A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...SW Weekends! UPDATE 10/28 last day

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We showed up at the Yacht Club boat dock at 15 til 8. 8 was the check in time. Stephanie was very surprised and she got pretty excited very quickly. We decided to use the Yacht Club bathrooms before we boarded, so we wandered around and got lost in the Yacht Club. We eventually found the bathrooms and were ready to being our epic boat journey!

We were greeted at the dock by this site:



Most of all the boats were decked out for celebrations so we had no idea which was ours. Soon our captain came over and introduced himself and showed us to our boat:



We got the pirate boat!! Always wanted to be a pirate

Its the little things in life, it really is.





Since there were only 4 of us we all staked out our own seating section on the boat and were told to help ourselves to all the snacks:



There was also a cooler with water, coke, diet coke and sprite.

Our captain informed us that we were going to have a leisurely float around the water to DHS before coming back past Yacht Club to Epcot. OK, the captain didn't say leisurely 'float', but I believe that word fits so I'm keeping it.





There is a picture of our captain. He was super nice and told us stories about his daughter who works at Disney as a parade dancer. He said she usually does a couple different parades during the day at MK and she usually loses about 20 pounds in the summer because of the heat and the dancing Sounds like a solid weight loss plan to me...I'd love to be in a WDW parade.



I really enjoyed how these chips were tailored to Pluto:





Our 'float' was so lovely. The sun was just setting so all the scenery was extra special great.

When we were turning around at DHS we realized that all the other Illuminations boats had also pulled out and were floating along behind us. We were first, of course, because pirates always go first. Makes total sense.

Aye and avast and there may have been some shivering of timbers.













The lights of the Boardwalk were turning on!







Back past our hotel:



I liked the lights on the bottom of the boats:



And finally our great 'float' was over and we arrived at the International gateway!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We'd arrived!

We really did feel like celebrities as we passed into Epcot waters and sailed under the bridge between England and France.





We tied off on the extreme right side of the waterway and all the other boats came up beside us. We all tied together, I think there were maybe 7 or 8 boats in the line.

Our captain offered blankets, they were clean and super soft and warm.

Even though we had sweatshirts and it was May there was still wind and it was kind of chilly with shorts on.

He also explained about the goggles he had for us and said that if the wind blew a certain way we'd get ash and might want to put them on.

So there was sat like pirate royalty with our blankets and our snacks and drinks and in about 15 minutes Illuminations was ready to begin.

"Good evening. On behalf of Walt Disney World, the place where dreams come true, we welcome all of you to Epcot and World Showcase. We've gathered here tonight around the fire, as people of all lands have gathered for thousands and thousands of years before us, to share the light and to share a story -- an amazing story, as old as time itself, but still being written. And though each of us has our own individual stories to tell, a true adventure emerges when we bring them all together as one. We hope you enjoy our story tonight: Reflections of Earth."































Illuminations will always hold a special place for me. My junior year of high school my marching band played the 3 songs from the Illuminations show. We also traveled to WDW to take part of the Millennium celebration and march in the parks.

I am not sure I'll ever be able to watch the show again and have it be this great. There was just something special about watching it from the water and having such a great seat. It felt like you were in the middle of it all and I'd gladly pay the price to do it again.

Our little pirate boat was first in and so we got to be last out.



It was a pleasant little float back to the Yacht Club boat dock.



We were encouraged to take all the remaining drinks and snacks. So we packed them up, said our farewells to our awesome captain and headed slowly back to the room. On the way we passed by the Beach Club's movie of the night, Frozen.



Elsa was singing 'Let it Go' at that moment so it just added to the greatness of the night. We would have hung around and watched a bit, but Brian Stephanie and I were on a mission to do a bit of night swimming.

Night swimming is my favorite. I'm kind of half vampire because of my redheadedness so I burn super easy. Its so much more convenient to swim at night because then I don't need to worry about getting burnt. It seems the pools are always a lot less busy at night time as well.

