A Salute to All Nations...But Mostly Walt Disney World! A June '12 TR UPDATE 8/9!

[Motocross Tink]

Signature Dining looks so amazing!! I want to try Artist Point now!!

 

[Epaima]

Was the sofa bed comfortable at the BWV? One of us will be using it in October because its a girl's trip.

Dinner at AP sounds like a great way to kick off a vacation. We ate there in December (second time) and loved it. The first time my DH and I were celebrating an anniversary and they made us feel like celebrities. It was wonderful. So glad you and your mom enjoyed your meal.

We never actually used the sofa bed as a bed. As a couch it was good, so I'd imagine (and I've heard) that it's fairly comfortable.

Thanks, it definitely was! I was kind of worried because we were starting with such a caliber restaurant, that everything after it would be a bit of a let down. Thankfully, we enjoyed every meal on this trip. The service was the best at AP for sure though (I like the celebrity comparison)

Signature Dining looks so amazing!! I want to try Artist Point now!!

I hope that you are able to try a signature meal sometime! You pretty much can't wrong with most of them, and I highly recommend Artist Point!

 

[marDgreen88]

WOW! That's such a great picture, even if there is a bus glare on it! I love rainbows, and I must say that seeing the Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower is getting me REALLY excited because I'm staying at BLT in literally like three days. So thank you for unintentionally doing that!!

So glad yall had such a great meal with such wonderful service! It sounds amazing!

 

[Epaima]

WOW! That's such a great picture, even if there is a bus glare on it! I love rainbows, and I must say that seeing the Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower is getting me REALLY excited because I'm staying at BLT in literally like three days. So thank you for unintentionally doing that!!

So glad yall had such a great meal with such wonderful service! It sounds amazing!

I'm glad you liked the picture so much! Rainbows, while already awesome, are infinitely amazing when they are in WDW. I'm so excited that you are staying at BLT so soon. Hopefully you will have a great time!

Thanks! It was a great experience for sure.

ps. I am slowly working my way through your trip and am loving it. It's very long, so it's taking some time but it's wonderful

 

[marDgreen88]

ps. I am slowly working my way through your trip and am loving it. It's very long, so it's taking some time but it's wonderful

Awww thank you!!! Hahha yeah, I'm sorry, it is pretty long! I'm a wordy person. Thank you for reading it though!!

 

[Epaima]

Chapter Seven: To The Magic Kingdom at Last!

Sorry that this has taken so long to get up. Between watching the Olympics, working often, and getting sick, I haven't had as much time as planned!

Also, my mom, sister, and I have been working on planning a trip during Christmas Week (third time!). It's not definite yet, but there is a strong chance that it will happen. We already have our ADRs and accomodation (off-site sadly) though!

---------------------------------------------------

The plan for after our fabulous dinner was to head to the Magic Kingdom. I always try to get here on the first day of every trip, even if it isn't necessarily the first park.

The clouds from earlier had cleared out and the sky was turning into a lovely sunset. We hopped onto the boat that transports guests from WL to MK (second boat ride of the trip and still only the first day!). While we were waiting, I snapped a picture of one of the islands in the lagoon (not Discovery Island. I've seen pictures of that place as it is now and it is kind of creepy)

How lovely!

Soon we were entering the most magical place on Earth, and I was definitely tearing up a little.

One of the new things for this trip that got me really excited was the Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom game. It wasn't so much the game play that got me excited, but more the card collecting.

So the first place we went to in the MK was the Firehouse to learn more from Merlin about the game and get first sets of cards (you can get five per person, per day)

I dubbed my first pack the blonde power pack because it had the Blue Fairy, Princess Aurora, Rapunzel, and Cinderella (also Pumba I think but he didn't fit in really )

Following this excitement, we headed off to my favorite attraction, the Haunted Mansion (ps. Have you all seen the new Annie Leibovitz pictures? I LOVE the Hitchhiking Ghosts one).

Before this, I have written down that we went to the restroom inside Columbia Harbor House. I am kind of picky about my Disney bathrooms. I know that there aren't any technically in Liberty Square (gotta keep up with historical accuracies) and I have heard terror stories about the one in Fantasyland close to Liberty Square (diapers or something about too many children). I figured CHH would be the best bet because it's hard to get to (you must enter the building).

