Annual Pass Adventures with Lindz -- Updated x2 6/30: Soarin' Around the World & a rainy MK

[lindseyanne]

Hola, guys and ladies! I'm Lindsey, aka Lindz, and, after spending YEARS being a complete Creeper McCreeperson and stalking all y'alls trip reports on the downlow, I finally decided to start my own. Introductions are awkward online and in real life, so let's just jump right in.

If you don't need to read about my life story and just want to see pictures of food, I won't be offended if you just skip to the Table of Contents.

Portrait of a Lady with a Trashcan, circa 2015, artist unknown

I am that rarity: a Floridian who was born (and raised) here. I was born in St. Petersburg, but my parents and I moved to Orlando when I was five for what was supposed to be just a few years. My father was working as a contractor for Disney, shipping everything to France for Disneyland Paris. After that was over, my mother got a job in the corporate side of things at the Diz, and we ended up staying here. With my mama working for the Mouse and the free entry privileges that come with that, I literally grew up at Disney World. Once I started college at UCF, I followed the family tradition and became a Cast Member myself, working as an attractions hostess at One Man's Dream and then at Pirates of the Caribbean.

In loving memory of Cindz's old hair.

How about a My Favorite Things List? Everybody loves lists!

Favorite Park: Epcot circa 1995.
Second Favorite Park: Epcot right now.
Favorite Rides: The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Living with the Land (yes, for real)
Favorite Characters: Marie (bring her back, WDW!!!), Daisy, Lady, Alice, Anastasia and Drizella
Favorite Classic Princess: Aurora
Favorite New-ish Princesses: Rapunzel, Tiana, Jasmine
Favorite Prince: Naveen
Favorite Villains: Maleficent, Ursula, Scar
Favorite Classic Movies: Sleeping Beauty, Lady and the Tramp, the Aristocats
Favorite New-ish Movies: Tangled, The Princess and the Frog, Wreck-it Ralph

I finally bit the bullet last year and bought an annual pass along with my best friend for the past 21 years (!!!), Lisa, who ALSO moved to Orlando as a kid when her dad started working for Disney on the corporate side, and who ALSO thus grew up at Disney. You'll see a lot of her on this not-an-actual-trip trip report. Lisa is the only person I know in real life who shares my love of the smell of Disney ride water.

We're friends because we both know what it's like to have people be jealous of us.

It's probably obvious from all the super flattering filterzzz in the above pics that I love Instagram. My feed is like 95% live-from-Disney World pics and 5% my cats, so if you'd like to follow me there, my username is @lindsey_anne.

See, my pictures aren't all sort of grainy, filtered Instagram pics! Unlike my face, this beauty doesn't need to be seen through Valencia or Clarendon!

Well, that introduction was sufficiently awkward. I hope you guys join me for this next year of annual pass adventures!


Scroll down for the Table of Contents


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[lindseyanne]

Table of Contents

This is the most "table of contents"-y picture I have.
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June 2016

6/4: Early Birthday Brunch @ Akershus / Epcot Day Part Uno
6/4: Early Birthday Brunch @ Akershus / Epcot Day Part Dos
6/11: Horseback Riding @ Fort Wilderness / Dinner @ Sanaa
6/17: Epcot, Via Napoli, and Soarin' Around The World
6/18: A Rainy Day in the Magic Kingdom

 

[lindseyanne]

June 4th, 2016 -- Early Birthday Brunch @ Akershus / Epcot Day (Part Uno)

My BFF Lisa and I were up bright and not-so-early for a birthday brunch with some princesses in Epcot. I'd never been to Akershus, and Lisa hadn't been since she was in elementary school. As we waited outside (uggggggggggh), we soaked up the final days of a quiet Norway Pavilion, whose days are numbered now that Frozen Ever After is imminently opening.

["Dust In The Wind" begins playing softly in the distance.]

Enjoy it while you can, peepz.