So we headed up to the room to get changed. I was taking a picture of Stephanie's birthday balloons we took with us from the boat:



...when Stephanie yelled 'fireworks!'. Since fireworks are like, my most favorite thing ever after Star Wars and Donald, I flew the 2 steps to the balcony and yep, perfect view of the Star Wars weekend fireworks strung out over the boardwalk. I don't have any pictures because I was filming the fireworks on my phone (which I can post a link to if anyone wants). We couldn't hear the music, but the fireworks were so amazing and the view was just so incredibly perfect.

Could this night get any better?!?!

Yep, it was time for night swimming!

We ran downstairs and through the lobby. I saw someone coming toward us and thought he looked a bit familiar. I turned to Brian and whispered 'Is that Ahmed Best?' He nodded and Stephanie leaped into nerd mode and gushed Oh Hi! at Jar Jar and gave him a giant weird wave. He was polite enough to say hello back and not completely spring away from us. We cracked up at Stephanie all the way to the pool. I can't even describe how exuberant and geeky her hi and wave was. It was classic.

We weren't about to enter the pool like a bunch of chumps so we headed straight for the ship slide!!

The slide felt really long and there were several surprise waterfalls on the way down. We spent a lot of time exploring the pool and swimming around. There was a volleyball net set up near the slide bottom. Beyond that was the lazy river and several other swimming areas.

We decided to take advantage of the lazy river so we floated around for a long time, just generally being goofy. Our favorite thing was to imitate the guy from Frozen who owned the shop. We must have said ooohoo, big summer blowout about 100 times each.

I think the pool closed at 11, so we finally had to get out and end our awesome day. We had made some schedule change decisions in the pool, so we needed to get to bed so we could start another awesome Disney day in the morning.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We were up bright and early on Sunday at 6:15!! No one sleeps at Disney. I'm not alone on this, right?

We had a very important mission today. We had discovered the greatness that was James Arnold Taylor on Friday, and today we wanted to meet him.

We took a nice walk over to DHS.





Joggers always confuse me at Disney. Maybe its because I walk over 10 miles a day while at Disney. But joggers gonna jog, I guess.

There was a hot air balloon off in the distance.







The lines for most of the actors were decently long but we were able to walk right up and get FPs for James at 10 til 7am. The FPs were for 10:15, so unfortunately we had to change our Tusker House reservation to 11:45. I was kind of sad about that because I'd wanted to try to get into Tusker House during the change up from breakfast to lunch so we could try both foods. Ah well, there is always next time.

We managed to be third in the turnstiles on the actor FP entrance side. We weren't really concerned with running off to any characters today, so we stayed well back in the pre-show crowd.





Instead of following the mad rush to Star Wars shenanigans, we turned right and were some of the only people headed towards RRC and TT. We ended up being in the very first car of RRC.





You better make that a stretch.



This alley looks a little dodgy, we better get out of there fast.



I think I was trying to do the princess pose.

We could have ridden again, but TOT was calling to us and we were able to walk right on.





Half the people from our elevator never made it back from the Twilight Zone.



We still had time before our FP, so I wanted to check on the droids.



Poor Han, someday maybe Disney will let you show up to SW weekends outside of carbonite.

We didn't see any characters out at Luke and Leia and the droids spot. There were 2 CMs standing there and they told us none of them would be out until 1 pm. Bleh, missed my 3PO again.

So we went and got some more magic shots!





Poor stormtroopers. I feel like they get a lot of abuse.





I call this the sassy force push.





Star Tours had no wait so of course we had to ride!



Poor Rex. Took one too many wrong turns.

I could watch this little guy all day.



We ended up getting the wookies, Leia and Naboo. I swear we get the Naboo scene everytime. Coruscant is my favorite, but I really like the asteroid/Death Star too. But we never get them. ugh Naboo.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

After our ride on Star Tours we hung out in the gift shop looking for something for James Arnold Taylor to sign. I was hoping they'd have an Obi Wan clone wars action figure but no such luck. The best thing I could do was build an Obi Wan lightsaber. Which was just fine by me, I didn't have any Obi Wan lighstabers at home.

In case anyone is wondering...I now have 5 lightsabers. 2 for Darth Maul because he is my love, the signed Obi Wan, and 2 create your own originals.

