Two Castles in 24 Hours...Bring it On! A Sept 2013 PTR **NEW 10/14 w/ TR Link**

[Disneyluvr81]

Day 4 - Our Last Full Day Cont...

Monday afternoon brought us back over to Epcot.

We had Fastpasses for Test Track burning a whole in our pockets! I know I am in the minority here but I love the new design

Caught me totally off guard that they moved the camera for the picture to the outside track - so of course our first ride photo was hideous (long blond hair going everywhere) so we didn’t add it to the card. The single rider line was still super short so we hopped back in for another go around and this time I was prepared (and so was B, haha!)

I just realized that I never mentioned that the one new thing that we did for this trip was collect smushed pennies. As soon as I made the decision to do the marathon we started collecting quarters and pennies. I was super picky about my pennies though as I had read online that you really wanted to use 1982 or older because anything newer contained zinc and copper and the zinc oxidized over time. I had to use Brasso to get the old pennies shiny and new again and it was incredible had well they cleaned up. We made a list of all of the pennies we wanted to get before leaving and most of the pennies we had left to get were around the World Showcase and that is where we went...

For the trip, we were able to get all but a few pennies so we are on a mission once again in September to finish up our collection. As we came out of the World Showcase and headed towards the front of the park, B stopped to do a pin trade with a couple of the DVC castmembers and we had a hilarious, long conversation with them. They were both so full of energy and love for their jobs. They got to travel around so much with one doing primarily the DVC on the cruise ships and the other being involved in Adventures by Disney in addition to the DVC. They totally made our entire afternoon and he even gave me a hard time for not wearing my medal still.

We hit up Spaceship Earth before before saying good bye to Epcot, which at the time was sad because at that point in this trip we didn’t have any future trips planned.

We went back to POR to freshen up a bit and with the medal around my neck we were back out to MK for dinner at Tony’s Town Square.

I know this is one restaurant that gets a lot of bad press here on the DIS but we ate there for the first time on our honeymoon and really enjoyed it. Our dinner that evening consisted of Chicken Parmigiana for B and my new favorite, a Caesar salad and calamari...so good! We didn’t stay in the park much after dinner because at dinner we had a very deep conversation about how we were going to get B’s new Gundam model sets home without squishing them. The only logical solution....buy a new carry on (B had only brought his backpack since it was a short trip and my carry on didn’t have enough room). So we hit up Downtown Disney for the first time of the trip. We didn’t end up getting anything at World of Disney and decided we would hit the gift shop at Port Orleans, hoping they might have something a little less expensive.

We loved being able to take the water taxi from DTD to POR. It was such a tranquil ride that we have planned to do it during the day at some point during our September trip. We were able to find a carry on at the gift shop and a few more souvenir items before it was back to the room to get all packed up and ready to go home, we had a very, early morning ahead of us...

Continued Next Post​

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Day 5 - Going Back to the Real World...

B and I were up super bright and early this morning because before heading back to the real world, we had breakfast plans with a few of our closest friends. We drug our suitcases to bell services where we got checked in for our flight later in the afternoon, said goodbye to our luggage and had them hold all of our carry ons. Not surprisingly, the bus stop was very quiet this morning. There was one other family waiting to catch the same bus as ours....which bus was that...well the Magic Kingdom bus of course. Except unlike the other family, we weren’t going in to the MK just yet. Luckily it didn’t take long for the bus to arrive and we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom. Bypassing the deserted MK front gates, we made our way up to an even more deserted Monorail.

Gotta love having a car all to yourself. Our destination that morning was the Contemporary and Chef Mickey’s!!

We ate here for dinner on our honeymoon and had a great time. It seemed like a fitting end to the trip to have it for breakfast our final morning. We were one of the very first seatings of the morning and they put us towards the back of the restaurant right next to the window. We didn’t mind being away from the main action at all and still had great character interactions plus the peaceful views of Bay Lake.

