"WDW...again? And no one has kids?" "Yep!" Jan 2015 Trip Updated Day 7!

[lifebybethany]

First Trip Report (Definitely not the first trip though!)

The Prequel:

This trip started out as something that Z and I thought was an awesome wishful thinking dream, but turned into an actual plan. I couldn’t tell you when it morphed from a “man if only” thing to a “let’s all ask off of work a year in advance to buy plane tickets” type of thing. We’re from Alaska, so we take trips to the lower 48 seriously both in how far out we plan them and in how long the trips are. My theory is that the end of January/beginning of February is the best time to get out of Alaska because you spend the first part of winter looking forward to Christmas and then it’s only a little while until the trip and then you come back to Alaska to only a few more months of winter. Funny thing is that we didn’t really have much of a winter this year, got significantly less snow than normal while the rest of the United States seemed to get dumped on. We’re all for global warming up here…

Anyways, the dates were determined to be January 23rd through February 7th. We scheduled around my mom’s payrolls and Z’s winter youth camp commitments (actually we planned early enough that we had winter camp planned around our trip). M and I’s work schedules are pretty standard all year so that wasn’t hard. Dad was the great unknown, as he was retiring but planning to try to work part time (but wasn’t going to have any kind of assurance of what that would look like until the school year started in August). We bought our tickets for all but Dad exactly 11 months out because we found that the mileage rates on those were better.

On a personal note, the trip ended up coming at a spectacular time for me. I was working as a social worker in our local hospital and there had been some challenging changes and circumstances that made me look for employment elsewhere. I came upon a great opportunity and accepted a job at our local cancer center as a Patient Navigator (basically a social worker on an outpatient basis who walks with people from start to finish on their cancer journey). My last day of work at the hospital was January 23rd and I started my new job the Monday after we got back. The trip was the perfect way to take a break and relax before the next chapter in my career!


The Cast:

Z – 20 Something Husband - Youth Pastor

· Disney Experience: One time at WDW in 2009 with friends for a week

· Favorite Ride(s): Dinosaur and Rockin Roller Coaster

· Disney Food Priorities: Everything.

M – 20 Something Brother – Works in a lab doing something scientific

· Disney Experience: Grew up going with the family, hasn’t been since 2009

· Favorite Ride(s): Rockin Roller Coaster

· Disney Food Priorities: Via Napoli for the first time, Chef Mickey’s breakfast

J – Mom – Bookkeeper by trade, Disney planner by night

· Disney Experience: First trip before I was born, convinced by my dad to stop by WDW on a work trip and has been planning trips ever since

· Favorite Ride(s): Toy Story Mania

· Disney Food Priorities: Be Our Guest for the first time, ice cream cookie sandwich

G – Dad – Long time high school math teacher, semi retired but still teaching

· Disney Experience: Same as Mom’s

· Favorite Ride(s): 7 Dwarfs and Tower of Terror

· Disney Food Priorities: Biergarten Restaurant

Me – 20 Something Oncology Social Worker

· Disney Experience: Grew up going with the family, started my own trips with friends in 2006 and 2009

· Favorite Ride(s): Splash Mountain and Tower of Terror

· Disney Food Priorities: Goofy’s Candy Co Design your own rice crispy treat, Starbucks in the parks

 

[lifebybethany]

Table of Contents:

Travel Day - Goodbye Snow!
Day One - FP+ for the First Time
Day Two - The Competition Begins - Toy Story and Outlet Malls
Day Three - Construction Walls and Prime Time
Day Four - The Dark Side
Day Five - The Dark Side, Part 2
Day Six - Around the World & the First of Many Electrical Parade Traffic James
Day Seven - Early Animals & Eating Around the World
Day Eight - The Day of Rest... and DQ, Typhoon, & MK
Day Nine - Bonus Morning at MK & Fantasmic
Day Ten - To Infinity & Beyond - NASA
Day Eleven - California Grill Fireworks
Day Twelve - Talking Mickey and Expansion of our Culinary Horizons
Day Thirteen - The Day of 4 Parks
Day Fourteen/Fifteen - Traveling Home

 

[lifebybethany]

Travel Day:

Despite our lack of snow in this “winter”, it decided to snow furiously on the day we left. I was nervous about everything from our ride being late to the plane being delayed because of the snow – none of that happened luckily! Everything was going as according to plan, down to having the time for Z and I to have our date night at Applebee’s because we love their salads. Red-eye flights are a fact of life in Alaska, so we prepared for our 12:45am flight to Seattle. We munched on french fries and explored the airport to keep ourselves busy and hopefully tire ourselves out to sleep on the flight.

