Category Archives: Disney

Disney

Disney Information

One of the most common misconceptions I’ve run into when talking about Walt Disney World is the size of it. The Disney company owns over 43 square miles of land just outside Orlando, Florida – that’s over 27,000 acres or 110 square kilometers. It’s basically the size of San Francisco. In comparison, Disneyland in Anaheim, California covers about 500 acres.

By the numbers:

  • Four theme parks – Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios
  • Two water parks – Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach
  • Four golf courses and two mini-golf courses (Interesting fact: one of the golf courses was used for PGA Tours in the past, and this year will be part of the Senior PGA Tour – it’s a nice course!)
  • Disney Springs, formerly Downtown Disney, is a shopping and entertainment district (movie theaters, restaurants, etc)
  • 27 Disney-owned hotels on property – five value resorts, four moderate resorts, eight deluxe resorts, one campground and nine Disney Vacation Club resorts
  • It requires almost 75,000 employees (known as cast members) to run everything – working in hotels, restaurants, operating rides, driving buses, etc
Disney, Travel

January 11, 2016 – More Magic Kingdom

After watching some animatronic bears enjoy a jamboree, Luke decided to grab a Dole Whip, and we found a place to sit down and enjoy it.

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After he finished his snack, we headed back to Tomorrowland. Once we got there, we decided to go to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was pretty much the same show as we had seen last week with a lot of the same jokes, but it still made me laugh (again, I might have been a little overtired/exhausted by this point). After leaving that, the PeopleMover had a short line so we jumped on that. I really enjoy this, it’s a great way to see some of the park while taking a bit of a rest – and going inside Space Mountain was really cool! From there, we went to use our 4th FP+ of the day – to Space Mountain again!

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Ugh. For some reason a few lights were on around the outside of the building which encases this roller coaster, so it wasn’t as dark as normal. I could kind of see the track in front of us, but not perfectly clear (there wasn’t enough lights on for that), and for some reason this made me feel really sick/nauseous. I’ve never had that happen on Space Mountain before. I was a little sad, since this was our last ride at Magic Kingdom and it was not the best way to finish :(

It was about 6:15 by this point, and since I wasn’t feeling great after that ride, we decided to just head to the Hub to secure a spot to watch the Electrical Parade (which started at 7pm). I’m not usually one to stake out a spot that far in advance, but it just seemed like the right thing for us to do at this point. Along the way I stopped to buy a thing of popcorn – I needed a snack to hold me over until our supper ADR and the smell of popcorn in the parks had my mouth watering for days before I finally gave in and purchased some. (I LOVE popcorn, but it often does not love me or my Crohn’s). We found a place that we figured would be a good spot to watch the parade, and then sat on the ground to eat and wait. Disney is not cheap with the oil or the salt on their popcorn! It was exactly what I wanted though, and I ate almost all of it (and had no issues after, hurray!).

We ended up waiting almost an hour by the time the parade reached us, but we had an alright view to distract us while we waited :love:

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After waiting for awhile, the Main Street Electrical Parade reached us! Enjoy this plethora of pictures haha, I took a few (Also, I apologize, the order is all messed up, but you get the idea):

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If you couldn’t tell by the amount of pictures I took, I LOVED this parade! Although, about 6 weeks after this we were in Disneyland and had a chance to see the Paint the Night parade and that blew the Electrical Parade out of the water! Paint the Night was absolutely incredible, by far the best parade I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t want to take anything away from MSEP, it was great, but just not the best that Disney has to offer.

After the parade went past us, no one moved. We realized people were planning on standing where they were to watch Wishes (it was an amazing spot right by the Hub in front of the castle). However, we had a late supper ADR to get to! It was very slow moving, and it’s a good thing we didn’t have far to go but we made it to Crystal Palace in time! It did take us close to 20 minutes just to get across the Hub though, so in hindsight we didn’t chose the best viewing location for the parade – just keep that in mind if you need to move to another location in the parks in between the parade and the fireworks.

It had been a long day by the time we got to Crystal Palace, but the Pooh characters are among my favourites so I still enjoyed it (even if we did have end-of-the-night buffet food). For food pictures/ reviews, click here. Here are a few character pictures:

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It’s hard to tell, but the bow in my hair was Eeyore inspired :eeyore:. Even though it was the end of the night, the characters were fantastic! While Piglet was over, Wishes started so Piglet grabbed my arm and was pretending to be scared of the loud noises outside. Eeyore saw my hair bow and gave me a HUGE hug, and then linked arms with me and tried to walk away with me (his handler was also awesome and started making jokes about how Eeyore wasn’t allowed to steal me).

The restaurant itself is also gorgeous!

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The park was obviously closed by the time we left the restaurant, but people were still trickling out out of the park. We were walking down Main Street when we heard a noise, so we turned around and got to see the kiss goodnight from Tinkerbell! I had already put my camera away, so no pictures of that. Since we had avoided most of the rush of people, we only had to wait about 5 minutes for a bus before we were on our way back to our hotel. We sadly had to do a little bit of packing, and then we fell asleep fairly quickly.

