater taffy. He has fond memories of eating saltwater taffy at Disneyland as a kid. And I was happy because most of my souvenir shopping was done... all I had left to buy was postcards! And anything else I wanted to get myself of course!

Then we went over to the Big River Grille. They said it would be like a 30 minute wait if we wanted to get a table inside. Or we could eat outside and be seated right then, but they said if it rained we couldn't come back inside. There were a couple empty tables under the canopy thing so we got one of those.

Our table had a nice view of the boardwalk

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And it didn't rain at all during our dinner.

We got the beer sampler

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The Boyfriend's favorite was the Rocket Red Ale. I think the Wowser's Wheat was my favorite, but I don't remember!

I also got a Raspberry Ice Pick

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Which was Stoli Razberi Vodka, Tanqueray Gin, Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, Chambord Liqueur Royale and a splash of Sprite. It was really good!

The Boyfriend got a Cesar Salad.

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He liked it. I guess it's hard to mess up a Cesar Salad!

I got the Beer Cheese Soup

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Oh my Goodness! That was soooo delicious!!! I highly recommend it!

And The Boyfriend had the steak

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He said it was really good.

I had the salmon

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It was more dry than I like my salmon. But it was still really good!

While we were eating our dinner we heard some booms. We were trying to figure out if it was thunder or fireworks. Then we saw colorful lights in the sky a bit off in the distance! It was Wishes! So that was pretty neat! We had a pretty nice view from our table!

After dinner we walked around the boardwalk. It was really pretty at night.

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We were looking out over the water when we noticed Spaceship Earth! The Boyfriend pointed out that it was my first time seeing it! I was pretty excited about that!

Then we walked over to see the lighthouse

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Then we decided to head back to the bus stop to go back to Downtown Disney. As we were walking by, we saw more fireworks! It was Illuminations!

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We stopped and watched for a bit, then headed to the bus stop.

While we were waiting for the bus, a balloon got stuck in the fan!

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We got on the bus and made our way to Downtown Disney! Then we decided to stop for a drink at T-REX.

We stepped inside and WOW! It was really amazing in there!!

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Both of us thought it was just the coolest thing ever! So after looking around in awe for awhile, we went over to the Shark Bar

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The big octopus was so awesome! And the tentacles would move! It was so neat!

The fish tank was pretty cool

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And I loved the lights on the ceiling that made it feel like you were underwater

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The Boyfriend and I both LOVED it!!! And we hadn't even ordered drinks yet!

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The Boyfriend ordered a Blue Moon

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He doesn't drink Budweiser, so he was not thrilled with the selection of beers that were available on the tap the whole trip.

I ordered a Green Apple Cotton-tini.

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It was a martini made of Skyy Vodka, Apple Schnapps, and Midori Melon liqueur. They put cotton candy in the glass and poured the martini over it! Then all of the cotton candy dissolves into the drink.

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Oh man, it was SO good!!! It was the sweetest drink I've ever had in my life! I loved it! Plus it came with a souvenir shaker!

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While we were enjoying our drinks at the bar, the T-Rex started roaring! Comets started shooting across the sky! And the bar turned from ice blue to deep red! It was so awesome!!!

After we finished our drinks, we wandered around the restaurant for a bit checking it all out!

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T-REX was a blast! We will definitely be going again on a future trip! We didn't eat anything, so I don't know how good the food is. But it's worth going to for the theming and atmosphere! Such a cool place! And if you love sugary sweet boozey drinks, I'd definitely recommend a Cotton-tini!

By that point we were completely exhausted! It was time to head back to the hotel!

TXAng

09-30-2009, 04:56 PM

kdzbear

09-30-2009, 07:00 PM

Ooh! Good to know! Somehow I didn't hear anything at all about online check-in until I was on the DME! I was like, "What??? You can check-in online? Why didn't I hear about this??" I'll definitely have to try that out next time!

Oh, I wanted to stay in Pop so bad! But it was all booked up! Next trip that's where I plan on staying! What did you think of it?

I might be shot on these boards for saying this, but I prefer All Star Sports. Pop did only have one bus for the resort and I did not wait for busses. However, with only one food court and one gift shop for 3 times as many resort guests, it was crowded and chaotic. It was hard with a family of 5 to find a place to sit and eat in the mornings. After our first attempt, my DH ended up getting pastries and bringing them back to our room. I did explore the resort and it had lots of neat Disney icons. It was fun to try, but I guess I still like Sports and will be staying there for our third time this November. :wizard:

trickiwoo

09-30-2009, 09:37 PM

Sorry you got the one section you didn't want, but it sounds like it was awesome, anyway! You got some really great shots around the resort! I didn't get nearly enough photos of the resort.

I thought the burgers at the food court were pretty good! Compared to a regular fast-food place, anyway. :)

Looking forward to hearing more!

I don't eat beef, so I didn't try the burgers. They did look pretty good though! But The Boyfriend didn't like them. He's kind of picky though!

trickiwoo

09-30-2009, 09:44 PM

I might be shot on these boards for saying this, but I prefer All Star Sports. Pop did only have one bus for the resort and I did not wait for busses. However, with only one food court and one gift shop for 3 times as many resort guests, it was crowded and chaotic. It was hard with a family of 5 to find a place to sit and eat in the mornings. After our first attempt, my DH ended up getting pastries and bringing them back to our room. I did explore the resort and it had lots of neat Disney icons. It was fun to try, but I guess I still like Sports and will be staying there for our third time this November. :wizard:

Good to know! I wondered what the crowds were like over there!

trickiwoo

09-30-2009, 10:11 PM

So we got on the bus and headed back to ASMu! We'd planned on going for a swim that night, but we were both way too tired!

I did stop and take some pictures of the hotel at night as we walked back to the room!

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This light was right outside our room. I thought it was neat!

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We set our alarm and went right to sleep!

The next morning we got up pretty early. We made our way down to the food court for breakfast.

I saw my first Florida sunrise!

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The guitar pool was quite lovely in the morning

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The food court was pretty empty. There weren't a lot of people in there at all!

The Boyfriend got this croissant sandwich thing

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He didn't like it very much. I tried some of the scrambled eggs that were in it, and they were SO good! I loved them! The Boyfriend didn't care for them that much though.

I could not wait to try one of those Mickey waffles! But... we had pretty early lunch reservations that day. And those waffles looked pretty big! So I went with something smaller and got a cherry pastry thing.

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It was really good! I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would!

After we finished eating, we headed back to our room to drop off our mugs and get ready to go to the park!

On our way, I realized I hadn't taken any photos of the Broadway section! So I fixed that right away!

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We got back to the room and got everything we needed for the park! Then we went on our way to the bus stop! We stepped outside and got to experience that wonderful Florida humidity!

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We made our way to the bus stop and it wasn't long before we were on our way to our first park!

Coming up next... Does the restaurant I was most excited about live up to my expectations? And later... the ride that made me cry! Stay tuned!

heaven2dc

10-01-2009, 02:41 PM

kdzbear

10-01-2009, 03:26 PM

We got back to the room and got everything we needed for the park! Then we went on our way to the bus stop! We stepped outside and got to experience that wonderful Florida humidity!

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We made our way to the bus stop and it wasn't long before we were on our way to our first park!

I am loving all of the details of your report so far. With three kids I forgot to take pictures of most of our meals. Your picture above came out like the ones I took in the morning at Pop. I wonder if the humidity caused this. I took one into the sun and one away from the sun and they both turned out like yours! :wizard:

trickiwoo

10-01-2009, 06:59 PM

I'm having so much fun reading your report! Your pic of the sunrise is beautiful - perfect for a screensaver!

I love the Broadway section - how cool! I'm glad you are having a great time on your first trip :yay:

Thank you! I don't think I got any photos of Florida sunsets while I was there... but at least I was able to get a sunrise picture! I don't get those often since I usually wake up long after the sun has been up!

trickiwoo

10-01-2009, 07:06 PM

I am loving all of the details of your report so far. With three kids I forgot to take pictures of most of our meals. Your picture above came out like the ones I took in the morning at Pop. I wonder if the humidity caused this. I took one into the sun and one away from the sun and they both turned out like yours! :wizard:

I looked at so many food photo pictures here on DIS before my trip, that I made sure to get pictures of every meal!!! I got so used to it, that when I came back home I wanted to take pictures of everything I ate!

Yeah, the humidity will cause the lens to fog up like that and the pictures will look all hazy! You just have to wait a minute or two for the camera to adjust and your photos will look fine!

Sleepingbooty

10-01-2009, 08:37 PM

I'm loving your TR so far - I can really sense your excitement! You've gotten some excellent pictures. Hope your weather luck holds up!:thumbsup2

Candy30

10-02-2009, 11:33 AM

A few of my pictures came out hazy like that to early in the humidity. Later during the day they were fine. Loving the report and all of your pictures ;)! I got my Mom's pictures(for my trip report) since the mishap with mine! :idea: Keep it coming.

trickiwoo

10-03-2009, 03:17 PM

I'm loving your TR so far - I can really sense your excitement! You've gotten some excellent pictures. Hope your weather luck holds up!:thumbsup2

Thank you so much! I had so much fun taking the pictures! And I'm having even more fun sharing them!!!!

trickiwoo

10-03-2009, 03:18 PM

trickiwoo

10-03-2009, 04:20 PM

Allright, I'm back! Things have been kind of crazy the past couple days, but I'm very excited to continue my TR!

So we were on the bus on our way to Hollywood Studios! On the bus, they were playing music from the movie Titanic. I thought that was pretty neat!

We showed up at the park and went through the turnstiles. I had a little trouble at first figuring out the machine and how to put the ticket in, but I got it and we were in the park! I didn't want to carry around any bags in the park, so everything I needed I kept in my pockets. This meant we didn't have to wait in line for the bag checks and could walk right in the park!

We got there just in time for the Rope Drop Ceremony! Neither The Boyfriend nor I have ever been to a Rope Drop before, so that was pretty neat!

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It wasn't belong before we were in the park!!!

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The first thing we did was check out the Pin Station under the big Sorcerer hat! I didn't see any pins I wanted. So we made our way to the first ride on our trip... The Great Movie Ride!

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I LOVED it!!! The Boyfriend's favorite part of the ride is the Alien part. That movie scared me so much! I had nightmares when I saw it! (And I wasn't a kid! I was in my 20's!) So the Alien part of the ride really freaked me out! But it was so awesome!

Then we went to go check out the Honey I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure. But we couldn't go in because you had to be under 10! I was so sad! I wanted to play!

So we decided to go ride Star Tours instead. There was no wait at all! We just walked right on! That was a new experience for me! It was fun! The ride was the same as what I remember from Disneyland.

We had 11:00 lunch reservations for Sci-Fi. And we had some time to kill before it was time to eat. We went and sat down for a bit outside the restaurant.

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Then we thought it might be a good idea to check out the wait times for Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster to see if we needed to pick up some Fastpasses before lunch. The wait times were only 20 min, so we didn't bother getting Fastpasses.

We did a little bit of shopping on our way back to the Sci-Fi. And I finally found the perfect pair of Mickey Mouse earrings!! I bought them and put them in my ears right there!

Then we went to the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater!

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We went in and gave our name and then sat down. Pretty soon they called our name and we went to our table! It was SO awesome in there!!!!

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The Boyfriend had a bacon cheeseburger

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He LOVED it! He said it was one of the best meals he had the whole trip! He absolutely raved about it!

I had the Seared Marinated Tofu

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Oh My Goodness... it was delicious!!!! I highly recommend this! Absolutely delicious!

I also had an Orbiting Oreos milkshake

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It was an Oreo shake mixed with Godiva chocolate liqueur and glow cube! Here's a picture with the glow cube turned off

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It was super yummy!

