A Trip to the Future and Partially Around the World at Epcot

Wow, it was another wonderful, jam packed day today.  This time, we headed to Epcot for our first day there (we'll return on Friday).  There weren't any morning Extra Magic Hours today, so we got an extra hour of sleep, which was wonderful.  It's amazing how much of a difference an hour can make.  Once again, we took the skyliner, only this time it was a much longer journey to Epcot.  I do have to admit, we like the skyliner better than the bus, especially because it means we're guaranteed to have a seat.  There's an added bonus taking the skyliner to Epcot, you're dropped off in World Showcase, which is a significantly less crowded entrance, so we were through security and everything in record time.

Our first stop for the day was Journey Into the Imagination with Figment.  We definitely didn't need the FastPass, as there wasn't even a stand-by line.  It was an adorable little ride and a nice, slow way to start out the day as we explored the importance of the imagination.

When we got off the ride, we found some character meet ups we were looking for: Ralph and Vanellope and Joy.  It was perfect, because we had been looking for them before hopping onto Figment.  I love Vanellope, she's feisty and blunt while simultaneously sweet and adorable.  I seriously can't get enough of her.  Ralph was a lot of fun to meet too, and it was great to see them together, especially after what happened in Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Right across from Ralph and Vanellope was Joy.  Before all the construction in Epcot, Joy and Sadness were together, but now it's just Joy.  There was barely a line (maybe one family in front of us).  I asked Joy if Riley went on a second date (if you haven't seen Riley's First Date, which is a Pixar short, you must immediately).  She told me to keep it a secret.  We also talked about Riley becoming a teenager, and I sympathized with Joy, as I work with middle schoolers.  Everyone, including Joy, acts surprised when they hear that, followed by sympathy.  I promise, it's not nearly as bad as it sounds.  Overall, Joy was a wonderful character experience, and since there wasn't much of a line, we got to spend a little bit more time with her.

While we were in the area, we decided to see Mickey since he was nearby.  He was hiding in the Pixar Shorts lobby, and we walked right up.  There was seriously nobody in any of the three lines which was perfect.  This also gave us the opportunity to see the Pixar Shorts, which was something Bryan had wanted to do, he loves watching Pixar shorts.  We watched "Get Yourself A Horse", which looks like an old fashioned Disney short until the characters pop out of the screen.  You could tell the animators were having fun with the 3D effects.  Afterwards, we watched "Piper", which has always been one of my favorites, followed by "Feast".  Personally, I liked "Piper" the best; "Feast" was a roller coaster of emotions.

From the Pixar Shorts, we went to meet Pluto and Goofy, although we only really had time to meet Pluto, so we'll go back to meet Goofy on Friday.  Afterwards, we went to use our second FastPass for the day at Mission: Space.  Since the last time I went on this ride, there have been some changes; there are two versions, a regular version and less intense version.  We opted for the regular version.  I swear I remember Mission: Space being different; more like Smuggler's Run where you're in an actual cockpit, not a claustrophobic little chair in a line next to three other people.  Of course, that was fourteen years ago, so I could be remembering things differently.

While in Future World, we decided to ride Living the Land since the line was fairly short.  This was a ride I had never been on before, so I was willing to check it out.  It's a nice, leisurely little boat ride where you learn a little bit about agriculture and how Epcot grows some of the food eaten in Disney World.  This includes new techniques such as growing the food vertically to allow for more to be grown in less space.  It was pretty interesting, but nothing too spectacular.  If you were more into that kind of stuff, I imagine you'd like it more.

Since it's the Festival of the Arts, there are some special activities going on, including a paint by numbers mural.  You get a little paint brush and cup of paint with a number on top, and you can paint 4 squares.  Even with people only painting 4 squares, they still have to put up a new mural every two days or so.  It was a lot of fun and our way to leave our mark on Epcot.  In the end, you get a postcard of what the final product will be.  This is going to be a large rainbow.

