I'm Fluent in Disney Spanish- May 2016 TR *updated 11/16*-COMPLETE

[ashw100]

Looks like a great time between Trader Sam's and 'Ohana!

It was

 

[ashw100]

Day 2: Part 5
And the rain, rain, rain came down, down down

We drove over to DHS, and got some pictures on the way in.

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Joe had forgotten his sunglasses that day and didn’t like the ones he had brought, so I was trying to convince him to buy another pair so he would stop ruining my pictures with his squint face. We stopped in Planet Hollywood I think it was and saw this cool pink Power Ranger suit.

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Also, costume from my favorite movie Titanic.

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With Joe settled on a pair, we paid and used our AP discount, finally. I swear I am bad at this discount thing. I had also been texting with Jamie aka @hokieinpa about a meet up, but first we had a FP that we had gotten at some point in the afternoon for RnR. This is Joe’s favorite ride, so I was happy to be able to get a FP for it so late in the day.

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Yuck I hate this picture


Next we needed to ride my favorite ride.

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I’ll just apologize in advance for the million pictures, it’s one of my absolute favorites to photograph.

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All the while I am texting with Jamie about possibly meeting up after the ride, we entered the queue before her, so I said I would just wait after the ride for her as we had no other real plans that night. Well, little did I know, but she actually had a FP and I saw her son first and called out to her as she was passing me in line. We said hello and introduced our DH’s and I met her son. It wasn’t too long because we were in line, but with a quick picture(on her phone oops) we parted ways, promising to meet up again during our trip. Her family was great and I am so happy we got to say hello. Now some more pictures of the queue.

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Our ride was amazing as always. Joe kept thinking each ride we had, and we had a lot over the course of the week, got better. I think they were all amazing. I think my favorite thing about this ride is you just never know what you’re going to get. Will you shoot up first or drop, how many times will you drop? It is just always so good. After ToT we had a little less than an hour before Fantasmic and I wanted to get Starbucks to take in with us. We were walking back down Sunset Blvd and the rain started to come. Okay no big deal, come rain or shine, I was seeing F! and then out of nowhere a HUGE crash of lightning struck literally right above us. I have never jumped so high in all my life. It was terrifying. I assume it had hit a lightning rod above us, but geez did I fear for my life in that moment. At the same time as the lightening there was an announcement being made about F! being cancelled, and then the skies opened up. It was one of the heaviest downpours I have ever witnessed. Thankfully we weren’t too far from our destination, so we booked it to Starbucks to get our drinks and decide our next move. It rained for a long time and it was just too heavy to do anything. I am never going to let rain stop me at WDW, as you will see very clearly in a few days time, but there was just no way you weren’t getting drenched the second you stepped outside, even in a poncho. So we waited for it to at least die down a bit, which we assumed it surely had to at some point, there was no way it could stay that way for too long. And we laughed at our misfortune to once again miss Fantasmic. Remember this was on my bucket list. I have actually seen in when I was a teen in 2001, but Joe never has. The last two trips we had dining package seats and for one reason or another were unable to see it, so this time we were determined and then the rain. At this point it’s kind of funny, like we’re just not meant to see it. After about 20 minutes the rain died down to just a heavy rain and not torrential downpour. I didn’t care about getting wet, we were going to do something besides sit in a Starbucks all night. So we ponchoed up and ran to the Launch Bay, to try and get a meet done.


When we got there, Joe wanted to see the movie and I’ll bet you never guess, but we just missed it again. No big deal though they had awesome art up, which Joe just loved and I called the boys to tell them good night.

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The movie was okay, nothing I would need to see again though. I told Joe we didn’t have time to look at the props and would come back later, because with the park cleared out I wanted to try and do TSMM. So we got in line for Chewie with one other guy.