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We had a really good time watching the cartoons and movie trailers and eating our food. The Boyfriend really liked it because he's actually seen most of the movies they showed trailers for!

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I had such high expectations for Sci-Fi, and I'm happy to report that it went above and beyond my expectations!!! We both had such a great time there and had some really great food! The Boyfriend kept telling me that I made a really great choice! That made me happy! And I hoped he'd feel the same about the other restaurants I chose!

Now that we were done eating, it was time for rides!

charming23

10-03-2009, 08:13 PM

I'm glad you had a good time at Sci-fi. I so want to try that if I ever get back. Love the report so far can't wait to hear more.

Candy30

10-04-2009, 12:26 AM

I LOVED SCI FI and everyone in our group loved it too! It was great. The movie clips were hilarious!!! Did you get the Cat women from Mars!!! :) Loved the atmosphere! Cool Place. Good Pictures.

trickiwoo

10-04-2009, 02:44 PM

I'm glad you had a good time at Sci-fi. I so want to try that if I ever get back. Love the report so far can't wait to hear more.

Oh, I highly recommend Sci-Fi! I'd seen so many photos of the place, but it really didn't compare to the atmosphere of actually being there! It was so awesome! And the food was amazing!!! It was definitely one of the best parts of the whole trip!

trickiwoo

10-04-2009, 02:47 PM

I LOVED SCI FI and everyone in our group loved it too! It was great. The movie clips were hilarious!!! Did you get the Cat women from Mars!!! :) Loved the atmosphere! Cool Place. Good Pictures.

Thank you! And yes, I do remember the Cat Women!!! Oh, I can't wait to go back to Sci-Fi!

trickiwoo

10-04-2009, 05:30 PM

After leaving Sci-Fi, we made a quick stop over at the ABC Commissary.

Now I'm a HUGE fan of the tv show Lost! Obsessed might be an understatement! I have the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 tattooed on my arm! So yes, I was VERY excited to see all the Lost stuff there! I kept taking pictures of everything with my cell phone to text to my mom... who is a bigger fan than me!

I squealed with delight when I saw this outside

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And it was pretty awesome to see this item on the menu

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And I thought this display was so awesome!!!

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After I was done geeking out like a total fangirl, we started making our way over to the Twilight Zone Tower Of Terror.

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I was really looking forward to riding this! I LOVE the Twilight Zone!!! Huge fan! I'd have to say it's the greatest television series of all time! I've never been on a ride that drops you straight down, but it didn't seem that scary and I was pretty sure I could handle it! So I was excited and ready to go!

When we were in line, we started talking to the couple behind us. The girl was very nervous about the ride and didn't want to go on it at all but the guy she was with (husband? boyfriend?) didn't want to ride it alone. We ended up getting on a different elevator than them, so I didn't get to see how she did on the ride.

It wasn't until we were seated and strapped in that I started to get a little bit nervous. Then at some point it hit me, "OMG! I'm going to fall! This is pretty scary!"

I really liked the beginning of the ride with the dark and the stars and all the Twilight Zone stuff! I remember thinking, "This is pretty cool. How about the ride just ends here now?"

I was so scared I started screaming before we were even dropped! Then we finally dropped. Oh My God. Absolutely horrific! It was not fun at all!!!! I didn't like it. And then it just kept going. And going. And going. I didn't think it was ever going to end!!! I was screaming my head off! And then tears started flowing from my eyes! I was screaming and sobbing! It was absolutely awful!

FINALLY the ride ended! I had trouble getting my seatbelt off I was shaking so bad! On the ride, The Boyfriend thought I was screaming because I was having fun. After the ride, he asked how I liked it and I couldn't talk! Then he asked, "Are you crying???" I just nodded.

We got off the ride and I just cried and cried and cried. And I felt so embarrassed and ridiculous that I started laughing at myself. And crying. And I couldn't stop shaking. I was having trouble breathing. It was pretty bad.

We exited the building, and saw the couple that we'd talked to in line. They were sitting on a bench. She was also sobbing and he was comforting her. That made me feel a lot better! I was not the only one to have that reaction to the ride!

So no, I did NOT like Tower Of Terror. And I think it's pretty safe to say I will never ever ride it again!

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After I'd calmed down and stopped crying, The Boyfriend asked me if I still wanted to go on Rock 'n Roller Coaster. I did. I said, "I just wanna do it and get it over with!"

After TOT, I was not as brave as I was when I first arrived! But I still wanted to try it.

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I was soooo nervous when I was in line! Especially when we got to the part where you could see the limos taking off! They went so fast!!! I had never been on a roller coaster that went upside down before! And I was still pretty shaken up from TOT!

But soon it was my turn and I got in and pulled down the restraints. Here goes!

I took some deep breaths and tried to relax. Pretty soon we were going from 0 to 60! My thoughts were, "Oh, this isn't that bad. I can totally handle this! Oh, we're going upside now... Oh, that wasn't bad at all!" About halfway through the ride I realized, "Oh my God... I like this! This is fun! I'm having fun!" As soon as I realized I was having fun, I smiled really big and turned towards The Boyfriend to let him know I wasn't scared.

Once the ride ended, he asked what I thought. "I LOVED IT!" He was pretty surprised! I said, "Did you notice how I didn't scream at all!" He said, "Yeah, I noticed I didn't hear you screaming, but I just thought it was because the music was so loud! He asked me if I'd go on it again, and I said, "Oh, absolutely!!!"

After that, I was in much better spirits! We walked around and I spotted Dug!!!

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I also spotted Dug here (thought he was harder to find!)

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We walked past Toy Story Midway Mania and saw the line was only 20 min, so we went right in!

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It was soooo much fun!!! I loved it!!! The Boyfriend got a higher score than me, but I figured he would. I wasn't too far behind him though! The Boyfriend told me that when I do my Trip Report I have to mention that he had the highest score of all of the people around us. And that the people next to us even pointed out his score and were impressed by how high it was!

I'd learned online (I think it was here on DIS, but I'm not positive!) that Luxo Jr comes out and does a little dance at Pixar Place. I found the spot and we sat and waited. I'm pretty sure The Boyfriend thought I was nuts. But it wasn't long before the doors opened up and Luxo Jr came out!

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It was very cute!!!! Definitely worth waiting around for!

When Luxo Jr was done dancing, we made our way over to The Magic Of Disney Animation because I wanted to see...

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DUG!!!!!!

Ok, yes, Carl and Russell were there too, but I was there to see Dug! I'm just a wee bit obsessed!

I immediately got in line! I was the oldest person in line that was not a parent. This was definitely one of the longest lines I was in during the whole trips! I think the only times I waited longer was when I was in line for a bus!

There was a family in line in front of me. The dad asked his kids, "What was the name of the dog in Up?" None of the kids new. Awhile later the dad goes, "Charles. I think the boy from Up is named Charles." Then his daughter goes, "I know the name of the dog." And the dad goes, "Oh, what is it?" and she says, "Charles." And the dad said, "No... I think that's the name of the little boy." Then awhile later, the dad exclaims, "David! I just remembered! The boy is named David!"

I couldn't figure out why on earth you'd wait in such a long line to meet characters you didn't even know the names of! :sad2:

So there were just a few people in front of me when Russell was taken away. The PhotoPass Photographer said he'd be back, but she wasn't sure how long it would be. It didn't matter to me since I was there to see Dug! And the kids in line in front of me didn't even know Russell's name, so I doubt they'd be that upset about not meeting him!

Finally it was my turn!!!!

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I walked out and gave Carl a big hug. I also gave Dug a big hug, but The Boyfriend didn't take a picture!!! He later said, "I didn't know you were going to hug Dug!" :sad2:

But he did take my picture with Dug and Carl

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Then we went around checking out all of the exhibits at The Magic Of Disney Animation. The Boyfriend really liked doing the voice acting

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I did the What Disney Character Are You? quiz and got

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The Boyfriend had done it while I was in line waiting to meet Dug and he got Jiminy Cricket. He said he felt kind of old because there were some teenage girls in line in front of him and they got Mulan and one of the girls said, "Oh my God, I don't even know who that is!" We were probably the same age as those girls when Mulan came out!

trickiwoo

10-04-2009, 05:37 PM

We left The Magic Of Disney Animation and I was in the mood for a snack, so I stopped and got a churro!

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It was yummy! I love Disney churros! I hadn't had a churro since I was last at Disneyland in 2007!

We walked past this display

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I thought it was so cool! I love how it looks like they're pouring the flowers out everywhere!

Then we decided to go watch the Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show. Unfortunately the last show of the day had already started. I wasn't too disappointed because it wasn't on my Must List, but it was still something I was interested in seeing. But now it's something to do on my next visit! So instead we decided to go watch Muppetvision 3D! It was super cute! I loved it!!!!

After the show, we went to Toy Story Pizza Planet for lunch! The Boyfriend got pepperoni pizza

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And I got cheese pizza

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I'd heard that Disney had a reputation for pizza that wasn't very good at all. But I really liked it! I would definitely get Disney pizza again! It obviously wasn't the best pizza ever. But it was a lot better than I was expecting!

After we ate, we walked around the arcade. Then we went and watched the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It was a great show! Very fun! After I got home, I found out that the owner of the pet adoption center where I volunteer is really close friends with a stunt performer who plays Indiana Jones in the show! I couldn't remember the name of the actor playing Indiana Jones in the show we saw, so I don't know if it was his friend or not!

After the show, we realized we'd really done everything we wanted to do and seen everything we wanted to see. So we headed over to ride the Great Movie Ride again! That has to be one of my absolute favorite rides!!! Then we rode Rock 'n Roller Coaster again!

http://inlinethumb32.webshots.com/26463/2297356980105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

It was even more fun the 2nd time since I knew what to expect and wasn't scared at all!

There were Extra Magic Hours that night, but we'd really done everything we wanted to do! So we decided to stop for a drink before heading back to the hotel. So we stopped in the Tune-In Lounge. It was pretty busy, but we were able to find a seat at the bar.

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The Boyfriend got a Corona

http://inlinethumb28.webshots.com/17371/2768936720105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

I got a Mowie Wowie

http://inlinethumb23.webshots.com/33238/2410194040105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

It was made with Malibu rum, Melon liqueur, Peach Schnapps, Orange and Pineapple juices and had my favorite... a glow cube! It was pretty yummy!

Then we got on the bus to head back to our hotel!

kdzbear

10-04-2009, 07:44 PM

We got there just in time for the Rope Drop Ceremony! Neither The Boyfriend nor I have ever been to a Rope Drop before, so that was pretty neat!

The rope drop looks like fun! We never made it to one in the whole 9 days we were there!

Then we went to the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater!

He LOVED it! He said it was one of the best meals he had the whole trip! He absolutely raved about it!

I had such high expectations for Sci-Fi, and I'm happy to report that it went above and beyond my expectations!!! We both had such a great time there and had some really great food! The Boyfriend kept telling me that I made a really great choice! That made me happy! And I hoped he'd feel the same about the other restaurants I chose!

I am so glad to hear this! We ate there about 12 years ago and did not have a good experience, but my DS4 selected it as one of his choices of places to eat on his Wish Trip. I am feeling much better about his choice now!

Now I'm a HUGE fan of the tv show Lost! Obsessed might be an understatement! I have the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42 tattooed on my arm! So yes, I was VERY excited to see all the Lost stuff there! I kept taking pictures of everything with my cell phone to text to my mom... who is a bigger fan than me!

And I thought this display was so awesome!!!

My DH loves this show! Is it inside the ABC Commissary? We may have to go in and check this out!

I was so scared I started screaming before we were even dropped! Then we finally dropped. Oh My God. Absolutely horrific! It was not fun at all!!!! I didn't like it. And then it just kept going. And going. And going. I didn't think it was ever going to end!!! I was screaming my head off! And then tears started flowing from my eyes! I was screaming and sobbing! It was absolutely awful!