This this point, we were done with Future World for the day and headed over to the World Showcase.  Our original plan was to go to each pavilion in order and work our way around.  In reality, however, we bounced around a lot.  We started in Norway instead of Mexico because of our FastPasses for Frozen Ever After.  This ride replaced Maelstrom in Norway.  It was cute ride that retold some of the highlights from Frozen as Arendelle gets ready for a winter party in the middle of summer, courtesy of Elsa of course.  Like I said, it was cute and fun, but it definitely wouldn't be worth the ninety minute wait it had in the stand-by line

When we got off Frozen Ever After, there was only a 15 minute wait to meet Anna and Elsa, so we rushed over there right away to meet them before the line got any longer.  We got there right on time, as the line started to pick up afterwards.  I have no idea what was up with Anna, she wasn't bubbly and didn't smile in the photos.  It was super weird.  Elsa asked if we'd met before, so now I've bee wracking my head to figure out if I know anyone working in Disney.  If I do, no one has told me.  Elsa asked where we were from, and I said, "Outside Washington, DC, so a little bit colder than here."  I completely forgot we were supposed to be in Arendelle, and she commented, "Colder than Arendelle?  I'll have to go there one day."  Oops.  Elsa was much friendlier than Anna.

Now that we were done with Norway, we doubled back to Mexico.  We got some barbacoa to eat, which was delicious, then went inside the pavilion to ride Gran Fiesta.  This ride definitely needs to be updated or something, it was mediocre at best.  Bryan's reaction was, "This was why you made me watch that movie?"  Yes, that's why we watched The Three Caballeros, which we both absolutely hated.

Next, we went back to the Norway Pavilion to look at the Norse Gods exhibit.  It was quite small but still really cool.  They talked about Odin, Thor, Loki and Freya and had some amazing artifacts that are well over a thousand years old.  Disney isn't the place you'd expect to see something like that, so it was a pleasant surprise.

In Norway, we grabbed a beer and started drinking around the world (okay, Bryan started in Mexico, I started in Norway).  The beer was alright, it tasted kind of generic, but Pilsner is good no matter what.

Drinks in hand, we temporarily skipped over China so we could go meet Snow White in Germany.  She and I had a lovely conversation.  I commented on the gorgeous painting of her that Doc made, and she said she had no idea how he found the time to such a beautiful artist.  I asked her if the dwarfs were keeping the house clean with her gone and she did express some concern, saying she wanted to go back and check on them.  I said she could come clean our house if she had the time, and she said she'd love to, and she'd bring her animal friends.  I told her that I live right next to a forest, so there will be plenty of animals around to help.  It's perfect, now we wait for her to show up.  It's also worth noting that we got beer in Germany, how could we not?

Temporarily done with Germany, we doubled back to China.  Here, we waited in line to meet Mulan, who I don't think I'd met before.  I wished her a happy Chinese New Year, and complimented Mushu on the painting he did of her (he did it with his fire breathing).  After meeting Mulan, we stuck around to see the Golden Dragon Acrobats perform.  This was something I was so excited to see, as I love Chinese Acrobats.  Personally, I felt their performance was a little lackluster.  While what they did was impressive, I've seen more stunning and dangerous stunts performed by Chinese Acrobats in the past.  Afterwards, we got some potstickers and drinks nearby.  I got plum wine, which was alright.  It was definitely fortified and reminded me of port.  It was alright, but the potstickers were delicious.

Leaving China, we went back to Germany to look at some of the shops.  I especially wanted to visit the Christmas shop.  If you didn't read my pre-trip post about Epcot, that shop has some wonderful memories for me.  When I was 8, I was too scared to see the fireworks (I had issues with sudden loud noises then).  My Pop-Pop and I stayed in the Christmas shop where a wonderful cast member took us around the shop and showed us so many wonderful things.  It was an amazing moment just between the two of us.  Going back to the Christmas shop, however, it was significantly smaller than I remembered, but it was still great to revisit.

Keeping in our path around the lagoon, our next stop was Italy.  We wandered around a little bit but spent most of our time in  Tutto Gusto, an Italian wine cellar.  This was something I'd really been looking forward to doing.  It was dark and had low ceiling, just like what you'd expect from a wine cellar.  I got the Tuscan flight, and the chianti was absolutely delicious.  I took the little slip of paper with the wine's name on it so I could find it at home.  We also got some cheese and salami.  We really took our time here, sitting down and relaxing.  It's also worth noting that my phone died at this part, and none of the external batteries I brought were working, so this is where I stop having pictures.

