We went back to Disney - A July '19 trip report - Updated 11-27 - THE END

Love your Disney bounding story! I can totally see it now. The lost princess - of course! Your Epcot day is going well so far. It will be interesting to see what they do with the entrance. It is a mess and has been for a while. You probably have an ADR coming up soon. I'll be watching for another update!
 
EPCOT - Part 2
When we last left off on our wild adventure, Tony and I had spent mid-morning/early afternoon doing a leisurely tour of future world. We had both ridden rides we enjoyed and it was time to take a path over to see what the different countries had to offer us. There were a couple of shows I wanted to catch and we had an ADR that evening at Chef's de France (oooh la la). Let's see if these plans actually happen . . . . (enter suspenseful music here).

As we were moving from MISSION SPACE out of future world, we passed the most adorable play area that was Toy Story themed. So of course, I had to take some pictures.

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I imagine that if we ever went during the flower and garden festival, it would be this times a million. It was super cute, and sadly these were all gone when we came back later in the trip. It was mid-afternoon by this point in the day and just blazing hot. As we were strolling thru the countries just looking around, my dear husband looked at me and asked if we were anywhere close to Germany. Well, yes, honey just around the bend - why?

Must. Have. Beer.

I couldn't argue with the logic.

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Oh and let me introduce you to perhaps the biggest pretzel ever sold anywhere.

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Yes, it was obscene it was so big. It was yummy, but really dry. I asked Tony why he didn't get any cheese dip. He said they didn't have dip, just spicy mustard. Well honey, why didn't you get that? I just got a blank stare back. It's a good thing he's cute.

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After our detour thru Germany, we went over to see the Guardian of the Galaxy show just across from the American Adventure pavilion. We saw it for the first time last summer and I was excited to see it again and hoping that it would have a different story or music to make it different from last time. That would be no. But I enjoy 80's music and we were out of the sun, so it was an enjoyable time singing along. We had really good seats. The crowds were surprisingly low that day.

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After the show, we zipped across the way to listen to Voices of Liberty. It was also starting to rain, so this was a good opportunity to enjoy some air conditioning and not have to get out the ponchos.

I absolutely love listening to this singing group. I tear up anytime I hear patriotic music (I'm such a sap) but listening to them is just something else entirely. I just wish I had their talent. I didn't take any pictures of them singing because I was just swept up in the music. After their performance, we decided to see the show. It isn't my favorite - I give that nod to Hall of Presidents - but it was raining even harder by this point and it was more air conditioning.

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After the show was finished, we headed outside to find the rain coming down in buckets. Now I've been to Florida many, many times. I know that the forecast always has a chance of rain every afternoon. It is usually about 20 minutes of a passing storm and it is over and the sun comes out and the humidity is back in full force. Not today. We lingered in the dump shop and under the canopy by the bathrooms for quite a while hoping for a small break in the rain, but it just didn't let up. We probably stayed there for a good 45 minutes before we decided to cover up with the ponchos as best we could and put the little rain guard on the mechanics of the ECV and head over to France to check in for our ADR.

Ugh, we were so wet by the time we got over to France. We ducked under the awning to check in for dinner looking like we had swam over. The hostess said that she would be happy to seat us, but we would have to leave our ECV's outside.

Ummm, it looks like a typhoon is currently coming thru central Florida. So I very nicely asked if there wasn't somewhere inside we could park the ECV's, as the sad little plastic covers for the mechanics of the ECV would probably not survive the storm. I was told absolutely not and that our options would be to park them outside and be seated or give up our reservation. I then asked if maybe we could wait a few minutes (we were early anyway) to see if the rain let up before we decided. Ms. French Lady did say we could have some time to decide.

