8 days, 120,000 steps, and a whole lot of fun! Feb '14 TR 12/17/14 **COMPLETE**

Your day at MK certainly had its ups and downs.

I am sure you were bummed a bit about missing Wishes that night. I had a similar night like that in that we too returned to the room early instead of seeing Wishes, you just hate to miss a second in the parks but then reality hits and you know your bodies or minds are wiped out and you have to call it quits.

I am glad your day ended on a happy note with your cool room at POR. I love the detailed handle of the sink!

Yeah, it's really hard to make that call... but ultimately you know it's for the best sometimes when you're just worn out. Since we hadn't been to the Royal Room yet we at least had that to look forward to!
 
Epcot Day!

We were up bright and early for our day at Epcot! We got up to do the morning EMH, and we managed to make it about 8:30, so we had half an hour before the park opened up to everyone. Good morning, Epcot!



We had a FP+ for Soarin later that morning, so we did the logical thing and headed for Test Track! DH and I adore Test Track, mostly because we love the part where you design your own car. It's so much fun, and I love the interactive-ness of it! There were so few people that early that DH and I got to design our own individual cars, so we didn't have to do one together. Here's mine:



And here's his:



We rode it and then decided that since the wait was short, we'd do it again! This time we designed a car together. We worked to make the most efficient vehicle possible, so we could be up on the big board at the end. Sure enough, it worked. Here is what our super efficient car looked like:



DH looks like he's the only one not having fun in the ride pic lol. But I promise he liked it! I was "over-acting," if you will :thumbsup2



By then the park was open and we were about 15 min from our FP for Soarin. So we headed in that direction, but we stopped in one of the stores on our way and I bought some Minnie ears! Then we did Soarin, which was fun as always.

We went to Nemo next, and I don't seem to have any pics for this part of our morning. I guess I was just having too much fun! Of course after riding Nemo we had to do Turtle Talk with Crush, one of our favorite things. There was a new (at least new to us) segment in the beginning where Crush "found" items in the ocean and asked the kids to tell him what they were. The first was a Buzz Lightyear toy, and the kids told him it was Buzz. Crush replied with, "Oh, I've got a little Buzz!" hehe. The second item was a woman's bathing suit top. The kids laughed so much and told him it was a bra, and that it was "for girls!!!"

For lunch we were eager to try the new Spice Road table, so we made our way into the World Showcase.



It is really a gorgeous location, and very pleasant to sit at and have a drink and some food. You can see all across the lagoon:



There will be a full review in my dining review, but I'll say this: the food was good, but nothing blew us away. The portions were so small for the price. We both decided we'd never eat there again because it just wasn't worth the money. After spending $60 on lunch here, we immediately went to France to get ice cream to actually fill us up!

I got my absolute favorite, the mint chocolate chip:



And DH tried the ice cream sandwich, I think with caramel ice cream? And raspberry sauce? He liked it, though it wasn't really my thing. Too much of the bread stuff, but he loves that!



We had planned on an afternoon break, but stopped to do Maelstrom on our way out. We passed the line for Anna and Elsa, who were still doing their meet and greet there at the time, and it just looked insane! Kudos to the people that wait on that line for their kids, but man, I could never do that. We also stopped for a photopass pic before heading back to POR:



It didn't take too long to hop on a bus and get back to POR:





Once back in the room, we debated between trying to go for a swim or taking a nap - and we went with a little nap. And then we ended up sleeping for almost 3 hours! Oops. At least we were well rested for the second half of our day!
 
How did I miss your end of MK update? I'm glad you got to see Woody & Jessie and that your dinner was so good, but I'm sorry the night still ended on a bit of a down note.

We have made it a habit of telling my dad that they closed the Country Bear Jamboree just so he won't drag us there ;)

Yay for Epcot! I love designing your own cars too, and yours came out so stylish. I especially love DH's wheels on his solo design!
 
I had Country Bears on my 'to do' list last time I was there, but didn't get around to it :rolleyes: Now I know I won't rush there, unless it's like raining or something. Weird that the SM CM was so mean, that really sucks :(

Looks like you had a nice time at Epcot! Glad to see it got less busy when the race was over, it's predicted to be fairly busy in the parks before. Bummer about Spice Road Table, I didn't realize it was outdoor seating. It looks quite similar to the Mexico restaurant on the water, to me!