Having spent about an hour at Tutto Gusto, we went to the American Pavilion where we walked around the little gallery there.  There was some amazing Native American artwork on display.  My personal favorite was this stunning black and white gown and the skateboard.  Both were very modern and showed how traditional artwork is being used with modern mediums.

At this point, I hit a wall.  We just sat for a while, and I didn't feel quite right.  Bryan was super sympathetic and sat with me for a while.  What surprised me was the fact that even though I wasn't saying anything, Bryan knew it was more of an emotional wall instead of a physical one, even though I didn't vocalize it or even recognize it myself.

We rested for about ten minutes before going back outside were the Disney on Broadway concert was going on.  Immediately, I recognized the voice singing, it was Josh Strickland, the original Tarzan on Broadway.  We stopped and listened to the rest of the performance.  I was so excited to hear Josh perform.  I've wanted to see Tarzan on stage for a while, but no one does it, and it doesn't go on tour.  This was the closest I was going to get, and that was good enough for him.

After the concert, we staked out a place to watch the fireworks.  We stood on the bridge between the French and UK pavilions.  I wasn't sure if it was going to be a good spot, but that's where the boats for private parties watch, so that was good enough for me.  The fireworks show, Epcot Forever, is a temporary show while they get the permanent show ready.  I was a little upset, because I loved Illuminations so much, but it was 20 years old and time to do something new.  Epcot Forever pays homage to the past, present and future of Epcot.  There were bits from Illuminations and even Tapestry of Nations, which was the parade Epcot performed for the millennium celebration, and I was so excited to hear those little bits.  The fireworks were stunning, and the technology was out of this world.  Epcot has definitely stepped up its game.

Even though there were evening Extra Magic Hours, Bryan and I decided to head back to the hotel for the night.  We were both exhausted.  We'd ridden several rides and met eleven characters (I didn't blog about meeting Pluto, Minnie or Donald).  The next two days are going to be long days in Magic Kingdom, so we decided to get some rest so we could get as much done as possible in Magic Kingdom over the next two days.

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Another Day in Animal Kingdom

Well, our adventures in Animal Kingdom are sadly done, but we had a fantastic time our second day there and definitely made the most of our time in that park.  There were morning Extra Magic Hours, which meant another early morning in the park.  Instead of going to Pandora, however, we headed over to Asia to ride Expedition Everest again.  I have to say, I was surprised Bryan suggested this, as he said when we were planning our trip that there wasn't much need to repeat rides.  This time, Bryan kept his glasses on during the ride (while I told him about a million times to hold on to them because if they fell off, it would definitely ruin the rest of our trip).  This way, he could properly see the yeti at the end, and the ride as a whole.  Definitely worth it.  I'm still waiting for that photo to show up on PhotoPass, though, I may need to contact them about that soon.

Once we survived our trip to Mount Everest, we went over to Kilimanjaro Safaris to ride that again.  We cancelled our noon FastPass for it because we had so much success riding it early in the morning, we figured that would be a better call.  We saw a bunch of giraffes again, and this time, a group of them walked right alongside our jeep.  Of course, I was absolutely beside myself.  As a whole, however, this safari wasn't nearly as good as the one on Saturday though it would be hard to top that one.  That's the thing about Kilimanjaro Safaris, you never know what you're going to get, as they have no control over the animals.  We did get a better look at the baby zebra, which was pretty exciting as well.  If you want to see the baby, you have to go early in the morning, as they don't have it out all day; they're trying to slowly introduce it to the environment.

By the time we got back from our safari, the park was open for the day.  While it was crowded, it was nothing like Hollywood Studios.  I was already feeling confident that it was going to be a better day than our day at Hollywood Studios.

We had FastPasses for Festival of the Lion King for the first show of the day, so we headed over there.  Bryan asked me if it was anything like Lion King on Broadway, and I told him that the Broadway version was better.  We sat in the giraffe section, so, once again, I was absolutely thrilled.  The show was a lot of fun.  My favorite part was when they did parts from "Be Prepared", but that's because I love fire dancers, and they had one who was absolutely amazing.  My one complaint was the woman sitting behind us.  You know when parents have small children and they overreact to things to get their kids excited about it?  Yeah, that's what she was doing, but on an extreme level that was super annoying.  Someone in her group even commented how loud she was.  Everything that happened was either, "Wow!" or "Look at that!" at the top of her lungs.  It was so annoying.  Overall, however, the show was just as fun and amazing as I remembered it.  There were plenty of acrobatics and excitement.  Plus, we got to sit, although it was early in the morning, so our feet weren't too sore yet.