In hindsight, I understood where she was coming from. I would assume the restaurant did not have the room to store two large and quite wet ECV's while we had a nice dinner. But leaving them outside just wasn't an option I was comfortable with. It was really raining hard and if all that rain somehow damaged the ECV's, not only would Tony and I have been quite stranded in France, but liable for any damages the weather had caused. After some time had passed and it seemed as though the rain was not stopping, we sadly left France and made our way out of the park. Thankfully we were not charged the penalty for cancelling a reservation at the last minute. Now, had I been thinking clearly, I would have suggested we try to do a walk-in somewhere that was more indoors, like Sunshine Seasons or Coral Reef. Most of the park had emptied out, so we probably could have gotten into any place we wanted. But we were wet, and cold, and I was just pissed, so we went to the busses and back to the resort. I will spare you the details of a drippy bus ride, a sad cheeseburger at the food court and still more rain as we went back to the room. It was about then that I wished I had brought another pair of sneakers. Helpful tip - a hair dryer will do a halfway decent job at drying out the inside of your shoes before you set them by the air vent to dry the rest of the way. I will use this helpful tip a few more times in the week. Because this rain storm was just a little tease of the weather for the week. Mother nature really, really hates us.

Up next - Brunch and Hollywood Studios
 
I knew you looked familiar...now I know you are the lost princess.princess:

I did feel very much like royalty that day!

Love this!

Oh, thank you!

Of course Tony needs those glasses.....do you really want people fainting all around from his famous smoulder.

And now you need a shirt that says....
I'm a delicate flower /lost princess.

You know, he does have a pretty awesome smoulder!!! And I think a shirt with all of my "titles" is a great idea. Just in case Tony forgets!!!

I love your accidental Disney bound! Your story really did make me laugh out loud. :hyper: So much fun!

Thanks! If we ever go back for Halloween, I'm all set.

:eek::eek::faint::faint::faint: I just realized you have the same color and style of Rapunzel after her hair is cut.

You are the lost princess!!!

YES I AM!!!

Love your Disney bounding story! I can totally see it now. The lost princess - of course! Your Epcot day is going well so far. It will be interesting to see what they do with the entrance. It is a mess and has been for a while. You probably have an ADR coming up soon. I'll be watching for another update!

The entrance is really a challenge to try and manage with people entering from different directions and basically merging into about five lines of security. They just cannot handle all of those people.

My accidential bound was the best story of the trip. I've always admired people who Disney bound so well and I just stumbled into it and until the CM said something to me, I would have never thought about it!

Another update just posted!
 
Sounds like your afternoon was good until the rain showed up. Ugh. Sorry it wasn't the typical brief afternoon shower. You probably made the right decision to just get the heck out of Dodge. I'm sure there would have been plenty of availability elsewhere but I would have been out of the mood too. More rain to come :umbrella: hope it doesn't interfere too much with your plans.
 


Plus you probably would have froze to death, being so wet and AC set to 39 degrees.

That pretzel......any idea what that cost? We are doing a trip in Dec with grandkids...just thinking what a photo , having all 6 kids taking a bite at the same time.
 
Hi Ruthie! I love your reports! We were in Epcot that same day. Too bad I didn't spot you, I would have said hi! We were having dinner in Rose & Crown when the monsoon hit. I couldn't believe how hard it was raining! and blowing! and yeah, for so long! UGH If I remember right, it was later in the day and once we saw it wasn't letting up, we headed back to our resort, too. I don't think we would have stuck around much longer anyway, because we had a very long day and were pooped.
Sorry hear you had to be in the hospital, but yay! that you are lots better! I can't wait to read more about your trip. I love your reports!
 
Sunday, July 7th - Hollywood Studios - Part 1
Our second park day was a full day at Hollywood Studios. And by full day, I mean brunch first at Cape May Café followed by HS (can I still call it MGM from time to time?). I had secured fast passes for Toy Story Mania, Frozen Sing-A-Long and Rockin' Roller Coaster. I was then going to refresh like a crazy person so we could ride Slinky Dog. And since the previous nights table service dinner never happened, I got a last minute dinner reservation at Mama Melrose. I was really excited for this day because when we went in 2018, we didn't do HS because it was the exact weekend that Toy Story Land opened and I just could not deal with that kind of crowd level. And we had also just seen Toy Story 4 and my heart just had a special place for Forky. Would our plans happen as planned? Or would Mother Nature spread her evil wrath of rain upon us? Spoiler alert - have you read my trip reports before - because Mother Nature hates us.