So no, I did NOT like Tower Of Terror. And I think it's pretty safe to say I will never ever ride it again!

My DD9 agrees with you on this one. She tried it two years ago and would not go on it this year. I took DS4 and he said that he was scared, but now he said he wants to ride it again!?!

Once the ride ended, he asked what I thought. "I LOVED IT!" He was pretty surprised! I said, "Did you notice how I didn't scream at all!" He said, "Yeah, I noticed I didn't hear you screaming, but I just thought it was because the music was so loud! He asked me if I'd go on it again, and I said, "Oh, absolutely!!!"

I do think this is a great rollercoaster. My DD9 rode it three times!

We walked past Toy Story Midway Mania and saw the line was only 20 min, so we went right in!

It was soooo much fun!!! I loved it!!! The Boyfriend got a higher score than me, but I figured he would. I wasn't too far behind him though! The Boyfriend told me that when I do my Trip Report I have to mention that he had the highest score of all of the people around us. And that the people next to us even pointed out his score and were impressed by how high it was!

I loved this ride! I think it is so colorful and fun! I love the interactive games!

I'd learned online (I think it was here on DIS, but I'm not positive!) that Luxo Jr comes out and does a little dance at Pixar Place. I found the spot and we sat and waited. I'm pretty sure The Boyfriend thought I was nuts. But it wasn't long before the doors opened up and Luxo Jr came out!

It was very cute!!!! Definitely worth waiting around for!
I did not know about him and we were walking by when he popped up. It was cute to watch!

I am loving your trip report and all of your details including the emotional feelings and the fabulous pictures! :woohoo:

TXAng

10-05-2009, 03:14 AM

Candy30

10-05-2009, 01:37 PM

TOT scared me too! My DS literally badgered me to get on! I am not a fan of the drop and I knew it did so I was debating. DS and DNeph convinced me that "it's not that bad". I threatened them that if it was bad I was going to beat them up! One time was enough for me! I am not a fan of the ghost thing either.

I loved pizza planet. It looks just like the movie!!!

KZBear-we didn't make it to a rope drop either. I wanted to but there were too many in our group,so we just went with the flow.

trickiwoo

10-05-2009, 04:07 PM

The rope drop looks like fun! We never made it to one in the whole 9 days we were there!

This was the only one we ended up seeing! I would love to see what they do at the other parks! The Boyfriend didn't even know they did anything at Rope Drop, so he was pretty surprised at how elaborate it was!

I am so glad to hear this! We ate there about 12 years ago and did not have a good experience, but my DS4 selected it as one of his choices of places to eat on his Wish Trip. I am feeling much better about his choice now!

I'm sorry you had a bad experience!!! I hope it's better for you this time! Of all the places we ate on our trip, this was both of our favorites!

My DH loves this show! Is it inside the ABC Commissary? We may have to go in and check this out!

Yup! It's inside! Well, the display with the Dharma jumpsuits is inside! The poster and menu are outside the ABC Commissary! They have some other displays from other shows too! I think I remember Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. Oh! And I think they had an item from Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

trickiwoo

10-05-2009, 04:10 PM

Oh, no! I'm sorry TOT scared you so much! Well, at least now you know that dropping-type rides are definitely not your thing. I'm glad you still gave Rock 'n Roller Coaster a try. That was one of our favorites at that park. :thumbsup2

We LOVED Sci-Fi, too. Such a neat place, and the food was fantastic.

Did y'all get to see Fantasmic? We didn't, because we weren't too keen on the idea of fighting crowds to see it. We've seen the DL version many times, and I'm curious how the WDW version compares.

No, we didn't get to see Fantasmic. There were no shows during the days we were there! Well, there was one the first night we were there, but we didn't go to any parks that day. But that's definitely something I'd love to see on a future visit!

trickiwoo

10-05-2009, 04:12 PM

trickiwoo

10-05-2009, 04:44 PM

We got back to the hotel and went straight to the gift shop! The Boyfriend needed to buy a toothbrush and deodorant since he chose not to pack those items and said, "I'll just buy them when I get there..." That type of behavior is very strange to me! Why spend money on something you don't have to when you can easily pack a toothbrush! He's crazy, I'm telling ya!

I bought some postcards for my friends and family back home! While we were shopping, a Cast Member saw my 1st Trip button and asked me how my trip was so far and where I was going the next day. I told her I was having so much fun and that I was going to Epcot the next day. She started telling me about the different rides they have at Epcot and her favorite places to eat. She seemed so excited to be helping me that I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'd spent every waking minute of the past few months researching and planning my trip and that I already knew what exciting things Epcot had to offer! I did appreciate her eagerness to help and she did have some great recommendations for the best viewing locations for Illuminations. And she did recommend a restaurant that I'd actually picked for us to eat at, so that made me feel more confidant with my decision!

After our brief shopping, we stopped at the Singing Spirits Pool Bar for a drink!

The Boyfriend had a Beach Bum Blonde Ale

http://inlinethumb30.webshots.com/42781/2329940700105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

And I had a Captain's Mai Tai

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It was made with Captain Morgan Original Spiced rum, BOLS Amaretto, pineapple juice, lime juice and grenadine and was really good! I also kept the Life On Mars coaster (which I thought was odd since the show ended...)! I'm a big fan of the British series, and I did enjoy the American series as well!

The Boyfriend wanted to sit at the bar while we had our drinks, but the bartender asked for the money right after he handed us our drinks. And that made The Boyfriend feel like he was rushing us and wanted us out of there. So we paid and took our drinks to the room.

Then we changed into our bathing suits and headed down to the piano pool for a swim

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We had a lot of fun at the pool! It was great!

Then we headed back to the room and went to bed. I had water in my ear and it was really annoying! But I figured it would drain out while I was asleep. I did have a bit of trouble falling asleep... both because of the water in my ear and because I couldn't stop thinking about TOT and how scary it was!!! I did eventually fall asleep though!

When I woke up the next morning I still had water in my ear! It was driving me crazy!

We went to the food court for breakfast. The Boyfriend got this breakfast platter.

http://inlinethumb21.webshots.com/45140/2666314470105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

It had scrambled eggs, hash browns, a biscuit, bacon, sausage and french toast sticks. He LOVED it! He didn't care much for the scrambled eggs, but I loved them so I ate all of his!

And I finally got my Mickey Waffle!!

http://inlinethumb57.webshots.com/42488/2875927760105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

Oh my Goodness! This was everything I dreamed it would be and so much more! I've been craving these waffles ever since I came home!

Even though my breakfast was heavenly, my ear was bothering me more and more. I was having trouble enjoying anything and I knew I'd be miserable at the park. So after I was done eating, I went to the gift shop to see if they had any alcohol. (Haha, not booze but rubbing alcohol!)

They had a product called Swim Ear (which was like 95% alcohol) which are ear drops for when you get water in your ears! When I got back to my room I put a few drops in my ear and immediately the water was gone! I felt soooo much better!

Then we headed over to the bus stop and pretty soon we were on our way to Epcot!!!

kdzbear

10-05-2009, 05:37 PM

trickiwoo

10-05-2009, 06:34 PM

I love the new update. My DD9 forgot to pack her toothbrush. I asked at the front desk where we could get one and the cast member went to the back and returned with one. They have complimentary ones, but they don't advertise this fact!

Your food pictures are so good! We stayed at Music once and DD9 called the piano pool, the Ariel pool. It sounds as if you both had a lot of fun on your trip! :wizard:

Ooh! That is good to know! I wonder if The Boyfriend would have gotten a complimentary one if he had known. Probably not! He probably would have said, "No, that's okay, I can just buy one in the gift shop..." I swear, sometimes I think he goes out of his way to spend extra money!

The Ariel pool! I love it!! I know I was excited to see Ariel at the pool!

heaven2dc

10-06-2009, 02:11 PM

I was so scared I started screaming before we were even dropped! Then we finally dropped. Oh My God. Absolutely horrific! It was not fun at all!!!! I didn't like it. And then it just kept going. And going. And going. I didn't think it was ever going to end!!! I was screaming my head off! And then tears started flowing from my eyes! I was screaming and sobbing! It was absolutely awful!

FINALLY the ride ended! I had trouble getting my seatbelt off I was shaking so bad! On the ride, The Boyfriend thought I was screaming because I was having fun. After the ride, he asked how I liked it and I couldn't talk! Then he asked, "Are you crying???" I just nodded.

We got off the ride and I just cried and cried and cried. And I felt so embarrassed and ridiculous that I started laughing at myself. And crying. And I couldn't stop shaking. I was having trouble breathing. It was pretty bad.

We exited the building, and saw the couple that we'd talked to in line. They were sitting on a bench. She was also sobbing and he was comforting her. That made me feel a lot better! I was not the only one to have that reaction to the ride!

So no, I did NOT like Tower Of Terror. And I think it's pretty safe to say I will never ever ride it again!

http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/43718/2214894210105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

I'm so sorry you didn't like ToT!! That is my fav ride - I felt SO bad for you :hug: I loved this pic of you after the ride - it says it all :scared1:

But he did take my picture with Dug and Carl

http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/22150/2731535760105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

This pic is so cute!

Great update :thumbsup2

trickiwoo

10-06-2009, 02:18 PM

I'm so sorry you didn't like ToT!! That is my fav ride - I felt SO bad for you :hug: I loved this pic of you after the ride - it says it all :scared1:

This pic is so cute!

Great update :thumbsup2

I'm sorry I didn't like it either! I was really excited about it and I really thought I'd like it!

I'm glad you're enjoying my photos!!! I'm having so much posting these!

trickiwoo

10-06-2009, 04:11 PM

The bus arrived at Epcot and we made our way to the front gate. There was an EMH from 8am-9am, and we got there around 8:30. I was very excited because this was my first time taking advantage of an EMH! It also turned out to be the only time we were at any of the parks during EMHs the whole trip!

The day before I'd had trouble figuring out how to put my card in the machines at HS, so I walked up to the turnstiles confident that I wouldn't have any trouble this time! But these machines had a little blue thing you had to put your finger on to get inside! What? I didn't have to do that at HS! Oh well, it didn't look that hard. The Boyfriend goes in ahead of me no problems. I go up, put my card in, put my finger on the blue thingie and the CM says, "That didn't work, please try again." I put my card in again, put my finger on the blue thingie and again the CM tells me I have to try it again. I try one more time! The CM tells me that I don't properly have my finger on the blue thingie and that I need to push my finger all the way forward. I follow these instructions and TA-DA! I'm allowed into the park! I was determined that by the end of the trip I'd be able to get into the parks with no complications!

We walk into the park and I am greeted by this beautiful sight!

http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/25062/2150920560105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

It is truly amazing up close!!! I was in awe!

The Boyfriend got a picture of my reaction

http://inlinethumb11.webshots.com/43274/2760756850105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

The Boyfriend started making his way into the park, and I had to stop him and say, "Hold on. I have to take a minute to just take this in..." After gawking at Spaceship Earth for awhile, we started to head towards the park... stopping to take pictures here and there!

I got a picture of my first monorail sighting

http://inlinethumb51.webshots.com/44978/2600508590105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

And of course I got plenty of Spaceship Earth photos

http://inlinethumb45.webshots.com/43116/2620785060105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

I love it! I love it! I love it!

I took a picture of Spaceship Earth with my cell phone and texted it to my mom and said, "Guess where I am!" She responded with, "Golfing with giants?" :laughing:

We made our way to the Land Pavilion and got in line for Soarin'! The line only had a 20 min wait. Pretty soon we were being greeted by Patrick Warburton! That was exciting! The Boyfriend and I were both highly amused by that! Then the CM told us all that if we were wearing Crocs or flip flops that we had to take our shoes off once we got on the ride!

