Epic Journey to Walt Disney World Part 2
Day 3: Toy Story Mania and Dancing Lights
So on Tuesday we head over to Mouse Studios (with the mouse ear water tower.) We headed over to the awesome rides - grabbed Fast Passes for Rockin' Roller Coaster and stood in line for 20 minutes for Tower of Terror. While waiting for our Fast passes to come up, we grabed a pretzel and powerade. Rocking Roller Coaster was awesome as always. After that we walked around a bit and then headed over to get some Lunch. After lunch we headed to the Backlot Tour, which is really cool, though sitting near the 70 millions of gallons of water falling at you during catastrophe canyon, is not really recommended. We spent a bit of time taking pictures of the Star Wars props that are the end of the tour. Thenn, we were walking down "The Streets of America" which were decorated with the Osborne Family Dancing Lights, and saw the sign that said "36 Hidden Mickys in the light" so we started looking for the (it was still day light, so the lights were off). We watched the Muppet's 3-D movie, which is fun. After that we headed up to Star Tours. There wasn't a long wait, so we waited and rode the wonderful ride. Then we went to the wonderful store and spent some money. Lots of money. Well, they had these cute little Potato heads, "Mashter Yoda" "C3 Potato" "Darth Mash" and "Spudda Fett." Well, after spending time and money at the store, we headed over to the Great Movie Ride, which is alwas fun, and then we headed to Toy Story Mania. The wait was 50 minutes or so, the Fast Passes were for like.... 3-4 hours later. So we decided to wait. The ride line is really cool, it's like your in Andy's Room from Toy Story and the toys are all huge. The Ceiling is a huge Scrabble and Chutes and Ladders game board, the Floor on one part is Candy Land. Then there's a Mr. Potato Head that talks and stuff. It's pretty cool. There's crayons and some are used more than others. It was interesting, for a while. We were tired of the wait after a wait, and John was pissed because Bryan had said it was a great ride and I wanted to ride it. John says "remind me to kill Bryan" and I was like, "OK." So anyway, we stood in line and then we rode the ride - it's a moving 3-D shooting Gallery. IT WAS THE MOST FUN I'VE EVER HAD IN MY WHOLE LIFE! So we were happy about having waited that long, it was really worth it. After that we headed over to Hollywood and Vine and put our names in for Dinner. We were able to get a table after about a 45 minute wait. So that was cool. Had a nice dinner (Crystal Palace was better.) Then we decided to head over to see the Dancing Lights instead of seeing Fantasmic, because we had seen Fantasmic before. So, we did, and we found all the hidden Mickey's (we think). By that time the Park had closed, but we got to see some awesome lights. They danced to awesome music, and I got fake snow in my hair. :)
Day 4: Rain of Toads
Wednesday was Epcot day. We started early and rode the "new and improved" Spaceship Earth, which basically in a nice data mining operation in disguise, and then deciding we could care less about Mission:Space and Test Track, we went and got Fast Passes for Soarin' then we went on the Boat Ride that takes you through the awesome greenhouses and stuff. Except at one point we got stuck and the boat started moving backwards, so we got some good pictures of the hidden Mickey's in the Lettuce growers and saw some cucumbers that were "earning their ears" After that, we headed to Circle of Life and watched a movie about the environment featuring the stars of the Lion King. We headed over the Seas with Nemo and Friends, rode the seashells and then looked around the aquarium. We got to see the Manatees that are recovering. Once done there, we headed back over to Soarin'. That's an amazing ride.