But we started out the day with blue skies and white puffy clouds!

Our day started with a character brunch at Cape May Café. We had previously eaten dinner there before and I just love the location. Since my budget will never, ever allow us to stay at the Yacht or Beach Club resorts, the next best thing I can do is have a meal there. Tony had finally realized that character meals were kind of fun and he likes a good brunch as much as anyone else. Our reservation was at 10:15, so we left our resort at about 9:00 to take the bus to HS and then the Friendship Boat. I honestly felt that was enough time to make the trip.

It wasn't - we were late. Thankfully they didn't give our reservation away, but I should have known then that the day was going to go off course quickly. The bus from Music to HS was fine, but we just missed the boat as we got there and we ended up about 15 minutes late. I apologized sincerely to the cast member checking us in, and she was very gracious. Because we were late, we had to wait for a table for a few minutes. We had just a few minutes to load up our plates before the characters starting coming around.

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The character interaction was fantastic. I mean Tony was holding Minnie's hand! The food, well, was fine. I secretly wanted brunch at California Grill, but could never get a reservation and really couldn't justify the ridiculous cost per person. I think my issue was that because our reservation was later in the morning, the refilling of the food was not as on the spot as it would have been if the restaurant had been crowded and/or it was earlier. By the time we went up for a second round of food, most of it had been cleared away and "consolidated" into one smaller area on the buffet. Now trust me, I didn't starve, but I don't think this will be a place we go back to for breakfast.

After we wrapped up, we were rapidly approaching the window for our first fast pass. I had a brilliant idea that we would just take the walking path back to HS. We were in the ECV's, so we could move at a pretty decent pace (even with my excessive picture taking) and have plenty of time. So I checked the "you are here" map to make sure we were headed in the right direction and off we went.

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I could just stare at this view forever.

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After a while though, we seemed a bit turned around and not quite on a marked path. We stopped and asked a security guard to point us in the right direction and his guidance had us crossing a four lane highway to catch a bus. That was clearly not right. So we ended up doubling back and getting back on the Friendship Boat at the Swan/Dolphin stop. At this point I was starting to get a little stressed because I didn't want to miss Toy Story Mania and the window was getting smaller and smaller.

Ruthie - you're on vacation - it will be okay - said my dear husband who has no idea how challenging it can be to get the fast passes you want in the correct order to maximize the ability to ride the top rides. I may have growled at him. I was calculating how long it would take to get off the boat, thru bag check, thru security and over to the ride. Plus I had to potty - I swear I'm like a child. We can do this. It will be a close call, but I've got this.

We got off the boat and thru the lines with relative ease (it wasn't a prime time to be entering the park, which helped). After personal business was handled, I told Tony we needed to stay to the right and go thru the big arches and we would be there in a flash.

Now did anyone think that really happened?? Nope, I had to stop for more important people to cross my path.

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Okay, I hope that nobody takes offense to what I'm about to say, but I don't like Star Wars. I've seen the first two original movies and I was kind of "meh" about them. I've never seen any of the other movies and (oh please don't start hating me) I could care less about Galaxy's Edge.

Please still read my trip report!!!

After Lord Vader and his merry men went by, we were released and we finally made our way to Andy's Backyard. I didn't take any pictures because we were dangerously close to the end of our window so I was literally tugging Tony over to the fast pass line and thankfully we got the green light! In my trip research, I knew that at some point in the line, we would be bypassed over to another lane where the ECV's and wheelchair riders go and that happened with ease. When we got to the ride loading area, we left our ECV's right there and the cast member allowed me to use the wheelchair accessible ride vehicle that had the larger doors for easier access. I didn't even have to ask (although I was ready to) so it was very nice that they just did that for me. Tony was in the ride vehicle right next to me so we were able to compete against each other. Neither one of us had ridden this before, but let me just say - I totally killed this ride! While there is no photographic proof that I beat the holy crap out of Tony, it truly did happen.