From Festival of the Lion King, we went to do something I'd never done before: Rafiki's Planet Watch.  To get to this part of the park, you have to take a train, you can't walk.  This is also a way to see backstage of Kilimanjaro Safaris.  We saw the buildings used to house and tend to the animals when they aren't on stage (which isn't very often).  We even saw an ostrich wander by; we hadn't seen any on either safari.  Rafiki's Planet Watch is a conservation station.  There's a petting zoo, an animal hospital with CCTV so you can see them treat animals (they were treating a porcupine when we were there) and all sorts of little critters such as bugs, lizards and frogs (along with many others).  It was a wonderful facility, and it wasn't very crowded.

The real reason we went all the way up to Rafiki's Planet Watch was to do the animation class.  It's a free class where a Disney animator teaches you how to draw a Disney animal.  Ours was Tick Tock, the crocodile from Peter Pan.  It wasn't my top choice as a drawing, but it was still a lot of fun.  You get a paper with some guide lines already drawn on the paper.  We first learned a little bit about crocodiles, focusing on the ones you can see on Kilimanjaro Safaris, and then we learned to draw him.  I have to say, this is the best thing I've ever drawn, but that's not saying a lot, as I'm a terrible artist.  Once again, this was a lot of fun and a wonderful opportunity to sit down and relax a little.

Once we finished at Rafiki's Planet Watch, we grabbed something to eat at Harambe Market.  The food was alright.  I got the rib bowl, and it was pretty greasy.  Bryan got the chicken bowl, and he seemed to enjoy his. 

After lunch, we wandered around a little bit.  We came across the Tree of Life Garden, and we decided to walk through there.  If you're looking for stunning pictures of the Tree of Life up close and personal, this is the perfect place to do so.  This is probably one of my favorite pictures of us, and it's ironic that it wasn't even taken by the PhotoPass people.  They really should have a PhotoPass person down there, but they don't for whatever reason.  Oh well, there were some people down there willing to take pictures of us.  Like I said, this was also the perfect place to really see all the animals and detail carved into the Tree of Life.  Most people, however, just keep walking and don't even give it the time of day, which is a shame.  Make sure you check it out.

From here, there were a few more characters we had yet to meet down in DinoLand, USA, so we headed down there for a little while.  There were some spots on my photo mat I had yet to fill.  At first, we just meant to meet Scrooge McDuck, but Launchpad (from DuckTales) was there too.  He typically has a separate character spot, and we didn't plan on meeting him.  We weren't going to complain if he was there.  From there, we went down to meet Donald Duck, who was all dressed up for his DinoBash that he's putting on.  This is a different theme from last time I was in Animal Kingdom 14 years ago.  Then, it was Mickey and Minnie's Dino-something, I don't remember what.  Now, however, it's Donald putting on a dinosaur themed celebration.  It's also worth noting it's because dinosaurs are related to birds.  Donald was quite proud of his celebration.  For us, however, this part of the park screamed "theme park", especially near Primeval Whirl.  There were even theme park games.  It was loud, hot and with very little shade, so we were glad to get out of there.

Next, we had our next FastPass for Finding Nemo the Musical.  Neither of us remember getting the FastPass for this, but we weren't complaining.  Since we had FastPasses, we were seated three rows back from the stage and right along the thrust part (the stage sticks out for the actors to use).  I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, and I had a little bit of a hard time getting into this show.  A lot of that stems from the fact that Finding Nemo isn't historically a musical, so it was weird seeing all of it put to song.  Additionally, it was the entire movie in just 40 movies, so it was all super rushed.  With Festival of the Lion King, however, they were simply performing highlights from the movie, not trying to do the entire movie in half an hour.  It was another great place to sit down and relax, and the costumes were absolutely amazing.  I would check it out if you haven't seen it, but I'm not sure if we would do it again.