And to answer another question, yes, I have found practical uses for them. The power went out at night once, and even though I couldn't find the flashlight or candles to save my life I could find my way to my lightsabers in the pitch dark so I used them as flashlights. I'm glad it was dark because I couldn't keep the smug smile off my face when I used the lightsaber to help Brian find the candles.

Anyway...that was off topic.

So I built an Obi Wan lightsaber and we still had time to burn so we decided to head to Animation Academy and see if maybe we could draw a Star Wars character.

We started to chat with the CM in the waiting area and I mentioned how much I was hoping we could draw a Star Wars Disney character. He asked which one I was most wishing for and I told him Donald as Darth Maul, since those are both my absolute favorites. The doors opened and the CM followed us in and said something to the animator.

When class started the animator said he'd had a special request to draw Darth Maul Donald!! I think we scared the rest of the class because we started clapping and cheering really loud.

I was soooo excited and nervous, I wanted to get my drawing just right!

It was actually a really complicated drawing and we ran out of time at the end to finish all our shading. I wasn't too pleased I didn't get to finish, but then the animator asked the trivia question to give up his drawing. No one got the first question, I thought it was really hard. It was what kind of speeder does Darth Maul own. I was super unhappy with myself but I didn't know

Then he said he'd ask an easier one and asked us who Darth Maul killed in Phantom Menace. Before he was even finished asking I yelled out Liam Neeson!! Then very quickly fixed my answer and said Qui Gon Jinn so I won his drawing!!!

This was seriously turning into the best morning ever!! So not only did I get to draw my favorite characters but I won the animator's drawing too!!

I'll post pictures of both drawings in the next installment when I get them signed by Donald at lunch!

We watched the stormtroopers for a bit and then it was time for our FP!



I had to tell James Arnold Taylor how we had no idea who he was going into this event and how we saw him at the Stars of the Saga and that he impressed all of us so much that we had to go see his show and then we were even more in love with him.





The photographer told me to stop or else he was just going to be insufferable with a big ego for the rest of the autograph session. James and the photographer seemed really buddy buddy, I think James is just super nice and friendly to everyone and just all around an awesome guy. I have a bit of a crush.

Then I asked if he would record a voice mail for my phone! He said he was very happy too and I asked him to do his super dramatic movie trailer voice. So I now have the best voice mail message ever! In the history of voice mails ever!! Yeah I'm still super excited about it.



Everyone else got their pictures too.





This really was shaping up into the best...day...ever!

We had to rush to the buses because we needed to make it over to AK for our Tusker House ADR. I couldn't wait to show Donald my drawing!

 

[stacy~**]

Drowning my post trip blues in other peoples TR updates....glad you posted some!

Move to FL (or TX)...good luck! I wonder daily why we live here (DH's job) and what I can do to get him to move me to FL (so far nothing...). Keep us posted!

I loved hearing the great review of Spice Road. I love the location and look of this restaurant but the lack of vegetarian options kills me! Especially when my all time favorite CS, Tangierine Café has the best veggie meal right across the street. If they ever change the menu I would really like to dine there!

Your Illuminations cruise pictures and descriptions gave me chills. I am also a huge fan of Illuminations and that just sounded like a perfect night. I definitely will keep that as a surprise to do for someone or myself (since Illuminations is my thing...) someday. Great job surprising Stephanie!

Once again I am impressed with your early and speedy mornings. Great ride pictures. I thought is was funny that the guy that is riding with Stephanie on RRC was also in your elevator.

Glad you had another successful SWW meet. How fun that he made you a VM message. I would never even think to ask something like that.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Drowning my post trip blues in other peoples TR updates....glad you posted some!

Move to FL (or TX)...good luck! I wonder daily why we live here (DH's job) and what I can do to get him to move me to FL (so far nothing...). Keep us posted!

I loved hearing the great review of Spice Road. I love the location and look of this restaurant but the lack of vegetarian options kills me! Especially when my all time favorite CS, Tangierine Café has the best veggie meal right across the street. If they ever change the menu I would really like to dine there!