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I can see why everyone loves this ride and I told Tony we would get back over here later and he would have the chance to beat me. After TSM, it was time to head over to Frozen Sing-A-Long. We had about 5 minutes to get there before the show started. I honestly debated about whether or not to give up that fast pass and just stay in Toy Story Land. However, we still had a third fast pass to use later that Tony was looking forward to and I just knew that we would have time later in the day to come back and look at everything. So we went over and enjoyed time with Anna, Elsa and the gang singing songs. I apparently didn't take any pictures of the show, but it was fun.

Up next - why rain - why???????
 


Sounds like your afternoon was good until the rain showed up. Ugh. Sorry it wasn't the typical brief afternoon shower. You probably made the right decision to just get the heck out of Dodge. I'm sure there would have been plenty of availability elsewhere but I would have been out of the mood too. More rain to come :umbrella: hope it doesn't interfere too much with your plans.

Most every day started out with blue skies and white puffy clouds. Just enough to make me think that today would be an all day of sun. That Mother Nature - she is a tricky little thing! My mood that evening had definitely hit the downward spiral, so back to the room was just the best place for us to go.

Plus you probably would have froze to death, being so wet and AC set to 39 degrees.

That pretzel......any idea what that cost? We are doing a trip in Dec with grandkids...just thinking what a photo , having all 6 kids taking a bite at the same time.

Seriously - every restaurant was freezing cold. Tony brought a sweatshirt jacket with him, but it was absolutely soaked by that point.

The beer and pretzel was a combo and it was $25. I'm not sure if the pretzel could be purchased separately or even for a snack credit. Tony went thru the line and he had no idea. But a picture of six kiddos biting into that huge thing would be fabulous!

Hi Ruthie! I love your reports! We were in Epcot that same day. Too bad I didn't spot you, I would have said hi! We were having dinner in Rose & Crown when the monsoon hit. I couldn't believe how hard it was raining! and blowing! and yeah, for so long! UGH If I remember right, it was later in the day and once we saw it wasn't letting up, we headed back to our resort, too. I don't think we would have stuck around much longer anyway, because we had a very long day and were pooped.
Sorry hear you had to be in the hospital, but yay! that you are lots better! I can't wait to read more about your trip. I love your reports!

I'm so sorry that we didn't spot each other that day. That rain was just ridiculous and seemed never ending. The park was very empty as we were leaving.

I am feeling so much better now, thank you so much for asking. I had no idea I was that sick. Thanks for reading along!
 
We love Cape May for the seafood buffet. We make our ADR close to opening and the food is fresh and plentiful! Maybe you guys aren't seafood fans, though... but they do have lots of other good things!
Glad you made your ADR and Fps. I was on the edge of my seat hoping you wouldn't get the red light! :)
I'm no Star Wars fan either. When they took out the barbeque and the Big Thunder Ranch at the back of Disneyland for it, I was so mad! Of all the places for them to dump this new land, they had to pick one of my favorite areas. We live on the west coast and used to go to DL several times a year, but not now. We will finish off our current DW annual passes and probably go other places for vacation for awhile, but who knows, right? Once a Disney addict.....
Our next trip is in November, when is yours??
 
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Have to say, I agree about Galaxy's Edge--dont really have any great desire to see it :confused3 . But, if others are excited good for them! :thumbsup2

We love Toy Stort Mania! One of our favorites, for sure.
 
Sunday, July 7th - Hollywood Studios - Part 2
If you have read any of my previous trip reports, you know that Mother Nature basically hates us. I'm not sure what I have done to make her so angry, but any time she notices that the Kellogg family is traveling in central Florida, she laughs her evil laugh and lets loose a wrath that looks like nothing you have ever seen before. The rain in EPCOT the day before was just a brief shower compared to what we saw in Hollywood Studios.

After getting out of the Frozen Sing-A-Long and entering the dump shop, we immediately saw the buckets and buckets of rain coming down. It seemed to be a million times worse than the previous day. Our ponchos were barely dry from yesterday and my poor tennis shoes were still wet. Tony wears an ankle brace and getting that thing dry is not easy (helpful tip - baby powder helped absorb some of the moisture). So we huddled and had the familiar conversation of what to do next. The next fast pass was for Rockin' Rollercoaster, but we had some time. We decided to wait it out for a while to see if the rain would ease up, or heaven forbid, even stop altogether.