We enjoyed everything we got (especially the strawberries and whipped cream). After we saw all of the fab five it was time to head over to the final park of the trip, Magic Kingdom, for Rope Drop. We honestly had grand plans of touring New Fantasyland this morning but none of those plans really came to fruition. After pushing myself for several days I hit my wall in Magic Kingdom. Its funny, because I look at the Photopass pictures and my smile is so forced. My smiles are almost always genuine in my pictures and almost always look the same but not so much this morning.

I know we rode Pirates and had planned to ride Space again but the thought of walking over to Tomorrowland was just too much. So instead I slowly limped through the new Dumbo area to the train station. We rode the train back up to Main Street because I really wanted to get a picture of the Castle reflection in the water for my phone.

I laughed about it then too but when we got to the bridge over by Sleepy Hollow the sun was behind the clouds and I was so disappointed that I was not going to get “my” shot. So I took a picture anyways and we started slowly making our way back to the front.

We had just gotten to the hub when the sun popped out from behind the clouds. In that moment the pain in my feet went away and I was on a mission to get back over to the bridge to get my shot. I had to have looked comical half limping, half walking as fast as my beat up legs could carry me but I did it...I got my castle shot.

And with that picture our time at WDW had come to an end and I was just done. We got a couple more photopass pictures for good measure before slowly limping back out to the buses....at which point I finally had my meltdown.

The bus back to POR was taking forever to come and it was one of those times where all other resorts were getting multiple buses but nothing for us. And I did something I have never done before, sat in the bus line and cried. I was just so done and hurting and the bus not coming was my tipping point. Once on the bus, I recomposed and apologize to B for having a moment. Back at POR we grabbed a quick lunch and then waited for the Magical Express bus to take us back to MCO.

I always hate this ride back to the airport - although its like the end of any vacation, you just don’t want to do it. Security lines were insane and we made it with just enough time to spare to take a quick potty break and then we were on the plane. The flight home was nonstop and uneventful except for the fact that we flew over WDW and I was able to grab pictures of it!!!

It was seriously the coolest thing to see it from the air and it helped make up for the fact that we were heading home. My dad picked us up from the airport and with that our January Marathon trip came to a close. All of the good moments throughout the 5 days outweighed the low moments from our final day and I have loved being able to look back on all of these pictures and memories and can’t wait to make new memories in just 75 more days!!

Continued Next Post​

 

[klacey1]

I can't wait to ride the new Test Track!! I'm glad to hear at least someone likes the redesign!
I know the feeling-- when walking from one end of the park to another just seems like the longest walk in the world. No thank you!!
That is SO cool that you got to fly over WDW!! I'm not sure I would have recognized the MK area, but Epcot is clear as day. Wow!!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

My apologies for being gone for so long. Traveled for work again last week and than we had our first open house this weekend. No offers yet but getting quite a bit of interest...hoping for an offer soon so we can kind of get back to a normal life until its time to move.

We saw Monster's University yesterday and OMGosh was it over the top cute. I LOVED it!! Pixar did an amazing job transitioning it to Monster's Inc.

B and I also got a big surprise yesterday too. We had planned on spending a couple hours in the parks before seeing the movie and decided to hit California Adventure this morning instead of Disneyland. That decision made the whole day for us. They were doing a special AP screening of Lone Ranger yesterday in the Muppetvision Theater. We were lucky enough to get passes to the 4pm showing so we got to see Monster's University AND The Lone Ranger yesterday. It was so fun to get to see a movie before everyone else and while I am glad we didn't have to pay to see it in the theater (more because there are so many movies coming out this summer want to see), I was pleasantly surprised and it was better than I expect. The horse, Silver, totally steals the movie though!!

So Seriously, How Did this Trip Come to Be?

So we’ve hit the end of my mini TR and I haven’t really answered my own question...how did our September trip come to be? Well, with the Marathon we barely did park touring (before because I didn’t want to overdue it and after because I was nursing blisters and the nasty heat rash...thank you Florida for the record breaking heat and humidity).

