Chapter 3
In which our heroine attempts to blow her whole trip spending budget in one spot, gets the best seat in the house, and finally gets a room with a view!
(VO from yummy Ian Somerhalder
Previously on the Vampire Diaries
. Wait
ahem
I mean
when we last left our fearless travellers, they were enjoying the last sips of a Grey Goose slushie, and making their way towards Japan
(wait, wait, cant I have him narrate the whole thing? Its gonna cost HOW much?!?!
.nevermind.)
Hi everyone! I hope you had an amazing weekend and youre settling into the work week. Im going to try to knock out the majority of Day 1 so we can move on to the good (better?) stuff!
After the GGS of Goodness, we walked past Morocco and on to Japan!
I love Japanese culture, and still believe they get WAY cooler gadgets and toys than we do. I also work for a very large Japanese company here in the US, so many of my coworkers are from Tokyo. I want to go there someday, Im still trying to figure out a way they will send me. So imagine my smiles when I saw that they had a mini sized Mitsukoshi! I dragged Mike in there before he could remind me our ADRs for lunch at Tokyo Dining were coming up soon!
The minute I walked in, I saw a HUGE display of Hello Kitty products. There is no picture of this, because I was that floored. I did find these little guys kind of funny / cute, though.
First, the funny. This is for anyone who grew up in the 70s/80s, you will appreciate this little guy:
(I havent seen one of these in YEARS!)
Then, I saw these and just thought they were super cute. My SILs name is Kim, so I had to take a picture of one of these for her!
(I bought stuff too, but ironically didnt take any pictures of that!)
After loading up on origami paper, snacks, and a t-shirt for Mike, I was dragged /walked upstairs for our first Disney meal, Tokyo Dining!
(Mmmm
.eel
)
If you want the full breakdown of our lunch, visit the Dining Review
HERE.
(Mike making a chopstick rest
did I mention he worked for the same Japanese company until just a month or so ago?)
For the brief overview, it was amazing
, we were seated at the best table in the place, as far as Im concerned, looking out over the water and the people walking by. I can imagine it would be a great spot to watch Illuminations from at night! The service was fantastic, and our waitress offered to take a picture of the two of us at our table:
(a bit dark, but still a nice picture!)
Just one more picture of the food, the rest are all in the Dining Review:
(Lots of food in the Bento Boxes, btw
.)
Our waitress brought over the check with a lovely origami heart (made from Hello Kitty paper, no less!
) and we made our way back out into the sun. I decided we should grab a FP for Test Track before walking back to the hotel to get our room and thought we should grab the boat across the lagoon. Whoops. Wrong choice. We waited ages for the boat to show up, and when it did, it was still on the stop at every dock around the lagoon schedule. We did get some good pictures though while we waited. My favorite was this view of the water wheel in front of Morocco:
(I just love how things look so different when you change your perspective
)
(Ok, how do people manage to take these holding your arm out pictures without getting a double chin
like I do
EVERY time!)
I had some fun ignoring posted signs:
(oh yeah?!?!)
(Yeah, I know, Im a rebel
.)
(another random picture from the back of the boat)
Finally we made our way across the lake and by that time Mike had to go find the restroom, so I stood over by the water and took in the view. A few seconds later, I noticed something strange in the sky, and realized that there was a skywriter up there!
(the wide shot
)
(awww
love
)
By this time, Mike was back and we both waited a few moments to see what else went along with love
. The plane got so far as GO before a cloud moved in the way of the words. As we made our way over to Test Track to pick up our FPs we both made our own phrases up! (Love Go Away was a favorite). Soon we had arrived at:
(Got to love how low the crowds are
.)
I was super excited to get my first Fastpass EVER! I may have gotten a strange look or two since the standby line was only 25 minutes or so, but I had plans for these little suckers later in the evening!
(I felt so cool holding these!!!!)
We decided it was time to head back to the Yacht Club and move into our room before it got too late, so we walked back across the park through Innovations. Coming out the back side I saw the Kodak pavilion and Journey Into Imagination!
(So many memories from this ride
)
Mike and I decided at the last minute to jump on this ride as it was my favorite as a child. My father worked for Kodak, and for so many years, this was home base for us. This was an extremely bittersweet moment for me, because my dad wasnt there with me, and I had to face once again the fact that he never would be able to experience the magic of Disney with us. I know he was there in spirit though, and I comfort myself with that.
(I like how they still kept some of the original looks from the older rides
really miss the actor Figment, though!)
Figment was my favorite Disney character as a child; hes still up there even if they tried to erase him from the ride a time or two! I wont lie, my first impressions of the ride wasnt a very objective one. Frankly, I cried through the whole thing
. It was a good cry, though
and it made me realize what an amazingly good idea this trip was for us. I felt as if I was able to let go a little
to just cry and know it was going to be ok.
Thank goodness we were the only people in the car, I dont know what others would think of seeing a grown adult woman crying in the scent room! The song One Little Spark came flowing back into my mind, it was so sweet to hear it again. When we walked out through the play area, we created our own Figment, which I named Mikey, and emailed it to ourselves. Or at least I thought I did, because I cant find the silly thing now!
I think my exact words were we are SO coming back to shop here, as I hugged one of the Figment plush dolls:
(Mike had to pry my fingers away from this little purple monster.)
After that, we left Epcot to walk back over to the YC and check out our room!
To be continued....
I don't think I could share one of mine. Truly. They'd have to pry it out of my hands.....
... I will have to get BOTH this trip!!!
x
Well apparently I forgot to push the "subscribe" button and missed out on your first two updates 
So let me play catch up with comments. Glad to hear you had a great experience with the private car. It makes it a much quieter, relaxed experience then being shoved on DME. Not bad mouthing DME or anything but getting the private treatment is a nice treat once in a while. YC looks gorgeous. Any room pics? Woohoo! You finally got a Grey goose slushie! Aren't they delicious?
Aren't they so good?? 
I used to fly little planes (turbo prop and small jets) for work all the time between DC and White Plains, NY. Every single problem I have ever had on a plane was on those.... I swore them off and so far I'm doing well. Then again, I haven't had a chance to travel to a tropical island either.... we'll see how THAT goes.
