The Princess and the Knave take on the World! Complete with pics!

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Great trip report!

It's fun to hear your report on Magic Kingdom for the 14th & 15th, the same exact days we were there!! Tuesday & Wednesday are definitely the days to go to MK!! I can't believe we didn't see each other.

We saw the mama duck and her ducklings at the bus stop that day too! I have a very similar picture!

MAYers rule!

 

[scottny]

Great pics and great report. cannot wait to see and read more.

 

[Nicole786]

Loving the report so far! keep it coming!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Whogirl’s mom – I know! I had never heard of the chalk either and it was a lot of fun reading everyone’s contributions! You will really love the 50’s section of the Pop! I will always request 50’s from now on! Naaah, we won’t fight over the same room – we’ll just get rooms close together! You know, I don’t think there are many differences between the S2 and the S3 – I think the S3 may have better image stabilization, though. . .

llrjerseygirl – I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! I promise more pictures are to come!

Hey Sharma! I’m really loving writing this trip report too! I am a BIG tiara girl and I must have my tiaras when I go to Disney. . . as you will see, that was just the first of THREE tiaras I will wear on this trip! You go girl and wear that tiara proudly to Akershus! DIS Princesses unite!

Princess V! Hey girl! I kind of started my trip report without anyone knowing! Wasn’t sure how to really promote it, so I just put a link in my siggie. Hope you’ll enjoy it when you come back!

Lisaj – Thank you so much! More to come very soon!

Kathymc – Thank you so much! Glad you’re enjoying the photos. I loved taking them! As far as feeling better, that’s a whole new story that I’ll share down the road! But I’ll say this. . .everything worked out just fine!

Seacrest! My friend! Aww, thank you! I’m happy you liked the castle pictures! I think they would have been better with a tripod, but I didn’t want to lug one around. . .maybe next year! I still love my dancing banana button, by the way! It sits proudly on my Disney wall shelf, waiting to be worn again on future Disney trips! More TR to come!

Jen! My sweet, wonderful friend! I loved that rocking chair so much I wanted to take it home! It was so fun talking to you from there! Just wait, in October, we’ll be sitting in those chairs together right before we go chasing after Jack Sparrow! Don’t worry, I am adding more to my TR later tonight!

Hi Cheryl! Ugh – yes. . .I wish people would NOT take flash pictures on dark rides! It’s one of my pet peeves – Grrrr! I really loved those baby ducks! They were just darling and so were the little sounds they made! I was in love! I don’t think James is going to make it in October, due to work, but I’ll still be there! I am soooo excited too! I can’t wait for our Dis meet! Woo-hoo! Hurry up October!

Hi Mella! Thanks so much! So happy you like the photos and there are many more coming up!

Hi Shelly! I can’t believe we didn’t run into each other on the 14th and 15th! I had my Mayer button and Team Focker Watch button and lanyard as well as my lime green Baggallini, so I know I probably stuck out like a sore thumb! Yes, those were wonderful days to be in the Magic Kingdom! Even though it seemed crowded, most of the lines were very short and we were pleased with that. I’d love to see your baby duck picture too! They were just too cute!

Scottny – Thank you so much! I am happy to share it with you and more is to come!

Nicole 786 – Thanks! So glad you like it! More to come tonight!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Allrighty, let's continue!

Day 4 - Thursday, May 17, 2007

After battling Lyme Disease symptoms last night and having to skip Wishes (to my disappointment), I awoke this morning feeling pretty good and was looking forward to my very first visit to Epcot! Come on, James, let's go!

We started off with a breakfast pizza at the Pop food court and it was okay - a little bit greasy for my taste, but hey. . .at least I tried it! I'll just have something different for breakfast tomorrow.

We made our way out to the bus stop and James snapped a quick photo of me before the bus pulled in.

We were on our way! I was really looking forward to seeing Spaceship Earth for the first time. And it certainly didn't disappoint! It was huge!