In my darkest miles during the marathon I was done with running and never wanted to do it again (yeah, that line of thinking didn’t last, haha) and had decided that if I got swept or couldn’t finish the marathon there would be no reason for me to run the Disneyland 1/2 in September because there would be no Coast to Coast medal. What better way to nurse a bruised ego then to go back to Disney World. At some point after the marathon I told B about my negative train of thoughts and boy oh boy did it get him thinking. Suddenly talk started swirling about, well, why don’t we come back in September? The guy who wasn’t even sure he wanted to do a trip in December 2014 was now talking about “When we come back in September”. It helped that we had been given a bounce back offer of 35% off a room stay when we checked in (something we had not gotten on previous trips) and on the morning we were supposed to be leaving for home, we were now booked to come back in September at our all time favorite resort (although plans have since changed since we made that original reservation...dun, dun, dunnnn (insert tongue smiley). No longer did I feel sad that we saw almost nothing of Magic Kingdom or New Fantasyland or only got to ride Test Track twice - I now had an amazing trip to look forward too and even better it was only a little over 7 months away at that point!!

We will be staying at the World from September 2nd - September 11th. We originally were to come home on the 10th but after realizing we would be going home on the first night of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, we did what any logical Disneyholic would do....extended our trip 1 day!!

When we booked this trip in January, we originally booked to stay at Wilderness Lodge Club Level all 9 (now 10 nights). Well, we can officially be called resort changers because after crunching numbers and deciding we were going to go back in February for the Glass Slipper Challenge, it made better sense to upgrade our DL passes to Premier Passes when they came up for renewal April. It was so exciting to once again have that snazzy golden ticket.

Since we were now going to be Passholders, we were no longer going to be doing the dining plan which meant we now had access to room only discounts. Which, lead to us switching our first 3 nights to the Polynesian Club Level (I am so excited - we have never stayed at the Poly before!!) So we will now be at the Poly Sept 2nd - 5th and finish our trip at our long standing favorite resort, WL from Sept 5th - 11th.

Today was 69 days and I hope they go as fast as the last 30 days have. I can't believe I started this PTR on our double digit countdown day...where this last month went has gone, I have no idea!

Continued Next Post​

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Part 1: The First Castle

So that brings us to the when & part of the where but two castles? Yup, two castles....

Our journey starts on our wedding anniversary, August 30th where we will do something I have not done in a VERY long time. We will be checking in to a hotel not located within the Disneyland Resort because at 0‘Dark Thirty the next morning, I will be taking on the 10k portion of the Dumbo Double Dare race. This will be my 3rd year taking on the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon. I have my awesome SIL to thank for getting me in to running and more specifically running Disney but sadly, she will not be joining me this year. The costs of the races were just too high for her to justify and I totally understand. My wallet cries for a few days every time I sign up for a Disney race. My husband has his weekly comic book purchases and I have my Disney races - fair trade if you ask me (although B gets Disney vacations with my hobby, hehe!).

So from August 30th - September 1st we will be staying at the Best Western Park Place Inn

(photo courtesy of the interwebs)

located directly across the street from the Harbor Blvd entrance of Disneyland. Even though the hotel is a closer walk than Paradise Pier or the Disneyland Hotel (and possibly the Grand Californian depending on where your room is) I had so much anxiety about booking “offsite” instead of staying at the Grand like we typically do for our anniversary. Never once did I have a nightmare about the WDW Marathon but 2 nights after booking the Best Western I had an awful nightmare about forgetting to pick up my packet for Disneyland, which led to me forgetting how to put on my running clothes and missing the 10k race of the Dumbo challenge which defeated the whole point of the weekend...it was so silly and awful all at the same time. Go figure...its the hotel we booked for the weekend that led to my first and only racing nightmare thus far.

Right now, our plans for the Disneyland portion of the trip are up in the air only because I am nursing an injured left foot. What we originally thought was just overuse from doing two full marathons within 3 weeks of each other...yes, feel free to tell me I am insane for doing it, I will wear that title with pride - totally and completely insane. Well, 3 months went by and it wasn’t really getting better. More X-rays, a trip to both the podiatrist and the orthopedist and I have officially been diagnosed with Hallux Limitus...nope, not a cool Harry Potter spell, although it should be. It’s a big fancy word for arthritis in the joint of my big toe which in turn leads to calcium deposits or a bone spur on at the top of my foot. I have been fitted with custom orthotics to support my toe to hopefully prevent the damage from getting worse and have new snazzy running shoes.