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I have to say VERY lackluster meet. He literally just shook our hands and then walked over to the wall and stood for a picture. When there was literally no one in line, I felt like we should have gotten a little more than the love and shove. When we left Launch Bay, the rain had really slowed down, but the pathways were flooded, so poor Joe got his shoes wet. I was thankfully wearing sandals. So we walked all the way over to TSMM, past CM who were just standing around only to find out when we got there that the ride had closed for the night due to the fireworks. I knew that this happened, but I assumed they had cancelled the fireworks, the park was a ghost town, I’m not sure who was sticking around for fireworks. The thing that annoyed me was, why wouldn’t the CMs we walked past not say anything and save us the walk. I can’t tell you how many times I saw CMs standing outside closed attractions, whether it’s the Liberty Bell after dusk or Soarin they literally just stand there and tell people that whatever is closed. Then they make us walk all the way back there and not have someone stationed before Pixar place to say the place is closed.

Continued Below​

 

[ashw100]

Since we were right there, we decided to see One Man’s Dream. Joe really wanted to do it, so now was as good of a time as any.

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I was telling Joe how jealous I am of Disney Sea’s castle and how my brother wouldn’t go there. Side story I tried to convince my brother, who is a marine and up until very recently was stationed in Japan for three years, to propose to his girlfriend there. He did not take my advice, but he did go to Tokyo Disneyland to celebrate the engagement, he just didn’t want to go to DisneySea. Anyway, the CM overheard me and we got to talking about Tokyo Disney and Disneyland. Again, another CM that loves her job and the company she works for so much. I had a really nice time chatting with her. After the exhibits we were trying to sneak out before the movie, because I had read online that a preview for Alice would be playing. The automatic doors literally shut as we were walking to the doors. Seriously? Horrible show bad luck, but in reverse . I was annoyed, I did not want to sit through a preview when I could be doing literally anything else in the park. The CM running the show, saw my annoyance and I felt bad, but I explained I didn’t want to see the preview and he told me that it didn’t start until May 6th. They were still playing One Man’s Dream. Serious happy dance, I was thrilled to see that, so we stayed. The theater CM was an awesome one who told us jokes while we waited for stragglers to come in.

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After the movie we only had about 30 minutes left of park time, so we went to Star Tours since it was relatively close.

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Sorry for the horrible pictures​

We didn’t get to be the rebel spy, but we were excited to see the new Jakku sequence.


As we were walking out of the park, I noticed a sign up to meet Olaf. It was weird because I follow Disney park news pretty closely and even though I don’t really check while on vacation because I’m living it, we had only been there one day and I hadn’t heard anything about it opening. Needless to say, I didn’t care about meeting Olaf anyway so we didn’t stop, I just thought it was so out of the way and weird.

With that we finished up our first full day. I saw this cute little guy outside one of the rooms on the way back.

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We actually saw a lot of critters during our stay, but this is the only one I got a picture of. We fell into bed, ready for a good night’s sleep. That didn’t happen though. We had some noisy neighbors move in next door and they were slamming the door until about midnight. I don’t know what they were doing, just going in and out. Then the walkways were very busy with traffic. Plus I haven’t mentioned, but those mattresses were horrible. I have never slept on anything so poor on my life . But we needed to rest up, because we had a big day ahead of us.

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[missangelalexis]

So nice that you got to meet Jamie- I love her TRs!

Ugh what a bummer that the rain cancelled Fantasmic and that you couldn't get on TSMM

Sounds like you made the best of the night though!

 

[ashw100]

So nice that you got to meet Jamie- I love her TRs!

me too, she was so sweet

Ugh what a bummer that the rain cancelled Fantasmic and that you couldn't get on TSMM

Definitely was a bummer, but we had fun all the same

 

[ashw100]

Day 3: Part 1
The Four Keys

We did not have a good night’s sleep and woke up very tired, fyi if you get a ground floor room close to Classic Hall it will be loud with people walking by, oops. Despite the poor sleep, I woke up excited for the day. We were running late again, which seemed to be the trend this trip. We drove to MK, because getting their early means getting a close spot . At the time being only one of the front lots was premium parking, so it was still possible to park close in the morning. Don't know if that is still the case though. We took the ferry over this time and I took the chance to snap a picture of this beauty on the way over.