After that we headed to the Electric Umbrella for lunch and then started our tour around the world. We started with Canada. We waited for the movie - though it sucked because we had to stand during it, it was still cute. Then we headed over to the UK, there we looked around. Next was France. We saw the movie there (thank goodness, there were seats!) There was Harry Potter like music (not sure what it was, but it sounds like the music in Harry Potter) and it was a nice movie. Afterward, we had some French Pastries and then we moved on to skip Moracco, got our picture taken with the EPCOT golfball in the background. We moved on to Japan, and did some shopping (I got 2 lucky cats and John got some chopsticks.) After that, we headed over to America, waited for the show there, which was like "America Rocks, yo!". After America it was over to Italy. We decided to stop here for dinner and figured it would be a bit of a wait. However, we were seated immediatly in their outside seating. We got bread and drinks and then ordered dinner. It arrived in like 5 minutes, which was awesome. Then we ordered desserts. During our dinner in Italy, a strange thing happened. I felt something cold and slimy land on my leg and I jumped up and brushed it off. It was a frog!! The frog just fell off the awning that was over us. Then the table behind us, one of the kids got hit in the head with a frog! (I thought at the time, it was the same frog, but I was wrong.) Then before we left, someone else jumped and yelled because a frog fell on them too! As we left, I checked my purse because I was afraid the frog jumped inside the outer pocket, and he was on my purse strap! So John shooed him off, and I dubbed the night "Rain of Toads" to which John advised me, they were frogs and not toads, and three does not constitue 'rain'. I disagree.
After Italy, we headed quickly around the rest of the world. We did some shopping in China, rode Malestrom in Norway, and skipped Mexico all together. Then we went and found a place to sit to watch Illuminations. We didn't have the greated view of the effects on the water, but it was good enough. Afterward we headed back to the Hotel for a good night sleep - it takes a lot out of a person walking all the way around the world!!
Day 5: Shopping, Dinosaurs, and MK
We slept in a bit on Thursday. We were mostly doing shopping so we could send stuff back to the hotel in time for pick up before we left. We went to Downtown Disney for shopping. It was cool and rainy. We jumped from shop to shop. When it started to rain, we headed for lunch. We had one meal which we wouldn't be able to do on Disney Dining Plan, because you only have enough credits for 6 days, and we had a lunch we would have to make up, so we went to T-Rex, which was a Dinosaur themed restuarant, in the vein of the Rain Forest Cafe. We had some really good food and then we headed back for some more shopping. We picked up Christmas Presents for some people, and some stuff for ourselves (including another Potato Head!) and then we decided to head over to Magic Kingdom because we wanted to pick up a few things and we needed to go to a Park for the day. The park closed early, because of Mickey's Christmas Party and we ran in, grabbed some stuff, and then headed back to the hotel for Dinner. (We did go hit Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger spin, because the first time our guns were broken. I scored 999,999 half way through the thing. John won this time and we had twice where the ride came to a stop and we just racked up points. It was fun.)
At our Hotel, was an "African" buffet, at the Boma. We got on the list and waited for a while but we finally got dinner. It was a nice buffett, with really good chocolate mousse dessert! Then we took our 3 day safari hike back to our room.
Day 6: It's a Cold, Cold, Night
We really did sleep in on Friday. No Alarm was set. I woke up early and read out on the balcony amoung the Zebras, Giraffes, Cow things with big horns and some bird things. :) It was chilly though, so I came back in and went back to sleep. When we did wake up, we decided to head over to Disney Studios to catch Fantasmic that night. We started looking for penny presses and doing some shopping. (Re: Penny Presses, we found they have a master list. Wish we had known earlier in the day - of course, then we wouldn't have had anything to do on Saturday.) Then we stood in line for Toy Story Mania again (yep, an hour, that's how awesome it was). After that we headed over to the Italian Restaurant for lunch. We had about a 30 minute wait, not too bad. After lunch, we headed back to Star Tours for some shopping. :)
Once we were done there, we headed back to the Great Movie Ride and then we headed over to wait for Fantasmic. I wanted to ride Tower of Terror again, but John wasn't feel well, so I headed on over to stand in line. I got to sit in the middle front row of the car and it was the most fun ride on Tower of Terror I ever had. After I came back, seating was open for Fantasmic, so we headed on into the theatre. We were able to sit in the front center. (Last time we were in the back on the side, standing the whole time.) We got Pretzels, popcorn and Hot Chocolate (it was falling temps into the 50s, and windy. People had blankets, heavy coats, gloves, hats, scarfs, etc. It felt really cold.
