Catching the Magic Where I Can- A Kid Free January Trip!

[Ariel484]

I wanted to get Glamor Shots SO BAD when I was younger! Your PhotoPass pics are nice, you look so pretty!

I'm with you on Everest - you're better than me though, I can only take it once a day!

 

[roxymama]

Just found your TR and got caught up. You are making me excited for my kidless May trip, but I'm glad I'm not the only one that has a hard time turning off my mom brain.

I was going to comment on how nice your photo pass Everest pics are, but Ariel just beat me to it (because we share a posting brain lately.)

I'm adding the girl mice and the Up guys to my character bucket list now

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Just found your TR and got caught up. You are making me excited for my kidless May trip, but I'm glad I'm not the only one that has a hard time turning off my mom brain.

I was going to comment on how nice your photo pass Everest pics are, but Ariel just beat me to it (because we share a posting brain lately.)

I'm adding the girl mice and the Up guys to my character bucket list now

Thanks for reading!
And thanks for the compliment I guess that over-the-top photopass photographer knew what he was doing!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

I wanted to get Glamor Shots SO BAD when I was younger! Your PhotoPass pics are nice, you look so pretty!

I'm with you on Everest - you're better than me though, I can only take it once a day!

Yeah I wanted glamour shots too. I feel like friends would pretty regularly bring their pictures to school from 5th-8th grade-- it always made jealous!
And I'm glad I'm not the only one that can't do very many roller coasters in a row. It always makes me feel old though!

 

[Ariel484]

@disneydaydreamer33 it makes me feel old too. Middle/high school-aged me would not be impressed.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Checking Out Tiffins

I walked over to Tiffins, but it was actually closed! Just like with EMH, I never bothered to check the hours beforehand. When we go as a family, I have EVERY detail researched and planned. However this relaxed way of touring is another thing I like about going solo!

Anyway, since I had some time to kill I walked around trying to decide what to do next.
I was really enjoying the beauty of this park. I feel like at this park, you can really get lost in noticing the details and all of the interesting sights to see.

Next I popped into a shop to look around. I’m not a huge shopper at Disney. But there are few things I do like to buy for myself as mementos: a Christmas tree ornament, a mug, and a pin. I thought I may as well buy a couple of those things now.


I also saw that Tarzan was by himself (other than his character handler of course!), so I decided to say hi. And I have to say this character interaction was even more awkward than the Gaston one. He was super silent, and would just answer my questions in soft one word answers. He also told me he was sniffing my hair to look for bugs. I don’t know why this interaction caught me so off guard. Maybe I need to see the movie again?

(Also Florida was clearly catching up to my hair at this point! )

By now it was a few minutes after 11:30, so I was pretty sure Tiffins was open. I asked the front attendant if I could check in early, and she said that it wasn’t a problem. I sat for a minute or two and then was led to my table.

The room was lovely. I really liked the decorations. I loved how there were many countries and parts of the world represented in the art work. Because it was so early in the day, there was just one other family inside. It was quite a nice escape!



I ordered myself a diet coke (of course ), and then some Pomegranate Focaccia Bread with a mix of Pomegranate, Molasses and Olive Oil on the side was brought to my table. It was SO delicious! I was very happy to see that my appetite was back in full force after feeling sick the day before.

After talking through the menu with my server, I decided to order the duck breast. From the menu:
Pan-seared Duck Breast
Leg Confit, Forest Mushrooms, Parsnip Purée, Truffle Reduction, Huckleberry Compote


It was great! I’m a pretty adventurous eater for the most part, so it’s hard for me to know if picky eaters would have liked this. I loved the rich flavors (especially the fruit compote), and the duck was cooked nicely!

It was a very relaxing meal as a whole. I took my time, texted with Amanda to see how their drive back home was going, checked in back home, instagrammed, and just enjoyed the soothing music playing in the background.

After finishing up my check, I was presented with this print. It’s always fun to be “presented” with something as you leave!


In a bit I would be hopping over to Epcot, but there was one more thing on my Animal Kingdom to do list: Finding Nemo The Musical! I saw that the next show would be in about 15 minutes, so I made my way over.

Finding Nemo is one of my very favorite movies. While I was being induced with my oldest, I actually played the DVD over and over again in the hospital. I was so nervous and anxious and the beautiful score by Thomas Newman along with the beautiful animation soothed me in just the right way (and yes the nurses coming in and out of my room thought I was cray) Anyway, I’ve loved this stage show since I first saw it, but after learning the music was written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Avenue Q, Book of Mormon, FROZEN!) my appreciation for it grew.