Random Q, were you wearing jeans this day? Was it too hot? Already starting to think about what to pack this year :confused:
 
Pascal flies around the castle! I love it, super cute.

Great pics with Woody and Jessie!

The royal rooms look so fun. I guess that's one good thing about skipping Wishes, you got to spend more time in an exciting room! I absolutely love the headboards. Is it just me, or do some of the princesses in the portraits look a little rough? Belle in particular....does she look slightly chipmunk-ish?? Still cute though!

Sounds like a good Epcot morning! I haven't seen Turtle Talk for a few years now...not sure why, it just hasn't happened. I'm going to make sure to see it on my next trip, I miss it.
 
How did I miss your end of MK update? I'm glad you got to see Woody & Jessie and that your dinner was so good, but I'm sorry the night still ended on a bit of a down note.

We have made it a habit of telling my dad that they closed the Country Bear Jamboree just so he won't drag us there ;)

Yay for Epcot! I love designing your own cars too, and yours came out so stylish. I especially love DH's wheels on his solo design!

Haha what is it with dads and the country bears??

I had Country Bears on my 'to do' list last time I was there, but didn't get around to it :rolleyes: Now I know I won't rush there, unless it's like raining or something. Weird that the SM CM was so mean, that really sucks :(

Looks like you had a nice time at Epcot! Glad to see it got less busy when the race was over, it's predicted to be fairly busy in the parks before. Bummer about Spice Road Table, I didn't realize it was outdoor seating. It looks quite similar to the Mexico restaurant on the water, to me!

Random Q, were you wearing jeans this day? Was it too hot? Already starting to think about what to pack this year :confused:

Yeah, I mean I would try Country Bears just to do it - you never know, some people love it! But it's not for me.

It does remind me a bit of the Mexico restaurant, which coincidentally is where we ate dinner on our Epcot day! That will be in the next update ;)

Yes, it looks like I was wearing jeans. The February weather can be weird, but I want to say it was about 80 degrees at the warmest? I can tolerate heat much better than cold. You can also see from my TT ride photo that I was wearing a light sweater at times too, when the sun wasn't out. I think my capris got a lot of use during this trip!

Pascal flies around the castle! I love it, super cute.

Great pics with Woody and Jessie!

The royal rooms look so fun. I guess that's one good thing about skipping Wishes, you got to spend more time in an exciting room! I absolutely love the headboards. Is it just me, or do some of the princesses in the portraits look a little rough? Belle in particular....does she look slightly chipmunk-ish?? Still cute though!

Sounds like a good Epcot morning! I haven't seen Turtle Talk for a few years now...not sure why, it just hasn't happened. I'm going to make sure to see it on my next trip, I miss it.

Can't you just picture Pascal flying around?

Yeah, at least I felt like we were getting our money for the Royal Room! those pics of the princesses are definitely their "new" looks, where apparently flyaway hair is the latest fashion :confused3
 
Country Bears... Infamous... HERESY!!!! ;)

But that's ok. Not everyone needs to like the same things.

So glad you got to see Jessie, Becky. With that dress it would have been such a shame to miss them.

I too had all kinds of transportation troubles last week. When the monorail is done (and it's seems frequent now), it's rough.

I saw Turtle Talk for the very first time last week. I will not skip it again. Loved it!!!
 
Hi Becky!

Kind of a bummer of a MK day, huh? I mean, fun was had, but there were quite a few snafus. :(

The character pictures turned out great - I’m so glad that you got to meet Woody and Jessie finally! I bet there was a lot of reaction to your and DH’s outfits. :woohoo:

And let me tell you - you got some FABULOUS pics of the Royal Room! It looks so great! I can’t wait to stay there for a couple of nights next summer!!!!

Sounds like a great Test Track morning!

I’m sad to hear about Spice Road - I had high hopes for it. :( The ice cream looks amazing though!
 
Country Bears... Infamous... HERESY!!!! ;)

But that's ok. Not everyone needs to like the same things.

So glad you got to see Jessie, Becky. With that dress it would have been such a shame to miss them.

I too had all kinds of transportation troubles last week. When the monorail is done (and it's seems frequent now), it's rough.

I saw Turtle Talk for the very first time last week. I will not skip it again. Loved it!!!

Haha I know, I know! But that's what's great about Disney - there's something for everyone!