The show was awesome (except for the water, blowing on us during the water sequences, where they project stuff on these huge screens of water.) It was realy cool. My favorite part was the end, where they show "Steamboat Willy" with Micky in Black and White, and all the characters are on the boat. It was really awesome that Mickey was actually in black and white, OK well, grey, but you get my meaning.
So the show was great. We left the park, headed back to the hotel for dinner and then went to sleep, as we had an early day the next morning!
Day 7: I Give You Leave to Go!
Sadly, Saturday dawned, nice and sunny. We dressed, and packed. We had some packages to send back home via UPS. So, we cleaned out the room, and headed down to ship (and another box appeared as if my magic!) After shipping, we checked into the airline to hand over our checked bag (which we had to take a few things out, because it was 8oz over weight.) We checked out of the Hotel, and headed over to Magic Kingdom. We got there as it opened, and got to see the opening of the park, which was kinda cool. We took the train to Frontier Land, and walked across to FantasyLand to find one of the pennies we wanted to press. On the way, we stopped for a bathroom break. While I was waiting for John, Goofy, as a Cowboy came over and gave me a hug. We moved on, hit Small World, got our penny, headed to the other penny press in Toontown. Got done just as the train arrived, so we jumped on that, looked at one shop, didn't find what we wanted and headed out to Animal Kingdom. We Fast Passed Safari and ate lunch while we were waiting. On the Safari, we got to see the rare and elusive humans do tricks! We got some pictures at the Tree of Life, then headed back to the hotel for our Magical Express to the airport. We had a while to wait, so I went and soaked my feet in the hot tub and saw Flamingos and Antelopes.
Finally the Magical Express arrived and we left the Mouse. It was sad. But it was time to go home. Our feet hurt and we missed our own bed and pillows.
We decided that our next trip will be in 2012! It's our, "If the world ends, I want to be in the happiest place on earth" vacation. if anyone wants to come with us, we'd be happy to have anyone. December 2012 folks, start saving now!!
So on Tuesday we head over to Mouse Studios (with the mouse ear water tower.) We headed over to the awesome rides - grabbed Fast Passes for Rockin' Roller Coaster and stood in line for 20 minutes for Tower of Terror. While waiting for our Fast passes to come up, we grabed a pretzel and powerade. Rocking Roller Coaster was awesome as always. After that we walked around a bit and then headed over to get some Lunch. After lunch we headed to the Backlot Tour, which is really cool, though sitting near the 70 millions of gallons of water falling at you during catastrophe canyon, is not really recommended. We spent a bit of time taking pictures of the Star Wars props that are the end of the tour. Thenn, we were walking down "The Streets of America" which were decorated with the Osborne Family Dancing Lights, and saw the sign that said "36 Hidden Mickys in the light" so we started looking for the (it was still day light, so the lights were off). We watched the Muppet's 3-D movie, which is fun. After that we headed up to Star Tours. There wasn't a long wait, so we waited and rode the wonderful ride. Then we went to the wonderful store and spent some money. Lots of money. Well, they had these cute little Potato heads, "Mashter Yoda" "C3 Potato" "Darth Mash" and "Spudda Fett." Well, after spending time and money at the store, we headed over to the Great Movie Ride, which is alwas fun, and then we headed to Toy Story Mania. The wait was 50 minutes or so, the Fast Passes were for like.... 3-4 hours later. So we decided to wait. The ride line is really cool, it's like your in Andy's Room from Toy Story and the toys are all huge. The Ceiling is a huge Scrabble and Chutes and Ladders game board, the Floor on one part is Candy Land. Then there's a Mr. Potato Head that talks and stuff. It's pretty cool. There's crayons and some are used more than others. It was interesting, for a while. We were tired of the wait after a wait, and John was pissed because Bryan had said it was a great ride and I wanted to ride it. John says "remind me to kill Bryan" and I was like, "OK." So anyway, we stood in line and then we rode the ride - it's a moving 3-D shooting Gallery. IT WAS THE MOST FUN I'VE EVER HAD IN MY WHOLE LIFE! So we were happy about having waited that long, it was really worth it. After that we headed over to Hollywood and Vine and put our names in for Dinner. We were able to get a table after about a 45 minute wait. So that was cool. Had a nice dinner (Crystal Palace was better.) Then we decided to head over to see the Dancing Lights instead of seeing Fantasmic, because we had seen Fantasmic before. So, we did, and we found all the hidden Mickey's (we think). By that time the Park had closed, but we got to see some awesome lights. They danced to awesome music, and I got fake snow in my hair. :)