3.5 hour flight, Z and M slept I believe. My mom and I slept off and on, not enough! It was ridiculously hot on the flight, which is weird because I normally FREEZE on planes. Had a brief moment of nausea, which I attributed to the heat, but luckily my mom had some saltines that did the trick. Finally we landed in Seattle and got off the plane to regroup. First priority? Coffee.

We had a three-hour layover, so we were in no hurry and walked all the way to the end of terminal A I believe to get to the Coffee Bean. Pretty good coffee, though Z almost had an ordering disaster when he realized their 12 oz lattes only come with one shot of espresso. Luckily they added another for him, no charge, so all was well with the world again. We sipped our coffee and meandered towards breakfast. Excellent breakfast, can’t remember the name of the place – nothing hugely special, but good enough for airport food.

Next up is the long flight, 5.5 hours (ish, depending on wind speeds) from Seattle to Orlando. I planned not to sleep on this flight, to help with jet-leg concerns (4 hours can really mess you up when you’re trying to get to sleep at a reasonable time to be up and ready for park opening!). I don’t remember much about this flight, probably a good thing. I know I didn’t sleep, probably watched a couple of movies. Mom and I chatted about what snacks we had to try, as she was reading the 2015 Disney Food book. Finally we landed and headed to the airport monorail, first “ride” of the trip! We hadn’t used magic bands before, so we weren’t too sure how the whole Magic Express deal with them would work. We came upon a huge crowd of people and were directed to sail right past them since we had our lovely magic bands.

On the bus and headed off to Port Orleans French Quarter within 10 minutes! Dad had flown in a few hours earlier than us because he hates the red eye flights, so we knew that their room was in the dreaded building 7, but we weren’t sure about Z and I’s room. We got off the bus and were greeted by a cast member with a welcome Burgess Family sign ready and waiting for us! The cast member was super helpful and friendly, but when I requested that she check to see if there might be a room in building 4 potentially available a day or two into our trip that we could switch to she wasn’t real keen on helping with that. I persisted, nicely. If we’re going to be in this room for 14 nights, I want to make sure it’s the least possible walking distance to everything. It worked, ultimately. My mom got their room moved to building 4 as well. Z got great amusement upon realizing that we were about 45 seconds closer to the food court…

Dad had gotten groceries and been to Downtown Disney for dinner, so he was pretty wiped and stayed back at the resort but the rest of us were too excited to stick around. The boats weren’t running because of the wind unfortunately but we hopped on a bus to Downtown Disney. Our mission was Earl of Sandwich, but the line was huge and the place was packed (Saturday night…) so we went to Goofy’s Candy Co first and got my long desired custom dipped rice crispy treats! Then shopped a bit in a few of the stores (I was drooling all of the new Centerpiece store, but refrained from buying anything in my jet-lagged state) but felt ourselves starting to feel our lack of sleep, so quickly went back to Earl and got our sandwiches. They were delicious, as always. Then we headed back to POFQ and I was out like a light.

 

[lifebybethany]

Day One:

We were up early (the excitement makes it tough to sleep!) to head to Magic Kingdom. The bus came pretty quickly, a great first morning impression of getting to the parks. We headed straight to Space Mountain (Z had never been on it, it was under refurb last time he went to WDW) and walked on. First experience in using the magic bands to get our ride photos, super interesting – cast members would consistently tell us we didn’t need to touch the band to get the photo (and maybe we didn’t, but man I felt a lot better about our potential of actually getting our photos!). Then we walked onto Buzz Lightyear, where I began my consistent victories (we take our Buzz scores pretty seriously…) of the trip.