Our reservation was at 10:50 AM; since I'm a vegetarian, we decided that breakfast was the best option at Akershus for us. Lunch/dinner is slim pickins for vegetarians there, especially when you consider the price tag. We figured that by the time we sat down/got our picture with Belle/got our drinks/etc., it would be 11 AM, aka a civilized time to eat breakfast-for-lunch. Spoiler alert, this is exactly what happened. Another spoiler alert: you won't see a picture of us with Belle, because it came out terribly.

They sat us right next to the cold buffet which may be considered a bad seat for non-Lindseys, but for me, this was the perfect seat. Because I am a beast, I immediately started piling ALL OF THE CHEESE on my plate.

Clockwise from top: strawberry yogurt with granola, croissant, honeydew, pineapple, chocolate muffin, jarlsberg cheese, gjetost cheese, some kind of sweet bread, mini bagels with cream cheese, and doughnut holes

Can we talk about gjetost, also known as caramelized goat cheese, for a second? It's that brown-ish cheese on my plate. This. Stuff. Is. So. AMAZING. They used to sell a waffle sandwich featuring gjetost at Kringla but for some reason they stopped, probably because everything I love (see: Horizons, World of Motion, Maelstrom) is taken from me.

By the time I got back from raiding the buffet, our waitress had returned with our plate of hot food. Now, I've heard conflicting reports about the vegetarian-ness of the potato casserole at Akershus. I asked our waitress, and she said it was vegetarian, but who knows for sure. I tried, animals. I really tried!

The side touching the bacon and sausage belongs to Lisa, my meat compactor.

Our waitress also brought out a birthday cupcake for me, not that I needed more sugar (see above picture of my plate, featuring ALL OF THE PASTRIES).

I'll ignore the fact that I believe this is Frozen themed. Ironically, it was also half frozen.

About halfway through stuffing our faces, the princesses came out. This morning Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel and Snow White were visiting tables. Each of them was lovely, but you won't be seeing pictures because the combination of bad Akershus lighting + the oppresive morning humidity that made me sweat off most of my makeup + the fact that said humidity created a bad hair day for me = no pictures I want on The Internetz.

The only halfway decent photo.

After the princesses came by, our waitress brought me an even better treat than my birthday cupcake: MORE POTATO CASSEROLE.

I have nothing witty to say about this picture.

We settled our bill and took the leisurely way out of Akershus. Since it was between the end of breakfast service but before the first lunch seating, the place was a ghost town and we got to enjoy the little details. I really liked how, although the princesses meet here, the place retained a more traditional medieval castle feel instead of a "storybook" feel.

Relationship goals. (Do The Youths still say that?)

It was then onwards to Mexico for some birthday shenanigans.....

Part Dos!​

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[lindseyanne]

June 4th, 2016 -- Early Birthday Brunch @ Akershus / Epcot Day (Part Dos)

After wrapping up an early birthday princess brunch at Akershus, Lisa and I headed next door to Mexico to grab margaritas to go from La Cava del Tequila. Because it was still pretty early (i.e. before noon), the line to get to the bar only took a few minutes. To be honest, I think the drinks at La Cava are waaaaaaaaay overpriced, but Lisa was itching to try the avocado margarita. I decided to have the Maelstrom margarita in loving memory of our dearly departed ride. According to the menu, the Maelstrom is Milagro silver tequila, mango puree, orange liquor, and agave nectar garnished with blueberries, habanero peppers, basil and Tajin chili powder on the rim. I don't know where the habanero peppers destined for my go cup ended up, because I definitely didn't find any. Wherever you are, habanero peppers, I hope you're happy.​

This seems like a reasonable way to spend $17.​

Margaritas safely ensconced in go cups and $17 poorer, we stopped outside of Mexico to meet with a guy who shares the same birthday week as me.​

My favorite duck in my favorite outfit.