We had one more character to meet: Goofy.  He's hidden in DinoLand, USA and isn't out all the time.  This was one of my favorite character interactions.  Goofy called me bossy, and when I told Mom, she said it must be someone I know playing him.  I simply pointed out to Goofy that when he signed our photo mat in the middle, it didn't work, so he might want to try it again.  We also talked asked Goofy about the 100 pound mallet used for the strong man competition where he was.  He tried picking it up, but it was too heavy, so he's going to try again another day.  I asked Goofy how we should pose, and this was his suggestion.  I love this pose.  You should definitely make sure to ask characters how to pose, as they might have some fun suggestions that will give you some awesome pictures such as this.

Now it was time for last and most anticipated FastPass of the day: Flight of Passage.  This ride was absolutely ridiculous, and it makes sense why people waited so long for it.  On this ride, you link up with Avatar to ride a banshee.  There's a lot of prep work before you get there, first you get directions, then you get your Avatar, then more directions before you finally get on the ride.  You ride this thing that's like a bike that you're strapped into.  You put on 3D glasses, and a giant screen appears in front of you.  You dip, tilt and move as if you're actually on the banshee, and you can feel it breathing in front of you.  It was absolutely amazing.  There were times I thought we were in trouble.  I will say one thing, they warn you a million times if you have motion sickness, you probably shouldn't ride this.  I'm super prone to motion sickness, but I toughed it out.  It got a little rough, had the ride been any longer, there would have been some problems. but I was mostly fine.

Since we were in Pandora, we ate at Satu'li Canteen, which was supposed to be amazing.  The food was pretty good, but it wasn't everything it had been hyped up to be.  The service was incredibly quick, however.  We used mobile order, and our food was ready pretty much instantly, which surprised us.

After eating, we wandered around the park a little and tried to decide if we wanted to see Rivers of Light a second time.  We ultimately decided not to, instead going back to the hotel for a much needed early night.  We pretty much crawled into bed and fell asleep instantly.  It was a long, wonderful day that made up for the problems of the day before.

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A Long and Somewhat Lackluster Day at Hollywood Studios

Today was our second day in the parks and our first day in Hollywood Studios.  We started by taking by new Skyliner, which was fun and quick, not to mention so much easier than a bus since you're guaranteed a seat.  On the other hand, it doesn't start running until 7:30, while the buses start between 7 and 7:15.  As was expected, the park was an absolute zoo, which stemmed from the fact that Galaxy's Edge is still the latest and greatest attraction.  We were in no rush to get into the park to get a boarding pass for Rise of the Resistance, so we weren't as stressed as the girl behind us.  She didn't get to the park until about 7:45ish, and she's all stressed because you have to be scanned in in order to get a boarding group.  She kept complaining and saying things like, "You'd think a company like Disney would be more efficient."  First of all, the park was packed, and second of all, poor planning on your part does not make an emergency on their part.  I wonder if she got a boarding group.

After getting through the gates, we headed down to Rock'n'Roller Coaster, since we weren't able to get any FastPasses for it.  When we first got in line, the wait was originally about 110 minutes, it quickly jumped to 180 and then 210 minutes.  It was ridiculous.  We waited for about an hour before deciding that it was a waste of our time, and we wouldn't make it to our FastPass for Toy Story Mania.  It was a difficult decision, because I felt like we just wasted all that time for nothing.

Waiting in line for an hour for nothing wasn't a complete waste, as we got chili mac and cheese from the small stand next to Rock'n'Roller Coaster.  It's the breakfast of champions, as we ate it at 9 in the morning(ish).  The mac and cheese was absolutely delicious, and I would easily eat it again.

From there, we headed into Toy Story Land to poke around and see what things were like.  There was already a three hour wait for Slink Dog Dash, but we have FastPasses for that for Saturday, so that wasn't a big deal.  While there, we met Jessie.  She was a lot of fun and our first character of the day.  We wanted to stick around, as our FastPass for Toy Story Mania was soon.  Unfortunately, right around when our FastPass was set to begin, the ride broke.  We could cash it in for another ride if we wanted or wait and use it whenever we wanted later for Toy Story Mania once it started running again.  We opted for the latter.  We could wait in the FastPass line, but that seemed like a waste of time, we might as well try to make the most of the time we had now.