Then the moment I couldn’t wait for, the new Fantasyland! The last time I was at WDW it was all construction walls and talk about what new things were to come. Still enjoying the morning lack of lines, we walked onto Dumbo, Goofy’s Barnstormer, Little Mermaid, and Enchanted Tales with Belle. Z and M got to be the soldiers - great fun for the rest of us. Not a show I’ll see over and over again, but once every couple of years would be fun. I loved all the detail in the que of Belle’s childhood and portrait of her mother.

Then it was off to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for our first ever experience with FP+! It worked like a charm. It had been a few years since I’d been on it since it was closed on my last trip in 2012, it seemed a bit wilder than it had been in the past. Loved it! Z had forgotten his sunglasses in the room that morning and the glorious sunlight was getting to him, so we made a quick detour to get him some new shades in the Splash Mountain gift shop. Splash was regrettably closed (although luckily opened up halfway through the trip, right on schedule!) and it was weird walking all the way over to that side of the park without going on it, but we persevered.

Now, the moment we have all been waiting for – Be Our Guest fastpass lunch! So excited! Now, Z & I had not pre-ordered whereas the rest of the crew had, so we weren’t too sure what to expect. Ironically, somehow they lost my family’s pre-order and it took them a lot longer to re-order than it did for Z & I to order in the first place. All was well though, we got ourselves a room in the library I believe. It was HUGE, way bigger than I expected but still pretty full. Great lunch, all good reviews from our party who I believe ordered five different lunch options. Lots of sharing and good times, desserts were most excellent (with special mention of the Grey Stuff of course).

Seven Dwarves was calling to us with our 2nd FP+ reservation. I had read so many reviews of this ride really emphasizing how much it was NOT a thrill ride that I didn’t have high expectations. I was pleasantly surprised, thought it was great! Short yes, definitely not a thrill ride – but so smooth and still managed to get a few moments of thrill. I particularly loved the inside tunnel where all the dwarfs and jewels are. Dad is not a huge roller coaster fan because of the jerkiness, but he loved the rocking motion for it’s smooth-ness (my words, not his).

Mom and Dad were getting tired at this point so we split off with them heading to the hotel and Z, M, and myself catching Phil-Harmagic while waiting for our Space FP+ to open up. PhilHarmagic is one of my favorite Disney rides, so classic and so easy to get on – even at 1pm. We caught it just right at the end of the preshow! Then headed back to Space again, rode on the left track this time and thought the stars were much clearer (our ride that morning was eerily dark). M headed to the hotel after this, but Z & I were anxious to see what other FP+ we could acquire as our 4th! Well we proceeded to get our 4th for Pirates, 5th for Jungle Cruise, and 6th to Meet the Talking Mickey. We watched the new parade – I’m not much of a parade person and refuse to spend valuable park time staking out a spectacular spot – but we found a nice spot on the bridge 5 minutes before it started by Adventureland that had a fantastic view of the parade. Between Pirates and Jungle Cruise I think we got Dole Whip (Z) and the Iced Mocha Float (me).

Z and I hoped onto the monorail to Ticket and Transportation Center and then onto the next one to Epcot to meet up with the fam for dinner in Germany. My parents spent a year in Germany a long time ago, so the affinity for German-ness runs deep. It was our first experience with Biergarten, most of the family really enjoyed it. I was skeptical, but knew everybody wanted to go so I went with it. I am not a huge crazy food or sausage fan, so I basically ate cheese and bread. Delicious, but probably not worth the buffet price for me. Luckily, Z can eat his weight in food so he more than makes up for the value we find in buffets.

After dinner I started to drag, after a full day in Disney I was ready to sleep, and I was cold. This sets the stage for my great regret of the trip. I went on this trip very excited to obtain the Starbucks ‘You are here’ collection mugs for the different parks and had checked out Epcot on the way in but decided that the line was too long. Again, we walked by Starbucks and decided to just come get the mug another night. Tragically, a couple days later I read the news online that they had pulled the mugs from the shelves and they were now huge collectors items. Regret runs deep… We headed straight home and I think Z and I hit the hot tub at the hotel for a bit before going to sleep. It was great fun to walk there in our swimsuits and pass other tourists bundled up in jackets, hats, and scarves. We’re clearly from Alaska…

 

[lifebybethany]

Day Two:

Up early again this morning, we headed to Hollywood Studios for the long anticipated Toy Story. We headed straight there (with the rest of the world) and I looked longingly at the not yet open Starbucks on the street. Toy Story was marvelous as always. We wanted to go back for a second round, but it said 70 minutes and we said no thanks. Our first FP+ was at Star Tours so we headed that way – too early but we only waited a few minutes for standby. I love the new version of this ride, it was Z’s first time since the change. Next we headed to Muppet Vision 3D – I know this show is old and hokey, but I love it anyways. I think we might have done Star Tours one more time on our way to the Indiana Jones Show. Great show, I always love the crowd’s reaction to the plant volunteer that they beat up.