After exchanging birthday greetings with Donald, we strolled through the World Showcase, nursing our margaritas and window shopping. Many of the topiaries from the Flower & Garden Festival were still out, so we finally got to see them without crowds of people.​

My faves.​

Once we got to Morocco, we hopped in line to meet Aladdin & Jasmine, which I have no pictures of suitable for The Internetz. Because it was so hot, we really weren't concerned with getting pictures where we looked halfway decent. Today we were on a mission, and that mission was this:​

We then headed back to the entrance World Showcase so we could meet our favorite puppy.​

I love this picture because I look so displeased by Pluto's signature. What was I expecting? He's a dog!

it was DEAD in front of the Fountain of Nations, so we took the opportunity to get a bunch of pictures. Our PhotoPass photographer must have been bored, because we ended up doing pretty much every pose and magic shot imaginable.​

Luckily for y'all, I'm only posting one.

After our impromptu photo shoot, we headed to the Character Spot to use our first fastpass of the day to finish getting autographs for our picture frames from Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. The less said about the Character Spot, the better. We hightailed it out of there to a more civilized place in Future World to use our second fastpass.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, civilization.

We soared for the final time over California, and said a final goodbye to the Horizons orange scent, which will apparently not be in Soarin' Around The World. Afterwards, we waited about ten minutes for our mutual favorite ride, Living with the Land. (In the spirit of Soarin' and it's randomly dropped G, I propose that it's name be updated to Livin' with the Land.)

The skies were looking threatening, but before we left, we used our final and completely unnecessary fastpass of the day on the least imaginative ride in all of Walt Disney World.

At least this part is mildly imaginative...or it would be, if it wasn't such a depressing reminder of what Journey Into Imagination used to be.


Next Up: Horseback Riding @ Fort Wilderness and Dinner @ Sanaa!
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[abarriger]

What fun! Your breakfast at Akershus looks amazing... I can't wait to try it in august!

 

[lindseyanne]

June 11th, 2016 -- Horseback Riding @ Fort Wilderness / Dinner @ Sanaa

***For any of y'all who may be annual passholders or are here this weekend, on Saturday night (June 18th), there will be an informal, not-sponsored-by-Disney gathering during the Kiss Goodnight (approximately 11:30 PM) at the Partners Statue to honor and remember those who were killed at Pulse last weekend and taken from our Orlando family all too soon. All are welcome!***

If there isn't a picture of your foot on a doormat on Instagram, did it even really happen?

As a birthday present, my mama (reluctantly!) took me horseback riding at Fort Wilderness. This is something that I've always wanted to do and have actually had reservations for numerous times, but I got rained out every time (the cruel fate of having a summer birthday Florida, when it rains from 3-4 PM every single day). My dad didn't join us on horseback because he's really tall and was concerned that he would hurt the horse he's a big ol' scaredy cat. Luckily for all of us, although it was overcast (yay shade!) it didn't rain (yay for my father, left behind at the ranch to guard our purses!).

Ponies!!!

We made advance reservations for the final trail ride of the day (2:30 pm), and we ended up being two people in a group of only five. I'm assuming that these trail rides are slightly more popular during the fall, because even with the overcast skies it was H.O.T. and muggy. We got to Fort Wilderness at around 1:30 pm and checked in at the Tri Circle D Ranch, which is in the Outpost section of Fort Wilderness. After checking in, signing our releases and getting weighed (this is required because there's a 250 lb weight limit for the horses, but don't worry, no one can see your weight except the cast member behind the counter and they don't tell you what it is, just that you're fine to ride), my parents and I killed some time by taking the internal Fort Wilderness bus to the Settlement. We grabbed a bag of mixed nuts as a pre-ride snack at the Settlement Trading Post and I saw THE MOST AMAZING BIG AL FIGURINE EVER.

I'll take the lot!