Your Illuminations cruise pictures and descriptions gave me chills. I am also a huge fan of Illuminations and that just sounded like a perfect night. I definitely will keep that as a surprise to do for someone or myself (since Illuminations is my thing...) someday. Great job surprising Stephanie!

Once again I am impressed with your early and speedy mornings. Great ride pictures. I thought is was funny that the guy that is riding with Stephanie on RRC was also in your elevator.

Glad you had another successful SWW meet. How fun that he made you a VM message. I would never even think to ask something like that.

Hi!! I usually find that the better the trip went, the more post Disney blues I have. So I'm kind of hoping you have major post Disney blues

I hope you start on your trip report soon because I want to read all about it.

Unfortunately, I think Brian will end up having better opportunities in Texas so its looking more and more like Texas, sigh.

That is kind of surprising to hear that Spice Road doesn't have great vegetarian options. Of course, none of us are vegetarians, so we weren't looking for that specifically. Hmm, I wonder if you could kind of mix and match since they have so many platters.

I definitely think you should treat yourself to an Illuminations cruise! It was so awesome. I think your family would be majorly impressed too, its hard not to be.

Huh, I didn't even notice that guy until you said something. Wonder if he is with the couple he was sitting by. We should have made friends and then him and Stephanie could have been ride partners

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I believe I said we took a bus in my last update, but that was a dirty lie. We actually ended up seeing a boat at the dock so we decided to take that back to Beach Club and leave our signed items before then catching a bus to AK.

We ended up having to wait approximately 15 minutes for an AK bus. We were the only ones waiting so we had a long chat with a nice CM standing there. I basically acted like a 5 year old and chatted non-stop to him about all the great things that had been happening and how we were having the best trip ever. I even showed him my Donald drawing.

He was very nice.

Our bus finally ended up coming and once we arrived we hustled to the back of the park for our Tusker House ADR. Brian and Stephanie's mom had slept in today and was already there waiting for us.

Did you ever notice that when your running short on time that your FP or ADR is in the exact farthest point of the park? That is what happened to us here.

We must not have cared too much though because we stopped for some photopass!



I love this border. Lion King is one of my all time favorite Disney movies.

Then we finally moved it to Tusker House.



Up over that wall is the new FOTLK theater...which I think is open now? Can't wait to see it.

We got our pre-meal photopass picture.



I thought Donald was outside for this picture, but I guess not?

This is a bit of a blurry picture (yeah, I'm captain obvious) but I really like how this restaurant looks.





I have an obsession with old maps, I have a few of Africa at home.



The characters started to come by!







Goofy appreciated my shirt and instructed me to make a heart like he was.



And then Donald was there!! I showed him my picture and I think he had a slight freak out, he loved it and was only too happy to sign it.







Here is the masterpiece!



And while I'm at it, here is a picture I took at home of the signed Obi Wan lightsaber:



I took some more atmosphere pictures:







It really does look like an open air African marketplace. And all the people are just running around stealing the food from the vendors

Oh, and by the way...the food! They had tons of delicious African food but also mini corn dogs! Like I said, its the simple things.









I just love the characters shoes:



Donald came by for a second go round.



out of space for pics, continue in next...

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Next up was dessert! I remember it all being super delicious but I was very full by this time.



I took some more detail shots on the walk out.











This was the very last day of the Flower and Garden festival. Brian and his mom still wanted to check out the festival center so we decided to leave AK for now so we could finish checking out the festival. We'd be back AT AK later that day because AK was having one of its awesome late openings.



When we arrived at Epcot we were greeted with this!



Everyone ready for an explosion of Flower and Garden pictures?!













Stephanie found a rare, coveted photopass opportunity (she is a bit obsessed with magic shots).





We were slowly making our way to the festival center.













I am about at my capacity for pictures for this post so I'll save the inside of the festival center for next time

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We walked around the festival center for about half an hour. There was a video playing about how they created all the topiaries which was interesting. There were also lots of bonsais and miniature trees which I liked looking at.









I really liked this plant wall, Brian is very into gardening and wants to have a plant wall if we ever get a house.



we also met these 2 ladies outside, I guess they are kind of like streetmosphere actors? or flower and garden mosphere?