M, Z, and I headed to Rockin Roller Coaster for our next FP. Man it’s intense! And kind of a challenge to get out of the seats at the end! Then we went back for Single Rider since there was absolutely no one in it when we went FP – although there were about 20 people in front of us in SR but the time we got there. Mom and Dad had done FP for Toy Story (I’m telling you, my family takes these point rides seriously). We all met up for our 3rd FP+ for Tower of Terror. For a ride that I hated the first time I rode (in my defense, I think I was like 8), I sure love it now. That feeling in the pit of your stomach as you drop, I’m addicted!

Everybody but Miles headed to the outlet malls at this point, with a pit stop to Panera – we tragically don’t have one of these in Alaska so we make it a point to get there whenever we’re in the lower 48. Great time at the outlet malls, spent too much money but was able to get a couple of nice gifts for my inlaws without breaking the bank. Of course I bought a few things for us too… I think my highlight was a set of 6 red nice Mickey ear ornaments that I’d seen in the past but couldn’t justify the price on – only $10 now so I bought them right up! Then a huge splurge for me, my very own Coach purse. I’d never spent that much on a purse in my life, but it was so pretty and I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket so I did it!

Shopping took quite a while (although I could have stayed longer…) so we didn’t have much of a break back at the hotel and Dad decided to stay behind for the night. The rest of us headed off to Magic Kingdom to experience Be Our Guest for dinner! Yes, we had just eaten there for lunch the day before, but we liked it a lot! First we stopped at City Hall for some Pirates FP, but were foiled by it closing soon after we got the FP and then we did Jungle Cruise, Aladdin’s, and Swiss Family Robinson as consolation prizes. BOG for dinner did not disappoint. I had the steak and fries and these were no ordinary fries – they were crispy and garlic-y and just amazing. Then we used our FP+ for Space Mountain that we’d acquired before dinner for a quick ride before Wishes. Fireworks from Main Street were magical, as they should be. Then home via bus and sleep!

 

[lifebybethany]

Day Three:

Finally we hit Animal Kingdom! Man the construction walls really were everywhere. Kind of a bummer, although I’m sure I’ll enjoy the new stuff when it’s finally done! We went to the safari first, it was pretty good. I visited Kenya and did a real safari so ever since the safari at Animal hasn’t been quite the same. We headed over to Everest – can’t get enough of this ride! I think we headed over to Dinosaur next (since Kali was sadly closed). Then we hit Finding Nemo before heading to Yak and Yeti for table service lunch. It was soooo good, I had a ridiculously amazing steak and shrimp dish with a ridiculous dessert (some kind of cream cheese and wonton situation). I’ve eaten at the counter service Yak and Yeti, but never the table service – I think the table service has reached status of once per trip at this point.

After Yak and Yeti we headed out of the park to get some rest I believe. Z had some homework (he’s working on a Masters in Information Systems) and it was pretty sunny so I went and sat by the pool with the book for an hour! I didn’t feel like I quite had enough time to go swimming, but I so loved getting to sit by the sun and soak it in. Then we headed to Hollywood Studios to take on TOT! We conquered, of course. Then I think we started walking to Toy Story when we got the dreaded email telling us that our Toy Story was closed and we were welcome to change our FP for another ride. We were determined for Toy Story though so we detoured to GMR. Cowboy scene, woot! By that point Toy Story was open again so we went for it. Then I think we went to Star Tours a couple times.