We headed back to the Outpost on yet another internal bus at around 2 pm. Disney asks that you arrive around a half hour early for your trail ride to cover safety and riding instructions so that the ride can head out on time. My mom and I got our required helmets, covered some safety stuff with the two ranch cast members, and were introduced to our horses: Lincoln (Mom's horse, the slowest horse in the history of horsing) and Dash (mine, aka my snack-crazy spirit animal). Once all five of us riders mounted our horses and had our stirrups adjusted, it was time to head out!

The Adventures of Dash and Lindz, Two Creatures in Search of Snacks

I don't have pictures from the trail ride, as cameras and phones are banned for obvious reasons. A lot of people on The Internetz think the riding trail at Fort Wilderness isn't very attractive; I will admit that if you're used to riding in picturesque places like national parks, the Fort Wilderness trail will be a letdown. That being said, it's very old Florida, so just manage your expectations when it comes to your surroundings and you won't be disappointed. It's a very easy, flat trail for people without a ton of riding experience. The horses are very docile and are trained to follow one behind the other--although sometimes, like my dude Dash, they're get so annoyed at the horse they're behind (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, LINCOLN, YOU SLOWPOKE) that in frustration they try to pass them, so on occasion you *do* need to take control and pull up on their reins. The ride itself last around 45 minutes. For $46 plus tax, I would definitely do this again.

I won't make this face again, though.

From there, we drove to Animal Kingdom Lodge and parked at Kidani Village. AKL is tied with Wilderness Lodge as my fave WDW resort; both Kidani Village and Jambo House are so beautifully themed! While my parents grabbed some bottles of water in the gift shop, I went downstairs to the Sanaa host stand to ask if there were any early dining reservations available--our reservation was at 5:45, it was 3:45, and we were already getting pretty peckish. The hostess let me know that they were fully booked and put me down on the waiting list in case anyone cancelled their reservation. Since we had some time to kill, we caught the resort shuttle top Jambo House to check out the animals.

Team Sideways Pictures 4 Lyfe

Every animal on the Mara helpfully moved into the frame for this picture.

We headed back to Kidani Village at around 4:45-ish, and after wandering around a bit in the gift shop until 5, decided to just have a drink and more importantly a snack at the Sanaa bar. At this point, we were starving. Literally right as we took our seats at the bar, my phone flashed with a text from Sanaa, saying they could seat us early! We got an amazing table right by the window, but not before I, apparently delirious with hunger, took a picture of the ceiling:

Why?

Zebra butt!

Throughout our meal, this guy proceeded to see himself in the window's reflection, puff out to intimidate himself, get scared, wander away, wander back, and then repeat the entire process five times.

I love all of the Animal Kingdom Lodge restaurants because they seem to have many more options for vegetarians than most Disney restaurants, and the options at AKL tend to be way more creative than the standard sad plate of vegetables and grains. I saw so many things I wanted on Sanaa's menus, all of which needed no modifying to be vegetarian, and even vegan. Naturally, we started with the Indian-Style Bread Service with all nine accompaniments. This was the first time my parents dined at Sanaa, and their mouths dropped in surprise when they saw the bread service, just like mine did my first time at Sanaa.

Cameo by my mother's shirt. Go Knights!

For my main, I decided on the Potijie Inspired Entree, where you pick and mix two options with basmati rice. I chose the Chickpea Wat (naturally vegan!) and the Paneer Tikka (vegetarian). So many other options were vegetarian and sounded delicious (Lentil Dhal! Roasted Okra Stew!), so a return trip is definitely in order for me. I don't know if they actually adjust spiciness based on your preference here, but I love spicy food and asked our waitress to make my choices as spicy as possible, and they both had a decent kick to them.