Disney, Travel

January 11, 2016 – All the MK Rides!

When we exited Winnie the Pooh, it was only 9:20. The park had only been open for 20 minutes, and we had already been on three rides! This day was going wonderfully! We decided to head over to Tomorrowland. We were trying to hit any and all rides we had missed on our first MK day, so when we saw a 15 minute wait time posted for Astro Orbiters we jumped in line. That ride is a tight squeeze for two adults! But it does offer some pretty great views :)

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It was then time to use our first FP+ of the day for Space Mountain! I don’t even know what I was doing with my face, but I think the award for funniest face has to go to the random stranger in front of me…I’m also not sure why Luke looks like he’s freaking out?

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Next up was Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Luke beat me again. I might have mentioned this already, but this ride is so much better in California. I don’t like that the guns are attached and you can’t pick them up in WDW. In DL, by being able to pick the gun up your aim is so much better! And yes, this is yet another ride photo where we are making stupid faces…

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We started walking towards the castle but stopped for Photopass pictures under the Tomorrowland sign. The photographer was a bubbly little thing, very friendly. She was fascinated by my magenta-coloured hair and wanted to talk about hair dye for at least 5 minutes. Poor thing wasn’t very good with the camera though…It’s a good thing we have plenty of other great Photopass pictures that I didn’t mind these ones not turning out.

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After getting some bad Photopass pictures, we headed into the Hub. The Dream Along With Mickey show was on, so we stood and watched it for awhile. I apologize, my pictures are not in order at all and I can’t remember now the exact timeline of the show.

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After watching pretty much the entire show, we checked the time and realized it was time to head to our early lunch reservation – once again at Be Our Guest! That’s right, we hit the BOG trifecta of all three meals! The only time I was able to book an ADR was for 11:25, which felt so early…we were still full from our breakfast, but we figured we would find a way to eat :teeth: We checked in pretty much on time, and they were immediatedley ready for us. We were led across the bridge and into the castle, where we were once again handed a plastic tracking device rose. I was so glad we had pre-ordered our meals, the line of people waiting to order at the kiosks stretched almost half way across the bridge – I’d guess they had at least a half hour wait before they would even be ordering. So pre-order people, especially at lunch!

My review of our lunch from BOG can be found here.

After finishing up our lunch at BOG, we headed out and went to the Storybook Circus area. We had rode Dumbo last week when we were there, so today we decided to go on the Barnstormer. The wait was a little longer than I’d normally like for a ride like that, but it really wasn’t even that long (20 minutes or so). It was a fairly standard little kid rollercoaster that was cute, but very short and not something we feel the need to go on every trip.

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We started slowly making our way around the park. We stopped to use a FastPass at Haunted Mansion (when we dropped our Peter Pan FP+ after walking on to it first thing in the morning, we were able to pick up this one). After riding, we stopped for a few Photopass pictures

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It was then time for our final FP+ of the day – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! This is one of my favourite rides, but for some reason this was the first time we had ever went on it during daylight…We picked up on so many little details that get lost when riding it at night!

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We checked the MDE app and it was saying Haunted Mansion had only a 15 minute wait so we headed back there and rode it again (we both love it!). We actually took our time going through the queue line, and let a few people go ahead of us so we could check out all the little details (but I didn’t actually take any pictures of anything…). What a great queue line, so much detail! I also seem to find new little things on the ride every time I go on this.

We slowed down after this, we were in no rush to get anywhere. We did stop by a Fastpass kiosk to pick up a 4th FP+ for the day, but it was hours away. We went on the Riverboat in Liberty Square, but I found a bench to sit down on and ended up not being able to hear a thing. I could have moved, but I was enjoying sitting down for a few minutes. I also took zero pictures on this, I was just enjoying the relaxing boat ride. We then decided to check out the Country Bear Jamboree – so cheesy! I’m not sure if I was just overtired, but I found this show hilarious.

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Disney, Travel

January 11, 2016 – An Early MK Morning

Day Seven – Part One – January 11, 2016 – A PPO Breakfast!​

After a great night’s sleep, our alarm went off the next morning way too early, but I was excited for breakfast so I slowly pulled myself out of the bed… We had a bus to catch at 6:30am! There was only one other family on the bus besides us (and we stopped at all three All-Star resorts), and very little traffic on the road so we made it to our destination quite quickly – MAGIC KINGDOM! It was a little before 7am when we were dropped off, so we had some waiting to do. It was really cold that morning too (this is not how I remembered Florida from my two previous trips to this state!). I spent a lot of time hopping around trying to stay warm, but I did stand still long enough to get these pictures as the sky started getting brighter:

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Around 7:30 they started letting people through security for bag check, and since we had got there so early we were one of the first few in line so it went really fast. From there they were checking names/Magicbands – if you had a breakfast reservation between 8-8:45 you could get into one line, there was a Steam Engine tour happening that morning, and some people are just really eager to watch the opening show so they just had to stand around and wait longer. After they scanned our Magicbands to ensure we had a breakfast ADR, we were directed to stand in line. Around 7:45am, they opened the gates and let those of us with ADR’s enter the park – we were one of the first few dozen to enter the park that day! That was an awesome feeling!