So I got in my set, kicked off my pink Crocs and I was ready to go!

I LOVED Soarin'!!!! My favorite part was flying over my hometown of San Diego!!! I did get a little homesick when I saw the Coronado Bridge. But yes, Soarin' was just the best ride ever! And riding it barefoot was awesome! I loved feeling the wind between my toes! When we got off the ride, I said to The Boyfriend, "I could ride that all day!" Soarin' is now officially my all time favorite ride ever.

By the time we got off the ride, it was after 9 and the EMH was over. So during the whole trip, the only thing we ended up doing during EMH was ride Soarin'!

We decided to head over to Test Track. On the way we came across this little squirrel eating flowers.

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It was so cute!!!! It let us walk right up to it and it just sat there eating the flowers.

We got in line for Test Track and I was soooooo nervous! I kept telling myself that it couldn't be worse than TOT, but I was having trouble believing it! But it was a lot of fun! I loved it! It wasn't scary at all!

Next we went over to Mission Space. I was also really nervous about this ride! I really didn't know what to expect and I'd heard all sorts of things about it! A CM had told me that if I didn't like TOT, then I probably wouldn't like Mission Space because it's the same feeling only much worse! She recommended I do the Green Team. But I was dead set on trying the Orange Team and I wasn't going to chicken out!

There was no wait at all and we walked right on. Pretty soon we were greeted by Gary Sinise. Not quite as exciting as Patrick Warburton, but still amusing none the less!

It was not scary at all! I didn't get motion sickness either. It was pretty fun! When it came time for me to press my buttons, The Boyfriend shouted, "It's your turn!!! Push the buttons!!" and my arms were being held down with so much force that I absolutely could not lift them! So I shouted back, "I can't move my arms!!!" So he reached over and pushed my buttons for me! He took the mission very seriously! He said he didn't want to let Gary Sinise down.

My mom had read about the people that died on Mission Space and she was freaked out by this! She even told me I wasn't allowed to ride it! She insisted that I might have some sort of undiagnosed health condition. She kept saying. "What's your blood pressure? You don't even know! How do you know you don't have high blood pressure?" So after I got off Mission Space I sent her a text message to let her know I survived.

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Then we walked around Future World checking things out.

I was highly amused to see these in Future World

http://inlinethumb25.webshots.com/42392/2269327020105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

I also thought these were just the coolest ever!

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Then we made our way over to Club Cool.

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I'd read all about the Beverly from Italy here on DIS and I really wanted a picture of my "Beverly Face"! So I told The Boyfriend to get his camera ready and I poured myself a small cup of Beverly and took a sip.

It tasted really good! I was like, "Ok, it probably has a bad aftertaste." So I waited. And waited. And waited. Nope, it still tasted good. And then I realized that I actually liked the Beverly and I wasn't going to get a picture of my Beverly Face. This was very disappointing for me! So instead of my Beverly Face, The Boyfriend took a picture of my Disappointed Face.

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/43767/2737961520105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

I thought maybe there was something wrong with the tap I'd gotten the Beverly from, so I handed my cup with the rest of the Beverly I'd sipped from to The Boyfriend and had him try it.

http://inlinethumb36.webshots.com/11107/2790912870105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

Nope, there was nothing wrong with it. So I drank the rest of the Beverly. It was really good!!! I really liked it! We tried all of the flavors and it was actually my 2nd favorite of all! My first favorite was the watermelon drink from China. The only flavor I didn't like was the Fanta from Costa Rica.

After we left Club Cool we got our picture taken in front of Spaceship Earth

http://inlinethumb10.webshots.com/44873/2777897300105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

Then we decided to ride Spaceship Earth! I liked it, but I was a little uneasy at the end when we had to go down backwards! It didn't help that the ride got stuck during that part! I did like when they put our faces on the little future cartoon people! It was really cute!

Then we went to the Seas With Nemo And Friends! There was a bit of a line for the Clam-Mobiles, but it moved quickly. When we got in our Clam-Mobile the people in the Clam next to us were taking flash pictures. The CM kept shouting at them that there was no flash photography allowed. The just ignored the CM and continued to take flash photos the entire ride! It was sooo annoying and obnoxious!!! The ride was cute though! And The Boyfriend did point out that Nemo was really being quite a jerk! He didn't think someone who had a history of getting lost should be teasing his father like that!

After we got off our Clams, we checked out the aquarium. We saw dolphins!!!

http://inlinethumb54.webshots.com/10613/2888881670105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

I couldn't get a good photo of them, but it was still cool to see them!

And we saw manatees

http://inlinethumb53.webshots.com/18548/2415650000105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

Here's The Boyfriend checking out the eels

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And I saw the Lionfish which are my absolute favorite fish

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And the seahorses were pretty cool too!

http://inlinethumb61.webshots.com/44668/2778178540105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

At the aquarium some guests mistook The Boyfriend for a CM because he was wearing a red polo shirt! They started asking him questions he didn't know the answer to! Poor guy!

By then we were getting pretty hungry, so we figured it was time to make our way over the World Showcase for lunch!

On the way there we saw the cool reverse waterfall!

http://inlinethumb30.webshots.com/41373/2968211060105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

We also stopped to watch the Honey I Shrunk The Audience 3D show! We went into the theater and we were soooo exhausted! Our feet were killing us! We wanted to sit down so bad! But before they would let us into the theater to sit, we had to stand and watch a Kodak commercial. This was not a 30 second commercial!!! It just went on and on and on and on! And it was just a commercial! It wasn't some sort of pre-show themed thing! And anytime someone in the audience would try to sit during the commercial, the CM wound announce that there was no sitting and everyone had to remain standing!!! It was torture! And The Boyfriend and I are both boycotting Kodak because of it!

Finally we got to go in the theater and sit down! The show was great! It was so much fun! One of my pet peeves is when people call rodents by the wrong name, so I was very irritated that they called the rat a mouse. I was very amused by how scared people in the audience got during the scene with the giant snake and when the rats are loose in the theater! I volunteer at a small animal rescue, so I spend A LOT of time around rats and mice and snakes and stuff. I even have a pet mouse! It's just weird for me to see people absolutely horrified of animals I'm constantly around! And being around all these people screaming their heads off at something I'm not the least bit scared of made me realize, "This is how everyone that was on TOT with me must have felt..."

When we left the theater, The Boyfriend complained that in the movie the shrinking machine is explained that the molecules are just shifted around which would mean that when you're shrunk you're still the same mass and that even though the audience was tiny, we would have still weighed the same and there was no way the child could have picked us up.

So we headed to the Japan Pavilion at the World Showcase, and stopped for lunch at the Yakitori House. It'd been so long since breakfast and we were both sooo hungry! We'd already dug into our food before I realized I'd forgotten to take pictures!!!

Luckily I hadn't eaten too much of my Tempura Shrimp Udon

http://inlinethumb35.webshots.com/45794/2104081270105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

But The Boyfriend is a much faster eater than I am, so by the time I pulled out my camera, there was nothing left of his Shogun Combination but rice.

We both really liked our food! The Shogun Combination didn't fill The Boyfriend up at all, but luckily my meal was way too much for me! So he ate what I didn't have room for and he was full after that!

As we were leaving, there was a family coming in with a little boy that was so small he could barely push the door open! After he came in, he looked up and saw that I was heading out, so he turned around and held the door open for me! What a gentleman! I thought it was just the cutest, sweetest thing ever. I gave him a big thank you!

We walked over to France and saw Beauty and the Beast signing autographs and posing for pictures

http://inlinethumb47.webshots.com/42478/2504483020105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

I overheard a little girl in line say to her mother, "But I don't want to meet the Beast! I only want to meet Belle!"

In France, we stopped by the wine cart and I got myself one of these babies

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A Grey Goose Citron Lemon slush! Oh man it was good!!! I started drinking it so fast I got brainfreeze!

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By this point, The Boyfriend and I were both absolutely aching!!! We knew if we kept walking much longer we would NOT have a good time. So we decided to make our way back to the bus to head back to the hotel.

From the World Showcase, we took the ferry boat back to Future World. On the ferry ride, we saw this neat looking bird

http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/15769/2916230800105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

Once we got to Future World, we stopped and wandered around Innoventions for a little bit. We decided that when we came back later that evening, we'd stop by and spend more time at Innoventions. But for now, we just wanted to get off our feet!

So we got on the bus and headed back to ASMu! When we got to our room there was a cute little towel bird waiting for us!

http://inlinethumb52.webshots.com/29555/2474263290105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

Now, I don't ever nap. I just can't do it! I often try to nap, but just can't fall asleep! On the rare occasion that I do nap, I always wake up feeling more tired than I was before I took the nap! This exhausted, sleepy, post-nap feeling doesn't go away until after I've been awake for a couple hours.

So at the hotel room, The Boyfriend went right to sleep. I watched The Suite Life for a bit then was completely overcome with exhaustion and had to turn off the tv and sleep!

Coming Up next... do we ever make it back to Epcot?

kdzbear

10-06-2009, 11:25 PM

trickiwoo

10-07-2009, 12:47 PM

I love your Epcot update! The lion fish are my favorite fish too! I also put a picture of one on my trip report. Someone taking photos on the Nemo ride would have annoyed me too. I took some photos, but I took them with the flash off. I think I need to try one of those Grey Goose things. Was your meal at Yakitori House a CS meal or a TS meal? It looked really good. princess:

It was a CS meal! It was very good! And very filling! And the Grey Goose slushes are fantastic! They're absolutely perfect for a hot day! I haven't tried the Grand Marnier ones yet, but they look pretty yummy too!

trickiwoo

10-07-2009, 05:00 PM

The Boyfriend had set his alarm on his cell phone before we took a nap. But his phone was on vibrate, so it didn't wake us up when it went off!

Luckily I woke up not too long after we were planning on waking up anyways. I woke up The Boyfriend and we were on our way back to Epcot!

The Boyfriend was nice and refreshed from his nap. I was not. I was even more tired than before I'd fallen asleep! But, my feet didn't hurt anymore so that was a plus! It took a few hours before I was no longer sleepy and fully recovered from the nap!

Once we got to Epcot, we went over to Innoventions and checked out a bunch of the displays there. It was a lot of fun!

Then we were getting hungry for dinner, so we headed back to the World Showcase! We got on the ferry and got off in Morocco!

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We went to the Tangierine Cafe for dinner!

The Boyfriend got a Lamb Wrap

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He really loved it!

He also got a Casa Beer

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He really loved that too! He said it was the best beer he had on our whole trip! He said if he can find a store around here that sells it, he'd buy it regularly.

I got a Falafel Wrap

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And I took a picture after I'd eaten some of it because it was hard to see the falafel in the first picture!

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This was delicious!!!! Definitely my favorite CS meal of the whole trip!

Both of our wraps also came with these sides

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They were Tangierine CousCous salad and Lentil salad. They were so good!!! It was a lot of food though, and I was too full to finish my sides! I wish I'd had more room though because they were very good!

From our table, we had a fantastic view of Mo'Rockin

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While we were eating, it started raining. It wasn't pouring like it had done on Sunday. It was just drizzling. We did get a little wet, but neither of us were bothered by it.

After dinner, we went to the Japan pavilion and checked out the Mitsukoshi store! I am a Hello Kitty fanatic (yes, I have a Hello Kitty tattoo too!) so I had to check out all things Hello Kitty!!! The Boyfriend really liked a lot of the video game stuff they had the store. After wandering around the store for a bit, we made our way over to what we came for. Well, what I came for anyway! The Pick A Pearl station! It was crazy crowded around there!!! I couldn't tell if it was people picking pearls or just spectators! I went to the register to buy my ticket! There were some people at the register buying settings for their pearls, so I got behind them to wait my turn. But when they were done, someone came from the other direction and made a purchase! There was no line, it was just a lot of chaos and confusion! And I'm not very aggressive, so I wasn't going to butt in and make my purchase. So I had to wait a little bit. But then someone saw I had been waiting and let me go in front of them. So I bought my ticket and waited my turn to pick my pearl!