Coming up: Goodbye Animal Kingdom, Hello Epcot!​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Goodbye Animal Kingdom, Hello Epcot!
After the show I said my goodbyes to this lovely park!

I don’t think I nailed the frame pose very well!

My car was easy to find (thank goodness), and before I knew it, I was cruising down the street to Epcot. After seeing Hidden Figures at Disney Springs that weekend, I was on a real Janelle Monae kick. So with her songs blasting in the car speakers, and the windows down, I was really enjoying this Florida sunshine (finally- I was kind of ready to be done with this chilly weather!).

Flowers and sunshine! What a great way to be welcomed into Epcot!


My Up picture of the trip!


A quick sidetone: In my town, there is a real live replica of Carl’s home. The Wall Street Journal just featured it in an article too! It's fun to drive by, and I love that there are some major Disney fans here!

Once in Future World, I had to stop for the Jammitors!

I also enjoyed browsing in the Art of Disney shop.

For my first ride, I went with Test Track! The single rider line moved pretty briskly. I was lucky that I was next to a very nice father/daughter duo from Boston. The daugher was a young adult in college and it was fun to hear about their yearly winter trips to Disney from the time she was a baby.


I was more than happy to just cruise on past the showroom when I got off the ride. Whenever we are here with the kids, they spend FOREVER checking out all of the cars and photo ops!

By now it was time for my fastpass for Soarin! This was going to be my first time on the new ride, and I was more than excited! Again, I was next to some really nice people in line. This time it was an elderly couple that had retired to Florida from Indiana. I loved thinking about Erik and I retiring to Florida and just popping over to Epcot whenever we felt like it. That’s living the dream right there!

Soarin’ was amazing! My favorite part was going to Africa and that fresh grass smell!

I entered World Showcase on the Canada side and enjoyed the sights and smells of everything that’s there!
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It was about 3:45, and I was definitely ready for a snack! I knew exactly what country I would go to for my snack too: France!
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[buteraa]

Awesome trip report. Epcot is one of my favorite parks as well.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Awesome trip report. Epcot is one of my favorite parks as well.

Thank you! Yeah, Epcot is so fun! It's a great park to tackle solo too!

 

[Ariel484]

Cute story about Finding Nemo!! I can definitely see why that musical holds a special place in your heart - and OMG I did not know that the Lopezes wrote the music!! So awesome!

Glad you were finally getting some sun and warmth!

 

[ZellyB]

Caught back up!! I love all your pictures; they are awesome - including the Glamour Shots in AK. And that Up Shot at Epcot is perfection. I'd love to get one like that sometime.

That duck at Tiffins looks delicious. I'm definitely thinking about trying that restaurant next time we go. We are also pretty adventuresome in our food choices, so I think we'd like it.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Cute story about Finding Nemo!! I can definitely see why that musical holds a special place in your heart - and OMG I did not know that the Lopezes wrote the music!! So awesome!

Glad you were finally getting some sun and warmth!

The Lopezes are so talented! My brother saw her new Broadway musical, In Transit, and LOVED it! I can't wait to see what they do with Disney next!

Caught back up!! I love all your pictures; they are awesome - including the Glamour Shots in AK. And that Up Shot at Epcot is perfection. I'd love to get one like that sometime.

That duck at Tiffins looks delicious. I'm definitely thinking about trying that restaurant next time we go. We are also pretty adventuresome in our food choices, so I think we'd like it.

You should definitely try Tiffins. I really loved it!
And I've been so busy this week, but I can't wait to catch up on your TR!!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

HITTING MY WALL
Splurging on a pastry from France was EXACTLY what I was in the mood for. I had a hard time picking with so many yummy treats though.

I found a table (score!) and sat down to eat my ham and cheese croissant sandwich (and another diet coke ) .

On my way over to France, I was eyeing a nice quiet spot that looked perfect for eating a dessert.

It was great! The Duo (a chocolate cake with white and dark chocolate mousse) was super good. If you love chocolate, then you'd love this treat! Yummy!


Feeling properly revived, I slowly browsed around World Showcase. My goal with this Epcot day was to check out at least one shop in every country. I didn’t have any plans to spend, but was in the mood to browse.

I loved the cuckoo clocks in Germany! We have a cute cuckoo clock that I bought for one of our anniversary, so it was fun to check out the different ones here.