Toy Story Land was absolutely packed, so we went over to Pixar Place where we could meet some characters from The Incredibles.  The line for Edna Mode was super short, so we decided to meet her.  While waiting in line, Mr. Incredible appeared in the window with a little girl.  He was playing around in the courtyard and was looking for Jack Jack (he pretended to rock a baby, so I'm assuming that's who he was looking for).  Edna ignored him, so he kept playing around.  We met Edna and talked about fashion and the fact that Jack Jack was everywhere.  It's true, there are little statues of Jack Jack all throughout the little courtyard area, including one in the Edna meet and greet location that looks shockingly like Auntie Edna.

From there, we headed back into the courtyard where I wanted to meet Mr. Incredible.  Rather than have a designated spot, however, he was kind of all over the place.  There wasn't a line or anything, just a small group of people following him.  I was able to meet him and talk to him, which was a lot of fun.  I asked him where Jack Jack was, and he pointed to the little statues of the baby up on the roof.  I asked if Violet helped take care of him, and he said no.  I told him I totally get what it's like, as I work with teenagers, and he felt sorry for me.  It was definitely a wonderful and fun interaction with him.

Afterwards, we headed back to Toy Story Land, as Toy Story Mania was back up and running.  The ride is very similar to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, except you have this little rope you pull on the back of your gun to fire, and you're firing at screens with different themes.  I talked a lot of smack to Bryan, saying I was going to beat him, and I ended up doing terribly, so we're not going to really talk about that.  I'm not making any excuses, but that little string you have to pull the entire ride is exhausting and a pain, so maybe that's why I didn't do too well.  I don't know, I have time to redeem myself when we go to Magic Kingdom in a few days.

While we were there, I really wanted to meet Woody and Bo Peep, but the line was absolutely ridiculous, and by absolutely ridiculous, I mean an hour to meet them.  I just couldn't justify waiting that long to meet some characters, so we didn't.  We're fine with not meeting Buzz right now, as he's also in Magic Kingdom with, hopefully, a bit shorter of a wait.

After Toy Story Mania, we decided to eat again, this time at Woody's Lunchbox.  Just like everywhere else in the park, this place was absolutely packed.  We wised up and used mobile ordering, which was significantly easier.  We simply ordered our food, marked that we were there, and waited at our table until our food was ready.  This time, we both got totchos (tater tots with chili cheese and sour cream on top), which were alright.  The food was a little dry, but it was a lot of food.  We might have been able to split a plate instead of each of us getting our own.

At this point, we were tired of Toy Story Land.  We really hadn't made it very far in the park, and we were a little frustrated with how crowded it was.  It was close to the time for our Muppet*Vision 3D FastPasses, so we headed in that direction.  We also saw this as the perfect opportunity to sit down for a little while.  The show was just as fun and silly as I remembered it being.  It might have been childish, but the Muppets are always fun to see.

From there, we did a bit of shopping at the Christmas shop (I want an ornament from each park) and then went to visit with some more characters.  The line for Mickey and Minnie was fairly short, so we visited them.  Bryan commented how he was surprised even though it was just one line, we didn't meet Mickey and Minnie together.  Animal Kingdom is the only place you can do that right now unfortunately. 

Next door to Mickey and Minnie was Olaf, so, of course, we had to meet him.  The second we went in the room, his arms were out, ready for those warm hugs he loves so much.  He was a little disappointed that he had to wait a minute while we put down our bags.  We talked for a few minutes, and he was so excited to learn it was warm outside.  I told him that he couldn't go, though, because he didn't have his personal blizzard, but then he reminded me that Elsa gave him permafrost now, so he's fine.  He doesn't do autographs, so he couldn't sign my picture frame, but that's okay.  He was one of the characters I was looking forward to meeting the most.

At this point, it was close to our dinner reservation, so we first went to the new taphouse to get some beers.  As can be expected, Bryan got an IPA while I got a hefeweizen.  What really threw me off was the fact that we could take our beers into our dining reservation next door at Sci-Fi Dine-In.

I'd read the food at Sci-Fi Dine-In was mediocre, but it was somewhere I really wanted to visit because it looked so much fun.  The tables are two across in these little cars, and they're facing this huge movie screen where you can find trailers and clips from B-list sci-fi movies from the 50s.  It was all super cheesy but a lot of fun.  The drinks were delicious, and the vibe was a blast.  We even got to bring our drinks with us to go afterwards, which is still something that throws me for a loop.  As long as you're in the park, you can walk around with your alcohol.