So I will be judging how extensive our touring plans for Disneyland will be on how my foot does over the next 2 months as I ramp up my miles in training but our tentative plans are Continued Next Post....

 

[Disneyluvr81]

The First Castle Cont...

Friday, August 30th - my hope is to get off work 1/2 day so I can get over to the expo right as it opens at noon. For anyone who hasnt been to a RunDisney expo they are CRAZY and with this year being the inaugural Dumbo Challenge, I can only imagine how quickly the Dumbo merchandise will be picked over. I dont plan to stay at the expo for very long as I will be heading back to our condo to finish packing. I am a procrastipacker (feel free to use with your friends playing Scrabble...its like the special targets in Buzz and you automatically get 999,999 points, youre welcome!)...I always plan to be packed at least a day or so before our trips but yeah, never happens. Plus we will be packing up our furbabies, Lucky and Snowflake, to spend the next 2 weeks with grandma and grandpa again.

My parents only have furry grandchildren right now and my mom wears the badge proudly until she officially graduates to Grandma! They have been taking good care of our girls for the last 2 weeks since it isnt in their best interest to have them here at the condo while it is being shown.

We will head back to Anaheim after getting the girls situated to officially get checked in to our first home away from home for the next 2 nights. We havent figured out where we will do dinner...worst case scenario there is always Earl of Sandwich (wait, Earl of Sandwich is never a worst case scenario...seriously, you dont know how excited we were when it was officially announced it was coming to our DTD!!).

My hope is to catch the first Fantasmic showing and the fireworks before heading back to the hotel for a short night.

Saturday, August 31st - starts off very early for me. The 10k starts at 6:15am so I am sure I will need to be up by 4am to get over to the start. Right now my plan for the 10k is a super cute Robin shirt

(photo courtesy of interwebs)

(yeah, I know...its a Disney race but DH is a huge Batman fan and I think the shirt is cute) and a green sparkle skirt...although my run attire is subject to change most likely multiple times over the next couple months. My goal is to maintain a 12 minute mile so that I am done by 8am and I would like do Breakfast in the Park at the Plaza on Main Street. This Breakfast would be a first for us and from reviews/pictures I have seen, the character interaction is so great and it just looks like a fun way to top of the morning.

As long as my foot is cooperating we plan to spend time over at DCA for some Carsland

Aladdin the Musical and will finish off the day with dinner at Storytellers Cafe which has become a pre-half marathon tradition and I hope to do World of Color before heading back for another short (well at least for me) night.

Continued Next Post​

 

[blabbermouth]

Hi, checking in on your PTR now! Wow, you are a running machine! I will think good thoughts about your foot

That's an awesome split stay, Poly and WL.

Glad to hear the EOS at DTD DL finally opened, I think they were talking about it during my last trip there in 2011 and that it was taking forever!

Subscribing to your report now.

 

[rosanab1031]

Procrastipacking! I love it! Totally doing this right now. Going to Vegas tomorrow morning... haven't even started packing yet

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Hi, checking in on your PTR now! Wow, you are a running machine! I will think good thoughts about your foot

That's an awesome split stay, Poly and WL.

Glad to hear the EOS at DTD DL finally opened, I think they were talking about it during my last trip there in 2011 and that it was taking forever!

Subscribing to your report now.

Thanks for the good thoughts - it is definitely appreciated!

It's crazy how long it took for them to open EOS. When they announced it, it was supposed to be open by end of Summer 2012 and the SIL and I were so excited about the thought of getting EOS after the 1/2 last year. It wasn't even close to being done by September. Not sure why it took forever and a day but still happy we have it!

Procrastipacking! I love it! Totally doing this right now. Going to Vegas tomorrow morning... haven't even started packing yet

It's awful, no matter how much I intend to be better about packing it never happens. Even with my work trips I am always packing before I go to bed the night before.