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This was taken at 7:58 and we had somewhere to be by 8:15. I was pretty annoyed because the only reason I ever book a pre-rd anything is to get good, empy-ish pictures on main street and now there was no time. We went right in and checked in for our Keys to the Kingdom Tour. We picked our lunches and picked up our credentials and ear pieces. We also rented a locker to store our things, so all we had on us was cell phones. This post is going to be very wordy with very little pictures, because a lot of the time we spent backstage and of course no pictures there. We had an awesome guide, Jocelyn. She started as a CP, then worked in DL, and now back at WDW. She was absolutely amazing. You could tell she loved the company and had such a passion about her job.


I’m just going to give a brief overview of what we did and leave our some of the finer details as to not ruin it for anyone else who may want to take the tour somebody.


We started at the theater where she gave us the rules for the day and told us about the tour and the four keys safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency. Everything she showed us had to do with one or many of the keys. We then walked over to the statue with Roy and Minnie. This was really cool because we could hear the welcome show and then saw the fireworks go off from the back, and then the hoards of people coming down Main Street.

This is pre-hoards

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We then walked over to Center Street, which is the little side street off Main Street (didn’t even know it had a name) and she talked about some of the windows and hidden magic there.

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After that, we moved on to the most important window at the end of Main Street. We also got to enjoy some of the trolley show, which I loved because I had wanted to see that.

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We then made our way to Adventureland to ride the Jungle Cruise.

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Jocelyn talked the whole time instead of the skipper and it was really neat finding out all the cool details about this ride. It was a little awkward though because we loaded before the regular queue and then the people we basically cut-off just had to stand there and watch us while we waited for the green light to go.

Hidden Goofy, Donald, and Mickey​

Joe said he definitely wanted to come back and ride it for real, since he didn’t remember it.


After that we got a break and then gathered at Tortuga Tavern to learn more info about this side of the park.

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Then we got to the real exciting part, going backstage. We entered through the gate in Frontierland where the parades come through and the train passes by. As soon as we got back there, a train came by and Rino and Kathy from the DISUnplugged podcast were on it. It was funny because I was excited and pointed them out to Joe, who had no idea who they were and some of the other people in my group overheard me and thought I saw someone famous. I so wish I could have taken a picture. As I’m sure you’re all aware, backstage is not glamourous by any means. It’s like the back of house at any other customer service location in the world. That doesn’t mean I wasn’t insanely excited to be there though. We got to see guys learning how to drive the floats for move it, shake it. We got to see the floats being worked on and the ones that aren’t used all the time like for the Boo to you floats. We also learned about the trash system, which was STINKY, but also really cool to hear how they handle that. And lastly, we got to see the actually building the rides go through and a huge reservoir for Splash. The only drawn back to this part of the tour is that we were completely exposed with the sun beating down on us and standing the whole time, and this part of the tour was about an hour.


On our way back on stage, we passed the 9:30 group and their guide was Lily, who if you remember was our awesome guest services CM from when we upgraded to APs. We loved Jocelyn and wouldn’t have traded her for the world, but having Lily would have been cool too. At this point it was time for lunch and a much needed break. Our lunch was at Columbia Harbour House. I was bummed because the lobtser roll I had heard so much about was not a choice, but the chicken nuggets were pretty good. This is also where we got our pin.

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We were seated at a table with a CM and her dad. She said he had wanted to see the utilidors, so she booked the tour for them, which I thought was sweet. It was really fun getting to talk to her, she is a photopass photograph in Epcot. Another CP turned full-time CM. After lunch, we headed over to Haunted Mansion and we stood out here a good 20 minutes learning all about the HM.