We tried to check into Prime Time a bit early but were told that we are welcome to check in before 6:30 but there is no way we will be seated before 6:30pm. So we headed to the shops for a few minutes rather than waiting in that crowded lobby. Ironically, we still came back early and actually got seated at 6:25pm… Anyways, so good! I got a chicken ceasar salad, good choice since all of the heavy food eating from the week was starting to get to me. And of course I always have to get the classic PB&J shake. I tried to split it with my mom, but the waiter got the message that we wanted two instead of to split one! More for me, it’s all good. I think we headed for a quick TOT ride in the dark before heading out for the night. We were headed to Universal the next day so we wanted to get some good rest.

 

[luckylady]

I'm in. Wow long plain rides but worth it if your heading to the world. Glad you were able too get into blog 4, best one. Can't wait for more. Happy new year.

 

[lifebybethany]

Day 4: The Dark Side

Today we were headed to Universal Studios Orlando! In a crazy series of calculations, it cost us about the same to get Z & I a hotel room at Hard Rock Hotel and add M, Mom & Dad to it to get Express Passes for this day and the next as it would have to purchase them all for two days. Once you’ve had EP at Universal, it’s tough to go back! So after some navigation issues, we checked in to the Hard Rock Hotel somewhere around 8:30am – and surprise surprise our room was READY. Craziness. Anyways, we dropped our stuff off and headed to the parks.

Started at the original Universal Studios where Z & I went right to Rip Ride Rocket (I can never get the name of this correct, so forgive me!), then Minions, Shrek, Disaster (where we got Z on as the “hunk” J), and then the great lunch debate. Cowfish was doing some soft openings for lunch over in City Walk so we headed over. Interesting place, super fun atmosphere and just the weirdest combinations of food – what else would you expect from a sushi and burger joint?


After lunch Dad went to take a break at the hotel and the rest of us headed to Islands. Z & I passed on the hulk (for the time being) and we all headed to Spiderman. Love that ride, super unique. Also, LOVE the express pass. I don’t think we waited more than 10-15 minutes the whole time at Universal (except for the Harry Potter rides which express doesn’t work for). Then we took advantage of what we felt was the heat of the day (most of the Floridians were still in coats and such) to ride Popeyes 3 times in a row. Love when the line is so short they don’t even make you get off the ride. We were joined by super adorable 8 year old girls whose “wiser” families watched from afar. Then we hit Jurassic to further soak ourselves.

Plan was to ride the train over to Universal but Hop on Pop Ice Cream was calling our name so we headed there first. Unfortunately by the time we got back the Hogwarts train was closed. Even more unfortunately that meant we were hoofing it all the way back to the back of the other park for our next ride, Men in Black. However we preserved, much to the chagrain of our feet! (This is where those months of prepping Z that we had to practice long walks on the tredmill at the gym paid off.)

So by now you know our family takes the points rides quite seriously. Men in Black is a particular favorite of ours. Mom and I in particular love to ride it over and over again – in the good old days years ago with the express passes sometimes they’d let us run through baby swap if it was low enough crowds! That shortcut is a thing of the past though, but luckily they still let us cut out the elevator (nothing wrong with the pre-show, it’s cute, but it slows us down!). We also have particular seats that we must be in (years of learning our angles and all) – poor Z and M just had to fill in wherever there was space. We also rode Simpsons and ET.

Z & I split from the fam at this point as they were headed back to their room at Disney and we were intending to close out the parks. We ate a quick appetizer at the food court in Simpson’s land as we had a late fancy dinner planned but were starving! We headed over and did the single rider line at Gringotts. Z isn’t really a HP fan but went along with it for me (I’m not really a die hard, but watched all the movies before coming on the trip so I could find out what all the fuss was about). I definitely had NOT done my research on this ride, it was WAY more intense and impressive than I was expecting. Kudos Universal for this whole land.

We closed out our day back on Rip Rocking and it was amazing in the dark. I’ve only done it at the very beginning of the day in the light, it felt like a whole different ride in the dark. Then we hopped on the boat to head over to Portofino Bay Hotel to eat at Mama Della’s. We had gone back and forth on this reservation for quite a while, weren’t sure if it’d be worth the time and effort to get over to Portofino Bay. Let me tell you, other than the exceptionally chilly boat ride, it was entirely and completely worth it. I felt like we were in the Lady and the Tramp Movie with the whole Italian scene going on – live music and songs dedicated to particular tables and all. Best fettuccini alfredo I’ve ever had and we’ll definitely go back if ever we get the chance.