Then we just walked around, enjoying the butterfly garden and all the topiaries. We were on an epic quest for the violet lemonade and alcoholic dole whips! A very worthy quest, if you ask me.





Along the way on our epic quest, we had to fight off hordes of ravaging butterflies.



We kept getting side tracked from our quest by intricate Disney character topiaries.



Too many details! Must...not...get...distracted...





Who wants to bet Goofy totally misses the goal with his soccer ball and ends up nailing an angry Pete? I don't think anyone would take that bet, that is just the way poor Goofy's life goes.



We also had to cross treacherous fields of flowers. So bright there was a chance of being blinded.









Watch out for mischievous fairies!













Our quest was proving to be more difficult than we'd thought. Pathways went every which way, the water even flower UP the waterfalls!

Chairs were made out of hoses, nothing made any sense!





to be continued...

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We stumbled across some sand sculptures outside of Canada.



The adorable woodland creatures tried to distract us, but we felt that we were close to our noble goal.



We were further delayed when we had to stop for a duckling crossing.



And finally! The end of our quest was in sight. We just had to make it through a ten minute wait in the blazing sun, which almost did us in but we made it!



Delicious, refreshing success!!



Noble quest accomplished, we decided to finish checking out all the topiaries before we'd head back to AK. We wanted to finish out the day there, I think it was from 5 pm until close at 8. AK has always proven to be super empty when it is open late so we didn't want to miss it.



Practically perfect in every way.

I love Peter Pan.












Then we were off to AK!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We went back to the Beach Club and took the car back to AK. If anyone is counting, this is park change number 4 for the day



We had a FP+ for the Safaris so we headed back.









When I was in Africa we called these guys bullseye butts.







After the ride we started to walk towards Asia and found a photopass photographer who was almost as obsessed with magic shots as Stephanie.





As Stacy would say, some of these pictures are Calassic.





Next up was a 5 minute wait for Dinosaur.





Next up was a ride on Everest. It was a walk on so Stephanie and I ended up riding 5 times in a row. Try coming up with 5 different ride photo poses in like, half an hour. Its exhausting.



Little influence from Star Wars weekends with a force push:





AK was going to close soon and we had dinner reservations at California Grill.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We drove over to the Contemporary and headed up the special elevator to California Grill.





I'd heard so many good things about Cali Grill. We ended up getting a lot of stuff among the table to share.









I thought the food was pretty good, but honestly I think super expensive food is wasted on me. I'm just as happy with a meal from Texas Roadhouse.

We went out on the balcony for Wishes. We actually ended up being able to see 3 fireworks shows that night. Wishes, Star Wars weekends fireworks, and what we think was Universal's fireworks, cause I'm not sure what other fireworks they'd be.



After dinner, Stephanie and her mom went back to the resort and Brian and I decided we may as well hit the 4th park that day and entered the MK as the Electric Light parade was going on. I really love the song for that parade. Sounds so 80s.

It was so funny, we were blocked by the parade on Main Street, but during a lag in the parade the CMs frolic with the rope up to let us quickly cross to the other side. Frolic is the best word for it, its like a rushed skip. I loved it.

We ended up having a very productive night. We walked onto HM, then onto Philharmagic, my favorite and then Pooh.



Then we did something we'd never done before!



It was a walk on. I think it took us longer to walk the queue line than the actual ride took, so I'm happy we never waited for it.

We had time for one more ride, so we hurried to POTC.











Before we left we got some photopass pics taken.



I think we'd completely lost it at this point, because we made it back to the BC and decided we were going night swimming.









A couple trips down the slide and around the lazy river were just what we needed to get ready for the next day!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We slept in a bit because it was the day we checked out of Beach Club and we wanted to enjoy the resort a bit more. We got all our stuff packed up and into the car and then wandered around the resort before our early lunch at Beaches and Cream.



The view from our room:







Some pictures of the inside of the room:





We really enjoyed our stay here. The room was a good size for 4 adults. The pool really can't be beat, but I'm sure everyone else already knew that. Not many things more relaxing after a long day in the parks then floating around the Stormalong Bay lazy river.