Since I have health issues, I was sad to have to skip Mission Space & Test Track, but I can certainly handle Soarin', having done so in March at California Adventure and I loved it! It was just as wonderful here in Epcot. I just love the feeling of flying over the ocean, gliding over the stream, flying over the mountains, and of course flying over Disneyland in the end! I could ride it over and over, but we had a whole new park to conquer, so enough of Soarin' for now.

We decided to make our way over to the Character Connection, where I got to meet Mickey & Minnie, Goofy & Pluto and Chip & Dale. While I loved getting to meet the characters, James is not that great of a photo taker. . .many times he cuts off my head or feet (pet peeves of mine) or forgets to use the flash. He must have accidentally put the camera on a different setting, because they're somewhat blurry and the lighting's all wrong! Oh well. . .after these photos, I'll lecture him on how to best take character pictures and future character pictures will hopefully turn out better.

I love how Chip & Dale are fighting over me here! Awww, I feel special!

After Character Connection, we came across Mouse Gears. . .uh-oh. . .another huge gift shop! Yes, I was lured in and we must have spent half an hour in there before I realized we needed to hoof it to Germany to make our early lunch ADR at Biergarten! I love German food and was really looking forward to trying Epcot's version of it. We made it right on time and were led in to the second row with a nice view of the stage! I was enamored with the atmosphere - it is made to feel like you are outside, even though you are inside! Forgive the flash here in the photo - I have not mastered dark shots with my new camera yet, but I will conquer it soon, hopefully! I especially loved the moon and the water wheel. . .

Now I gotta tell you, if you love German food and you're in Disney, GO TO BIERGARTEN! My goodness I ate so much food - way too much. But it was just so good! I wish I could remember everything I ate, but if you want an idea of what they serve go to www.allearsnet.com and click on Dining. The Epcot section has the lunch menu for Biergarten and it is wonderful! Highly recommended! Now after we ate our fill, we waited around about 20 minutes for the Oktoberfest show to start. These guys were great! I love polka music and their music just made you want to get up and dance! They are all multi-talented, too, each playing multiple instruments - I was very impressed. .. AND they could all sing too!

After a very satisfying lunch and show in the Biergarten, I wanted to peruse the shops in Germany, where to my delight, I found and purchased a beautiful pink & white rhinestone encrusted tiara! The pink rhinestones were in the shape of Mickey's head! I had to have it and considered it a bargain at $37.00. Hey, where else can you buy a jeweled Mickey tiara? Only at Disney! After making my purchase, we strolled the World Showcase, taking in the beautiful recreations of the different countries. I was in awe of the detail Disney is so famous for! I must have taken hundreds of World Showcase photos, but I'll just post a few here. . .

I loved this fountain in Italy!

I had to wait 20 minutes to get this shot with no people in it, but it was worth it!

A shot of beautiful Italy. . .

Germany. . .

Loved this hidden Mickey in Morocco!

More to come in my next post - I keep going over the picture limit in one post!

 

[GoofyBaby]

James really loved the tin toys in Japan and he really wanted me to take his picture with this robot! I am not sure what expression he is trying to emulate here, however. . .to me, it looks like he is trying not to go to the bathroom in his pants! But don't tell him I said that!

These guys, calling themselves Serveur Amusant, were very talented! I was chewing my nails off praying this guy wouldn't fall! He never did - I was impressed!

And I loved this maze in France - it would have been neat if it was 6 feet tall and we could try to navigate it!

Another picture of lovely France. . .

These drummers in Japan were awesome!

I got to meet Mary Poppins in England. . .hey, where did Bert go?

James, you unlock this phone booth this instant! I wasn't on the phone THAT long!

And (fanning self) here are Off-Kilter! Wow can they play! And wow are they hot! I was in love!

They sure look like they're having fun. . .I know I was! I love me a man in a kilt! Woo, boy!

We were lucky to be there during the Flower & Garden Festival and wow, there were tons of flowers! I took many, many flower photos. I was especially enamored with all of the character topiaries! This year's theme was Pirates and I just fell in love with the Pirate Goofy topiary - if I could have fit him on the plane, I would have taken him home with me! I just love my Goofy!