Surprisingly, after about 30 minutes, the rain let up enough that we felt that it was a good time to put on the ponchos and head to the next ride.

The rain letting up lasted about 2 minutes. Just long enough for us to be out in the open with no opportunity for cover.

Nicely played Mother Nature. Nicely played.

We finally came across an awning in between some stores on the main drag to seek shelter. And we waited. And debated. And the fast pass window came and went. And we waited and debated some more. People were soaked. The park just emptied out. We were wet and getting cold and I was just irritated. We had only ridden one ride and seen one show and it was late afternoon. After some time, the rain went from a ridiculous downpour to just a steady rain. We decided to go back to the room and change into some dry clothes and come back to HS for rides and dinner and we would close out the park. Now I knew that we would lose a lot of time on the bus rides, but I could not imagine continuing the day/evening soaking wet. And by the time we got on the bus, went back to the room, changed clothes and got back on the bus to HS, the rain had stopped!!! Yes, we have new life - we can salvage this day!!!

Since we had a last minute dinner reservation at Mama Melrose that evening, we decided to see what the Muppets had been up to before checking in for dinner. Have you seen the original "National Lampoon's Vacation" movie? When the Griswald family gets to Wally World and they are so excited and they are running thru the empty parking lot to the entrance only to see this sign:

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That is how I felt when I saw the sign at the Muppets that said the attraction closed at 6:00 PM.

WHAT??? WHY??? REALLY??? I seriously had no idea that this was a thing - attractions are closing early for no apparent reason? Now I understand that this is not a hot ticket show, but who doesn't love corny jokes told by Kermit the Frog? And in 3D no less??? But it was closed and no amount of me pouting could make that fact change. Okay, fine, let's just go check in early for dinner. We were about an hour early, but I honestly thought that since the park was still fairly empty, we would have a decent chance of getting in.

Nope. They told us that we could not check in until 15 minutes before our reservation.

We did notice while stepping into the restaurant that it was freezing cold in there. Tony just could not handle that, so we decided to head back over to the other side of the park and find him a hoodie jacket to wear. Since his other hoodie jacket that he had earlier in the day was soaking wet back in the hotel. And since we were basically wasting time since there wasn't enough time to ride a ride, we might as well take some pictures!

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I like his jacket, but Tony doesn't do well with white shirts. We are drippy kind of people.

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Magic shot!

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My hair was a fuzzy mess by that point. It just could not be controlled!

We had finally piddled enough to be able to check in for dinner. And we still waited a while before being seated. Neither one of us had been to Mama Melrose before, so for being a last minute reservation, I was happy with our choice.

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We were seated a table in the back and it was not at all crowded, so the reasoning for not seating us early or making us wait to be seated when we were finally allowed to check in was unknown to me. But nonetheless, we were there and starving. So even though an appetizer was not included with our dining plan, we had to have one.

We started with the Crispy Calamari - served with sottaceto misto, spicy aioli, and charred lemon.

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It was piping hot and the spicy aioli sauce (not in the picture) was so good. Not too spicy, but had a nice kick.

Tony ordered the sustainable fish (which was salmon) - with pappardelle pasta tossed with Puttanesca sauce and grilled asparagus.

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He said this was an excellent choice. I'm not a fan of tomato sauce on fish, so I just took his word on the subject. I also think he exchanged the asparagus for a different vegetable.

I ordered the chef's special, which was short ribs over mushroom risotto.

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There was all kinds of yumminess going on right here. The serving was huge and the meat was fall of the bone tender. We were both very happy and very, very full. Our sweet waitress noticed that our meals weren't being finished, so she offered to box up dessert for us. She said that the best dessert to be boxed up was the cannoli - house-made creamy cannoli filling with a hint of citrus and dusted with cocoa powder.

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Yes please - two orders to go!!!

Now during dinner I had been attempting to get us fast passes for anything in Toy Story land, but nothing was available and then at about 8:00 the app said that no more fast passes were being distributed. But I reasoned that meant that we would be able to head over there and get on the rides.