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This was honestly so cool to learn about some of the effects and the history of the attraction. We entered through the chicken exit, which I have to say is awesome. This is just a little side hallway that literally gets seen by a small group of people and it is themed perfectly. If you ever get a chance to take the chicken exit, make sure to look around at all the details. We then went on the ride, this time with a whole new perspective on the ride and new things to look out for.

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When we met back up, she took us around Liberty Square telling us all the hidden details around there.

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At this point, there wasn’t much else to except to go down to the utlidors, but Jocelyn really wanted to show us something cool and it had to be timed perfectly, so we spent a lot more time talking about stuff as we slowly made our way toward Main Street again. We got one more potty break before we were lead backstage once more right behind Main Street going through a door next to the baby care center and the bathrooms.


We got to see a whole different perspective of Main Street and just how small it really is. We also got to see the Mayor walking around back there and he came over to say hello. Finally, we got to see what Jocelyn had planned for us. Move it, shake it was wrapping up and coming backstage and we got our own private parade. It was seriously so awesome. The characters would pass by the line that signals them that they were no longer visible and they would stop dancing or whatever. And then they would see us and start dancing and waving again. A couple just didn’t get into it and just stopped performing and we even saw Chip or maybe Dale with their head off. But overall it was so cool, this is not something I would expect to happen to you if you take the tour, because like I said she stalled us a lot to time it out and she said of the 8 KTTK tours she’s done, she’s only been able to time it right 3 times. After that it was finally time to go down to the utlidors, which was awesome . I don’t care what anybody says, I thought it was cool. Jocelyn gave us a rundown of the company which was illustrated in pictures on the wall.


When she got to opening day of WDW and started talking about Roy and Walt, I started tearing up. It was so sweet to hear about Roy on that day, and you could hear her admiration and love for her company as she spoke about it, it was touching. Then we went back up behind Main Street this time on the other side and got to see where Tink flies. This is the side of Main Street that is open during heavy crowd times to get people out of the park, so it wasn’t as cool as the other backstage places we went. Finally, she led us back onstage and had to tell us one more story about the four keys and why she loves the company so much. She told us about how someone came to the park asking if some characters could sign a card for her sister, because she was in the hospital in a coma. And in a month’s time they would be taking her off life support, per her instructions. The sick girl was only 17. So Jocelyn went around that day and bought a ton of goodies for the girl to give to her sister. The girl was very thankful, and Jocelyn didn’t hear anything else about it. Well 6 months later, after she had given a tour, she was told that a girl had waited all day to talk to her and it was the girl who had awoken from her coma. She came to tell Jocelyn thank you. Okay, now I was crying for real. It was just one extraordinary story about how Disney can make magic in people’s lives.


As I said, I had not been feeling the magic really during the trip, but this Tour helped me find it again. I had been so preoccupied with other things to realize what had made me fall in love with Disney in the first place. The details, the dedication, the striving to make people happy. It made me remember that yes Disney sucks sometimes and they are a business who is only there to make money. But that’s not what makes it’s special, it’s the people who built the company and the CMs like Jocelyn that keep it alive in spite of what the corporate end does. After the tour I made sure to thank her because she really was awesome. And then Daisy was out for us to meet.

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And that would be item 5 off the must dos.

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[cindianne320]

So fun to hear about your experience with Keys to the Kingdom! I went in May, and it was very similar, though we did not get to go on the Haunted Mansion because it went offline. I'm glad you found the magic again, and I hope it lasted through the rest of your vacation!

 

[ashw100]

So fun to hear about your experience with Keys to the Kingdom! I went in May, and it was very similar, though we did not get to go on the Haunted Mansion because it went offline. I'm glad you found the magic again, and I hope it lasted through the rest of your vacation!

That stinks about missing out on the haunted Mansion, did they take you on a second ride then? The magic definitely stayed around

 

[cindianne320]

That stinks about missing out on the haunted Mansion, did they take you on a second ride then? The magic definitely stayed around

No. I was disappointed. Guess I'll have to do the tour again.

