DISNEY: THANKS FOR ALL THE FUN!

Home stretch now… we’re at the end of a fabulous week! Our last day would start and end in the Magic Kingdom. That day it was incredibly crowded because it was the 40^th Birthday of when Magic Kingdom opened. They gave out special pins, copies of the first map Disney World ever made, executives talked and there was even a special parade.

Our day though began at the Crystal Palace breakfast buffet. It is a character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and Friends. The first time Kyle and I came to Disney together we ate here on our last day and it’s now a tradition.

Now, word came to me that Rapunzel can be met by the castle beginning at 9:15am and the line gets long – sometimes 2+ hours. At 9:00am, I looked at Kyle and said “I’m done eating, can I go get in line while you are waiting to pay?” Then I hotfooted over there! Hahaha. I was 3^rd in line. NICE!

Okay, so now… fun story about how I am sort of a jerk but totally owned it. After I met Rapunzel I wanted to get a spot for the parade. It was supposed to be every character walking down Main Street to celebrate (what a sight)!! Unfortunately, the crowd was insane and it was packed everywhere. Some people were even getting nasty if you jostled them – sheesh! I’m not that big of a Disney fan.

Anyway… me being a jerk: I started talking to a young mother with two girls (who just so happened to be at the FRONT of the parade line) and I said how I just met Rapunzel about 100ft back at the castle. She got all excited because her girls wanted to meet her but the lines were always so long. Looking at her husband she was debating with herself if she should leave the parade line. I, being totally unafraid to plant ideas in someone’s head, told her it would be a good idea because I only waited 10 minutes.

Yeah, she left the line. Then we found out Rapunzel left her post to be in the parade and wouldn’t come back until it was over!!! Hahahahaa. Oops. =) I was at the front now though, see…

 And to show you the extent of the crowd we fought through:



Usually in September you’d see about ¼ of that. While everyone stood and listened to the executives talk Kyle and I ran for the unattended rides. SUCKERS. I even got to meet my scary looking fairy godmother. Hello Godmother, can I get $1,000,000? Thanks.

Now it’s time to bid adieu. =(

I’ll see you soon, Disney. I always come back. Wait for me!

DISNEY: BOO TO YOU AND YOU AND YOU

The day after each Disney posting I go back and read what I wrote; this leads me to two conclusions:

• I am trying to churn this out while I still have the motivation and therefore my posts include typos or misspelled words.
• My storytelling skills? Not so great. There is no flow to some portions.
• You’ll get over it. =)

Imagine, I’ll finish this set sometime within the next day or so and then in 3 weeks,after I recover from jet lag, I’ll be adding posts about how I went to Hawaii! Woohooo! Can you feel the excitement!? Oh yeahhh.

Coming at you today with no further adieu I bring you…..

MICKEY’S NOT SO SCARY HALLOWEEN PARTY!!!

This event is held at the end of September thru November 1^st in Magic Kingdom. It is an extra fee and those who do not have tickets to the event are shuffled out of the park. During the party you can trick or treat, meet characters not typically out or meet certain characters in Halloween garb. There is also the “Boo To You” parade that starts off with the Headless Horseman riding on a horse through the streets and a special Villians show and fireworks.

Kyle and I dressed up this year as Pongo and Perdita from “101 Dalmatians.” Aren’t we some awesomely corny? The answer is YES.

Our group went to the Halloween party together; Richelle and Todd dressed up as a pirate and tiger while Heather and JJ weren't expecting to go to the party and didn't bring costumes but got into character with silly hats.

As we walked down Main Street towards the castle I took it upon myself to ask a Disney Cast Member if I could hold his sign and take a picture (I'm not shy, obviously) and I really liked being able to get a picture like this...

The Halloween fireworks were one of my favorite parts of the party. They pipe in Disney Villian songs like "Be Prepared" or "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (cool points to you if you know which movie they're from). The villians are some of my favorite characters in Disney movies so I loved it!

And after the fireworks the castle was back to it's absolutely stunning self. Can I live there?