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Then they called my number and I picked an oyster!

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The CM told me to make a wish and I was bewildered! I didn't know you had to make a wish! I should have thought of a wish beforehand! I didn't know what to wish for! I was at Disney World! What more could I want? I did make a wish, but now I have no memory at all about what I wished for! Thinking back on it now, I should have wished to live in Cinderella's castle... princess:

She opened up the oyster and got the pearl out! She said it had a hint of gold color to it! She presented it, rang the gong, cleaned it up, put it in the baggie then handed it to me!

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It was all very exciting!!! I had a pearl!!!

I did not get it set there. But when I got home, I bought a cage for it on eBay and I wear it as a necklace every day!

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Isn't it lovely???

We left Japan and made our way to the UK.

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It was still raining. Though I felt that the drizzly rain helped it feel more like an authentic UK experience!

We stopped in the Rose and Crown pub for a drink. It was absolutely packed! We finally made our way to the bar to order our drinks.

I got a Welsh Dragon

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It's made with Peach schnapps, Melon liqueur, créme de Menthe, Orange Juice, and Pineapple Juice.

Oh My Goodness! This was the absolute best drink I had the whole trip! I freakin LOVED it! I found the recipe online and now I make them at home. So so so good! This is probably my all time favorite drink ever!

The Boyfriend got a Boddingtons English Pub Ale

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He enjoyed it. Though probably not as enthusiastically as me and my Welsh Dragon!

It was just way too crowded in the pub, so we took our drinks outside and sat on a wet bench and enjoyed our drinks in the rain.

After we were done with our drinks, we headed over to Norway.

But first we stopped to take some pictures...

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The World Showcase is so lovely at night!

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Me in front of Spaceship Earth. It was very pretty all lit up!

Once we got to Norway we rode Maelstrom. It was fun! I enjoyed it! The polar bears were my favorite part!

Then we went to Mexico! I stopped by the margarita stand and got a Fiesta Margarita

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Yuck! This was not good at all! The whole thing just tasted like lime, I couldn't taste any of the other flavors at all. And I guess they don't do the green flavor any more! I was a little bummed about that. But yeah, I couldn't finish this. I kept waiting to see if it would taste better once it got meltier and the flavors blended more. It didn't. It still just tasted like lime. So I gave it to The Boyfriend and he finished it off.

By then the rain had stopped! It was getting pretty late though, and we really only had time to do one more thing before Illuminations! So Tequila Bar it was!!

And my post had too many photos, so I ended up having to break it up! You'll have to read the next installment to see what we thought of the new Tequila Bar!

trickiwoo

10-07-2009, 05:02 PM

We went inside the Mexico pavilion

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And we quickly found La Cava del Tequila!

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We both really liked the atmosphere in there! Plus the server was sooo nice and so helpful!

I was still full from dinner, which is a shame because the food looked really good and I really wanted to try the guacamole! But I'd settle for a margarita!

The Boyfriend ordered the Limon-Jalapeno Margarita

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We both really liked it! It was salty, spicy, sweet and sour all at the same time! The Boyfriend said, "It's like an explosion of flavor in my mouth!"

I ordered the Fruta de Pacion Margarita

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It was passionfruit flavored and I love passionfruit! So yeah, I really enjoyed it! It was pretty sweet and super delicious!

After we finished our drinks, we went to go find a spot to watch Illuminations. There was plenty of standing room with views of the water, but we both really wanted to sit. So we found a bench. We couldn't see the water part of the show very well, but we had a nice view of the fireworks.

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The Boyfriend watching the fireworks.

We'll have to get a better view of the whole show next time...

The Boyfriend told me about how at Epcot there were parts where the ground lit up at night and that was one of his favorite things as a child. So we went off to go find where the ground lights up. We searched around where he thought it was, but couldn't find anything. And just when he was about to give up, I spotted it!

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It was really awesome!!! Way cooler than I pictured it would be when he described it to me! (And I thought it sounded pretty awesome!)

So we sat there and watched the changing lights on the ground for a bit while we waited for the crowds to leave.

Once the rush was over, we went out to the bus stop and pretty soon we were on our way back to the hotel!

When we got there, I really had to go to the bathroom. So I used the bathroom in the lobby and The Boyfriend went on ahead. When I got to the room, I expected him to have gotten there long before me, but the room was empty! I was a little bit concerned. But pretty soon he showed up with gifts!

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These were so good!!! They were surprisingly soft! Mm! So yummy! I took a few bites of mine that night, but couldn't finish it. But I brought it home and ate it when I got back!

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The Boyfriend liked his too and ate it all right then and there!

He also brought some veggies!!

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These ended up being the perfect late night snack and we ended up getting the veggie tray a couple more times when we returned from the parks at night!

After we snacked, we watched some tv then got ready for bed!

By this point it felt like we'd been on vacation forever! We'd done sooo much! It was hard to believe we still had two more parks to visit!

Epcot was a lot of fun. I was disappointed that we didn't get to spend nearly as much time at the World Showcase as I wanted to! But if we hadn't taken that nap, we wouldn't have enjoyed anything at the WS! So it was a good decision! The WS is now a high priority for my next WDW trip!

Coming Up Next... the park that ended up being my absolute favorite!

kdzbear

10-07-2009, 06:59 PM

Then we were getting hungry for dinner, so we headed back to the World Showcase! We got on the ferry and got off in Morocco!

We went to the Tangierine Cafe for dinner!

This restaurant is also my favorite CS in the World Showcase. Did you have baklava for dessert?

This was delicious!!!! Definitely my favorite CS meal of the whole trip!

It was all very exciting!!! I had a pearl!!!

I did not get it set there. But when I got home, I bought a cage for it on eBay and I wear it as a necklace every day!

http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/19625/2695975210105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

Isn't it lovely???

I love the setting for your pearl!

We stopped in the Rose and Crown pub for a drink. It was absolutely packed! We finally made our way to the bar to order our drinks.

I got a Welsh Dragon

http://inlinethumb62.webshots.com/43389/2531698820105608304S500x500Q85.jpg

It's made with Peach schnapps, Melon liqueur, créme de Menthe, Orange Juice, and Pineapple Juice.

Oh My Goodness! This was the absolute best drink I had the whole trip! I freakin LOVED it! I found the recipe online and now I make them at home. So so so good! This is probably my all time favorite drink ever!

Can you post this recipe? I would love to try it!

Once we got to Norway we rode Maelstrom. It was fun! I enjoyed it! The polar bears were my favorite part!

I love the polar bears too, but I collect bears!Great updates. I would love to try the tequila bar, but with 3 little ones I am not sure they would let us in.

charming23

10-07-2009, 08:46 PM

trickiwoo

10-08-2009, 01:05 PM

This restaurant is also my favorite CS in the World Showcase. Did you have baklava for dessert?

I definitely didn't have room for dessert! I'll have to try the baklava some other time!

Can you post this recipe? I would love to try it!

Ingredients

3/4 ounce peach schnapps
3/4 ounce melon liqueur
1/2 ounce green crème de menthe
to taste orange juice
to taste pineapple juice

Method of preparation:

Mix all ingredients together, blending well. Pour over ice. Enjoy!

I love the polar bears too, but I collect bears!Great updates. I would love to try the tequila bar, but with 3 little ones I am not sure they would let us in.

Yeah, you should probably save the visit to the tequila bar for a trip when you bring a babysitter along!

trickiwoo

10-08-2009, 01:12 PM

Love the setting you got for your pearl, it is beautiful. It was so crowded in Japan the night I was there so I decided against it. But I did end up getting one at Sea World. Can not wait to hear more about the drinking, I mean your trip lol.

I wouldn't have minded the crowds so much if there had been an actual line, but it was pretty chaotic!! If it was anything like the day I was there, I don't blame you for passing on the Pick A Pearl! But at least you got one on your trip!

Oh, there's plenty more drinking to come! :drinking1

trickiwoo

10-08-2009, 02:20 PM

Since we had been pretty exhausted at the park the day before, we decided to sleep in a bit the next day. We had to deal with more crowds, but it made a huge difference in how we felt!!! We were able to go, go, go all day without getting too tired.

We had breakfast at the Food Court again. It was a lot more crowded just an hour or so later than the usual time we'd be eating. It wasn't bad though and we had no trouble finding a seat.

I had a cherry pastry turnover thing

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It was allright. I didn't like it as much as the other cherry pastry I had a few days before.

The Boyfriend had the same breakfast platter again. The one with the french toast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, biscuit, sausage and bacon. Since it was the same thing, I decided not to bother him by taking pictures of his food! He did share his scrambled eggs with me! I really loved those scrambled eggs!

On the way back to our room to drop off our mugs and get ready for the parks, I stopped to get a picture of my favorite Hidden Mickey

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When we got to the bus stop, the line to Animal Kingdom was insane!!!! That was the longest line I'd seen at the ASMu bus stop the entire trip. It just went on and on and on! It was hot outside and neither of us felt like standing in the hot sun for who knows how long for a bus with standing room only. So we got on the nearly empty bus to Downtown Disney instead! Then at Downtown Disney, we hopped on a bus to the first resort we could find. I'm pretty sure it was Coronado Springs, but I could be mistaken. The line to Animal Kingdom from Coronado Springs wasn't nearly as long as the line had been at ASMu! And it wasn't long before we were on a bus to Animal Kingdom. It probably took us longer to get to Animal Kingdom this way than if we had just waited in the line, but we got to sit the whole time. And most of the sitting was on an air conditioned bus. And we were moving which felt like we were accomplishing more than just standing.

When we got to Animal Kingdom, I had no trouble getting through the gate! I was becoming an expert at this! Put the card in the reader, put your finger on the blue thing, then grab your card and go!

Pretty soon we were in Animal Kingdom!

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And I insisted we go ride the Kilimanjaro Safaris! The CM we had on the Safaris was not that enthusiastic. He just wasn't selling it. But it was still fun! I just liked seeing the animals!

We saw lots of animals! Including...

Elephants

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And rhinos

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We did see a lot more animals than that, but those are just some of the better pictures I got!

We saved the orphaned animatronic baby elephant and got off the ride. It was one of my favorite rides even with the CM that just didn't get into it.

After the safari, we walked the Pangani trail. We both loved the gorillas

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I had so much fun taking pictures of the animals on the trail

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We were pretty hungry by then, so we headed to Pizzafari for lunch. Now, I really think The Boyfriend would have liked Flame Tree Barbecue better. He loves barbecue, but I absolutely do not! I let him decide, and he insisted we go to Pizzafari.

When we ordered, the CM asked if we wanted to make a donation to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund. We both made small donations and we each got a Conservation Hero button!

The Boyfriend got a pepperoni pizza

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With a side Cesar salad

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He enjoyed his food. It was Disney pizza. It was what he was expecting.

I had a chicken Cesar salad

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It was really good! I enjoyed it very much!

We also got an order of cheesey breadsticks to share

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Yuck!!! They were not good at all!!! We took a few bites and could not finish them. They were so gross.

After lunch, we headed over to the Tree Of Life to see the It's Tough To Be A Bug 3D show! But first I had to stop to get pictures of the tree!

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The show was very cute! I loved it!

After exiting the theater, we hung around the tree spotting animals and taking pictures.

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Then we made our way over to the Kali River Rapids! On the way we spotted this really cool fountain that The Boyfriend loved!

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It was a dome of water that you could put your hand inside and your hand would be dry! It was pretty neat!