Would that actually happen? You'll have to wait until the next installment to find out, because I'm out of room for pictures!!

Up next - the rest of our day in Hollywood Studios and the fall heard around the world!
 
We love Cape May for the seafood buffet. We make our ADR close to opening and the food is fresh and plentiful! Maybe you guys aren't seafood fans, though... but they do have lots of other good things!
Glad you made your ADR and Fps. I was on the edge of my seat hoping you wouldn't get the red light! :)
I'm no Star Wars fan either. When they took out the barbeque and the Big Thunder Ranch at the back of Disneyland for it, I was so mad! Of all the places for them to dump this new land, they had to pick one of my favorite areas. We live on the west coast and used to go to DL several times a year, but not now. We will finish off our current DW annual passes and probably go other places for vacation for awhile, but who knows, right? Once a Disney addict.....
Our next trip is in November, when is yours??

We had done Cape May for dinner on a previous trip. I thought it was really good. We really try to do all different restaurants each time we go to Disney (except O'hana). I am glad to know that there are other non Star Wars fans around. I feel a little outnumbered by the die hard fans!

We have no plans for an upcoming trip. Sadly our finances just will not allow for it right now. But that's okay. With so many new things coming up in the next few years, I'm okay to wait. And save!

Have to say, I agree about Galaxy's Edge--dont really have any great desire to see it :confused3 . But, if others are excited good for them! :thumbsup2

We love Toy Stort Mania! One of our favorites, for sure.

I'm glad that other people are excited/obsessed with Galaxy's Edge. That's just more chances for me to ride Toy Story Mania again! It was so much fun.

Enjoying your Trip Reprt.. We go in 2 months so it is great to hear about what you all did.

Thanks for reading along. Despite the bumps in the road (and we had a few this trip), we really did have a good time.
 
July 7th - Hollywood Studios - Part 3
After settling up the bill at Mama Melrose, I was bound and determined to head back over to Toy Story Land. The clock was creeping towards 9:00 and I knew that was when the park closed, but I also knew that there was still Fantasmic! and fireworks that were still scheduled, so I was optimistic that we would still be able to do a few things before it was time to leave the park. And remember - up until that point, we had only ridden one ride, seen one show and had dinner. Oh and been rained on. I was a determined woman at this point. The park was not at all crowded, so Tony and I scooted over to Toy Story Land with relative ease!

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Sorry we didn't get to see you Miss Piggy - until next time!

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We had no time to stop for projection shows!

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We immediately headed over to Slinky Dog Dash. I'm not a roller coaster fan, but I wanted to ride this ride. But then, a thing happened. We were stopped by a very nice, but very stern cast member who told us that the time was now 9:07 PM and they were not taking on any more riders this evening.

Okay, dude, you have no idea how ridiculous this day has been. There are still people in the que - the ride is still going - can we please ride?? I won't tell anyone you let us through.

The cast member smiled, and I thought I had worked my charms. But he then said that all the rides stop taking new passengers at 9:00, but we were welcome to continue to explore Andy's backyard.

If I were a three-year-old, this would be where I would have thrown a temper tantrum. Throw down, scream and flail temper tantrum. But I'm an adult, so I thanked him and wished him a nice evening. But under my breath, I used not nice names. That I'm sure I cannot type here, but use your imagination. I said several things.

At this point, there was nothing more to do but look around and see all of the things that "could have been".

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Earlier that day, there was a photo pass photographer with Forky sitting on top of a garbage can. Why didn't we just forgo the fast pass for Frozen??? Yeah, I'm still pretty irritated with myself for that decision making fail.

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Now, I may or may not have run over and elbowed a few children to get this picture. I tried to get Tony over with me, but he was done for the day. And I honestly cannot blame him. TSL was absolutely adorable and I will make sure to give it the time it deserves whenever we get back there. At this point, we saw that the fireworks were going off, so we thought we could make a break for it and head to the busses before the large crowds headed that way. But honestly, the crowds were minimal, so getting over to the busses and back to the hotel was pretty easy. We did our normal routine of filling our mugs and headed back to the room.

But this is not where our day ends . . . because I'm a klutz.