I digress!

Following the Haunted Mansion, we did our first Sorcerer's portal in Adventureland. The one thing to keep in mind is that these portals make you walk all over one land to complete it. With how my bad my mom's knee is, we decided that we would do them only if we were very close to the active portal.

Now, since we were near it, we went on the world famous Jungle Cruise (my sister's favorite attraction). Our skipper did pretty well, got some genuine laughs from people (on my first time on it in 2010, I laughed so hard the whole time )

This was my attempt to take a picture of the backside of water. It was very dark by this time unfortunately.

My mom and I began to really get really tired by this point. We picked an attraction in Adventureland to end the night on a good note (and smell )

Seriously, the water in Pirates of the Caribbean smells sort of coconutty or sun tan lotiony, but at the same time neither of them. It just smells fantastic.

The "We want the redhead" or the auction scene. I adhere to the no flash photography rule, so it's hard to get a good picture in such a dark ride.

A bit blurry, but it is the dog holding the keys at the end. Classic.

We left the park and walked to the bus stop during the Main Street Electrical Parade (to beat the crowds of people leaving after it and Wishes).

After that, we crashed in our room.

Day One: Complete! And it was AMAZING!
​

 

[marDgreen88]

Haha, the blonde power pack (now with Pumbaa!)
Sounds like yall had such a nice first day!

 

[MEK]

I love JC at night. It's so awesome, especially with a good skipper. And Pirates - who doesn't love pirates? As you already know it was my brother's favorite. He missed alot, but he did Pirates about 4 times.

Great first day. Looking forward to more!

 

[Epaima]

Haha, the blonde power pack (now with Pumbaa!)
Sounds like yall had such a nice first day!

Haha thanks! It really was a good start to a great trip!

I love JC at night. It's so awesome, especially with a good skipper. And Pirates - who doesn't love pirates? As you already know it was my brother's favorite. He missed alot, but he did Pirates about 4 times.

Great first day. Looking forward to more!

I remember reading about the multiple times on Pirates

MK is always great to experience and explore at night. I'm glad you enjoyed reading!

 

[Epaima]

Chapter Eight: It's Time to Get Things Started!

After a much needed good night's sleep, we woke up nice and early at 7 am (I like to joke that Disney is the only place I willingly wake up early for). We walked to DHS once again, in the hopes of experiencing more of Star Wars Weekends, and this was the last day of it!

We got there before the turnstiles were even opened and it was still extremely crowded. Having experienced Christmas Week twice at WDW, we were kind of worried by the crowd level. Luckily to keep everyone entertained, some stormtroopers stood on the roof and had some funny conversations.

The plan for this morning was to spend some time enjoying the atmosphere until the less popular characters came out in the Streets of America (as much as I love Chewbacca and Darth Vader, I was not waiting around an hour outside for them).

My Mom and I went in one of our favorite lesser known HS quick service food locations, Writer's Stop. If you have never been here and are looking for a snack, I highly recommend it! We split a huge double chocolate chip muffin, which was delicious. We also browsed some of the merchandise here, but did not purchase anything.

It was now after 9 am so we wandered around the Streets of America, but could not find any characters. Muppets 3D was right there, though, so we decided that it would be a welcomed break from the heat.

I love looking around in the pre-show area here, because there are so many funny details from past Muppet productions. My Dad is a big Muppets fan, so I grew up loving them.

Pigs in Space!

After the always funny pre-show video, we entered the theatre, which also had some Muppet details.

And of course, two of my favorite Muppets, Statler and Waldorf!

On our last two trips, we did not visit this attraction (I don't know why!) so it felt very fresh and exciting this time.

We looked around the Muppet gift shop afterwards, not to buy anything, but to enjoy the small things Imagineers place.

(I love how big Miss Piggy's locker is compared to everyone else's)

We still could not find any characters (and they were not on the SWW map). Also, the crowds were becoming enormous at this point, so we made the decision to head to a different park.

Until next time

​

 

[marDgreen88]

Muppet Vision is so much fun! I love all the little touches in the area as well.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[MEK]

I love muppet vision as well and statler and waldorf never fail to crack me up.

I agree that Writer's stop has some awesomely, awesome snacks and pastries and the whole environment is so cute.

Are you getting ready to head back to school soonn?