The night ended with a lot of candy tired feet but happy people. We stayed until after midnight and it was well worth it. Not only do I love Halloween but I love Disney even more!!! =)

DISNEY: DRINKING AROUND THE WORLD IS A COMMON GOAL

Well, here it is! Today, I bring you “Drinking Around the World” at Epcot. All those who are under the age of 21 please turn away.  =)  I actually didn’t do a great job of drinking with everyone because this is the 1^st day I started getting sick with the Floridian plague (which, by the way, I am still battling almost a month later). I had 6 - 7 drinks while everyone else had DOUBLE. How did we survive?!

Waking up that morning I still had ½ a bottle of red wine left and thought it was appropriate to drink it. As we walked to breakfast I took a glass with me because I like grape juice in the morning.

  

That bottle of Kendall Jackson costs about two arms and one leg in Disney World. I couldn’t let it go to waste! The actual debauchery didn’t start until later in the afternoon, around 2:00pm, so don’t go thinking we really started at 9:47am.

Kyle and I have tried to make it “around the world” ourselves twice before and have never gotten to the end. Typically, we would start in Canada and move from country to country… this means we never made it to Mexico, the last country around the lagoon. This year, while everyone started in Canada we walked over to Mexico and picked up a margarita each, then we met back up with them in the United Kingdom (the blatant disregard for the actual geography of the world is great).

Kyle got excited when we arrived in Mexico because Donald Duck was there! He could finally get his picture taken while wearing his magnificent shirt.

We assemble to complete one goal - let the games begin!

In the UK, Abbey chose a drink that I dubbed "Dragon's Vomit." When the bartender first put the different alcohols in the glass it was really pretty but when mixed? Not so much. Luckily it tasted like gold!



Next stop? France! Characters! More drinks! Princess Aurora was scary looking, wasn't she? We met her twice this trip and both times she wasn't the true physical embodiment of princess. Gosh!

OMG! An Aristocat?! This cat's name is Marie (and I only know that because someone told me) but of course I needed my picture with a giant cat and so did all of the other girls.

A few sips while we wait in line.

There's a pretty good story I could insert here but... this is a family blog.

"Drinking Around The World" day was easily the hottest with temperatures up around 98 or 99 degrees. Most people would think it's too hot to drink alcohol but you are not one of us. In France there was a delicious orange slushie drink that was mixed with Gran Marnier. It felt delicious just to drink it!

While the rest of the group moved on from France I decided to stay and watch a show with Kyle. We had seen it before a couple of years ago and I thought it was cool. It's sort of an acrobatic show? Maybe? I was even asked to participate! I feel like I get asked to participate all of the time because I'm so animated and get excited to try/see/do everything. =) Let's call it a zest for life!

My part in the show was to approve wines and give up my seat for him to balance on.

And of course, no day is complete without Moroccan beer! Mmm!

The next few stops on our trip was Italy, Japan and America. I usually would skip America since we can get Sam Adams anywhere but since Epcot was having the Food and Wine Festival that day there was a special Sam Adams brew called "Festival."

Italy brought samples of wine, beer and liquor. We also met up with the others in our group who didn't (or couldn't) participate because they had a kid with them.

In Japan we also found our group motto for the day; I think it's so fitting for what we were trying to accomplish.

We had dinner at the Biergarten in Germany which I remember being a really great experience as a kid, but I don't think it's awesome anymore. It was kid-centric and had a lot of songs and dances where kids went down to the floor; I'm not yet kid-centric... so, yeah.

The remainder of the countries in Epcot are China, Norway and Mexico. At some point after Germany, Kyle and I lost the group so we missed some and met up with everyone in Mexico! Ole! They made it to the end!!!

At this point, I felt horrible (from the Floridian plague) and just wanted to sleep; the alcohol I drank didn't help either, haha. I ended up going to bed around 9:30pm while everyone else went swimming but that was okay with me because I was on vacation.

DISNEY: CAN I RIDE THAT RIDE AGAIN PLEASE? REDO!

Kyle and I usually spend one full day in the Animal Kingdom through the duration of our trip. There aren’t many rides (maybe three majors that people hit) so it’s easy to do. A lot people don’t like this park because they think it’s boring but I, personally, really enjoy Animal Kingdom. Since I love animals and would own a hippopotamus if I could the park fits my personality. Also, there are a bunch of fun, live shows that run like the Lion King and Finding Nemo.