Day 4: Rain of Toads
Wednesday was Epcot day. We started early and rode the "new and improved" Spaceship Earth, which basically in a nice data mining operation in disguise, and then deciding we could care less about Mission:Space and Test Track, we went and got Fast Passes for Soarin' then we went on the Boat Ride that takes you through the awesome greenhouses and stuff. Except at one point we got stuck and the boat started moving backwards, so we got some good pictures of the hidden Mickey's in the Lettuce growers and saw some cucumbers that were "earning their ears" After that, we headed to Circle of Life and watched a movie about the environment featuring the stars of the Lion King. We headed over the Seas with Nemo and Friends, rode the seashells and then looked around the aquarium. We got to see the Manatees that are recovering. Once done there, we headed back over to Soarin'. That's an amazing ride.
After that we headed to the Electric Umbrella for lunch and then started our tour around the world. We started with Canada. We waited for the movie - though it sucked because we had to stand during it, it was still cute. Then we headed over to the UK, there we looked around. Next was France. We saw the movie there (thank goodness, there were seats!) There was Harry Potter like music (not sure what it was, but it sounds like the music in Harry Potter) and it was a nice movie. Afterward, we had some French Pastries and then we moved on to skip Moracco, got our picture taken with the EPCOT golfball in the background. We moved on to Japan, and did some shopping (I got 2 lucky cats and John got some chopsticks.) After that, we headed over to America, waited for the show there, which was like "America Rocks, yo!". After America it was over to Italy. We decided to stop here for dinner and figured it would be a bit of a wait. However, we were seated immediatly in their outside seating. We got bread and drinks and then ordered dinner. It arrived in like 5 minutes, which was awesome. Then we ordered desserts. During our dinner in Italy, a strange thing happened. I felt something cold and slimy land on my leg and I jumped up and brushed it off. It was a frog!! The frog just fell off the awning that was over us. Then the table behind us, one of the kids got hit in the head with a frog! (I thought at the time, it was the same frog, but I was wrong.) Then before we left, someone else jumped and yelled because a frog fell on them too! As we left, I checked my purse because I was afraid the frog jumped inside the outer pocket, and he was on my purse strap! So John shooed him off, and I dubbed the night "Rain of Toads" to which John advised me, they were frogs and not toads, and three does not constitue 'rain'. I disagree.
After Italy, we headed quickly around the rest of the world. We did some shopping in China, rode Malestrom in Norway, and skipped Mexico all together. Then we went and found a place to sit to watch Illuminations. We didn't have the greated view of the effects on the water, but it was good enough. Afterward we headed back to the Hotel for a good night sleep - it takes a lot out of a person walking all the way around the world!!
Day 5: Shopping, Dinosaurs, and MK
We slept in a bit on Thursday. We were mostly doing shopping so we could send stuff back to the hotel in time for pick up before we left. We went to Downtown Disney for shopping. It was cool and rainy. We jumped from shop to shop. When it started to rain, we headed for lunch. We had one meal which we wouldn't be able to do on Disney Dining Plan, because you only have enough credits for 6 days, and we had a lunch we would have to make up, so we went to T-Rex, which was a Dinosaur themed restuarant, in the vein of the Rain Forest Cafe. We had some really good food and then we headed back for some more shopping. We picked up Christmas Presents for some people, and some stuff for ourselves (including another Potato Head!) and then we decided to head over to Magic Kingdom because we wanted to pick up a few things and we needed to go to a Park for the day. The park closed early, because of Mickey's Christmas Party and we ran in, grabbed some stuff, and then headed back to the hotel for Dinner. (We did go hit Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger spin, because the first time our guns were broken. I scored 999,999 half way through the thing. John won this time and we had twice where the ride came to a stop and we just racked up points. It was fun.)