I was very excited I got to meet Jessie. It made for some of my favorite pics from the trip.

Ugh, monorail. One of the things that I was most excited about for this upcoming trip was staying at the Grand so I could just hop on the monorail to MK, but now I'm reading about all sorts of closures and shortened hours and whatnot. Boo

Hi Becky!

Kind of a bummer of a MK day, huh? I mean, fun was had, but there were quite a few snafus. :(

The character pictures turned out great - I’m so glad that you got to meet Woody and Jessie finally! I bet there was a lot of reaction to your and DH’s outfits. :woohoo:

And let me tell you - you got some FABULOUS pics of the Royal Room! It looks so great! I can’t wait to stay there for a couple of nights next summer!!!!

Sounds like a great Test Track morning!

I’m sad to hear about Spice Road - I had high hopes for it. :( The ice cream looks amazing though!

Yeah, every once in awhile you have a day like that - where all the little things just seem to go wrong! But there are some good things to make up for it. And I'd rather have a day where little things go wrong in Disney than in normal day to day life!

I think Spice Road would be the perfect spot if you went there looking for a light afternoon snack and a glass of wine or something. I wouldn't do it for a meal again. I would be willing to go back if we wanted to sit down and relax for a bit in the afternoon though, especially walking around the World Showcase. I just have a really hard time thinking of it a a "restaurant" given the portion sizes.
 
Epcot Evening

I wanted to get in one last update before I leave for Disney again! Woohoo!

So after our long, 3 hour nap, we were more than refreshed and ready to head back to Epcot! The first thing we did was the Visa Disney card character meet and greet. I don't have a picture from that because we got the print out and I don't have an electronic copy right now. But it was Minnie and Pluto when we visited. Minnie liked my ears, but she was really excited to see that DH was wearing a pink magic band!

I don't think I mentioned it actually, but after all the hoopla on our MK day with the magic bands, they had to give him a new one to fix the problem. They didn't have red, his original color, so he decided to go with pink! Minnie really appreciated it.

Our plan for the evening was basically just to stroll around World Showcase. I brought my DSLR camera to practice taking photos.



On our way there we ran into one of the girls that ran the race and her husband, so we stopped and chatted with them for a bit. Then we went around the world and I mostly just took photos, so there won't be too much writing in this update. Some of the Flower and Garden topiaries were out already:















We ended in Mexico, where we hopped on the Gran Fiesta Tour before our dinner reservation, at La Hacienda. It was really great there. We enjoyed our food and had a nice view of Illuminations! It wasn't perfect but to be sitting down, relaxing, eating, and having the music piped in was good for us.







Up next will be our morning in Hollywood Studios and Dine with an Imagineer!
 
Pink Magic Band? I gotta give props for that for sure.

One of favourite things to do is just wander World Showcase, so I totally approve. Your pictures look great!

Wishing you another amazing trip back to the World Becky!!
 
Pink Magic Band? I gotta give props for that for sure.

One of favourite things to do is just wander World Showcase, so I totally approve. Your pictures look great!

Wishing you another amazing trip back to the World Becky!!

Haha I know right? I haven't even picked a pink magic band yet!

Yeah, it was good to get to know my camera a little bit better. It was getting dark and I didn't have any sort of tripod so I have a lot of blurry images, but these were the best of the bunch.

Thank you!!
 
Oh man! I think you are back at WDW right now!!!! :woohoo:

Awesome Epcot photos! I wish I was there…….

What an absolutely lovely evening.
 
Hollywood Studios



We got to Hollywood Studios pretty close to opening, and headed right for Toy Story, of course! We already had to wait about half an hour but it wasn't too bad, and the ride was a lot of fun as always. DH beat me though:


Then we did Rockin' Roller Coaster, which had a 20 minute wait:



And then we had a FP+ for Tower of Terror. That ride does scare me (mostly in the "it makes me feel all weird" sense), and I scream the entire time. But secretly, I enjoy it - and it's DH's favorite!



After that I needed a bit of a rest from the rides, so we went to the drawing class, which I always try to get to. It took awhile to decide which character we were going to draw, but eventually Olaf was picked! I think mine came out pretty well:



We had a FP+ for Toy Story Mania at that point, we went and did that again. My score was better than last time... but so was DH's!



We still had a little time to kill before our lunch reservation, so we walked through One Man's Dream. I had been in there before but DH never had. He seemed to find it pretty interesting.