One of my biggest attractions in Animal Kingdom is the Tree of Life. Carved into the tree you’ll find all different types of animals to encompass the “great circle of life.” If you look at the tree and then watch The Lion King, it looks like the tree Rafiki lives in… but I don’t have confirmation of a connection.

Here I can see an owl, meerkat, hippo, bear & iguana. What do you see? The tree is gigantic and they actually have a 3D attraction underneath it called “It’s Tough To Be A Bug.”

Animal Kingdom is also known for it’s safari that is reflective of the Serengeti. They have all sorts of animals on-site from flamingos to elephants. The lions are the most boring animals though because I’ve been on this safari three times now and have yet to see them do anything but sleep. The guide said lions sleep 18 hours a day, laaazy.

Bird Island - woo!

This is what the safari car looks like. During peak season and peak times you could easily wait over 3 hours+ to ride through the safari. The line gets so incredibly crazy – luckily, we go while kids are in school and wait about 10 minutes.

This elephant excited me because he threw the hay on his head while I watched. Haha! I get so excited when animals do stuff like walk, or lay, or anything…  =)

 

After the safari we decided to wander around the park for awhile with no direction and what happened? I found my BFF Stitch again! I, of course, had to get my picture AGAIN with him because he’s my favorite but also because Lilo was there too.

They are my Ohana.

This, unfortunately for Kyle, got me all excited to get character pictures again.

 

This is one of my favorite pictures from all of Disney.

Also, during our wandering around we found a few “Hidden Mickeys.” Hidden Mickeys are interesting because they can be found in the weirdest places and 99% of the time you probably saw them but never realized. Hidden Mickeys are a big fascination for all Disney fans including Kyle and I. There is even a book dedicated to finding every single one.

During our trip, I found a few:

I'm really proud of the one on the right because it's so totally random.

I just happened to stumble upon these while we walked around. I’m not crazy enough to buy the book and make my life on vacation about finding Hidden Mickeys. There is one in the last post too; it's in the picture where I'm sitting on the arabian nights-style pillow.

Anyway…

I wish I had taken more scenic pictures of Animal Kingdom because it’s really well done. Should I talk about how much I love the detail Disney puts into the parks again? Hahahaha.

This is a picture of Expedition Everest which is a rollercoaster. The rollercoaster runs the track forwards and backwards. I know I’m getting old and not able to handle this anymore when the motion sickness hit me mid-ride. Ugh!

The sun was a little bright but totally worth the picture.

Like I said, Animal Kingdom hosts some pretty amazing shows with great stage sets. The Finding Nemo show is, in my opinion, the best show although I’ve always been partial to bright, colorful shiny things. =) They also turned it into a musical which makes is one skillion times better.

LOOK AT THAT PELICAN!! AWESOME.



I haven’t seen the Lion King show in about two years so I’m not sure if it was updated but I still think Finding Nemo wins.

Animal Kingdom is the earliest park to close, at 5:00pm, because they have to move the animals from the fields to their compounds. All of the animals are housed nightly in homes where they can rest, eat and sleep. There are also enough animals of each species to make sure they get days off; so the giraffe I saw that day might not be the giraffe I’d see the next.

Another interesting story is that Animal Kingdom is the only park that has doors on the bathrooms. This is in case there is an animal escape people can hide inside of them safely.

Our dinner that night was booked in the Yak and Yeti which is in the park. It’s an asian fusion type of restaurant and I had the best roasted duck ever! I also had a Safari Amber Ale; this is a beer that is made exclusively for Animal Kingdom and you can’t get it outside of the park. Of course this made me purchase the 22oz but in hindsight I should have bought two 22oz. Yumm!

To wind down the day and move into the night we got a little silly with flowers of Simba and Rafiki. Naaahhhhhh twaaaawenyaahhh vavaisiashaha shittaaa hoooome! (that was me singing Circle of Life, did you catch that?)

And then hit Epcot for their fireworks show and some beers.

KA-BOOM!