I also wrote in my notes “cute babies . . .” I guess I was just really enjoying everyone’s cute kids while I was in Epcot

A word about Epcot solo: Comparing my solo experiences at MK, AK, and now Epcot has shown the strengths and weaknesses of each as a solo park. MK will always be the most jam-packed for me, so I think that is still my favorite to tour on my own. There is a TON of stuff that I love- rides, characters, and parades. Animal Kingdom is my second favorite park as a whole and it was great experiencing the beauty of that park and just doing purely what I wanted to do. However, Epcot definitely seemed to have the highest adult to kid ratio, and people chatted me up in lines here way more than the other parks. I love meeting new people in that kind of non-committal kind of way (I have some serious introvert streaks in me as well). I guess Hollywood Studios is the only park I haven’t tried solo, so next trip I will fit that in and compare!

At about 5:00, I hit a serious wall! I was sooooo tired and just needed a place to rest my feet for a bit (btw, my fitbit died that morning, so I didn't even get credit for all of my dang steps taken! ). I ducked into a place that I can’t remember right now haha I was so tired. I want to say it was pretty close to world showcase in future world and it was a mostly empty space, but with some maybe science displays for kids? Most importantly there were soft benches (which is totally the only thing I paid attention to!). If anyone knows what this building is, let me know!


After my feet felt useable again, I decided to finish up my shopping quest. This time I bought myself a mug (an Elsa sparkly one!), a bunch of candy to go along with the Mickey waffle maker I was giving as a thank you to our friends that watched the kids, and a Magic Kingdom blanket to go with the Epcot blanket I had ordered for my mother-in-law as her thank you.

It was then time to use my last fast pass of the day for Mickey and friends!

I'm pretty sure Mickey would be my best friend if we lived closer!

I was trying to show Goofy that my hair could substitute for his awesome ears.

I definitely learned my best photos poses from Minnie!


A no-wait for The Seas with Nemo and Friends was the next order of business.

At about this time, I got a call from Erik telling me that he was done with his fishing trip and was leaving Tampa. I still hadn’t decided if I wanted to close this park down, but I was getting pretty tempted to leave early and get to the condo when Erik got there. The one thing I hadn’t done that I really wanted to was ride Frozen Ever After . . .

​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

FROZEN FRIENDS

The one thing I was still holding out for was a ride on Frozen Ever After. Since I didn’t have a FP for it, my best chance was waiting around until the line died down. At the moment, it still showed a 75 minute wait

While I waited, I decided to ride Test Track one last time!


And then at the Future World kiosk, I reserved a Soarin FP that could be used in an hour.


I made my way over to Norway, and decided that a 15 minute wait for Anna and Elsa wasn’t too bad, and hopped in line. I remember the actual wait was even shorter than that too.

I loved all of the cute details in their Royal Sommerhouse!


Last year, I had asked Cinderella to wish my daughter Anna a Happy Birthday (which is in March). I airplayed it up on the TV on her birthday, and she LOVED it! I was excited to ask these sisters to do the same thing for her next birthday!

Elsa was regal and wonderful as usual.


And Anna was so much fun! I think Anna is one of the best Disney characters- she’s so full of life and a bit more realistic than some of the other Disney princesses.


They both were more than happy to be on my video, and I can’t wait to show my Anna her special birthday wishes in March!

I hopped over to the Frozen Ever After line and much to my dismay saw that the wait had actually grown to 85 minutes! I waited for about 5, and then decided NO RIDE was worth that and called it quits. I’m sad I never got to ride it, but I know that was the right decision. I would have been miserable standing for that long and I was anxious to see Erik and find out how his day was too.


So, I used my Soarin FP, and called my time at Epcot done.


I got back to the condo at about 8:30, ate some leftover Chevy’s I had saved in the fridge, and wrapped up the day’s purchases in my suitcase. It was fun hearing about Erik's day out on the water. They were all pretty chilly, but they had a great time.


I was excited that I still had one more park day, but sad that this vacation’s end was coming soon!

​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

The Inevitability of Getting Lost
Tuesday morning I woke up super excited to spend most of the day with Erik in Hollywood Studios! We picked HS as the park we were touring together since we have never gone on Rock n Roller coaster together (we always split up and take turns going with our oldest), we also didn’t get a chance to ride ToT together on our last family trip as well. Plus, we really wanted to see the Star Wars fireworks! Unfortunately, Erik had to work at his company's booth at the International Builder’s Show for a few hours that morning. So I decided to use that time and go to MK one last time. I was still bummed that I hadn’t ridden Splash Mountain yet, and I was hoping to squeeze in another Mine Train ride too!