L-R: Chickpea Wat, Basmati Rice, Paneer Tikka

For desert, I went with the Desert Trio of "Tanzanian chocolate mousse, lemon lychee tart, and seasonal kulfi". The kulfi was strawberry. Each of these was tasty, but if I had to choose, the lemon lychee tart would be my favorite. My mom and I also split a press pot of Kenyan coffee, and I didn't fall asleep until 3 am because of it. #worthit

L-R: Tanzanian chocolate mousse, lemon lychee tart, strawberry kulfi


Next Up: Epcot, Via Napoli & Soarin' Around The World!
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[lindseyanne]

What fun! Your breakfast at Akershus looks amazing... I can't wait to try it in august!

It's delicious, you'll love it!

 

[lindseyanne]

June 17th, 2016: Another Birthday Dinner at Epcot

Just as a word of warning: this update isn't going to have very many pictures, because like a loon I didn't charge my phone and failed to bring my charger with me. Basically, on June 17th I failed at Disney.

Even though it was a week past my actual birthday, my good friend N. and his partner, M., treated me to a belated birthday dinner at our mutual favorite restaurant at Epcot, Via Napoli. It just so happened that this bday dinner aligned perfectly with the first day that ther new version of Soarin' opened. We're all lucky enough to have summer Fridays at our respective jobs, so we arrived at Epcot at around 1pm: early enough to feel like we had practically an entire day at Epcot in front of us, but late enough that we missed the massive morning crowds lining up for New Soarin'.

Our first stop *obviously* had to be the Fountain View Starbucks for a jolt of caffeine. Since we had about an hour until our Spaceship Earth fastpass, and the middle of the day heat discouraged us from walking around aimlessly, we decided to just grab a seat at the Fountain View in the shade. We ended up staying there until our fastpass window for SE was almost over, just enjoying the music loop in that area (one of my all time favorite WDW music loops) and catching up with each other. I have to admit, one of the things I love about being local and having an AP is being able to just sit and RELAX in the parks, soaking it all in, without feeling like I'm wasting my time (and money!).​

Who amongst us has not taken fifty million different versions of this Starbz+Spaceship Earth picture for Snapchat?​

After a ride through the grand and miraculous spaceship that is our Spaceship Earth, we had a bit more time to kill before our early dinner reservation at Via Napoli. We decided to pop our heads in the new-ish Disney Vacation Club lounge (N. and M. being DVC members) in what was formerly ImageWorks in the Imagination Pavilion. M. and I both have fond memories of this place as kids (N. grew up in California, so he didn't experience the glory days of the pre-refurb Imagination Pavilion), and I have to admit, visiting what was ImageWorks was kind of depressing.

Now, don't get me wrong: as a DVC lounge, this place is lovely! We all loved our unlimited soft drinks and snacks, and this is a great place to rest and recharge your phones and such on a hot day. The views across Future World are also great. But it reminded M. and I of what ImageWorks used to be, and how many HOURS we would spend there as kids. The Stepping Tones! The Rainbow Tunnel! THE PIN SCREENS! Then we watched a ride through of the original Journey Into Imagination ride on YouTube and became even more depressed.

Nostalgic and wistful and sad, we left Not-Really-ImageWorks and made our way to the Italy Pavilion for our dinner at Via Napoli. When our hostess asked if we were celebrating a birthday, all three of us emphatically said NO. I love free desserts, but not enough to deal with the singing that comes along with said birthday dessert and Via Napoli. We split a pitcher of red sangria and the mezzo metro size carciofi (white pizza with artichokes, fontina, mozzarella, and truffle oil) pizza. This is our go-to pizza at Via Napoli, and it's SO. GOOD.

Sure, my phone was at 10% battery, but was I going to allow this pizza to not be captured for 24 hours on my Snapchat story? Ha ha, NO.​

Suitably stuffed, it was time for us to use our fastpasses for Soarin' Around The World. We had all avoided spoilers for the ride (except for the fact that Patrick Warburton was still in the pre-show--that was serious business and we had to google it on the way to Epcot), and I'm so glad we did, because it was awesome to be surprised at every transition. I liked Soarin' Over California; I didn't think it was the greatest ride in the world, but I would certainly get a fastpass for it as often as I could. However, I agreed with a lot of people that it didn't really fit well in Epcot. So while I was a fan of "classic" Soarin', I absolutely LOVED "new: Soarin', and it's vaulted to one of my top WDW rides.

DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER OR SCROLL PAST SANSA STARK IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE SOARIN' SPOILERS!!! Just move along, nothing to see here.​

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First off, my impressions on the CGI: I didn't find it jarring *except* for the Taj Mahal scene, which was clearly entirely fake. From what I've read online, the Taj Mahal has strict no-fly rules (understandably), but the scene just stands out as so entirely CGIed that it took me out of the "you are here!" moment and made me feel like I was at a theme park, looking at a giant screen of a fake building. I kind of wish they would have not included this location if they couldn't actually fly over the real Taj Mahal for the footage. The remainder of the CGI effects (like the animals) didn't stand out to me. I mean, intellectually I *knew* that a polar bear did not coincidentally roar at the camera at just the right moment, but it didn't take me out of the suspension of disbelief that the Taj Mahal scene did.

Taj Mahal scene aside, this ride blew me away. The effects are great, the music is powerful, and the locations are jawdropping. I'm so glad I didn't read spoilers and rode this on opening day, because besides from the actual ride being amazing, everyone in our theatre was so enthusiastic. The entire theatre gasped when we soared over the Matterhorn at the beginning of the ride and broke into applause before we even reached the final scene. I have to admit, I teared up at the last scene, which is Epcot at night.

A word of advice if you suffer from a fear of heights like I do: nothing in this version of Soarin' set off my HOLY VERTIGO, BATMAN! alarms with the exception of the Eiffel Tower scene. I didn't feel sick, but just the "climbing" effect up the Eiffel Tower made me woozy for a few seconds. When I rode Soarin' again this past weekend, I closed my eyes during this scene and felt fine.​

Next Up: A (Much More Picture-Heavy) Magic Kingdom Day!​

 

[lindseyanne]

June 18th, 2016: A Rainy Day at the Magic Kingdom

My bestie Lisa and I headed out to the Magic Kingdom in the early afternoon, and it was shaping up to be a hot, sunny day....OR WAS IT?

Dun dun DUNNNNNN.....

We didn't have any fastpasses (all for outdoor rides...dun dun DUNNNN) until the evening, so our first stop (after Starbucks, of course, because #basic) was everyone's old standby favorite, the PeopleMover. The skies over Tomorrowland were staring to look vaguely threatening.

Buzz Lightyear was out meeting, so we hopped in his line and did our best Space Ranger impressions.

It started to drizzle a bit, so in the interests of staying dry, we hopped in line at Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. This standby line moves pretty fast but the queue is my least favorite place to be in all of WDW. The main room where the queue is just seems to be so unnecessarily loud, and it always smells like dirty diapers. Ugh. Luckily, we only ended up waiting around 15 minutes. I managed to get a not-entirely-embarrassing score...and then proceeded to ruin our ride photo.

Hey, not terrible! And it only took the ride stopping 5 times in front of the same sensor for me to hit this not terrible score!

You know how you're trying to think of a pose to do for a ride picture, but you can't decide what to do, and then the flash goes off mid-thought? That's what happened here.


It was still drizzling, so Lisa and I sprinted the short distance from Space Ranger Spin to our unironic fave, the Carousel of Progress. Right after we got up the ramp and under cover, the heavens opened and deluged Tomorrowland. Unfortunately, the Carousel of Progress also went 101 at this exact moment. Sad face!

Once the rain let up a bit, we powerwalked to Storybook Circus to meet Daisy and Minnie, as we needed Daisy's signature for our character picture frames. I just love the costumes that our girls meet in at Pete's Silly Sideshow.​

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Daisy: "Wait...did I leave my toaster plugged in?"