The line for Kali River Rapids was around 40 minutes. It was definitely the longest attraction line we waited in the whole trip. When we got on the ride, we were the last two people getting into our raft and there weren't two connected seats together so we each had to sit next to other people. The Boyfriend sat next to this little girl. When he sat down, she asked her parents, "Why do I have to sit next to him? He's not my daddy!" It was the most adorable thing ever! The Boyfriend felt so bad though!

The ride was a lot of fun! We got pretty wet!

After we got off the ride, I stopped to get a Mickey Mouse ice cream bar! I've never had one before, so I was very excited about it!

The Boyfriend carefully documented my first bite:

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I'm happy to report that these lived up the the hype!! So delicious! Sadly, I had to eat it pretty quickly so it wouldn't melt and I couldn't take the time to savor every bite.

After I finished my ice cream, I made a stop to the bathroom to clean all the melted chocolate off my hands! I saw this in the bathroom which I thought was super fancy!

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We decided it was time for a drink, so we headed to the Dawa Bar! On the way, we passed monkeys!

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Then we grabbed a seat at the Dawa Bar!

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The Boyfriend had a Safari Amber

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I had the Lost On Safari

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It hit the spot! It was Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, Bacardi Superior Rum, and Pangani Punch fruit juices!

Coming Up Next... more animal adventures! (And me being an enormous chicken!)

trickiwoo

10-12-2009, 04:10 PM

Allright, I'm back! I've been pretty busy these past few days, but I'm back and ready to continue with the TR!

After finishing our drinks at the Dawa Bar, we headed over to Dinoland USA.

We stopped for some pictures along the way...

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We also stopped to see a Crocodile!

I took a picture

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But I was too short, so I got the fence in the picture

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So I tried lifting my arms up as high as I could

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And it worked! I was able to get a better picture

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We saw Dino-Sue

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Then we rode Dinosaur!!! We did have to share the ride vehicle with a group of very loud, obnoxious teenagers! But it was still a very fun ride!!!

Then we headed over to Expedition Everest. I looked up at it and it was really, really high. I was afraid that I wouldn't like it at all! And I was having such a fun time at Animal Kingdom that I didn't want to ruin it with another experience similar to the Tower Of Terror! So I found a seat where you could view the people on the ride and waited while The Boyfriend got in line.

Since I had absolutely nothing to do while I waited, I decided to take pictures of all the trains that went by! That way I'd capture The Boyfriend on the ride! And I had a lot of fun sitting there with my camera capturing the trains as they exited the mountain!

At one point, the lady next to me saw me doing this and says to me, "You might as well just buy the ride photo. There's no way you're going to be able to get a good picture with that camera. It's not fast enough. I can't even get a good picture with my camera..."

How rude!!! She just sounded so snotty! I didn't know what to say to that, so I just shrugged and continued taking pictures!

But she made me so angry! First of all, the main reason I was even taking pictures was to pass the time instead of just sitting and waiting! Second of all, while the ride photos are great fun- they're just a close up of you on the ride and don't give you a lot of context to the ride itself! Third of all, I could have brought my fastest, most expensive camera with 51-point auto focus with 3D focus tracking that can shoot up to 6 frames per second if I was at Disney World to take some serious photos. But I chose not to because that's not what I wanted to do on my vacation! I wanted to have fun and capture some snapshots of what a great time I had. So please don't tell me how your camera is soooo much better than mine and that you assume you know what I'm doing.

And I was actually quite pleased with a lot of the detail I was able to capture in my pictures!

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These are just smaller low res crops of the photos, so you can't see as much detail as in the full size high resolution versions, but it gives you a good idea. I was able to clearly see facial expressions and read words on t-shirts.

Now, most of the photos I captured were crystal clear. But of course, I accidentally shook the camera during the one train The Boyfriend was on. So the photo of him was blurry. But it wasn't because my camera wasn't good enough. (I'm sorry, she just really made me so angry!)

Anyway, I still like the picture of him on the ride! Even if it's blurry!

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And if you can't spot him in the photo, I drew a red arrow pointing him out!

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While waiting in line I saw this father and smiled. It takes a real man to wear a Disney Princess backpack!

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It wasn't long before The Boyfriend was off the ride and there to greet me! He said Everest was great and that he thought I could totally handle it! He said there weren't any really big drops. I was still a little nervous, but I agreed that on our next WDW trip I would definitely get up the nerve and ride Expedition Everest. I told him that I love Big Thunder Mountain, and that the next day when we were at MK he should compare Big Thunder Mountain to Everest and let me know how it compared.

The only thing I regret about not riding Everest is that because I didn't ride I had to experience that rude woman's comments! Because I didn't ride it, it gives me something new to look forward to on my next visit!

Then we walked the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

More animals!

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The tigers were all pretty active and I took a lot of pictures of them. It was around 4 pm when we were there, and I'd read online that was the best time to see them since it was close to their feeding time so they were most active.

While we were watching the tigers, one of them peed in the grass. A mother was explaining to her young child that it was part of nature and all animals go potty. The child enthusiastically shouted, "Dogs and cats do it too!" It was pretty adorable. Kids are too funny!

I didn't realize it when I took the picture, but when I got home and looked at my photos I noticed that I'd gotten a fantastic shot of a tiger in the water taking a poo! How lovely! (Don't worry... I'm not going to post that picture!)

While we were looking at the tigers, a nice woman offered to take our photo

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And I took a photo of The Boyfriend at the end of the trek

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After seeing the animals, it was time for dinner! We ate at the Yak and Yeti Counter Service place.

The Boyfriend got shrimp lo mein

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He enjoyed it very much!

I got chicken friend rice

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It was very delicious! It was just a side, but it was plenty of food for me and it filled me up!

Here's how the side container measures up to the meal container

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The Boyfriend had a Kirin Ichiban beer

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And I had a Yak Attack

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Man, that was good! It was by far the best frozen drink I had on my trip! It was made using Mango Daiquiri, Bacardi Light Rum, and Wildberry Flavors.

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It was all swirly and pretty looking!

There were EMHs that night, but we'd really done everything we wanted to do. The only thing I really wanted to do a second time was the Kilimanjaro Safaris, but that wasn't open during EMH anyway! I still didn't quite have the nerve to get on Everest, even after The Boyfriend said I could handle it.

So we made our way to the exit, stopping to look at animals here and there. And stopping to explore the occasional cave.

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Animal Kingdom was soooo much fun! I loved it! It was my favorite park. It was really awesome to just be able to go on a ride, then stop and see some animals! I thought it was more fun than a zoo because of the rides, and more fun than a theme park because of all the animals everywhere!

I'd heard that Animal Kingdom is the hottest park, but to me it actually felt the coolest! There were big trees everywhere so you could stay in the shade almost everywhere you went! I didn't get nearly as hot at Animal Kingdom as I did at the other parks! I was actually pretty comfortable the whole day.

Coming up next... We ride the monorail!

kdzbear

10-12-2009, 05:37 PM

Allright, I'm back! I've been pretty busy these past few days, but I'm back and ready to continue with the TR!

And I was actually quite pleased with a lot of the detail I was able to capture in my pictures!

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There were EMHs that night, but we'd really done everything we wanted to do. The only thing I really wanted to do a second time was the Kilimanjaro Safaris, but that wasn't open during EMH anyway! I still didn't quite have the nerve to get on Everest, even after The Boyfriend said I could handle it.

Animal Kingdom was soooo much fun! I loved it! It was my favorite park. It was really awesome to just be able to go on a ride, then stop and see some animals! I thought it was more fun than a zoo because of the rides, and more fun than a theme park because of all the animals everywhere!

Yeah for making it back to the TR! I think your pictures of Everest are amazing! Are you sure the Safari wasn't running again? I know at the front of the park it gives the last ride time, but then on the EMH times sheet it gives different times. We rode it at 6:50 pm on the night of our EMH. I am so glad that you enjoyed Animal Kingdom! princess:

TXAng

10-12-2009, 08:41 PM

trickiwoo

10-13-2009, 05:05 PM

Yeah for making it back to the TR! I think your pictures of Everest are amazing! Are you sure the Safari wasn't running again? I know at the front of the park it gives the last ride time, but then on the EMH times sheet it gives different times. We rode it at 6:50 pm on the night of our EMH. I am so glad that you enjoyed Animal Kingdom! princess:

Thank you! You know... I didn't even check! Before the trip I'd looked at a list of attractions that were and were not open during EMH and I remembered seeing the Safaris on the not open list!

trickiwoo

10-13-2009, 05:10 PM

I can't believe that lady was so rude to you! Ugh. Some people. :headache:

Sounds like y'all had a great time at AK! That was our favorite park, too (well, I decided it was a tie between Epcot and AK for favorite park). That's so cool that you got to see the tigers while they were awake! We didn't time it that well, so I've got lots of sleeping tiger photos.

That Yak Attack drink looks SO good.

I know! If you don't have something nice to say, just keep your mouth shut! And it wasn't like I was bothering her or anything! I was keeping to myself!

Ooh, Epcot was a very, very, very close 2nd as my favorite park!

trickiwoo

10-14-2009, 05:03 PM

We got on the bus to the TTC. Then from there we hopped on the resort monorail!

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I was very excited about this! It was my first time riding the monorail at WDW. And I hadn't ridden the Disneyland monorail in 20 years!

Our first stop was the Polynesian!

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It was very beautiful! I really loved the waterfalls! We seated ourselves in the Tambu Lounge and ordered some drinks. The Boyfriend was disappointed that they didn't have any beers on tap. They said they were in the process of changing out the drinks on tap. So he ordered a bottled beer. I don't remember what he got... probably a Sam Adams or something. I decided not to bother him by taking pictures of his drink. Especially since it was something he drinks all the time at home!

I got myself a Lapu Lapu!

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Myers rum, tropical juices and topped with Bacardi 151 inside a pineapple! Yum!

After finishing our drinks, we made our way back to the monorail! Next stop... The Grand Floridian!

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The Grand Floridian definitely had the biggest Wow Factor when you walk in. Such a gorgeous place. Neither of us had any desire to stay there though. Too fancy for us! But it was very nice to look at!

We sat down at the Mizner's Lounge. They brought us some complimentary nuts.

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I'm allergic to nuts, so I didn't eat any. But The Boyfriend liked them.

They didn't have any beers on tap here either! Again they said they were in the process of switching them out. The Boyfriend ordered some beer in a bottle. Again I don't remember what and chose not to take a picture.

I got myself a Magical Star Cocktail.

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It was made with X-Fusion Organic Mango and Passion Fruit Liqueur, Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, and Pineapple Juice and came with a souvenir Multicolored Glow Cube!

It was really neat to see the changing colors from the Glow Cube, so I took a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6WLXcRYz-U)

While we were in the lounge, they had a tv on with some sort of entertainment news show. They had a bunch of celebrities saying things like, "He'll be missed." or "He'll be in our memories." and then they started showing photos of Patrick Swayze. I said to The Boyfriend, "I think Patrick Swayze died..." Being at Disney World was like being under a rock! We were totally out of touch with the rest of the world! Later that night I called my mom and I asked her if Patrick Swayze had died since we didn't really get a confirmation from the news story but that's what it looked like to us. My mom was like, "Yeah, he died a few days ago."

When we finished our drinks, we walked around the Grand Floridian checking out some of the shops. We both really liked the Basin Soap Store. I took pictures of some of my favorite soaps in the window display:

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I was also a big fan of the Holiday Soaps:

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Haha, sorry about all the pictures!!! I just really liked these soaps and thought they were so cool!! The Boyfriend ended up buying some soap for his mom!

When we were done shopping, we got back on the monorail and got off at the Contemporary! We headed over to the Outer Rim Lounge and had a seat at the bar.

The Boyfriend was pleasantly surprised to see they actually had beers on tap!