I was out of the condo by 8:40 which I realized was probably going to mean no Mine Train, but I was still hoping for a pretty successful morning.

Well of course I had to get lost at least ONCE during my trip! I don’t know what happened, but the GPS took me SUCH a weird way. Later I realized the GPS did the same thing on Sunday, but because it was marathon day, the roads were all re-routed and weird anyway and we were directed where to go. However, this morning I was free to follow these faulty directions to my heart’s content After realizing I was driving deeper and deeper onto service roads, I turned around and just tried to find my way on my own (which just to let you know, I’m not known for my keen sense of direction! )


I finally got to the MK parking lot at 9:15, which means I was driving for 35 minutes!

To continue my bad luck, I of course arrived at a ferry boat that was just leaving and had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one.


So it wasn’t until 9:51 that I was walking down Main Street, and it was already pretty packed!


At this point I was feeling kind of stupid for taking up so much time driving. I mean out of all the parks, Magic Kingdom is definitely the most cumbersome to get to when you are staying off-site. But I tried putting things in perspective and just realized that I was pretty happy to be anywhere in Disney World that morning, even if I wasn't doing everything that I had originally planned.

So I made my way over to Splash, and of course that ride never fails to put a smile on my face!

I love, love this ride!

Next I decided to get some breakfast at Gaston’s Tavern. Yummy!


Since I was close to Prince Erik’s castle, I decided to take a ride Under the Sea!


And then I happened upon a certain Jamaican crab!


And once again enjoyed some of that sunshine (also this Exhibit A and B of what happens to my hair in Florida!)

​

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS WITH MY HONEY!
Since I knew Erik wouldn’t want to meet all of the characters like I try to , I stopped in to see my girls Minnie and Daisy!

I told Minnie how cute she looked!


She twirled to show off just how cute her dress was, and then I asked if I could pull that look off (Sadly I realized no one can do Minnie like Minnie herself!)

Daisy was awesome and left me with a great hug!



After saying one last goodbye to MK, I made my way back to the condo to pick up Erik


I loved the texts that Anna was sending me that morning (from my ipad at home. No my 5 year old does not have her own phone! ). So we had fun sending messages back and forth. She loves drawing iMessages with her finger. It also looked like she was having a blast with her Grammy!


I picked up Erik and we parked at HS at 12:45.


I was so happy that it was warm enough for shorts!

Oh yeah, we’ve got the force!


Our first FP was for ToT. This ride TERRIFIES me! Like I don’t know what my problem is that makes me so scared of drops like this. But much to my surprise, I handled it much better than I thought I would! I decided that I may even like the ride (gasp!).

Of course Erik had to do his standard ride face of the trip! (and I may have liked ToT more than I have in the past, but that doesn't mean I was giving up my death grip on Erik's arm!!)

COMING UP: GOING BACK IN TIME FOR LUNCH​

 

[ZellyB]

Boy, that GPS thing when you are on Disney property is so true! I remember the first time we went and stayed off-site and tried to use the GPS to get around we were constantly being misdirected. We pretty quickly figured out the GPS was fine to get you onto property, but once there you are much better off just to follow the signs.

I love all your picture again with the characters. It looks like you have such great interactions.

I'm glad you have started to discovery the fabulousness that is ToT - the best ride in all of Disney as far as I'm concerned. Love the ride pic!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Boy, that GPS thing when you are on Disney property is so true! I remember the first time we went and stayed off-site and tried to use the GPS to get around we were constantly being misdirected. We pretty quickly figured out the GPS was fine to get you onto property, but once there you are much better off just to follow the signs.

I love all your picture again with the characters. It looks like you have such great interactions.

I'm glad you have started to discovery the fabulousness that is ToT - the best ride in all of Disney as far as I'm concerned. Love the ride pic!

Yeah I will definitely remember the bad GPS directions next time! The signs around property really are good, but I'm just so used to using my phone!

 

[Ariel484]

Bummer that the GPS failed you! Those purple signs are pretty good thankfully. Still seems like you had a good morning, though - love that Star Wars top you are wearing!

You find ToT terrifying - I find Rock 'n' Rollercoaster terrifying!! ToT is the BEST!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

love that Star Wars top you are wearing!

You find ToT terrifying - I find Rock 'n' Rollercoaster terrifying!! ToT is the BEST!

Thanks! I don't often find clothes from disney.com that I like, but when I saw that one I ordered it right away!

And that is so funny that the things we are scared of are flipped from each other- I could seriously ride Rock 'n' Rollercoaster all day long! I would love to delve into why certain people are scared of some things and not others.