 

[lifebybethany]

Day 5: The Dark Side, Part 2
Z & I dragged ourselves out of bed to catch some of early entry for the HP Forbidden Journey. Trip speed of going going going was starting to catch up with us, but with my leftover alfredo in my stomach from breakfast I was ready to go! We ended up waiting probably about 30 minutes for Forbidden Journey, realizing about 5 minutes before loading that Z was wearing flip flops. Not a good ride for flip flops let me tell you! He sweated it out the whole way but ended up just fine. Whoosh.

Then we met up with the family and headed over to Jurassic. We’re suckers for getting wet I tell you. I just love the drop rides really. Everybody got drenched and I convinced Z to go on with me one more time. Here’s where my short person experience failed me, I love the front row and jumped on in, not realizing the consequences for my very tall husband. He’s 6’2” and just tall enough to really not quite fit bit kind of can squeeze on the front row. Of course we didn’t realize this until we were strapped in and off on the ride. So… bad wife award and he was in a bit of pain, but he’s a trooper and didn’t let it ruin anything.

I couldn’t convince anyone to go on Popeyes with me again, so we moved forward to Dr Doom’s and Hulk. Then Dad went off to shop at City Walk while the rest of us headed for Poseidon’s and then Seuss Land where we rode Cat in the Hat. Love this silly little ride. I wanted to do Sneetches, but the lines were long and Dad was awaiting us at the restaurant so we skipped it. Very cool water tricks at Poseidon’s though, worth it. Bubba Gump was calling us! I love their shrimp. Z & I had been there in Maui but none of the rest of the family had been there before so this was new and exciting. Confession? I’ve never seen Forrest Gump. Still love the restaurant, though I’m terrible at the trivia (Although ironically my father who also hadn’t seen the movie really rocked the trivia, just by picking up on things over the years). Only unfortunate order was that Z’s wasn’t super great, but he didn’t order shrimp! I’m not sure what he was thinking ordering chicken at Bubba Gump.

Dad headed back to the hotel to rest and the rest of us went back to Universal for another few rounds at Men in Black! Coffee in hand and the sun shining, life was good. We rode Transformers again, much better the second time we understood more of what was happening. It seemed like the first time was just a blur, everything moved so fast. The great Men in Black riding commenced, 5 times total with me coming out as the big winner with 691,000 points. Then a quick tour of Diagon Alley to see the fire breathing dragon again and a stop at Ben and Jerry’s and I was pleased. We did a little resting and people watching at this point before heading to Minion’s. Super cute ride, I really enjoyed it.

We all loaded up in the car and drove away from the dark side towards Cheesecake Factory. As Alaskans, we don’t always have access to certain restaurants so we make them priorities when in the lower 48. I was still pretty full from Bubba Gumps and Ben and Jerrys, so I ordered a salad. However, it ended up being a HUGE salad that was bigger than my head. Amazing, but I should have split it with someone! It also had these fun Asian noodles that added some crunch to the chicken salad. I’m getting hungry thinking about this… it’s a shame that half that salad went to waste. I’m pretty sure we headed home after this, we were BEAT. I think Z & I may have hopped in the hot tub for a few minutes before hitting the sack. I was getting used to calling Port Orleans French Quarter home…

 

[renholder777]

Awesome report! We are going to be going this year in a similar time frame from Feb 6th through the 13th. What were the temperatures? Looks like a lot of sweatshirt weather.

 

[farrellbarrel]

Looks so fun!

 

[lifebybethany]

Awesome report! We are going to be going this year in a similar time frame from Feb 6th through the 13th. What were the temperatures? Looks like a lot of sweatshirt weather.

Thanks! It was definitely sweatshirt weather in the mornings and the evenings. I think it was 50-60 in the mornings, got between 60-70 in the afternoons. Most of the Floridians had coats on though.