I had a fun little interaction with Minz: I was wearing a Parkbound button that has Lady on it and says "Making Fetch Happen", and Minnie must be a big "Mean Girls" fan because she read it, double over laughing, then kept doing a "no" motion with her hands as if to say, "it's not going to happen".

From there, we headed to a ride on the happiest cruise that ever sailed. The rain had stopped (for now...dun dun DUNNNN), but the skies over Fantasyland were still very angry.

So WDW can create these things but can't dust the set pieces on Small World? Okay.

After Small World, we popped over to our favorite queue, Under The Sea. It was still the late afternoon, but the intermittent drizzle must have scared everyone to stay inside the Fantasyland shops, because the queue was empty. Naturally, we wandered up and down the outdoor portion of the queue to take pictures with NO HUMANS.​

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Next up was Princess Fairytale Hall to get signatures for our photo frames from Rapunzel and Tiana. Rapunzel was adorable, as always.​

Tiana is me and Lisa's mutual fave, so we were very happy that she now gets to be in the air conditioning at the Hall. I stupidly handed the wrong side of Lisa's calligraphy marker to Tiana, meaning she signed my frame with a pen that didn't match any other signature. You can see the dismay on my face as I realized what I had done.

"Tiana, you're my fa--NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"It's fine! The entire symmetry of the frame is screwed up but it's fine! Everything's fine!"

"...it's fine."

(Plot twist! I managed to sign OVER Tiana's signature with the correct side of the pen and fix my picture frame. I also now know how to forge Tiana's signature, should she dare to cross me again.)

It was still raining, and our fastpasses were all for outdoor rides that were 101 due to the weather, so we decided to keep them as-is and not use the replacement fastpasses assigned to us just in case everyone hightailed it to said outdoor rides when/in the rain stopped. We had an uneventful bite to eat at the Tomorrowland Terrace, which I didn't take a picture of because no one really needs to see a picture of a sad quickservice veggie burger. It *was* on a pretzel bun, though. After that, we swung by the Plaza Ice Cream Parlour (Tofutti chocolate ice cream for the win), which I also didn't take a picture of because it would have melted by the time I got my phone out. We grabbed a spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade (Lisa's fave) in the hub, which ended up being delayed because of the drizzle. It was beginning to get kind of crowded in the hub for Celebrate the Magic and Wishes, so we moved to a far quieter spot without any heads, bodies or ipads in the way in Tomorrowland.

The rain had FINALLY stopped, so we quickly used our fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise and Thunder Mountain, then hit up Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion before the park closed at 11. We were sticking around for the kiss goodnight, so we got a bonus showing of the Main Street Electrical Parade as it winded its way through Liberty Square. I think the endless rain had gotten rid of most parkgoers after Wishes; the only people around us were also sticking around for the special kiss goodnight in memory of the victims of the Pulse shooting the week prior, and almost everyone around us was either an off-duty castmember or an annual pass holder. This was honestly the best showing of the parade I've ever experienced, and I didn't take any pictures or video of it because I was so in the moment. People were waving their Pride flags and everyone was dancing, and the performers were just so into it. It was a special moment.

After the parade, we headed to the hub for the kiss goodnight, and it was PACKED. It was as if the park hadn't been closed for the past 45 minutes. I really applaud Disney for allowing cast members to attend in their costumes. This memorial has been written about elsewhere, so I won't go into a lot of detail, but it was a very beautiful and healing. The moment of silence was staggering; I can't describe the feeling of being in the Magic Kingdom, surrounded by people, in absolute silence. There are videos on Youtube if you'd like to get a feel for the atomosphere.

Leaving the Magic Kingdom that night was...different. Obviously, a good number of people were emotional. But it was also surprisingly joyful. Everyone, from the cast members to the guests, was smiling and kind to each other, a very big difference from the usual mad dash of strollers to the monorail.

Out of context picture of the castle looking gorge.


Coming Soon: Braving The Maelstrom 2.0 Frozen Ever After​