So happy to hear that the rest of your time was magical! I'm itching to go back, and it's only been 2 months!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like such an awesome tour. I would love to do it one day! I'm glad it helped you feel the magic a little more, and I love the picture with Daisy!

 

[Dugette]

Glad you had such a great Keys to the Kingdom tour! Funny, as I was catching up on the previous update and you mentioned the lightning, the first thing I thought of was how we were told about all the lightning rods during the KTTK tour.

 

[ashw100]

No. I was disappointed. Guess I'll have to do the tour again.

So happy to hear that the rest of your time was magical! I'm itching to go back, and it's only been 2 months!

I know I am right there with you, thankfully I will be there in 30 days, but this is the quickest turnaround I will have ever had.

Sounds like such an awesome tour. I would love to do it one day! I'm glad it helped you feel the magic a little more, and I love the picture with Daisy!

I would definitely recommend it, it was awesome.

Glad you had such a great Keys to the Kingdom tour! Funny, as I was catching up on the previous update and you mentioned the lightning, the first thing I thought of was how we were told about all the lightning rods during the KTTK tour.

I actually didn't make the connection until the next day when she said that.

 

[ashw100]

Day 3: Part 2
It's a Festival of Fantasy

After the tour, the plan was to stick around MK until it was time to head to our second park of the day. But we were very hot, burnt, and my feet were killing me so it became more of a plan to stay as long as we could. Joe went to get the backpack out of the locker and I went in search of Starbucks. I went back to Center street which is my now favorite spot in MK, to wait for Joe. As I was waiting, I heard the Dapper Dans out and this was the second streetmosphere performance that were a must for me, so went over there to watch them. Item 4 off the list.


As I watched them, I could see Joe out of the corner of my eye, taking a picture, this picture.

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See Joe loves Italian Ice, it’s his favorite thing to get wherever we go and he thought it would be funny for me to be going through our pictures and see it. Too bad I saw him taking it cause I would have cracked up if it just showed up and I didn’t know about it. We went back to Center Street to enjoy our treats.

not sure why it's blurry​

We then made our way to Frontierland to use our FP for BTMRR. Afterward we found a spot for FoF. We still had about thirty minutes before the parade and it was boiling.I took some pictures of the street that I normally would have overlooked, so that's something I guess .

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I have never seen this parade, because the timing is so bad for my family. It is always when we are out of the parks for our rest time and I haven’t found a way to work it into our plans yet, so I knew I had to see it while I had the chance. And I have to apologize because I took a lot of pictures, being my first time and all.

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I love, love, loved it! But it was one of those things as much as I loved it, I kept thinking how the boys would love it too. So now I have to find a way to work it into our plans. We had a FP for Splash next, which I knew we would love having right after baking in the sun for the parade and we did, but we barely got wet.

Forgot my ears were on and almost lost them​

The plan was to hang around, but we were just too tired, so we made the choice to head back to Pop for a break.But first, some Photopass pictures on the way out.

http://s1381.photobucket.com/user/a...6/MK_MSCASEYS_7676171388_zps7acujnj8.jpg.html


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[cindianne320]

I completely agree with you on the timing of the parade! We lucked out in March that they offered a noon showing of the parade. My kids did enjoy it. That day, the baby took a stroller nap, so we stayed at the park, and when he woke up, he and DH enjoyed it again! But on most days, we would be out of the park at 3 pm.

Great timing on Splash, but a bummer that you didn't end up cooling off!

 

[missangelalexis]

Glad you finally got to see FoF and enjoyed it! Such a great parade!

That photo of DH with his italian ice is too funny!

 

[Dugette]

Ha, that's great and the border/caption really makes it!

I love, love, loved it! But it was one of those things as much as I loved it, I kept thinking how the boys would love it too. So now I have to find a way to work it into our plans.

I actually wondered if you were going to say that, as I looked at the pics (great pics, by the way). I hope you can work the schedule out to make it happen.

We had a FP for Splash next, which I knew we would love having right after baking in the sun for the parade

Smart planning!