 

[lifebybethany]

Day 6:

Back to the World of Disney, we headed to Epcot for the morning. M got the dreaded blue mickey upon entering Epcot, but this was quickly sorted out. We headed with the millions of crowds to Test Track, despite the sign saying 30 minute wait. Definitely not a 30 minute wait, which was good. The whole new design your own vehicle thing was new to us to it was very novel, very cool. I could have spent a LOT longer than 5 minutes designing mine though. As per it seemed like the usual, I think I went for power and speed rather than efficiency. The new design reminded me of Tron. Once through, we went back again but through the SR line – though realized that the designs were much more limited. Upon some investigating, we learned that you could in fact design your own car ahead of time (no 5 minute pressure!) in the area past the exit for the ride. Great interactive fun!

Next up was Mission Space. I went with Z and my mom on the tamer Green (Aka LAME) side, as they both get a bit quesy at the thought of the more intense side. It always amazes me how small the lines are for this ride – I enjoy it but it’s not the highlight of the park by far. It seemed like Disney really missed the mark somehow for this ride, with lines for TT and Soarin always packed and this just doesn’t draw the crowds like the others. Regardless, despite my best efforts to hit the buttons at the wrong times and push the thruster forward when we were trying to brake – we still didn’t fall down the cavern at the end of the ride! Someday I’ll get us to crash, someday. After the ride, we met back up with M & Dad and played that game after the ride. For a silly game, we had great fun (and of course we won!). Writing this report is making me reflect on how competitive our family gets during games…

Today was a day when we planned our FP+ perfectly. We had just used our MS FP and headed over to Soarin Pavilion. To appease my mom and Z who loved the idea of living with the land, we went on it next as the line was short (though afterwards was much longer, so glad we went when we did!). Z is really into the idea of eco friendly and growing things (I think he just likes food!). Then we hopped past the Soarin 70 minute line with our FP+.

We scooted over to Coral Reef for lunch – this is one of our hit spots for trips and we like to go for the first seating so as to ask for seats near the window. I think this worked beautifully, at least in the first row of tables. Great experience there, people loved their food and the fish were just so fun to watch. Commentary here, I like seafood and all – but have a hard time eating it WHILE watching fish swim around… I enjoyed my chicken ceasar salad very much though.

After lunch we all split, Dad went shopping and M & Mom went back to Test Track to design their own cars at the kiosk outside the exit. Z & I went exploring around the world – I wanted to end up with dessert in France (after all, I ate a salad for lunch!). One of my biggest regrets I usually have after a trip is not spending much time in the countries at Epcot so I was determined to spend lots of time there. We had great fun walking around looking at all the different places and catching some of the street performers. We managed to miss a huge dump of rain by conveniently ducking into the French ice cream sandwich place. This treat was delicious, but a bit too bready for my taste. Z & I then dragged our tired feet back to the hotel to rest up a bit (and try to convince our stomachs to get hungry again, Ohanas was on the horizon for dinner!).

Z & I met up with the rest of the crew to head to Ohanas. LOVE this food. Waiter was super duper slow at the end, but still loved this place. I pretty much ate my weight in shrimp. This is one buffet that I feel like I get my money’s worth out of (I’m sure not really, but I feel like it!). Hopped on the monorail and headed to MK – around 6:45pm and headed to get a FP. Got one for Pirates but then pretty immediately got an email notice that it was closed. Headed towards Jungle Cruise, but the parade was in our way! I obliged my husband and went with him to the Treehouse (which I haven’t done in YEARS because geez who wants to walk up unnecessary stairs at WDW?) and it was fun. Not something I’d do every trip though. Early for our Jungle FP, we went on Aladins Magic Carpet – unfortunately the spitting water camel was turned off. I had been hoping to surprise Z with a nice squirt.

One of the themes of this trip ended up being trying to cross Magic Kingdom while a parade was going on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen part of the Electrical Parade so many times on one trip ever – and not one of those times was on purpose! Originally we were shooting for Haunted Mansion, but the parade precluded us from this so we switched gears and headed to Laugh Floor. For some reason M’s phone wasn’t letting him send in texts, but the one he sent in on Z’s phone got picked! Laugh Floor tends to bring out the differing personality types in our family – Z & M try desperately to get picked for a part while Mom and I pray desperately not to. So far we haven’t so I think God is listening to Mom and I.

After that I think we hit Buzz standby and then Winnie the Pooh. We kept wandering around the New Fantasyland at night checking things out, then hit up Starbucks for the You are Here mugs (perfect souvenir present for people back home – except for the whole fragile factor which I decided I’d figure out later). I think M may have ditched us while we awaited the fireworks but I’m not sure. Regardless we saw the fireworks and headed home! Another night in paradise, I was happy. Spoiler alert regarding those mugs (and the many others I ended up buying) – everything got one safely and in one piece.