I am slightly ahead of the game this year and have started putting clothes and items for WDW in a Rubbermaid container that fits under our bed. So at least I have a bunch of our stuff in one place!

Have a great time in Vegas!!

 

[klacey1]

Wow, I can't believe how close the Best Western is to the parks! I'd still be lik you, though. There's just something about "off site" that I'm not a fan of either!
I love your race top!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Wow, I can't believe how close the Best Western is to the parks! I'd still be lik you, though. There's just something about "off site" that I'm not a fan of either!
I love your race top!

It's pretty crazy how close some of the offsite hotels around Disneyland are. I wish it wasn't so easy to slip back to the real world. Thanks! I actually got my shirts ordered yesterday with a 20% code for the 4th of July!!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

The First Castle Cont...

Sunday, September 1st - starts off just as early for me. The Half Marathon officially starts at 5:30am and I plan to be out of the room no later than 4:30am.

My outfit for the Half is a Batgirl shirt and a purple sparkle skirt.

(photo courtesy of the interwebs)

I am more excited for the Batgirl shirt than I am for the race right now haha. Plus a black shirt is even more motivation to keep my 12 minutes or hopefully faster pace.

Originally, our first real meal of the day was to be spent at Goofy's Kitchen and then over to Disneyland for hopefully a couple hours before officially saying goodbye to the first castle portion of our vacation. Shortly before the 60 day mark to make dining reservations at Disneyland, I realized it would be better to do Goofy's the prior morning as a late brunch and do the Plaza today instead. That will give us more time to spend over at DCA and Carsland on Saturday.

We will spend the rest of the day at my parent's house for our annual Labor Day BBQ (or as friends and family have dubbed...meatfest). We got my dad an electric smoker for his birthday last year and the amount of meat BBQd/Smoked at our family BBQs has just gotten ridiculous.

We will spend as much time with our girls as possible before we have to tell them 'See Ya Real Soon' so we can head out for our red eye flight to DISNEY. My amazing dad will be making the drive out to Long Beach airport (about 45 mins from their house) to save us from having to pay for parking. Long Beach did away with their offsite long term parking lot and you can only park in their parking structure now resulting in $17-$19 a day in parking fees!

We will be flying Jet Blue (hooray for free DirecTv) and our flight leaves at 9:25pm. I am not big on red eye flights - I love flying but sleep tends to elude me on planes. My hope is that being up super early 2 mornings in a row plus running 19.3 miles will force my brain to officially go in to sleep mode. We have to fly through Boston to head down to Orlando and have about a 2 hour layover right now. Never flown through Boston and I nerdy and love getting to see new airports! Jet Blue has been upping our times and we now get in to Orlando around 10:45am instead of 11:15am as we originally booked. Gotta love extra Disney time!!

Continued Next Post​

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

Read your report earlier! Forgot to reply. Very jealous that you've been to dl so many times! Living on the east coast prevents me from going out there. Flights are much cheaper to Florida then Cali!

Congrats on all your running. I couldn't do it!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

The First Castle Cont...

Sunday, September 1st - starts off just as early for me. The Half Marathon officially starts at 5:30am and I plan to be out of the room no later than 4:30am.

My outfit for the Half is a Batgirl shirt and a purple sparkle skirt.

(photo courtesy of the interwebs)

I am more excited for the Batgirl shirt than I am for the race right now haha. Plus a black shirt is even more motivation to keep my 12 minutes or hopefully faster pace.

Originally, our first real meal of the day was to be spent at Goofy’s Kitchen and then over to Disneyland for hopefully a couple hours before officially saying goodbye to the first castle portion of our vacation. Shortly before the 60 day mark to make dining reservations at Disneyland, I realized it would be better to do Goofy’s the prior morning as a late brunch and do the Plaza today instead. That will give us more time to spend over at DCA and Carsland on Saturday.