We hurried down an empty Main Street to see the Castle with no one else around it! What a sight!

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We noticed a Photopass photographer all ready to go, so we went over to him and ended up being his first people of the day! I love that these are basically private pictures in front of the castle, this was so cool to me!

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After getting our Photopass pictures, it was still not even 8am yet. Our reservation was for 8:15, but we decided to see if we could check in early – no problem at all! Where were we going, you ask? Why Be Our Guest of course!!

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You can read my breakfast review here.

After we finished eating, we each grabbed a new cup and filled it with water, and put a coffee lid on it so it wouldn’t spill. It saved us from buying a bottle of water right away! I stopped to snap these pictures on the way out:

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When we left Be Our Guest, it was still only 8:45am, so the park did not officially open for another 15 minutes. We realized that the Mine Train was already up and running, so we quickly headed in that direction, which isn’t a very far walk at all from BOG.

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We had planned on skipping this ride today, since we didn’t have a Fastpass for it, but since the line was non-existent we actually walked right onto it! We even got to admire some of the queue line at our own pace! There were not even enough people to fill the entire train, and we ended up riding with only 6 other people!

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On January 6th when we were on this ride, the cameras must have been broken or my Magicband didn’t work properly, because we didn’t get any pictures or video from the Mine Train that day :sad:. I didn’t realize this until way too late to try and do something about it. You’ll notice in the pictures above, Luke and I were actually taking a selfie since we didn’t realize there were pictures on this (if we did know, we would have been making funny faces…). Here’s proof of our selfie :rotfl::

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By the time we got off, the park had started opening, so we headed straight for Peter Pan’s Flight. We had less than a 10 minute wait until we were in a ship, sailing over London! It was a really cute ride, but there’s no way I would wait for over an hour for it! The standby line is really great too, so much detail! We actually had a Fastpass for this scheduled for later in the day, but we didn’t feel the need to re-ride it so we went on our MDE app, dropped that FP+ and managed to pick one up for Haunted Mansion in the afternoon. Score!

From there, we decided to go on Winnie the Pooh. I had my entire bedroom done in Pooh bear when I was younger, so I love this ride! So cute! And the interactive queue line is fantastic! I also prefer the motion of the ride over the Pooh ride in Disneyland. (They are practically the same ride, but I find the one in Florida has better movement during the windy day part).

Disney, Travel

Hollywood Studios Rides

This park is a little light on rides right now, since this is the park where Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land (Galaxy’s Edge) are both in the process of being built. Star Wars Land alone is a project costing over $1billion, and won’t be complete until 2019. Toy Story Land will be complete sometime in the second half of 2018.

  • Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage – Broadway Style stage show. Condensed 25 minute version of the movie, have not seen it on either of our trips to Florida.
  • Fantasmic! – nighttime show with water effects, pyro, lots of characters, lasers, boats, etc. Located in an amphitheater built for the show which can seat 6000 with room for another 3000 standing. About half an hour long, and worth seeing once if you have the time
  • Frozen Sing Along – a stage show with live actors singing Frozen songs. We haven’t been to see it, but I hear the “historians” presenting the show are hilarious.
  • Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! – a stage show featuring Indiana Jones. It was ok, about 45 minutes long.
  • Jedi Training Academy – kids can sign up first thing in the morning for Jedi Training, and then get to participate in a live battle against Darth Vader or Kylo Ren. The show is on a little stage right beside Star Tours, so we caught most of it while waiting in line – it’s really cute and the kids are all having a blast.
  • Muppet*Vision 3D – a 4D show, which lasts about 15 minutes. There is hardly ever a line, so if you’re a Muppets fan it’s worth seeing once.
  • Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – if you like Roller-Coasters, this is a must. It contains the only inversion of any roller coaster in WDW. It’s a quick ride, and it’s in the dark with lots of neon lights. The story is you’re in a limo rushing across the city of LA to make it to an Aerosmith concert in time. Steven Tyler actually does the countdown to start the ride. The on-ride photo is taken at the very beginning. Usually long lines – worth grabbing a Fastpass for.
  • Star Tours: The Adventures Continue – a 3D motion simulator. There are a huge number of possibilities, each ride shouldn’t be the same (3 parts – multiple options for each). One of our favourite rides – seriously, this is amazing.
  • Toy Story Midway Mania– huge wait times, although they have the third track up and running now which has helped. Fastpass it if possible. It’s a shooting-style game-ride. The area around it is very well themed, and really cute if you’re a Toy Story fan.
  • The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – one of the best drop-style rides I’ve ever been on. This one has a 4th  dimension where the elevator actually moves horizontally at one point, as opposed to just vertically. With Memory Maker, you’ll receive a short little video, so smile just before the elevator drops for the first time!
  • Voyage of the Little Mermaid – a stage show with live actors. It’s a very condensed version of the story, but there are some really neat laser effects and the girl playing Ariel the day we went was fantastic.
  • Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream – a museum and short movie on the life of Walt Disney, and the company he created. I’ve never gone to check this out.
Disney, Travel