If it wasn't so crazy expensive, we'd definitely stay here again. It was really a lifesaver being able to walk to DHS for SWW. And walking to Epcot was lovely.





I'm pretty sure the antique cars around Disney deluxe resorts are there to pose your sophisticated companions inside, right?







We checked in early for our ADR so we went up to the ice cream window and got some snacks to tide us over and settled in comfortably next to the pool.







Finally we were called in to be seated. This restaurant is TINY.







The food was pretty good, I think it is comparable to a Johnny Rocket's if you have those where you live.

It was time for a final walkabout of the resort. We had the holy grail of FP+, Anna and Elsa FP+ for this afternoon, so we'd be going into MK for a few short hours after this.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We drove to our next resort: All Stars Music, and got checked into the room that was about the farthest point you could get from the lobby.

We weren't too concerned at that point because we were about to board a bus to the MK!



I love Pumba but he sure does get into a lot of trouble at WDW. The bus looks very concerned.





We ended up having to wait 20 minutes for Anna and Elsa, even withour FP+. We had only managed to get 3, so Brian contented himself by watching the new parade and the dragon breathing fire while he waited for us.

I really liked Anna, she was very bubbly and we talked about how she had an A on her boots which could stand for Anna or Arrendale.





I am definitely a bigger fan of Anna than Elsa. Poor Elsa, always on the outside looking in.



After our meet with the ladies of Arrendale we checked some wait time apps and MK was slammed that day. We kind of wandered around a bit deciding what we were going to do. We had an ADR later that night for BOG. I know I'll shock the internet by saying this, but Brian and I decided to skip out and go to Epcot instead, where there were much shorter lines. So we got a couple more pictures and then we split.













We arrived by bus back at Music. We made a quick stop in the room and then quickly set out in the car for Epcot!





Donald decided he'd rather stay and nap.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We still had Beach Club privileges for the rest of the day, so we parked there for the walk to Epcot. We also had changed into our bathing suits under our clothes so we could go swimming that night as well.



The Beach Club welcomed us back with a rainbow!



So pretty, I love this color.





Our first stop at Epcot was to ride Figment and Captain EO!









Wasn't us, Officer, I swear! We were framed!



And my favorite again, Donald!



We stopped at Starbucks for a delicious Frappachino (which I call my sugar coffee).

Next up we took a cruise around Mexico.



We wanted to go on Maelstrom but the line was really long so we just took a stroll around the countries instead.



Finally we finished out the night with a FP+ for TT, where we designed this lovely contraption:





and made these lovely faces:

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We had not had any dinner at this point so we made it to the Morocco CS before they closed and got some food, sat outside and had a decent view of Illuminations.











We began to head out as Illuminations' finale was going on:



And back to this beauty for one more swim:



We sat on the beach for a bit after our swim and discussed how much fun the trip had been so far. It was only about to get even more fun, the next day was the start of our 2 day Universal adventure!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

These next 2 days are going to be more abridged, since it is primarily a Disney TR.



We arrived at Universal about 10 minutes after opening and we ended up having to wait about half an hour for Despicable Me. Boo. That ride is tricky, it is still pretty new, everyone loves the minions and its the first ride you see when you walk in the park so the lines can get quite long.



After you exit the ride there is a minion available to take a picture with. I loved the stupid expression on this one's face, and quite by accident made a stupid expression with my face to match.





There are several different minions who switch out, the best time to get a picture is in the few minutes after a ride lets out, after those crowds leave you'll be able to walk up until the next ride vehicle unloads.

After that we walked right onto Rip Ride Rockit, Transformers and the Mummy.





We got pictures with Optimus:



Which was pretty cool. They have an employee who stands there with a device to read wind speeds. If the wind blows too highly, they know to retreat the Transformers back into their buildings because I guess they can topple pretty easily

We decided to park hop and have lunch at the 3 Broomsticks.





I love the food at the 3 Broomsticks. And frozen butterbeer is my one true love.

We looked around the gift shops a bit and I fell in love with this:



The sweater Mrs. Weasley makes Ron every year for Christmas! And the R can stand for Rachel too! I so would have bought this but it was pretty pricey.