 

[ashw100]

I completely agree with you on the timing of the parade! We lucked out in March that they offered a noon showing of the parade. My kids did enjoy it. That day, the baby took a stroller nap, so we stayed at the park, and when he woke up, he and DH enjoyed it again! But on most days, we would be out of the park at 3 pm.

Great timing on Splash, but a bummer that you didn't end up cooling off!

I wish my kids would take stroller naps, I haven't really lucked out there. We'll try to see in a few weeks, so we'll see.

Glad you finally got to see FoF and enjoyed it! Such a great parade!

That photo of DH with his italian ice is too funny!

Yeah, he's a dork

Ha, that's great and the border/caption really makes it!

Thanks embarrassing the hubby, it's what I do.

I actually wondered if you were going to say that, as I looked at the pics (great pics, by the way). I hope you can work the schedule out to make it happen.

Thanks, I am going to try the day after the Halloween part next month since we're letting the kids sleep in that day, we'll see.

Smart planning!

Thanks, I thought so

 

[ashw100]

Day 3: Part 3
Just a Little Kawaii


After a much needed nap, we got in the car to head to Epcot. I think we probably facetimed the boys on the way, which kind of became our thing as it was the best time to do it. I also was checking my email and saw this bad boy.

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When we got to Epcot, I got my first of many extra security screenings. And then we needed PP pictures in every spot in front of the park.

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We were headed straight back to the WS for some dinner at Via Napoli.

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I have to say, I was really looking forward to this place and it did not disappoint on the food, but the service was some of the worst I’ve had anywhere, ever. The guy was very rude, took 15 minutes to take our drink order, then another ten minutes to get it and we never saw him again until our check came. I don’t get it the restaurant had a ton of open tables, which annoyed me because I searcher tirelessly for a better time than what I got and only was able to do it thanks to reservation finder with touring plans. And there will a billion people working in there. However the pizza…

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On point. Joe and I have had authentic Italian pizza in Europe and this is on par with that. am hoping the service was just a fluke, because we want to go back in January with the boys.


After dinner, we took our time exploring the Italy pavilion.

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We then moved on to Japan and had fun looking around Mitsukoshi. I had wanted to do the pick a pearl, but it was so crowded. I happened to be texting my brother who just got back from his 3 year duty station in Japan and I was texting him all the silly stuff we found asking him if he missed home. And we found out that Kawaii means cute in Japanese.

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We ended up buying some candy for the boys there and some snacks for us.

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This made Joe excited to try packaged food from all the pavilions.


We saw that American Adventure was going to have it’s last showing and went into see it.

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We took some time to look around beforehand. The exhibit was all about African American history and they had these cool lanterns that had a flame in them and would turn into a little TV screen to talk about the history.

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Joe loved this, he loves history, especially American history.

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The show was okay, but the AA figures were awesome.

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I know there is a tour, I think it may be backstage magic that takes you through there and I would love to do that to see how it’s done.


After that, we picked a spot in between Morocco and Japan for Illuminations. It wasn’t the best spot, but good if you’ve seen it before. I have to say, it’s not one of the shows I get excited to see, but every time I do see it, I think it’s so cool, at least the beginning is, the end is a little dull to me.


After Illuminations, it was extra magic hours. We had no plan and just figured we would head to future world to see if there was anything to do.

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[cindianne320]

Unfortunately, we had a similar situation at Via Napoli. I had high expectations, and while the food did not disappoint, the service was so awful, I don't think I'll ever get my family to agree to go back there. They were rude to my kids, who were very well behaved, rude to my mom, and not helpful at all. Worst service I've ever had at a Disney restaurant.

How nice to be able to just wander around, no plans! Hope you found some fun things to do in Future World!

 

[missangelalexis]

Love all the F&G pics, and great PP pics too!

I'm sorry the service at Via Napoli was lacking, but thank goodness the food was good!

I feel the same way about Illuminations!