JULY 2ND PART TWO: DOWNTOWN DISNEY
When I last left off, we had all settled in for a nap. Driving is tiring, yo.
I dont remember if I actually got much sleep or not, but I do remember lying there for a while staring at the photo of Future World that was hanging on the wall right next to me. It was my first OH MY GOD IM REALLY HERE moment of the trip. The most random little things tend to set me off, and, before I know it, I have tears in my eyes and goosebumps all over my body. One time, I almost started crying after using a Disney napkin for the first time that trip. A napkin
I cried over a stinkin napkin. Clearly, I have a problem.
Anyway, at 4:00, we all started getting ready to head over to Downtown Disney. I thought about showering to get all of the I was just sitting in a car for 7 hours off of me, but I went for the Eh, why bother? route and just changed into something a little less road trip-y.
Around 4:30, we headed out to the car and left for Downtown Disney. It should have been a short drive, but (again) the traffic was crazy. We sat there forever. Blerg.
Thankfully, though, I had plenty of Disney signage to flail over.
This picture is blurry, but you get the idea. Seeing those purple signs all around me never fails to leave me feeling happy as a clam. Which is a really strange expression. Like, what does it even mean? How can you tell whether or not a clam is happy? They sure dont appear to be very expressive
The Marketplace lot was full, so we had to park in the Pleasure Island lot.
No biggie, especially because T-Rex (where we would be eating dinner later that night) is RIGHT THERE.
After narrowly avoiding running over several guests who though jumping out in front of a cars would be a good idea, we found a spot and headed inside.
It was so nice to be back on Disney property.
The first thing we noticed was that there were a heck of a lot of people there. DTD was a bit of a madhouse. I mean, I guess thats to be expected on a Saturday night during July 4th weekend, but it was so unusual for us. Weve never actually done DTD at night, so we didnt have any previous experience with giant Disney shopping bag carrying hordes. We do have plenty of experience with FP running, stroller ramming, incredibly sweaty hordes though, so I figured wed be OK.
The second thing we noticed was that there were new displays outside of the
LEGO store! At least, I think they were new because I dont remember ever seeing them before. How exciting!
Here are the Dwarves (and Dad) getting their mine on!
Grumpy!
This guy wasnt new, but I still had to snap a picture of him.
He looks so happy. I bet people come feed him Mickey Premium bars (made out of LEGOs, of course) on a regular basis.
Finally, my favorite display, Woody and Buzz!
"Hey, Buzz, you're flying!" This isnt flying, this is falling
with style.
Our first store of the evening was Team Mickey. Were big sports fans, so its always fun to wander around in there. Ive never actually bought anything, but I always like to look. Wouldnt wanna miss anything cool, yknow? While we were in there, a guy was giving a demonstration on how to make baseball bats. It wouldve been interesting to watch, Im sure, but the giant Disney shopping bag carrying hordes descended and I couldnt see a thing. Boo.
To escape the hordes, we headed over to Tren-D, which, conveniently, connects right to Team Mickey. I bet thats so all of the macho dads/brothers can avoid the (perceived) shame of being caught dead in such a girly store.
As always, Tren-D had a bunch of cute stuff, but I was way too overwhelmed to actually purchase anything. That store is too crowded/small. Its like every Forever21 in the country in terms of disorganization, but its also only the size of an Auntie Annes pretzel stand, and that, my friends, equals a nightmare.
So, we left the chaos behind in favor of the wonderful, magical, jolly serenity of the Christmas store!
Ah, Christmas and Disney Two of my favorite things.
You know how I said earlier that we were thinking of maybe doing a Food and Wine redo trip? Well, we cant, so now were looking at a possible early December trip. Thanks to the fact that Katie and I both go to schools on the Quarter system, wed be able to get in and out before the MASSIVE Christmas crowds show up. Plus, seeing the Christmas decorations in person has always been a dream of mine. So lets all keep our fingers crossed that we can make a December trip happen!
Anyway, we spent quite a while looking through the Christmas store. Everything in there is just so happy and Christmas-y. Mom and I are quite ornament obsessed, so we usually end up bringing boxes of them home with us. Thankfully, we have a REALLY big tree.
Heres the ornament we picked out in honor of our first 4th of July trip. Sorry for the blurriness.
We also bought 3 of the blown glass mouse ear hats and had them personalized with our names. Well, Katie, Wade, and I did. They turned out a little different than what I was hoping for, but I still like them.