January 10, 2016 – More Epcot

After Living with the Land, it was time for our third Fastpass of the day – The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We didn’t need a fastpass for this, but there’s not a ton of options with the tiered system at Epcot. I thought this ride was super cute, and we spent quite a bit of time looking around the aquariums afterwards. I loved the manatees – so adorable, just floating around eating their buckets of lettuce!:lovestruc

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We headed over to watch the Pixar Short Film Festival. We are both HUGE Pixar fans, so we knew we wanted to check this out. We walked right in, and stood in a large room waiting for the next show to start. There were a few screens around the room showing interviews with Pixar animators and directors to keep you occupied while waiting. Once the doors opened, we entered the theater and took a seat with our 3D glasses. The three short films shown were “Get A Horse”, “For the Birds” and “La Luna”. I had saw all three of these shorts before (“For the Birds” was shown in theater before Monsters Inc, “Get A Horse” was shown in theaters before Frozen and “La Luna” was shown in theaters before Brave), but the 4D was fun! Sorry for no pictures!

We stopped to get a few Photopass pictures by the fountains close by the theater.

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It was finally time for us to enter World Showcase! We entered Canada first, where we stopped to watch the slightly outdated 14 minute film celebrating the beauty of our home country. I loved the look of the main building (where Le Cellier is located), which was designed to look like a hotel in Ottawa, but it was a little strange that it was nestled amongst the Rocky Mountains – which are not even remotely close to Ontario. And then the gardens are designed to look like Victoria… But I understand, Canada is a huge country and it’s just a fake representation to show how pretty our country is.

Luke stopped at the beer cart to buy a La Fin du Monde. It’s not a very common beer in Alberta, so he had never tried it before, but he really enjoyed it! He actually picked up a few when we were in New Brunswick this past June, where they were super cheap. He’s also found it here in Alberta, and buys it every once in awhile.

We took our time and looked around the Canadian store – so much maple syrup! I didn’t buy anything, since obviously we can get all of that stuff here at home. Way back in the day, when I was in Girl Guides we actually went to see maple syrup being made once. Fresh, hot maple syrup poured directly onto fresh snow is incredible – try it if you ever have the chance! The store also had lots of NHL hockey stuff (it is true, us Canadians really do love our hockey), but not all of the Canadian teams were represented – I couldn’t find anything with the Oilers logo? I wouldn’t have bought it from there anyways, but still. I did find this tshirt though, which made me laugh – but it’s actually true in a lot of ways, us Canadians do love maple syrup, beer and hockey…:

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Our next stop was England. We looked around the shops a bit – they were full of Doctor Who merch – a show I’ve never watched a single episode of. The British Invasion band was playing, so we stopped to watch them for a few minutes.

We then crossed the International Gateway over to France. We looked around a bit, and then stumbled across L’Artisan des Glaces – which made me so excited! I don’t eat ice cream very often (dairy isn’t always my best friend), but I had to try one of the flavours from here. I went for the cinnamon apple crumble, and Luke chose the salted caramel. We used a snack credit each on a single scoop (cost = $4.69). We started eating our ice cream, and then realized what time it was – it was almost time for our supper reservation! We set off walking, eating our amazingly delicious ice cream along the way. It was so good! I loved the flavours of both, but I think I’d give the slight edge to mine. Sorry for no pictures!

After scanning our Magicbands to use up a table service credit each for our supper at Garden Grill (review can be found here) we headed out of the restaurant and headed over to the character spot and hopped in line to meet Baymax. We had a bit of a wait, but it wasn’t too bad (maybe 10-15 minutes). It was a really cute character meet, but I wish the costume was designed a little bit differently. It was inflatable, so it didn’t give him very much for range of motion – he couldn’t even fist bump (bah la la la la)! Yes, I tried.

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I guess I did eat a lot at Garden Grill, I look like I put on about 10 pounds from the Photopass pictures we had taken earlier in the day…:crazy2:o_O:confused3

After this we entered the World Showcase – again through Canada. We stopped and jumped in line so Luke could get another La Fin du Monde.