I caught the monorail gliding past Spaceship Earth as it was starting to rain. . .

The approaching rain clouds. . .

And then we sought cover inside a shop to wait for the rain to stop. . .and to my surprise, I found another DISer, Royal Cinderella and her mom! I was at one of the pressed penny machines when she noticed my lime green baggallini and asked if I was a DISer - we had a lovely chat, especially about Disney Vacation Club, which I am SO wanting to become a part of one day! She and her mom were just a joy to speak with and I'd love to run into you both at Disney in the future!

And after it mostly stopped, I was able to grab another empty park photo of the monorail gliding past Journey into Imagination! Just my luck - again!

And a few more wonderful Flower & Garden Festival creations. . .

Here's Cinderella & Prince Charming - they spun around to the tune of "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes!" Awwwww!

A beautiful butterfly in Minnie's butterfly garden. . .

And a butterfly topiary!

And Captain Hook's Pirate Ship, complete with Hook, Peter Pan, Tink, Croc and Stitch!

By this time, I was getting exhausted again, so we chose to go back to our room, since we did not take an afternoon break. . .We just chose to make it an early night since we still had 11 days to go! I walked into our room and crashed hard for about 2 hours and then we went outside our room to watch Illuminations before going to bed.

A pretty much uneventful evening, yes, but certainly more to come tomorrow, so stay tuned! We're going to Animal Kingdom! Yay!

 

[tinkerbell87512]

Great update! I'm glad you liked Epcot. Thats my favorite park with Magic Kingdom not far behind! Your so lucky that you had a room where you could see illuminations! I think I'm going to request a room over looking the lake for next month.

That stinks that James may not be able to go. We will still have a blast though!

 

[jnjusoioa]

AWWW Carol, it sure sounds like you had a most wonderful day at Epcot, your trip report is the best ever, your pictures are totally amazing and I feel like I am right there with you my dear friend.

 

[Goofyluver]

Wonderful update and pics...and you would've had to fight me for that goofy topiary. I would love to go during the flower and garden festival after seeing your pics. They are gorgeous!

 

[Sabrina90744]

Great trip report , looking forward to the next installment..

 

[IATink]

Another great installment! I just love all of your pictures.

We ate at the Biergarten the last time we were at Epcot, and we also loved it! We were not expecting much, but it was awesome. I can't wait to go back this summer!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Ms. Heimlich]

LOVING your report!! Thanks for all the pics.

I love the topiaries. I wish they had them up all year.

Ms. H

 

[Nicole786]

I'm so jealous you got to take your pic with mary poppins! My favorite movie is Mary poppins, and my goal for my upcoming trip is to search for her! LOL

glad u liked epcot, its my favorite park!

 

[rentayenta]

This is my favorite installment thus far and your pictures rock! I am really getting a handle on the parks through your report!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Hey Cheryl! Thanks! It was really great to have a room where we could see Iluminations! I am so glad we requested a top floor, lake-view room in the 50’s section!

Hi Jen, my dear friend! We had a great time at Epcot! It certainly was magical. Now we only have 100 more days until we get to go again!

Goofyluver – Bring it on girl! Naah, I’m just kidding – there’s enough of Goofy to go around! I highly recommend going during the F&G Festival. . .there was just so many beautiful flowers and topiaries all over the place. . .they were just breathtaking!

Sabrina90744 – Thank you so much! More to come tonight!

IATink – Aww, I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! Yes, Biergarten is now on my must-do list! It was fantastic!

Ms. Heimlich – Thank you so much – I’m so happy you like it! I wish they had those topiaries up all year too. . .since my first time at Epcot was during the F&G Festival, it will be strange to go back and not have them there!

Nicole786 – We got lucky with Mary Poppins! I knew she could be found in The U.K., but we were just walking through and there she was, right outside Twinings Tea shop! She was really fun to talk to.

Rentayenta – Awww, thank you so much! I am so glad my TR is helping you learn the parks better!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Another great installment. You look like you are having a blast in all your pictures! The special flower arrangements for the Flower and Garden festival look so beautiful. I would love to visit Disney someday while this festival is going on. Eagerly awaiting your next installment.