Lunch was very exciting because we did Dine with an Imagineer at the Hollywood Brown Derby! I thought it was a really cool experience. We got a 4 course meal, which I thought was delicious - especially the dessert sampler platter! There will be photos and details of the food over in my dining review later.

Our imagineer was really interesting, though I feel awful because I can't remember his full name or title, and I can't find my paperwork right now. I know his name was Patrick. He seemed to know a lot about what was going on and was very involved. We talked for 2 1/2 hours. Some of the other guests at lunch were a bit annoying, though. They seemed to use the experience as an opportunity to complain about things or tell their own personal stories.

I still thought it was worth it overall, but DH was so annoyed by some of the other people and how they made everything all about them that he didn't feel it was worth the money. It did get a little ridiculous - instead of learning about what this guy did or talking about Disney, we spent a portion of the time complaining about the setup of the bathrooms in various DVC units. Really?

We did get to learn a lot about building Art of Animation and the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. If you want a really in depth look at our experience, I wrote about it on my blog: http://disneyinyourday.com/2014/03/10/bucket-list-dine-with-an-imagineer/

Here we are with Patrick:



We also got souvenir name tags and plates that Patrick signed. Once lunch was done we decided to use a freebie FP+ (that we had gotten for waiting so long while they figured out our FP+ problems on our MK day) for Toy Story Mania.

We were headed to Star Tours next, but we actually bumped into characterpalooza, which I had never seen before! We saw all sorts of fun characters out, including the Evil Queen, Pinocchio, Smee, and others. I got in line to meet the Queen when it started to rain, and they were quickly ushered away. I took a photo with the umbrella instead, because that seemed appropriate:



We rode Star Tours, hoping it would stop raining once we came out, but no such luck. In fact, the rain was just getting heavier and worse. We ducked into Muppets 3D and watched that show. It was still raining so we ran back and did Star Tours again to escape the rain. It still hadn't let up though, so we decided to just head back to the resort. We relaxed a bit in our princess room before heading to our 7:30 dining reservation at Boatwright's.

Dinner was nice, and we both definitely enjoyed it. DH was really hungry! He ate a lot. After dinner we decided to try the pool, even though it was a little chilly. Even though the water was heated it was still a bit too cold, so we switched over to the hot tub instead! That was nice and relaxing... even though there were way too many little kids in there :confused3 I don't mind kids and I obviously expect a lot of them in Disney, but it confuses me a little when the hot tub signs specifically say there shouldn't be any kids under 12 in there. Oh well! It was still nice.

We got to bed at a good time for our Animal Kingdom day. Which, to leave you in suspense... began as one of the worst days I've ever had in Disney (up until this trip I literally just got back from... let's just say that getting sick in Disney is the worst!).
 
Looks like a decent time in Hollywood Studios! I've always wanted to do Dine w/ an Imagineer but I always forget to book it. Too bad about the other guests trying to hog the conversation.

Sorry you got sick at your recent trip. When we came home, we both had a cold as well (and the beginnings of being sick definitely affected my ToT run.
 
Welcome Home Becky!!! I hope your recent trip was wonderful, and it looks like it was, despite getting sick. :(

Wow, back to back standby rides. You don't see that much anymore. And kudos to the 2 boys saluting in the RnRC photo.

And I spot a YMCA in your Tower photo!

Aww you guys drew Olaf???? The instructor didn't even give us that option. You did do a good job.

Seriously, people pay money for this and then just use the time to complain???? Guest Services is free people.
 
Sounds like you had a good time at HS! Cute Olaf :) Too bad dine with an imagineer was a bit of a disappointment, you'd think he could have steered the conversation back to more relevant discussions!! I'm glad the food was good, hard to go wrong with a dessert sampler.

I'm in suspense for your foreshadowing now... not that I'm excited to hear about a bad day, but still!
 
I'm joining in (and welcome back!).

Congrats on running the 10K - I love your metal! The rooms at AoA seem fun, and I love all of your pictures around the resort. The royal rooms are really awesome, too!

I'm sorry you had such crummy moments at MK. I hope they have a better handle on the Magic Bands by my next trip - I don't think I have your patience.

Dining with an Imagineer sounds fun! I'm glad you had a good time (even through you shared the experience with a bunch of grumblers). :)
 

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