 

[lifebybethany]

Day 7

Today we started at AK for early entry. We used to be the family that went to every early entry, but as we got older and the crowds for those got bigger we changed our ways and now usually go anti-early entry. Z & I decided to sleep a little bit longer and just meet the rest of them later. They were eager to try safari early in the morning, my understanding was that it was a bit chilly for the animals even so it was just okay. Their highlight was getting to see Divine though! My mom has been on the hunt for this for years. We all met up for the Lion King show in the new theater – super fun show.

Then we split again, Z, Dad, and I went to walk on some of the animal trails and Mom & M went to see Flights of Wonder. For all the years I’ve been going to Disney, I’ve never been on the animal trails – I must say, I was impressed. I think it was the Gorilla exhibit that was particularly fun. We all met up again for a classic favorite, It’s Tough to Be a Bug. The only sad part is we’d all seen it before so there was no one to surprise with the big sting at the end.

Next up was a lunch I was very much looking forward too, Sanaa! My family has been branching out a bit in our tastes and this was going to be a good test. I think Z, Dad, and I all had the combo plates with chicken or shrimp or pork. So delicious! Although, M had the spicy shrimp, feeling adventurous after Ohana’s spicy shrimp weren’t so spicy – unfortunately for him Sanaa means business when they say spicy. I’m pretty sure we saw steam coming from his ears. I had some fancy dessert sampler plate and we all enjoyed watching the animals form the windows. Mom and Dad would LOVE to stay at AKL, but the cost is just astronomical. Very cool hotel though. Looking back, I wish we would have spent some time walking around the main part of the hotel – but I was just so tired!

Mom and I headed to Downtown Disney while the boys rested up (to be fair, I think Z was doing homework). We took the boat there and the bus back. Got some great stuff, I love the improvements that they’ve been making to DD. So fun. I always like to look around a few times before making major purchasing decisions on a trip, so it was nice to have some time with just the ladies. Z tolerates shopping, but this was great because he didn’t have to wait.

We met up with everyone at the hotel and headed out for our evening adventure. I know some people will drink around the world, but we don’t really drink alcohol so we thought we’d try our hands at a different challenge – eating around the world. I don’t think we could have done it without the five of us – even with all five we were pretty stuffed. Let’s see if I can remember what we ended up with: nachos in Mexico, school-bread in Norway, eggrolls in China, weird paprika chips in Germany, gelato cookie sandwich in Italy, French fries in America, Japanese soda in Japan, some kind of meal in Morocco, bakery desserts in France, fish and chips in UK, and rounded out the world with popcorn in Canada! I think I listed them all? I know popcorn is kind of lame, but it was our only option in the CS department for Canada. We’d already had the cro-nuts previously and I’m not even sure that would officially count for Canada.

Well, regardless, we were victors over our challenge. I would not suggest the challenge if you have a party small than 5 people – and really even then I think a lot of credit needs to go to Z who I declared our MVP of eaters. Then we rolled ourselves over to Test Track to see if it was back up (had been down when we first entered the park). We were pleased to see it was running and hopped into the FP line. Unfortunately our scores only seemed to show up on a couple of the screens. Dad and M headed to the hotel after this for the night and the rest of us stayed for Illuminations. As I’ve mentioned, we aren’t big into waiting forever for parades or fireworks – so we just meandered over to Mexico and got a decent spot standing in the walkway. Such a great show!

Then the great debate, as it was Magic Kingdom’s late night open for hotel guests. Mom was resolute in heading to the hotel, but Z & I were on the fence. When I realized that Splash Mountain was open the decision was made! We headed with the mass crowds to the monorail – it actually took a good 15 minutes to get on a monorail from Epcot to T&TC. My memory of our late night evening at MK is hazy, but I know we hit Splash Mountain a couple times – prepared and bracing ourselves to get wet but thankfully came off pretty dry. I definitely think they turn down the water in the “winter” months. I’m sure we did a couple extra rides but really our main goal of Splash was accomplished.