While we were standing in line, a VERY intoxicated girl came and got in line behind us with her friends. We started talking to them, and found out it was her 21st birthday so she was finally legal drinking age in the US and wanted to enjoy it by drinking around the world. Canada was the last stop for her, so she was 10 drinks deep at that point and feeling pretty good haha. She mentioned she was going to order a Moosehead because the name made her laugh, but I made a disgusted face (it’s made in NB, so it was very common among my friends when we were 19-20). Luke told her to go for a Kokanee instead (a British Columbia beer) since it was cheaper and tastes slightly better. I then told her to end her night with a bang, and order the shot of Crown Royale :laughing:. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s whiskey, so the poor girl! That’s what she ended up ordering, and she took it like a champ! (I went through a stage where Crown on the rocks was my drink of choice, but now the thought of that makes me gag haha). After she had her shot of whiskey, we stood around talking to her and her friends for another few minutes. Her friends were fairly sober, but were all clearly being entertained by birthday girl. At some point, Justin Bieber came up because we’re Canadian and he’s Canadian and we were standing in the Canadian pavilion. Birthday girl’s friends informed her that the ducks currently roaming around our feet were actually presents from Bieber to Disney World, and they had traveled down with Luke and I…the girl just stared at them in shock. After this, we said our goodbyes – I hope she had fun on her birthday and wasn’t in too much pain the next day!

We had spent time looking around the UK pavilion earlier in the day, so we just skipped over it this time. We did have to stop in France though, I had a very important purchase to make!

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Grey goose slushie! It was a little expensive – I think it was $12 which is over $15 Canadian – but so worth it! It was so good, and it was one of the few alcoholic drinks I had on the entire vacation. I will not even hesitate about buying one on our next trip – seriously. That thing was amazing. Here’s another picture of it looking beautiful…

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We spent a bit of time looking around the Morocco pavilion, but I guess I didn’t feel the need to take any pictures… Same for Japan. We looked around a bit, then stopped to use the bathrooms at the American Adventure pavilion. And that’s all we saw of that one haha, but for what it’s worth the bathrooms were very large! We were quickly running out of time, so we only spent a few minutes at the Italy pavilion so I could get to the Germany pavilion quicker. I spent 2 weeks in Germany back in 2005 when I was 17, and I fell in love with Haribo gummy candies while there. I can buy them here in Canada, but they can sometimes be hard to find. After loading up on candy in Germany (I also had to buy some chocolate there, so good). We spent a few minutes in the China pavilion and then realized it was almost time for Illuminations. We just walked past Norway and Mexico, but never actually made it in to look around either :worried: I did snap this picture though…

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I also took these pictures at some point in the night, but I have no idea where…

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We found a spot to watch Illuminations and I sat on the ground to wait. I was so tired! We were outside the Mexico pavilion, closer to the main walkway to get back to Future World – not the best spot, but we were able to see some of the show. I was so exhausted all of a sudden that I didn’t even care. I did get these pictures though:

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Once the show ended we started making our way to the front of the park to catch a bus. We did stop for a few Photopass pictures along the way:

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Once we got back to our room, we both fell asleep almost instantly – and we had a very early morning planned for the next day!

Also worth mentioning – at some point during this day we went on Mission Space (green). Neither one of us were fans, I can’t even imagine what the orange side is like… We also went to Club Cool to sample some various Coca-Cola products from around the world at one point. I loved this! I knew about it, but I still had to try the Beverly – I’m not into bitter at all. :crazy2: My favourite was the bubblegum tasting one :lovestruc. My note taking wasn’t the greatest on this day, so I have no idea when either of these things happened (and my picture taking was lackluster this day as well…)

Disney, Travel

January 10, 2016 – Epcot, Finally!

Day 6 – Part One – A (New To Us) Park – January 10, 2016​

We woke up a little later than planned on this day, but it wasn’t too terrible. After waking up, we got ready, ate a few of the snacks from our stash in our room (thank you Amazon order that we shipped direct to the hotel!) and then headed out. We didn’t have to wait long for our bus, and the ride itself was fairly short. It wasn’t long before we were pulling up to Epcot – the only park we hadn’t been in yet! We arrived shortly before 10am, so almost an hour after rope drop, and the security line was crazy long! It was moving, and the wait really wasn’t too bad. Luke once again was selected for additional screening (by the end of the trip, he just headed to the metal detectors on his own without being asked, since this was now the third day in a row he was selected haha) We honestly didn’t mind, anything to help keep the parks safer!

After entering the park, we were met with this beautiful sight:

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We didn’t stop for any Photopass pictures, since we were running short on time for our first FastPass. We started heading towards Future World East. It took quite a bit longer than usual to get there, due to the marathon which was going through the park. At this point, most of the runners looked like people who were used to doing this, the people who had run a marathon or two (or fifty) in the past. It was really amazing how organized Disney is with the entire thing, the way they would corral the park visitors into one section, then change the race course ever so slightly and then move park visitors to the next section. It’s hard to explain, but it was very impressive! We didn’t mind the extra time it took to get to our first Fast Pass at all, we enjoyed watching the race and clapping our encouragement for the people who were nearing the end of a full marathon.