We will spend the rest of the day at my parent’s house for our annual Labor Day BBQ (or as friends and family have dubbed...meatfest). We got my dad an electric smoker for his birthday last year and the amount of meat BBQ’d/Smoked at our family BBQ’s has just gotten ridiculous.

We will spend as much time with our girls as possible before we have to tell them “See Ya Real Soon” so we can head out for our red eye flight to DISNEY. My amazing dad will be making the drive out to Long Beach airport (about 45 mins from their house) to save us from having to pay for park. Long Beach did away with their offsite long term parking lot and you can only park in their parking structure now resulting in $17-$19 a day in parking fees!

We will be flying Jet Blue (hooray for free DirecTv) and our flight leaves at 9:25pm. I am not big on red eye flights - I love flying but sleep tends to elude me on planes. My hope is that being up super early 2 mornings in a row plus running 19.3 miles will force my brain to officially go in to sleep mode. We have to fly through Boston to head down to Orlando and have about a 2 hour layover right now. Never flown through Boston and I nerdy and love getting to see new airports! Jet Blue has been upping our times and we now get in to Orlando around 10:45am instead of 11:15am as we originally booked. Gotta love extra Disney time!!

Continued Next Post

Logan is a very pretty airport. I usually fly out of there for jet blue. But southwest was much cheaper out of my home airport.

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Forgot to wish everyone a very happy 4th of July in the last update. I hope everyone's day has been fantastic. Started the 4th off with a 10k with my DSIL here in Ladera. Oh my gosh, she and I have both slacked off on our weekly runs mostly due to work and geez louis were we feeling it. We finished it right at 90 mins though and had a lot of fun...so that matters more than trying to get a better time for the Disneyland 1/2.

We've also hopefully got an offer on our condo and if all goes well with the buyers getting cross qualified we will be opening escrow next week!! So if you all could keep your fingers crossed/send positive thoughts our way we would be so appreciative.


Hey Look, there's another castle!

Monday, September 2nd - Day 1 in the World!

Stepping off the plane in MCO, riding the fake monorail and heading down to Magic Express officially begins our Disney World vacation. Theres a 50/50 chance we will go the wrong way and end up on the opposite side for ME (it seems like every other trip we get ourselves turned around)! Not too much of a change of lines since the Poly and WL share a ME bus and with any luck, well get a true ME bus again and this time I will remember to take a picture.

Driving under these two signs is one of the best feelings in the World and I don't think there will ever be a time where it doesn't make me as excited as it did on our very first trip!!

We intend to be pretty low key our first day there we learned the hard way on our first trip that trying to squeeze too much in after a red eye makes for a couple of very cranky pandas! We've never eaten at Captain Cooks before and I am pretty sure that will be our lunch destination & seriously, who can resist the draw of self serve Dole Whips? I can't believe I never knew of this prior to reading about it in another TR.

With any luck our room will be ready so we can take a nap but I also intend to pack our swimsuits in our carry on so we can make use of the Polys amazing Volcano Pool if the rooms not ready.

The plan is to head in to the Magic Kingdom after dinner but I cant guarantee the draw of my favorite park won't head us in there earlier. I love Magic Kingdom, for me, that's home. It's like Disneyland but in essence better for it's own reasons.

We started our honeymoon off with dinner at Chef Mickey's and couldn't think of a better way to kick off our 5 year anniversary trip.

This will be the first time back at Chef Mickey's for dinner since 2008. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal then and breakfast in January so looking forward to another fun meal. Tonight is one of my first surprises for B and since he is a lurker, you guys are just gonna have to wait until we get back for the surprise too! We'll finish off the night at Magic Kingdom with a little bit of Wishes and hopefully a couple of rides!

Continued Next Post​

 

[blabbermouth]

Good luck with the condo sale, I know how annoying/difficult/stressful it can be, so hope it's smooth sailing for you!

We took a red eye last time and I had a strange dude sitting next to me so I couldn't sleep the whole way and it was direct from SEA to MCO. I was a wreck the next day, kept nodding off during Indiana Jones Stunt Show. A nap helped though!

I think we're also going to try Captain Cooks for lunch on our MK day!