I was mainly hoping that the font would be bigger. I mean, my names really short and it looks a bit disproportionate to the rest of the ornament.
While there, I also fell in love with a set of Toy Story ornaments. However, we didnt actually buy them until later in the trip so Ill post those pictures then.
Next up, we headed to the Art of Disney.
This is another store I could spend hours in. I love rifling through all of the big boxes of prints and lusting after all of the expensive art hanging on the walls. Someday, once I figure out how to make a living by vacationing at WDW and am really rich, I will be turning my home into a Disney gallery. Im sure all of that Disney art will look great next to my *NSYNC posters and the Ron Swanson Pyramid of Greatness.
Before we left the area, Mom wanted a picture with the Sorcerers Apprentice mops. She wants one for our backyard.
As we walked back along the lake, I stopped to take a picture of one of the Let the Memories Begin! banners. I love them/this promotion/that font.
Because we still had quite a bit of time to kill before our reservation, we decided to suck it up and visit World of Disney. That store is ginormous, there are always a million people there, and all of the
stuff is panic attack-inducing, but I put on a brave face and in we went.
Surprisingly, there actually werent many people inside. I guess they were all too busy trying to cram themselves into Tren-D. Not having to deal with overcrowding and constantly being shoved into merchandise by pushy customers made this World of Disney experience a lot more pleasant. Too bad its not always like that.
Even though I told myself I wasnt going to buy anything because just about everything sold in WoD can be found throughout the parks, I wound up buying something. Well, my parents bought it for me, and its quite practical, so whatever.
I wore it several times in the parks(Especially because free falling drops of water + glasses = not being able to see. Hats perfectly shield my glasses from the rain.), and I can continue to do so in the future, so it was well worth the $22.95 + tax.
Mom and Dad also bought stuff, though I cant remember what exactly, but I know we left with a giant bag.
We still had time before dinner, so we decided to head towards Pleasure Island. I had never actually been in there before. Usually, we stick to the Marketplace. Its a bummer that all of the clubs have been closed down because, atmospherically, it seems like it would have been a really fun place. From the way the PI faithful talk about it, Im sure it was.
I really wanted to check out Curl, so we headed in there first. Again, I have to ask, why are all the girly stores so darn small? Did Disney not think that the trendy stores would draw big crowds? I mean, come on! If theres one thing (most) teenage/twenty something girls like to do, its shop. Especially while on vacation. Anyway, Curl was jam-packed. It was nuts.
I was super excited to find that Curl carried TOMS shoes. In fact, they had a GIANT wall full of them. I was in heaven. TOMS are the best. Ive been wearing them for years. Im currently sporting a wicked TOMS tan on my feet from wearing them around the parks.
There were a ton of people buying them and I almost started crying thinking about all of the little kids in less fortunate areas of the world who were about to get brand new pairs of shoes. Because I was feeling all warm and fuzzy, I decided to join in on the giving and buy a new pair. Theyre just solid brown, but Ive had my eye on them for a while, so YAY!
After Curl, we decided to walk back towards T-Rex and find a (somewhat) quiet spot to people-watch until it was time to check in. While we were walking over, we stumbled upon an electric string quartet playing right outside of Fultons. They were playing one of the songs I played in high school orchestra (I cant remember which one) and I started singing along. Well, is it really considered singing if I wasnt actually saying words? I was kinda do do do-ing. Whats the proper term for that?
Anyway, we found a shady area and sat down for a bit. Dad made a quick trip to the car so that we wouldnt have to carry the bags around with us all night. I was in dire need of something refreshing, so I went and got a strawberry slush. They serve them in Styrofoam coffee cups which made me smile. I saw someone earlier carrying one of the cups around and I was just like WHAT? Its way too hot for coffee right now! What is she thinking? As it turns out, she probably wasnt drinking coffee.
It was really nice to just sit for a while and take everything in. Typically, our first day at Disney is a bit on the overwhelming side because were all like OMG WE HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING AND EAT EVERYTHING AND SEE EVERYTHING RIGHT AWAY. Spending the first evening at Downtown Disney allowed us to relax and slowly adjust to being at Disney without having to deal with all the chaos and distractions of the theme parks. I definitely recommend it.
UP NEXT: Our Prehistoric Family Adventure!
I sure do miss that (not so) little furball.