Once we were given the go-ahead to cross into Future World East, we hopped into the Fast Pass for Test Track (we made it with a few minutes to spare!). We didn’t have to wait very long before we were standing in front of a screen designing our own vehicle. For some reason, I didn’t think to take a picture of the monstrosity we created – just know that it was our goal to make it as ugly as possible haha…Shortly after that we boarded the back row of a blue car.

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This ride is basically the same as Radiator Springs at Disney California Adventure – and we ended up in the exact same seats in the car as we did on our April 2015 trip to California haha –

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Yes, I took a picture of the preview screen haha, we didn’t buy any of our on-ride photos from either of our first two trips to Disneyland.

Test Track is fun, and the ability to design your own car at Epcot is really neat, but I think I prefer DL’s version more. The ride just fits so well with the Cars theme, and the dark part of the ride is phenomenal! At Epcot you’re just taking turns and dealing with road conditions, at DCA you’re avoiding Mack and tipping tractors with Mater, etc. I also love the first open-air part of Radiator Springs when you’re slowly driving along the waterfall is really awesome too! Test Track is definitely a can’t miss ride for me at Epcot, but the overall theming does pale in comparison to DCA’s Radiator Springs.

After looking around at the different cars and stuff for a few minutes we decided to start heading over towards Fast Pass #2. We had time, so we stopped along the way to do a little shopping at Mouse Gear. Luke found these awesome Wall-E and Eve coffee mugs he had to have (it’s his favourite movie) so we bought those and had them shipped back to our hotel (again, I LOVE this option when staying on site). Note – not my picture, taken from a google search.

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The marathon was still in full swing, so we again had a chance to watch and cheer on the participants. By this point the people running by were just ordinary people doing an extraordinary thing, not the seasoned veterans of marathon running we had saw earlier. From where we were watching, they only had a little over a mile to go before finishing the race, so some people looked to be in excruciating pain. These people had been running for hours at this point, they were limping and bleeding, but they were still going and they were forcing smiles for the hundreds of people cheering them on. I had never been that close to the finish line of a marathon as the everyday people went by (I’ve gone to Luke’s races before, but he’s using only running 10km, so by the time we leave it’s still only the elite athletes finishing the full marathon). It was really powerful stuff to witness.

When we got to Fast Pass #2 for Spaceship Earth, there was only a 10 minute wait in the standby line. With our Fastpasses we walked onto the ride. I did enjoy this ride, but I’ll admit neither one of us were paying super close attention. We were both still thinking about watching those marathon runners. While were we looking around after getting off the ride, Luke told me that he was really inspired by watching the marathon for a few minutes, and as of that moment he realized it was something he wanted to do. He completed a half marathon a few years ago, but that was his ultimate goal at the time and afterwards he scaled back and has been doing 10km races since then (with a few 5km’s in there as well). He also decided that he wants his first ever full marathon to be a runDisney event (which is more than fine with me!). He started discussing timelines – he was able to comfortably run a 10km a few days earlier, so that was his base. He decided to aim to run a half marathon in early 2017 (at the time, we were thinking Star Wars weekend or Tinker Bell weekend at Disneyland, this has since been changed to WDW Marathon Weekend) and then come back to Florida in January 2018 so he could run a full. I was really excited about this – we hadn’t even come home yet and we had already decided on a return date! (PS: Luke is actually going to be running a half marathon in January 2017 during Marathon weekend, and we’re both also signed up for the 5km.

After this, we realized we were both a little hungry. We knew we wanted a quick service option, so we went to Sunshine Seasons. This place is great! The menu was much larger than I thought it was going to be, and we had no trouble finding things that sounded great! It also was not busy at all – and we were there right at lunch time (around 12:30). My review can be found here.

From where we were sitting, we could see that there was no line for Living With the Land, so we walked straight onto that. Ever since we bought our house I have been in love with gardening, so I really enjoyed this ride and found it quite interesting! I think I’d like to do the Behind the Seeds tour at some point in my life. (I apologize if my pictures are out of order)