He got a Wolaver's Organic Ale

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And I got myself a Blue Glow-tini

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It was made with Skyy citrus vodka, Peach schnapps, Blue curacao, Sweet-and-sour, and pineapple juice and came with souvenir Blue glow cube! Which actually was the same glow cube as the multicolored glow cube... just set on the blue setting! It was really good! Though I did get the sugar on the rim which tasted yummy, but made my hands all sticky!!!

Our bartender's name was Ray and he was soooooooo nice! He gave us puzzles to solve and did tricks for us! And he was just super friendly to everyone at the bar and just went above and beyond. He really made an impression on us! He even offered to take our picture

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And when I finished my drink, he offered to rinse off my Glow Cube for me! The Boyfriend and I were both so impressed by his service! The next time we're in WDW, we are definitely going to stop by the Outer Rim Lounge to see if he's working!

When we finished our drinks we made a stop at the bathroom so I could wash my hands. They were soooo sticky from the sugar on my glowtini! Then we did some shopping at the Fantasia Store. It was really cool! Probably my favorite gift shop of the whole trip! And they had a Little Mermaid pin set which I couldn't find in any other store, so I bought it! The Boyfriend bought some souvenirs for his family. He got his parents a Mickey Mouse watch and a hoodie. And he got his siblings each a Vinylmation figure.

It was then that The Boyfriend realized he didn't have his soap on him! So we went back to the Outer Rim and Ray helped us find his soap. The Boyfriend had left it at his seat. Luckily it was still there.

We were ready to go back to our hotel, so we got on the monorail and headed to the Magic Kingdom to get on a bus. Of course, it was park closing time when we got there so there were some pretty long lines. But we didn't mind waiting. I'm sure the alcohol helped! But we were both in good spirits and chatted away while we waited for a bus. And it didn't seem like very long before we were on a bus heading back to ASMu!

kdzbear

10-14-2009, 05:57 PM

I like your new update. I guess we did not explore GF enough since I did not know that there was a soap shop there. I don't think I could have stood up after a monorail drinking tour! :laughing:

trickiwoo

10-16-2009, 01:43 PM

I like your new update. I guess we did not explore GF enough since I did not know that there was a soap shop there. I don't think I could have stood up after a monorail drinking tour! :laughing:

Haha! We were a little bit goofy after the monorail drinking tour! I just remember everything being really funny...

trickiwoo

10-16-2009, 02:45 PM

When we got back to our hotel, we stopped at the Singing Spirits Pool Bar for another drink.

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It was really crowded, so I grabbed a table, while The Boyfriend went up to the bar to order. The bartender asked to see his ID so The Boyfriend handed it to him. Then the bartender hid the ID under the counter where The Boyfriend couldn't see it and the bartender asked him, "What year were you born?" He was quizzing him!

The Boyfriend was pretty offended by this. He's almost 25 and he definitely doesn't look like he's under 21! Most of the time he doesn't get carded, but when he does it doesn't ever bother him. In fact, he thinks it's a very good policy for places to card anyone who looks under 30. But he thought it was pretty ridiculous that the bartender took his ID away and asked him for his year of birth like he was accusing him of trying to buy alcohol with a fake ID.

I called my mom that night and told her about it and she was pretty shocked! She said that my boyfriend looked way older than 21! She said she'd understand if the bartender did that to me because I look like I'm in high school, but not my boyfriend.

Since The Boyfriend could accurately tell the bartender he was born in 1985, the bartender determined his ID was not a fake and allowed The Boyfriend to buy two Tangerine Dreams.

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It was Finlandia Tangerine Vodka blended with Orange Puree. They were pretty yummy. We enjoyed our drinks at the table outside. They were showing Beverly Hills Chihuahua on a big movie screen by the pool. When we finished our drinks, we headed back to our hotel room. We changed into our bathing suits and went to the piano pool for a swim!

We swam for a bit, then I started shivering from being cold so we headed back inside. We got ready for bed and went to sleep.

There were EMHs at the Magic Kindgom the next morning, but we decided to sleep in. We planned on getting to Magic Kingdom around noon.

When we got up the next morning, there was our DME pick up time on our door! Our pick up time was around 9:30 the next morning.

We went to the Food Court for breakfast. I had another Mickey Waffle!

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I don't eat bacon, but I ordered with bacon so I could give the bacon to The Boyfriend. I felt bad because I'd been eating his scrambled eggs every morning!

Again The Boyfriend got the same breakfast platter with the scrambled eggs, french toast sticks, hash browns, bacon, sausage and biscuit. He found something he liked and he was sticking to it!

On the way back to our room, I noticed the car in front of the Rock section, so I stopped to get some pictures!

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Then we made our way back to our room, dropped off our mugs, and got ready for a fun and exciting day at the Magic Kingdom!

We went to the bus stop, and again there was a huge line for Animal Kingdom! We had no idea why Animal Kingdom was so popular these last couple of days... The line for Magic Kingdom wasn't that long and we got in it and soon we were on our way to the park!

Coming Up Next... Lunch at Tony's Town Square Restaurant! And later... Do I get up the nerve to ride Splash Mountain?

aprilisis

10-16-2009, 04:56 PM

trickiwoo

10-16-2009, 07:22 PM

I just got caught up. I LOVE your TR! I feel bad that you didn't like ToT- it is one of my favorites!!! I really love Soarin', too. I noticed during your PTR that we had the same crocs...the one day I wore mine in Universal & IOA they were ok for part of the day, but they really tore up my feet by the end of the day. Next time I think I will just deal with wet running shoes instead of wearing crocs! We have so much in common, though- I hope our trips overlap someday!:goodvibes

I will definitely check out your TR when I get a chance!

Oh no! I ended up wearing my Crocs on the whole trip and they were great!!! The Boyfriend's shoes and socks got wet from stepping in puddles and he got horrible blisters on his feet from it! I was definitely glad I wore Crocs!

trickiwoo

10-17-2009, 02:13 PM

We arrived at Magic Kingdom, and I was very excited to see all the Halloween decorations!

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This was our last day at the parks, and I was happy to say I had no trouble getting through the gate! I was a pro by now!

We entered the park and walked around Main Street USA

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And I knew the very first thing I wanted to do was go check out that castle!!!

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The Boyfriend and I both took tons of castle photos!

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When we felt we'd taken enough photos, we headed to Tomorrowland

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The first thing that caught my eye in Tomorrowland was this egret!

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I'd never been that close to an egret before! They're huge!!!

We had about an hour until we had to be at Tony's for our lunch reservation, so we didn't want to do anything that had too long of a line or would take too long. So I suggested the Carousel of Progress. The Boyfriend had never been on it, so he agreed!

We both liked it a lot. I thought the spinning theater was pretty cool! But I still have that song stuck in my head!

After the Carousel Of Progress, we still had quite a bit of time to kill. So we decided to watch the Dream Along With Mickey show in front of the castle.

My favorite part was when the princesses twirled and whirled around

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The Boyfriend's favorite part was when Maleficent made her entrance

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And we both liked the fireworks!

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After the show, we made our way down Main Street heading towards Tony's.

I loved the balloons!

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Soon we were at Tony's Town Square Restaurant!

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I was very excited about eating here because I love, love, love, love, LOVE Lady and the Tramp!

trickiwoo

10-17-2009, 02:14 PM

We headed inside and gave our name and they gave us a cute Lady and the Tramp pager!

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I liked that the bathrooms were labeled Ladies...

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And Tramps...

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Our pager never did go off, but they did call our name. We were led to our table. Our table was right next to the "window" that faced the back "alley" where we could see Lady and the Tramp out back eating their spaghetti!

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It was so cute!!! And super awesome! It's hard to tell from the picture, but it had some depth to it. So the clotheslines looked further away than where the dogs were. It was just really neat!

We looked over the menus and ordered our food!

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While we waited for the food to come, I went to check out the fountain

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So cute!

I was definitely in love with all the Lady and Tramp photos everywhere! And it was kind of hard to hear because the restaurant was pretty loud, but they were playing Bella Notte!

We split this cheesey bread as an appetizer

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I had the calamari

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It was also on the appetizer menu, but I often order appetizers as meals. A full meal is just way too much food for me! But this calamari was delicious!!! Probably the best calamari I've ever had. It was absolutely perfect!

The Boyfriend got the chicken parmesean

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He also loved it! Tony's was a big hit for us!

When we were done eating, we went outside. I wanted to get a picture of The Boyfriend with the Goofy statue!

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I also really wanted to find Lady and the Tramp's pawprints! I finally did find them, but someone had parked a stroller on top of them!

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Now that we were fed, it was time for rides!

trickiwoo

10-20-2009, 05:37 PM

After we ate, it was time to go on rides! And we decided to start with my very favorite ride... the Jungle Boats! (Yes, I know it's called the Jungle Cruise... but I've always called it the Jungle Boats!)

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I actually enjoyed the Jungle Boats at WDW more than the Jungle Boats at Disneyland! It was The Boyfriend's first time riding either. He seemed to enjoy it.

After the Jungle Boats, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean.

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There was absolutely no line at all! We just walked right on the ride! I've never had that happen at Disneyland before!!! I enjoyed it, even though I like the Disneyland version better.

After Pirates, it was time for a Dole Whip Float!

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I've never had one before, but I'd heard so much about them here on the DIS. And I must admit, they looked pretty delicious! I was eager to try one for myself!

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I decided to try some of the Dole Whip softserve by itself first. It wasn't as tasty as I was expecting. I hoped the float would be better. So I tried some. It was just allright. It was refreshing, but not as delicious as I hoped it would be. So I waited for the softserve to melt into the juice. That was when it tasted the best, but still I didn't really think it was all that good. It wasn't bad or anything... It just didn't really do anything for me.

After I finished my float, we headed over to the mountains... Big Thunder and Splash! Now... if you read my PTR, I mentioned that I'm terrified of Splash Mountain. I've never ever been on it. Last time I went to Disneyland I was absolutely certain I was going to get up the nerve to ride Splash Mountain! Then when we got there, I took one look at it and chickened out! So this time I was even more determined! The Boyfriend didn't think I'd be able to do it.

The line for Splash Mountain was twice as long as the ride for Big Thunder. So we grabbed some Fastpasses for Splash Mountain and got in line for Big Thunder! This was pretty exciting for us both since neither of us had ever used Fastpasses before! It was just as fun as I remembered from Disneyland! After riding it, The Boyfriend said that Expedition Everest was very similar and if I enjoyed Big Thunder, I'd enjoy Expedition Everest.

We still had some time to kill before we could use our Fastpasses, so we decided to go ride the Haunted Mansion. The more we could do before riding Splash Mountain the better! I was not looking forward to it, but I was determined to get up the nerve to ride it!

On the way to the Haunted Mansion, I stopped to get some photos of egrets! I was still amazed that they were all over the park!!

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The Boyfriend did enjoy taking pictures of me taking pictures of the birds!!!

Then we got in line for the Haunted Mansion

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When I was very little, I was terrified of this ride!!! My family could not get me to ride it! I wasn't afraid of the ghosts or anything like that. I was afraid of one particular part... the ballroom scene. Specifically going up the stairs! I did not like it at all!!! Now, when I went back to Disneyland in 2007 and rode the Haunted Mansion, there weren't any stairs!! And when I rode the Haunted Mansion this time at WDW, there weren't any stairs there either! You're like on a balcony looking down on the ballroom.

Does anyone know if either ride ever had a staircase you went up in the ballroom scene? I can't seem to find any information on this online, but I clearly remember that from when I was little. And now neither ride has stairs you go up.

After the Haunted Mansion, it was now a time when we could use our Fastpasses! Gulp! I was so nervous! I did NOT want to ride Splash Mountain! But I did want to prove to The Boyfriend that I was brave enough to ride it. I kept looking at my Fastpass and thinking, "You know... if I don't use this I can put it in my scrapbook..." But do I really want a reminder that I chickened out on Splash Mountain again???