We went on the blue side of Dragon Challenge with only a 10 minute wait.

After that Stephanie and I got split up from Brian and their mom and we spent over half an hour looking. Not cool. We finally found them and split up to do the Jurassic Park ride because we didn't want to rent a locker for the stuff. Turns out that ride had about a half hour wait time, instead of the 10 posted. So we skipped our turn after Stephanie and their mom came back and instead went to ride Spiderman, which I believe had a 15 minute wait only because it was down for about 10 minutes while we were in line.



The Green Goblin is definitely creeptastic.



We decided to have dinner at Mythos since we'd never been and we were able to walk right in.







OMG. This was the best and one of the cheapest meals we had all trip. LOVE Mythos!



Brian wanted pictures with all the rest of the offered Transformers so we went back to Universal.



We went back on Transformers, it was a walk on again.

We then went on ET with a 5 minute wait, then watched the Hollywood make up show.

We went on the Disaster ride/show and Brian and Stephanie's mom got picked to be in the show!



Then we were able to finish out the Transformers with Megatron!



Next up: a trip through Springfield.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I've been to Universal before, but not when Springfield was there. The town is so awesome! I'm not sure why people say WDW does theming better, Universal has some truly amazing, immersive lands.











Unfortunately we didn't sample any food or drinks from Springfield, but I definitely need a Krusty burger next time.







Looks like everythings coming up Millhouse! Probably my favorite Simpsons line ever.

We walked right onto the Simpsons spinner ride.

And then we rode the main ride, also with no wait.





Next we did something super neat. They had the Simpsons couch set up and you could take different couch gag photos sitting on it. These are just a few, there were a lot more.








After that it was time for the nighttime show, so we set ourselves up by the construction walls near the new Harry Potter London (so I could look longingly and drool and fantasize that they'd have a soft opening right then for me).







The show had lots of lasers and colored fountains and fireworks. It wasn't spectacular, but it was good to watch once.



And then we were headed out and we were back at Music and in bed by 10:30!

Oh, and a cool shot from Stephanie and I on the Mummy that I forgot before:

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Today was our day to focus on Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure. We made it to rope drop finally, and we knew to go straight to Ollivander's to watch the wand show.



I understand why they always pick little kids for this show, but someday I wish I'd get picked. I already have a wand (a replica Sirius Black) but if I was chosen that'd be an insta sale for them. Who am I kidding, I also want the Fred and George wand set they recently came out with because I am in love with those 2. Oh yeah, speaking of them. For fans of the books and movies....have you ever seen the gravestone at HM where it says 'here lies dear old fred, a great big rock fell on his head'?! Fred Weasley is totally buried at HM. That is all.

So after the wand show we headed into the castle to ride Forbidden Journey. We ended up having to wait about 20 minutes because the ride went down. We later learned at the 24 hour event from a few friends we made who worked at Universal that Forbidden Journey has not been permitted to be shut down for maintenance since it opened. So it is basically running with about 25 less cars than it should have because they need work. Crazy. Our friend also told us that whenever he is working the ride entrance and sees a guest in Hogwarts robes, he pulls them aside and says that students don't wait in line to enter Hogwarts and he puts them right on the ride. Says if people are willing to wear those robes in the Florida heat, they deserve not to wait. He was awesome.



I look totally unimpressed, but it is my favorite ride ever. Don't be fooled. I'm more of one of those Elsa types, conceal don't feel.






Then we walked onto Flight of the Hippogriff and I got some cool pictures.



We watched the frog choir.







It was almost 11 so we decided to just eat at the 3 broomsticks again. No brainer.







Hermione's dress from the 4th movie.










Crookshanks looks like my cat, Toulouse:



The Hog's Head bar. Insider tip: if the line at the butterbeer cart is outrageous (like it usually is), just go inside the bar to get butterbeer. They carry both the regular and the frozen and there is rarely a line. And even if there is your inside in the air conditioning so its ok.



Stephanie and her mom went to explore Seuss land while I spent an hour pulling Brian through every gift shop picking out a million things that I wanted. We eventually met up in a Marvel gift shop where I bought the most adorable Captain America ever. And he is so soft!!