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Next: More Epcot

Disney

Magic Kingdom Rides

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  • Astro Orbiter – located in Tomorrowland, offers good views of the park since you have to take an elevator just to reach the ride, but it’s a tight squeeze for 2 adults. Designed more for kids. We’ve done it once, no need for us to do it again.
  • The Barnstormer – located in Storybook Circus, kiddie roller coaster. It’s cute, very quick (only about a minute ride in total). Worth a ride if the line is short and you have time, but not one to go out of your way for. Went on it during our 2016 trip, skipped it on our 2017 trip.
  • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – located in Frontierland, one of my favourite rides in MK. It’s the wildest ride in the wildnerness! It’s decently fast, and has some decent bumps, but it’s not scary or too much of a thrill ride. We always go on it multiple times every trip.
  • Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin – located in Tomorrowland, a shooting-type ride. The laser guns are attached to the ride, so it can be a little tricky to aim. On-ride photo when the car locks up from spinning and you’re facing Zurg. I suck at this, but we always go on it every trip.
  • Casey Jr, Splash ‘N’ Soak Station – kid’s splash park. It doesn’t see much action in January. Have never stopped here.
  • Country Bear Jamboree – located in Frontierland, an animatronic show with singing bears. The animatronics are old and out-dated, the songs are cheesy  – we loved it. It’s also inside an air-conditioned building, so if it is warm outside it’s a good place to go sit down for a few minutes.
  • Dumbo the Flying Elephant – located in Storybook Circus. A classic ride that everyone has to do at least once. There are actually 2 sets that both feed from the same queue line to keep the line moving faster. The queue is also mainly inside a large building that contains a play structure to keep kids entertained while waiting.
  • Enchanted Tales with Belle – located in New Fantasyland (NF). A cast member playing Belle tells the story of Beauty and Beast, picking kids from the audience to play different characters and use props. It’s actually pretty cute, I would do it again.
  • The Hall of Presidents – located in Liberty Square. It has animatronics for all Presidents of the US. Since we’re Canadian, we didn’t care enough to waste park time on US history. (25min)
  • Haunted Mansion – located in New Orleans Square. One of my other fav’s at MK. The queue line is fantastic, lots of really great details. The stretching room is always fun – the exit is under the ballerina (DISNEY HACK!). We always go on this more than once, there are so many small details to pick up on.
  • It’s a Small World – located in NF. We went on this only once – our first trip to Disneyland. Hated it and have refused to go on since.  It’s another one of those classic rides that everyone knows about, I’d say you have to go on at least once.
  • Jungle Cruise – located in Adventureland. Super cheesy. It’s a boat ride with a Cast Member “tour guide”. The tour is full of terrible puns – but you will get to see the backside of water!
  • Liberty Square Riverboat – located in Liberty Square. A giant boat that goes on a slow ride. Not very exciting, but it holds a lot of people so the wait is never terrible.
  • Mad Tea Party – located in NF. Classic tea cup ride, always worth riding at least once.
  • The Magic Carpets of Aladdin – located in Adventureland. Aladdin themed Dumbo ride basically. This is one of the very few things we’ve never done in Magic Kingdom…
  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – located in NF.  It’s definitely a kid’s ride, but Eeyore is one of my fav Disney characters so this ride is a must for me every trip. Really cute interactive queue line.
  • Mickey’s Philharmagic – located in NF. A 12 minute 4D film. It’s fun, and definitely worth checking out!
  • Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire stage show – It was a different show on our 2016 trip, and we didn’t stop to watch this new one on our 2017 trip. The one we watched in 2016 was cute, lots of characters. Located on the stage in front of Cinderella’s Castle.
  • Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor – located in Tomorrowland. This is designed like a stand-up comedy show, hosted by Mike from Monsters Inc. The jokes are cheesy, but I laughed – especially when they call out people in the audience. We go at least once every trip.
  • Peter Pan’s Flight – located in NF. There’s some major love among Disney fans for this ride, since it was an original at Disneyland. I don’t fully understand the love – it’s cool, but not worth waiting in a line for an hour ++. The queue line is really neat though. Worth going on once with a Fastpass or first thing in the morning if the wait is under 30 minutes.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean – located in Adventureland. If you’ve been on the one at Disneyland (DL), skip this one. DL’s is about 16 minutes long, this one is only 9 minutes. It feels way too rushed, and the story doesn’t flow as well.
  • Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – located in NF. Standard merry-go-round for kids.
  • Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – located in NF. One of the newest rides in the park, so always has the longest wait times (usually an hour+). Mid-level roller coaster, very smooth but not very long. Worth a ride for sure – get a fastpass. As you come out of the Hi-Ho part, smile! You’re being filmed – and you’ll receive a copy if you’ve purchased Memory Maker. They also take still pictures at this point as well.
  • Space Mountain – located in Tomorrowland. The seats are single file (as opposed to 2x2x2 at DL). It’s worth a ride, but nothing will ever compare to the new Star Wars overlay at Space Mountain in California – seriously amazing. On-ride photo taken from the side close to the beginning of the ride always look awkward.
  • Splash Mountain – located in Frontierland. You may get wet, but so worth it. Based on a super racist old movie that Disney doesn’t even sell anymore. Smile as you go over the 50ft drop – your picture is being taken! Worth a ride every single time.
  • Stitch’s Great Escape! – located in Tomorrowland. Ugh, skip. Worst Disney ride ever (except for the Speedway). This is now only open seasonally, so chances are it won’t even exist much longer – everyone hates it.
  • Swiss Family Treehouse – located in Adventureland, just a walk-through treehouse thing. We’ve always skipped this, I’ve never watched Swiss Family Robinson.
  • Tom Sawyer Island – located in Adventureland. You take a boat over, since it’s an actual island. We’ve never actually gone over, but it’s just a walking trail. I’m told it’s a nice place to escape to if the crowds are crazy in the park.
  • Tomorrowland Speedway – located in Tomorrowland, basically the same as Autopia at DL. I hated Autopia, so we didn’t even waste our time on this one. Kids love it though. It’s just bumper cars with no bumping.
  • Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – located in Tomorrowland. Slow-moving ride that takes you on a tour of tomorrowland, a storey in the air. At one point you actually go inside Space Mountain, and can see the roller coaster. Worth a ride at least once – always short lines and a good way to sit down for 10 minutes while still seeing the park.
  • Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid – located in NF. This is designed to look as though you are entering a cave. The ride itself is basically a condensed Cole’s Notes version of the story while you sit in a constantly moving sea-shell. We go on this every time we’re at Disney, mainly so we can sing along.
  • Walt Disney World Railroad – an easy way to get around the park, saving yourself a bit of walking. MK is huge. There’s aren’t a ton of stops though.
  • Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – located in Tomorrowland. A 24 minute show with 4 stages, your seats move to the next stage automatically (it’s actually a circle with 6 sections – one for loading the ride, 4 for the show itself and one for unloading). Really old animatronics, nothing has been updated in years – we loved it. This was said to be Walt’s favourite ride he ever built, he debuted it at the 1964 World Fair in NYC. It’s a Disney ride rich in history – and that song will be stuck in your head forever. In my opinion, worth a ride, but it will take almost half an hour.
Disney, Travel