Coming Up Next... Do I ride Splash Mountain? Do I chicken out yet again? Stay tuned to find out!

minniecarousel

10-20-2009, 11:04 PM

Lordy - I just read your entire PTR, and this TR! I'm waiting to see if you rode Splash!

aprilisis

10-21-2009, 12:23 PM

I hope you rode it!! There is SO much more to it than the drop.

trickiwoo

10-23-2009, 01:56 PM

We approached Splash Mountain

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I took a deep breath and got up the nerve to get in line. I was sooo shaky and nervous!!! I started feeling kind of sick to my stomach. But I was determined to just do it and get it over with!

Before I knew it, I was climbing into the seat! There was no turning back now! I was on Splash Mountain!

I had trouble enjoying the ride because I was so nervous about the drop at the end! Plus we just kept going up and up and up! It felt so much higher up than it looked!!! I was NOT looking forward to that drop!

The ride felt like it went on forever! And everytime I thought we were too high up, we'd go up even higher!!! This was not helping my nerves!

Then finally we got to right before the drop. But instead of the drop being from the height we were currently at... we went up even higher!!!!

Right as we were about to drop, I looked out at the view of the park from up high. It was really beautiful! It really gives you a fantastic view of the castle! While I enjoyed looking out at the park, I knew I didn't want to look down at the drop or I might pass out! So I closed my eyes right before we went down!

The drop was quick and over soon! Thank goodness! I didn't find the drop scary at all! But... I didn't think it was all that fun either! I was so relieved to hear "Zippity Do Da"! The drop was over and it didn't even scare me!

We got off the ride and I was very proud that I'd ridden it! The Boyfriend asked if I liked it, and I said it wasn't scary, but I didn't find it all that fun either. I said I'd be willing to ride it again, but if I wouldn't be disappointed if I didn't go on it again.

After Splash Mountain I wanted to go see more of the Castle!

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Then we went to go see Mickey's Philharmagic! On the way there, we heard a voice come over the park loudspeaker and say that the buses were backed up and they were sorry for the inconvenience. We continued to hear that announcement the rest of the day at the park. We thought it was odd and wondered what was going on with the buses, but we weren't really concerned because we weren't leaving the park at all until it closed so we didn't need to use the buses until then.

I LOVED Mickey's Philharmagic!!!! It was my favorite 3D show of all the 3D shows we'd seen at the parks! I was really looking forward to it because I LOVE Disney music! And it totally surpassed my expectations! My favorite parts were the food smells during "Be Our Guest" and riding the magic carpet! It was really an awesome show!

After the show, we wanted to ride Peter Pan's Flight, but the line was pretty long! So we ended up riding It's A Small World. There was no line at all and we walked right on. I hadn't been on Small World, since I was little, but it was very much like how I remembered!

When we got off the ride, the line for Peter Pan was still long! So we grabbed some Fastpasses.

We decided to go on Snow White's Scary Adventures since there was no line. I enjoyed it, even though it was more for little kids. It was similar to Peter Pan, but not quite as fun since you don't fly! I probably won't ever ride it again until I have kids, but I wanted to go on it since it was something at MK that they don't have at Disneyland!

After Snow White, we got in line for the Mad Tea Party.

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The ride was going, but we were some of the first people in line for the next go around. When they opened up the gates to let us on the ride, there was a mad dash for the teacups! It was chaotic! People were pushing past us and running to the cups. Everytime we started going towards an empty teacup, it wouldn't be empty by the time we got there! Finally we found an empty cup and The Boyfriend put his hand on the side and had lifted up his food and was climbing into the cup when a kid (probably between 7 and 9 years old) shoved past him, climbed into the cup, shut the door right in our faces and smiled at us! We were shocked! We looked around and there were no more empty cups! So we had to stand off to the side and wait for the next round!

We did manage to get a cup the next time around and we finally got to ride the teacups!

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It was a lot of fun!

When we were done with the teacups, we headed over to Tomorrowland. I wanted to ride the PeopleMover! (I know it's the TTA now, but it will always be the PeopleMover to me!) I LOVED the Disneyland PeopleMover as a kid, and was crushed when I went back a couple years ago and saw that it was gone! So I was very happy to learn that there's still a PeopleMover at WDW!

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The PeopleMover was just as exciting as I remembered!!!

Going inside Space Mountain was pretty neat since the ride wasn't open! All of the lights were on so you could see what the building looks like inside! You couldn't see any of the ride because they had barriers up, but you could look up and see the ceiling and stuff.

There was also a lot of construction going on outside Space Mountain

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One of my favorite parts of the TTA was seeing the Contemporary!

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The Boyfriend and I both agreed that was our favorite Deluxe Resort!

After the TTA, we decided to do one last ride before dinner! So we got in line for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin! I didn't care much for this one. I could never tell where my laser was pointing! I couldn't tell what I was shooting or where I was shooting at! I didn't think it was very fun and it was pretty frustrating!

We left Tomorrowland and made our way to Liberty Square. We decided to get there by passing through the Castle!

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Coming Up Next... our last night of vacation!

aprilisis

10-23-2009, 02:27 PM

Awesome updates! Thanks! I wish you had more days to report on. I don't want it to end.Oh- and YAY! I'm glad you rode Splash!

trickiwoo

10-28-2009, 04:06 PM

Awesome updates! Thanks! I wish you had more days to report on. I don't want it to end.Oh- and YAY! I'm glad you rode Splash!

I wish I had more days too!!! If it were up to me, I'd still be there!

trickiwoo

10-28-2009, 04:23 PM

We went to Columbia Harbour House for dinner!

The Boyfriend had Fish and Chips

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He thought they were good, but wished they had malt vinegar.

I had Clam Chowder

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It was very delicious!

We ate upstairs and it was very lovely!

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While we were eating, a woman came over near our table with her camera and was taking pictures of the trashcan in the restaurant. When she left, The Boyfriend said, "Well, I guess it could be worse. I could have a girlfriend that took photos of trashcans."

After dinner we still had quite a bit of time before we could use our Peter Pan Fastpasses. So we found a bench with a view of the castle and sat there watching the changing colors.

This was our view from the bench

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When we had about 10-15 minutes before we could use our Fastpasses, we went and waited over by the ride. The CM asked us when our Fastpasses were good for and then let us on the ride early!

Peter Pan's Flight was great fun! It's one of my favorites from my childhood! It was neat because it was the last ride I went on back when I went to Disneyland in 2007, and it was the last ride I went on this trip to Disney World! This may be a new tradition of mine...

After the ride, we went and watched SpectroMagic

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Then we went and found a viewing spot for Wishes!

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I texted my mom some SpectroMagic photos I'd taken on my cell phone

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Our spot had a pretty view of the Riverboat

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Oh yikes! I just looked at the clock and realized I have to get ready for work! I guess my Wishes photos will have to wait till my next installment!

aprilisis

10-29-2009, 01:06 PM

While we were eating, a woman came over near our table with her camera and was taking pictures of the trashcan in the restaurant. When she left, The Boyfriend said, "Well, I guess it could be worse. I could have a girlfriend that took photos of trashcans."

:lmao::rotfl2::rotfl: I took photos of trashcans at AK this trip!! I totally should not have admitted to that, either!:rolleyes1

trickiwoo

11-03-2009, 01:25 PM

:lmao::rotfl2::rotfl: I took photos of trashcans at AK this trip!! I totally should not have admitted to that, either!:rolleyes1

Haha! It's okay! I've actually been known to take the occasional trash can photo myself! But I decided not to tell The Boyfriend about that! And I refrain from doing so in his presence!

trickiwoo

11-03-2009, 03:05 PM

Sorry it's been so long since my last update! I've been really busy! I just started a new job, so I've been getting into the new swing of things!

And now back to the TR...

We weren't waiting long before Wishes started!

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The Boyfriend and I both love fireworks, so we enjoyed it very much!

After Wishes, there was a huge rush to the exits. So we decided to slowly make our way to the exits to avoid the rush.

We stopped and took pictures of the Castle!

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Then we checked out some of the shops on Main Street.

I liked the bubbly things in the candy store!

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I also liked the Little Mermaid window display!

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Tomorrowland looked really pretty at night!

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And I loved all the lights on Main Street!

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After waiting a good while, we decided to make our way to the bus stop. Oh My Goodness! It was mass hysteria! It was the most chaotic thing I'd seen the whole trip! There were people EVERYWHERE! The night before when we left The Contemporary, we'd gone to MK at closing to get on a bus back home and there were crowds, but it was nothing like this!

There were no lines for the buses! It was just a mass of people! People kept asking, "How do I get in a line to get on a bus going to such-and-such resort?" and nobody knew because there were no lines! There were too many people to even form lines! It was absolute insanity!

We remembered that we'd heard those alerts during the day about the buses being backed up, so we assumed this chaos was a result of that. We were right.

It wasn't until a few days later when we were back home that I remembered to look up what was going on with the buses that day. I was pretty shocked to learn that it was a bomb scare! If you're interested in the details, you can read all about it in this news story. (http://www.wesh.com/news/20971695/detail.html)

So we pushed our way through the crowds only to find that we couldn't even get in line for a bus. At this point, I was really cranky and irritable! I thought it was just because I was really tired and had been pushing myself a lot the last few days, but later I would learn that I was really feeling that way because I was starting to get sick!

But yes, I was not in the best of moods and the crowd of confused, tired Disney guests weren't helping! Then The Boyfriend had a brilliant idea. He suggested we go to Downtown Disney and get a drink at Pleasure Island before heading back to the hotel. So we made our way over to the monorail, but the line was also pretty long. It wasn't anything like the bus mess, but it was still a long line. But there was a ferry going to the Grand Floridian that had plenty of empty seats! We hopped aboard and were sitting and enjoying a lovely boat ride while everyone else was trying to figure out how to get on a bus.

We got off at the GF and made our way to the bus stop. We had to wait a good long while for a bus to come since they were really backed up, but we got to sit on benches, and there were only a few other people there at the bus stop, and they even had TVs on we could watch! Way better than anything we would have experienced back at MK!

The bus to DTD wasn't very full, so we got to sit which was nice. And it wasn't long before we were at PI! We decided to check out Raglan Road.

There was live music, which was very cool!

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And Irish dancing!

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The Boyfriend got the beer flight

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But I have no idea what drinks he got in the flight.

I got a drink called One For The Road

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Which was vodka, Midori, orange juice and pineapple juice. It was really good and I did enjoy it.

The Boyfriend ordered some Fish and Chips

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The Boyfriend really liked these! And he was pleased they came with vinegar!

I had this raspberry dessert. I just looked at the Raglan Road menu and it sounds like the "Raspberry Riot" but for some reason I thought it had a different name when I ordered it. I could be mistaken though. In any case, it was very yummy and looked like this:

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I also had a Strongbow Cider

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SO good!

And The Boyfriend had another beer

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I think it was the Smithwicks Irish Ale. He doesn't remember what he ordered!

We enjoyed our drinks and food, watched the dancing, listened to the music. It was a very nice end to our trip. Way better than standing around in a mass of people trying to figure out how to get on a bus!

There were some really drunk people at the table across from us! They were very amusing to watch! At one point they even jumped up on the stage and started dancing!

And at one point, this kid who couldn't have been more than 10 years old sat down at the table next to us and started jumping around in his seat and playing with the salt and pepper shakers. This was well after midnight! We looked around and there were no signs of his parents anywhere. Then just as suddenly as he had arrived, he took off again! It was pretty strange!

When we were done eating and drinking, we headed back to the bus stop and got on a bus back to the hotel.

Coming Up Next... We go back home!