At our Hotel, was an "African" buffet, at the Boma. We got on the list and waited for a while but we finally got dinner. It was a nice buffett, with really good chocolate mousse dessert! Then we took our 3 day safari hike back to our room.
Day 6: It's a Cold, Cold, Night
We really did sleep in on Friday. No Alarm was set. I woke up early and read out on the balcony amoung the Zebras, Giraffes, Cow things with big horns and some bird things. :) It was chilly though, so I came back in and went back to sleep. When we did wake up, we decided to head over to Disney Studios to catch Fantasmic that night. We started looking for penny presses and doing some shopping. (Re: Penny Presses, we found they have a master list. Wish we had known earlier in the day - of course, then we wouldn't have had anything to do on Saturday.) Then we stood in line for Toy Story Mania again (yep, an hour, that's how awesome it was). After that we headed over to the Italian Restaurant for lunch. We had about a 30 minute wait, not too bad. After lunch, we headed back to Star Tours for some shopping. :)
Once we were done there, we headed back to the Great Movie Ride and then we headed over to wait for Fantasmic. I wanted to ride Tower of Terror again, but John wasn't feel well, so I headed on over to stand in line. I got to sit in the middle front row of the car and it was the most fun ride on Tower of Terror I ever had. After I came back, seating was open for Fantasmic, so we headed on into the theatre. We were able to sit in the front center. (Last time we were in the back on the side, standing the whole time.) We got Pretzels, popcorn and Hot Chocolate (it was falling temps into the 50s, and windy. People had blankets, heavy coats, gloves, hats, scarfs, etc. It felt really cold.
The show was awesome (except for the water, blowing on us during the water sequences, where they project stuff on these huge screens of water.) It was realy cool. My favorite part was the end, where they show "Steamboat Willy" with Micky in Black and White, and all the characters are on the boat. It was really awesome that Mickey was actually in black and white, OK well, grey, but you get my meaning.
So the show was great. We left the park, headed back to the hotel for dinner and then went to sleep, as we had an early day the next morning!
Day 7: I Give You Leave to Go!
Sadly, Saturday dawned, nice and sunny. We dressed, and packed. We had some packages to send back home via UPS. So, we cleaned out the room, and headed down to ship (and another box appeared as if my magic!) After shipping, we checked into the airline to hand over our checked bag (which we had to take a few things out, because it was 8oz over weight.) We checked out of the Hotel, and headed over to Magic Kingdom. We got there as it opened, and got to see the opening of the park, which was kinda cool. We took the train to Frontier Land, and walked across to FantasyLand to find one of the pennies we wanted to press. On the way, we stopped for a bathroom break. While I was waiting for John, Goofy, as a Cowboy came over and gave me a hug. We moved on, hit Small World, got our penny, headed to the other penny press in Toontown. Got done just as the train arrived, so we jumped on that, looked at one shop, didn't find what we wanted and headed out to Animal Kingdom. We Fast Passed Safari and ate lunch while we were waiting. On the Safari, we got to see the rare and elusive humans do tricks! We got some pictures at the Tree of Life, then headed back to the hotel for our Magical Express to the airport. We had a while to wait, so I went and soaked my feet in the hot tub and saw Flamingos and Antelopes.
Finally the Magical Express arrived and we left the Mouse. It was sad. But it was time to go home. Our feet hurt and we missed our own bed and pillows.
We decided that our next trip will be in 2012! It's our, "If the world ends, I want to be in the happiest place on earth" vacation. if anyone wants to come with us, we'd be happy to have anyone. December 2012 folks, start saving now!!