Animal Kingdom Food Information

There are some really great table service and quick service options at this park

Table Service:

  • Rainforest Cafe – same as the one at Disney Springs, cool to check out at least once (and very safe food options for picky eaters)
  • Tiffins – the newest option, very highly regarded
  • Tusker House – one of our favourites! A character buffett with Safari Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Mickey. Click here for our 2016 review, and here for our 2017 review
  • Yak & Yeti – people in the Disney community rave about this place, but we haven’t tried it yet

Quick Service:

  • Flame Tree BBQ – Ate here on our 2017 trip, shared a plate of fries with pulled pork and cheese – the cheese was liquid, but it was not bad! Review can be found here.
  • Harambe Market – I’ve heard great things!
  • Restauantosaurus – has a “toppings” bar similar to Peco’s Bills at MK. Basic burgers and fries place.
  • Satu’li Canteen – new in Pandora, offers healthy beef/chicken/tofu bowls
  • Yak & Yeti quick serve – Ate here on our 2016. Gross. Just don’t. Review can be found here.

Other:

  • Nomad Lounge – a lounge/bar offering small plates and an extensive drink menu – we loved it.

There are also no shortage of places to grab snacks. This is the only park where you can get a Dole Whip with a shot of coconut rum (or dark rum if you prefer). This is one of Luke’s can’t-miss snacks (the pineapple and coconut flavours work so well together!) You can see a review here.

It’s important to remember that whenever you order a drink at any location in this park, you will be given paper straws (which are super annoying).

This park is extremely close to Animal Kingdom Lodge, which actually has some amazing food options. It’s well worth the short bus ride over to check out some of them.

Disney, Food Review

Intermission Food Court – January 12, 2016

Intermission Food Court (again) – January 12, 2016​

After we finished up our Tamu Tamu snacks, we stopped for some more Photopass pictures, meet Baloo and King Louie, went on Expedition Everest (twice), then ended our day at It’s Tough to Be A Bug. We stopped to use a snack credit on a raspberry lemonade – which was way too sweet. We then said our good-byes to the Disney Parks, and caught a bus back to All Star Music for the final time. We still had two quick service credits remaining, so we stopped at Intermission Food Court once again.

Since I had enjoyed it so much the first time, I went for the pasta ($11.49) once again.

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This is listed as a “make your own pasta – choose your pasta and sauce combination with choice of Beef Meatballs, Panko-crusted Chicken, or Shrimp”. I went for the penne pasta with chicken and marinara sauce, which also came with a breadstick and a side salad. For dessert I grabbed a chocolate dipped Mickey rice krispie ($3.99) and to drink I picked up a bottle of Coke ($2.99) to save for later, and then used my refillable mug.

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Luke went for the Hot Italian Sandwich with cucumber salad ($9.49), a Mickey rice krispie (one without chocolate) ($3.99) for dessert and a bottle of water ($2.75) for later.

My pasta was once again really impressive – I wasn’t expecting much from a quick service food court in a value resort, but it was nice to be wrong :) Luke enjoyed his sandwich as well, and said he would buy it again. He also ate his rice krispie treat and enjoyed it. I ended up taking my rice krispie back to Canada with me, ate some of it but threw most of it out. It’s never been my favourite type of treat, but I had to say I tried one!

We used our final two quick service credits for this meal. Total cost would have been $34.70 plus tax.