My DH doesn't lurk, so I'm safe to share surprises... or complain

 

[klacey1]

Ahh, best wishes your condo sale goes through!!

I can't agree more-- going under that arch will always give me butterflies.

Lunch at Captain Cooks sounds perfect-- I am definitely planning on doing that at some point during our trip.

Can't wait to read about what your surprise is!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Good luck with the condo sale, I know how annoying/difficult/stressful it can be, so hope it's smooth sailing for you!

We took a red eye last time and I had a strange dude sitting next to me so I couldn't sleep the whole way and it was direct from SEA to MCO. I was a wreck the next day, kept nodding off during Indiana Jones Stunt Show. A nap helped though!

I think we're also going to try Captain Cooks for lunch on our MK day!

My DH doesn't lurk, so I'm safe to share surprises... or complain

Thank you so much!! Honestly, having to be a seller and a buyer at the same time has been so much more stressful than being the first time buyers we were 5 years ago. So ready to have our girls home - the plan is to bring them back as soon as contingencies get removed so they will have room to run around again until we officially have to move.

Ugh, that's the one thing I dislike about flying - the super close proximity to strangers. I always make my husband sit in the middle seat.

We're trying to keep up with firsts this trip and can't wait to check off Capt Cooks from the list. I love that about WDW - this will be our 7th trip and we still have a whole list of "firsts" to do this trip.

Ahh, best wishes your condo sale goes through!!

I can't agree more-- going under that arch will always give me butterflies.

Lunch at Captain Cooks sounds perfect-- I am definitely planning on doing that at some point during our trip.

Can't wait to read about what your surprise is!

Thank you - if all goes as planned we supposed to open escrow on Monday. Keeping my fingers, toes, eyes & legs crossed everything goes smoothly!

We are excited to try Capt Cooks - the food looks super yummy and from the menus I've seem, I like that there is an asian/hawaiian flare to the offerings outside of your typical burgers, chicken nuggets, etc. I follow Jess' DCP trip report and the pictures of the sushi she has gotten from there look so good!!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Day 2 - Tuesday, Sept 3rd – Getting a Little Wild & Crazy

Our first full day is going to be an early one for us as we will be heading to a new to us restaurant for breakfast – Tusker House!

With our reservation being at 8:05, we are hoping to finish up just as the park opens at 9am so we can make a beeline to Everest!!!

With adding an extra day on our trip we now will have two AK days during our trip and I fully plan on seeing Finding Nemo again and seeing Lion King for the very first time (I know, I know, it’s just been one of those…oh, we’re gonna definitely see it this trip that just doesn’t seem to happen). Lunch will most likely be at either Pizzafari or Flame Tree BBQ.

Today is also another surprise for Brian so our AK day will be slightly shorter than originally planned...and like B you guys will have to wait and see – I am super excited for this surprise!!

Evening plans will take us over to Epcot and our absolute favorite restaurant in all of Disney World (and the only restaurant we have eaten at on every single one of our trips)….Teppan Edo!!!

B and I have a thing for hibachi dining, we have a restaurant near us that I have to say does beat out Teppan Edo in tastiness (plus they still light things on fire). It's funny B's birthday dinner was at Teppan Edo in January and mine was at our favorite hibachi restaurant earlier this month. I razzed B that he made out like a bandit getting hibachi and WDW for his birthday! Depending on what time we get to the park, hopefully we will be able to single rider Test Track or even grab a fastpass (wishful thinking since it will be September). Weather permitting, we will hopefully see Illuminations. I will shamefully admit we have only watched Illuminations once in all of our times at Epcot and it was during Christmas time. We really enjoyed it though – it’s just nighttime shows are hard for us – there are so many other things to do but hopefully with having a longer trip this year, we won’t feel so rushed/obligated to not stop and watch!

Continued Next Post​

 

[blabbermouth]

Yay, more surprises!

We really liked our Tusker House breakfast, so I hope you do too.

I've always heard really good things about Teppan Edo, I will have to try it sometime.

I think Illuminations is my least favourite nighttime show. But still worth a watch!