 

[CriminyCrafft]

AHHHH I just found your trip report! It's me, your Myspace buddy, Amanda! You were just commenting on my page about the DIS meet, which I'm going to miss by a few weeks.

Anyway, FANTASTIC TR! I LOVE your pictures and can't wait to read more! That's awesome that you went with your male BFF - I'm going with a male friend of mine in October and it's his first time to Disney since like 1980!!! Unfortunately my very best male friend has a kid now so he can't (or isn't allowed to) go on trips anymore!

OT - has anyone ever told you that you look like the actress Anna Paquin (from X-men, among other things)? I think you look just like her! She's very cute IMO.

Thanks for the great TR! Keep the posts comin!!!!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Allrighty! Let's continue!

Day 5 - Friday, May 18, 2007

We woke up early today, very excited that we were going to Animal Kingdom for the first time and have a character breakfast at Donald's Breakfastosaurus! Being that our ADR was for 8:00 a.m., we hopped on the first Animal Kingdom bus. I could tell, just from seeing the front gates, that we were in for a fabulous time today!

Unlike the Magic Kingdom, where we had to wait to be let in, we went right in and were guided to Donald's, but not before I spotted a cute cast lanyard pin on a CM's lanyard! I made the trade and we made our way to Donald's. . .once checked in, we did have about a 20 minute wait, but I didn't mind. . .I was enjoying myself way too much, just knowing we had a whole new park to explore! Once we were called in, everything went like clockwork. We were led to our table, gave our drink orders and we were off to the buffet! While not as extensive as the last character meal I had over Spring Break (Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim), it was very good nonetheless. One thing I love about going to the first seatings is that the food is hot and fresh! It didn't take long for the characters to arrive either. . .Mickey, Pluto, Donald and my favorite, Goofy, were all here to greet us today! They each had on their cute little prehistoric/archaeological outfits and as you can tell by my overextended smile, I was very happy to meet them!

Me waiting patiently for the characters! I can see them! Hurry up gang!

Yay! Here comes Pluto!

Followed by Mickey!

Then Donald. . .but Arrrrgghh! James cut off our feet! BIG pet peeve of mine! I really need to teach that boy how to take pictures!

Finally, they saved the best for last. . .GOOFY! I Love you Goofy!

All of the characters were great and we had so much fun meeting them! As soon as they made their picture rounds, they started dancing to Kool & the Gang's "Celebration!" But it was getting close to opening time for the park, so we finished up breakfast and waited for the rope to drop so we could hustle to Kilimanjaro Safaris. What a ride! James and I had so much fun! I'm sure it helped that we had a very enthusiastic driver too. . .we saw many different animals on our safari this morning! Here are just a few. . .

rhino. . .

hippos. . .

alligators. . .

giraffes. . .

elephant. . .

flamingos. . .

sleepy lioness. . .

and a variety of other wonderful animals (this is just my way of saying I have no idea what type of animals these are)! Even if I couldn't remember what they were called, they were very beautiful animals! James and I truly enjoyed my safari ride!

After our lovely safari, we headed to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, where we snapped photos of more lovely animals (I really should have written down their names!). . .the trails were very lush and made us feel like we were in a rainforest! Very beautiful!

Since I have hit my picture limit in the post, I will continue in my next post!

 

[kathy387]

I finally caught up! Great report and you can never have enough pictures

 

[heaven2dc]

Please give James my compliments on his picture taking - he did a GREAT job in a lot of his photos of you!! Photo taking is difficult to say the least esp if you're not use to taking pics plus using someone else's camera. Your pics, of course, are great too - you sound like you're a more avid photographer (at least your pics look like you've had a lot of experience)

Enjoying your trip report! - having a best friend to tour the World must be great (and not getting on each other's nerves and ruining the friendship is half the battle - I've been wanting to go with my best friend but we're taking mini trips before taking the "big Disney" trip this fall).

Thanks for sharing with us all!