After we got back into the room and got our ECV's parked, I was sitting on the side of the bed changing clothes and trying to figure out what was wet, what was dry and just what was what. I stood up from the bed and didn't realize that there were wet things still sitting by the bed and my foot hit a wet spot and I went flying. My entire upper left side of my body hit one of the ECV's and my left knee hit the floor. Really, really hard. I was the commercial - help I've fallen and I can't get up. I had basically wedged myself into a fairly small area and I'm not a fairly small person, so getting up unassisted was not going to happen. Tony made some phone calls and ultimately local EMS (not the ambulance folks, the Disney EMS) and a couple of the managers from the hotel came to the room. I was surprised about the hotel managers, but they explained that they had to be present if the emergency crew was there, and they just stayed outside. It took a bit of creativity, but after a few minutes I was up and back on the bed. Very embarrassed. Very bruised and sore. But thankful that nothing was broken. After that incident, we just went to bed.

Up next - Animal Kingdom! And lets play "count the boo-boo's"!
 
And details on the cannolis please.

Very, very yummy. The outside crispy part got a little soggy, but that didn't stop us!

Same here!! White shirts are a magnet for anything I eat. But love the jacket anyway!

Girl, I don't even own a white shirt for just that reason. I get stains on most everything! It is a super cute jacket.
 
Oh my. I hope we don't have to count higher than two. I'm not that good at math.


It is amazing, upon falling one fits so easy, trying to get up, that's another story.
 
July 8th - Animal Kingdom - Part 1
A few years ago I would have never said that Animal Kingdom is my favorite park. I'm not really a zoo person, so I was never very excited about spending time there. And then we did spend a full day and it has been my favorite ever since. We had a full day planned for AK, including safari and FOTLK fast passes. I was excited. I was pumped.

I was bruised and sore from my fall the previous evening. My left knee that took the most impact from my fall was not very excited about having to move around and while I was very grateful to have the ECV's for the entire trip, I was especially happy on this morning. I was hobbling and looking pretty miserable. I had about four different bruises in varying shapes and sizes up and down my left arm and my knee was turning a lovely shade of purple.

Basically I was a mess. But the sun was out and the weather forecast looked optimistic for most of the day. We got ready, refilled our mugs and headed out to Animal Kingdom.

We had barely made it thru bag check before I spotted my first photo pass spot. I hopped in line - Tony took a hard pass. Whatever dude.

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I was not very happy that Tony decided to not be in the picture. It was not his turn to be a grumpy butt. So I basically told him that we were not moving past the tree of life until he got his tail up and moving and into a picture. I said it nicely, but he knew that I wouldn't tell him what time our first fast pass was, so he really had no choice!!!

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We matched today! Even down to the magic bands.

After "wife guilt" we headed over to our first fast pass - safari. I love, love, love this ride. So much so that I only took one picture and then put down my phone so I could just enjoy the ride.

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Our safari driver was not the best we had ever encountered, but the animals were lively that morning. We saw the usual suspects and of course I was in love with the giraffes.

I still want a baby giraffe. And I almost had one this trip. After the safari ride, we of course had to go into a shop and I found this adorable porcelain purple giraffe. She was only a couple of inches tall, but stood proud and was just calling out to me that she wanted to move to Kentucky and live in my office. Who am I to say no to that? So I bought Ginger the Giraffe and she was wrapped up and in a Disney bag ready to come home with us. Well guess what friends?

She got lost. She's a lost toy. I'm honestly not sure how it happened, but she never made it home with us.

Poor Ginger. I hope she found a new family.

After the safari, we headed over to Festival of the Lion King. This is probably in my top three favorite shows in all of WDW. I cry every time I see it and am just amazed at the talent of the cast members. Even though we had a fast pass and arrived well within our window, it was very crowded and they said if we wanted to get into this show, Tony and I would have to sit separately. I was really ready for some air conditioning, so we opted to sit apart to not have to wait 30 minutes for the next show. I had an excellent seat in the warthog section. I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

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As always, a great show. Up next - my first attempt at mobile ordering and more Animal Kingdom!
 

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