I ended up bringing the Captain to a Disney park and I got so many compliments and sidelong glances from little boys about the Captain. He is pretty sweet.



We had a little discussion and decided to head back to Disney. We'd got so much done the day before and we'd be coming back in October with our brand new annual passes (soooo cheap) to see the new Harry Potter stuff so we'd have plenty more time in Universal later.

We made an annoying stop at Walmart and then got some food at Wendys. We made it back to Music around 3 and took naps until around 6:30.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

First thing we did when we entered MK was to check to see if the Mine Train was doing a soft opening. Unfortunately it was not, so we decided to have dinner at Columbia Harbor House.

MK has to many counter services that we love. Brian and I both really enjoy Columbia, it is different, has very good food and we love to sit upstairs in the overlook and watch fantasyland.







Our favorites are the tuna fish sandwich and the lobster roll.

Next we had a FP+ for BTMR. That ride is sooo much fun at night. Then again, I think everything is more fun at night.



HM had no wait so of course we had to go! I was able to get some decent no flash pics in the stretching room.









We decided to watch Wishes from back in new fantasyland so that we could keep an eye on Mine Train. About a hundred other people were doing the same thing. I actually really like the fireworks back there. It feels like they are going off all around you.















It looked like the Mine Train was not going to open that night, so we ended up walking onto Splash, JC and we just missed Pirates by 2 minutes.



We slowly headed for the exit and watched the Electric Light parade as we walked. I love that parade music, sooo happy and catchy.







Snow White discovered a baby in front of us in the crowd and she was just in love.



I like how Sleepy falls asleep during the parade.





We made it back to All Star Music around midnight.



Brian and I stopped by the front desk. We had added an extra night with an Orbitz room and we wanted to see if we could stay in the same room. The CM said she couldn't do anything about letting us stay in the same room, but she'd make a notation and we'd just have to check back when it was time to switch.

We quickly headed back to the room to get some sleep. We had 2 Star Wars character meals scheduled for tomorrow!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We actually ended up making it to DHS for rope drop! We were really on a roll with how little sleep we were functioning on with this trip.

We walked right onto RRC.



We had an early morning FP+ for TT so we went on that next, I didn't bother getting the picture for that one since we both got mike'd (people's hands in front of our faces).

But we did TT again and this time the picture came out better.



Next it was time for something I'd been looking forward to the whole trip! The Star Wars breakfast at Sci Fi! My favorite restaurant and my favorite movie, match made in heaven. I'm so happy we moved the character meals away from our main SWW day. That day was so busy as it was.

First we stopped for some photopass pics.





We got our opening picture with Vader and Boba. Boba was being a gentleman and took my arm because I was wearing his hoodie (I'd bought it at the SWW merchandise warehouse during our previous visit). He also liked my wookie pelt autograph book.



This next is a picture that came with our memory maker package, I really like it.



We were escorted to our car at the back of the restaurant/car lot and were immediately given the pastry plate to start with.



I remember all of them being pretty tasty, it also didn't hurt that my favorite, C3PO, was on some of them.

The stormtroopers came by first.







Here is part of the menu. We got a pastry plate, then we got to choose yogurt or a fruit cup, then we had about 6 choices for our main breakfast entree.



I got the yogurt and Brian got the fruit cup.



We were also able to order blue milk! I thought this would end up being just regular milk with blue food coloring, but it actually had a kind of raspberry milk flavor and I loved it!



Honestly, I think WDW needs to set up a blue milk and blue milk ice cream (yes, that exists, I'll get to it later tonight) stand outside Tattoine Traders. They can call it Aunt Beru's blue milk stand.





I love the Sci Fi place so much. I'd live there.

The restaurant had switched out their regular sci fi clips with special Star Wars ones.



Next Greedo stopped by. He is a loveable enough guy, even if he is an awful bounty hunter. On second look...I think Greedo might be wearing Ugg boots.





Then our meals came. I forget now what we got, but I think we both really enjoyed them.





While we were eating Boba Fett came through just to check and make sure everyone was behaving.



Move along, move along.





Show off.