Following dinner, we walked around for a little bit more before heading over to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular.  Instead of being a shortened version of Indiana Jones, it shows how they do some of the stunts.  It was another wonderful opportunity to sit down and this time, get out of the rain.  They had to shorten the show a little bit because of the rain, which caused me to worry because we had the dessert package for Fantasmic! in an hour, and that's a completely outdoor show.

After Indiana Jones, we wandered into a few shops near Fantasmic!, but they were packed also because people were trying to get out of the "rain" (it wasn't even sprinkling, neither of us put on our ponchos).  I bought a shot glass for Nicholas and then we went towards Fantasmic!, the shops were just too crowded.

We paid a little bit extra for the Fantasmic! dessert package, which gave us a delicious margarita (I'm just as surprised as you are about this, as I usually don't drink tequila) and this delicious box of food.  It included some apple cake, a brownie, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate mousse, cheesecake with bobas on top and cheese and crackers.  It was a lot of food, especially given the fact that we ate so much already today.  We ended up bringing a lot of it back to the hotel and put it in the fridge to eat another day.  We also got absolutely wonderful seats to Fantasmic!, center stage, about ten rows back.  It was perfect. 

Fantasmic! is one of my favorite things in Disney World.  The special effects are out of this world as you watch villains try to ruin Mickey's happy dreams and give him terrible nightmares instead.  The show includes projecting images on large fans of water, fireworks, lasers, fog and sparklers.  It's so much fun as Mickey shows that he can control his own imagination, and the villains have no control over him.

My favorite part of the show is the end.  At this point, a steamboat comes out with Mickey dressed as Steamboat Willy.  On board is a whole collection of Disney characters showing that they've won and defeated the villains.  It ends with fireworks and Mickey standing at the top of the rock formation on the stage setting off fireworks and water effects.

After the show, there were Extra Magic Hours, but we were kind of done for the day.  We felt like we didn't do a whole lot, and yet, we were still exhausted.  Throughout the day, we talked and figured out what made it so difficult to get on attractions at Hollywood Studios.  While there are some shows, there are no filler attraction rides.  I mean, look at Magic Kingdom, if you have some down time, you have smaller rides such as Carousel of Progress or Prince Charming's Regal Carousel.  Rides like that take the burden off the bigger rides such as Space Mountain and Peter Pan's Flight.  Those rides still have long lines but you still have the option to ride the smaller ones.  There really isn't such a thing in Hollywood Studios, all of the rides are big ticket items, and the tier system there is still heavily flawed  Personally, I think they should do what they do in Magic Kingdom there, you get three FastPasses, use them however you want.

While our day in Hollywood Studios wasn't the best, it could have been a lot worse.  We're excited to be going back to Animal Kingdom today and then Epcot tomorrow.  Be sure to check back for those posts soon.

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Taking a Walk on the Wild Side: A Day in Animal Kingdom

Wow are we exhausted.  After an insanely late night last night, we had an equally early morning this morning.  Our first day at Disney World involved going to Animal Kingdom, which has Extra Magic Hours on Saturdays, which means those staying on property (like us) can get in an hour early.  Since we have FastPasses for Flight of Passage for Monday afternoon but weren't able to get one for Na'vi River Journey, we saw this as our opportunity to ride Na'vi River Journey.  Most people, however, opted to head for Flight of Passage, and when I say "head", I mean run.  I had heard about this happening, but I didn't think it was actually true.  Unfortunately, it was.  By the time the park opened, there was already a 2 hour wait for the ride.

I have to say, I understand why people are a little bit on the fence about Na'vi River Journey.  It was a beautiful ride, and the technology was impressive, especially when it came to the Shaman, but it was little more than a boat ride.  My favorite parts (other than the Shaman) were the tree spirits floating all around you, and the bioluminescent plants under the water.  It's the little touches like that that really makes Disney stand out about the rest.  Bryan and I both agreed that we wouldn't spend more than 20, maybe 30 minutes waiting for that ride, so we were glad we were pretty much able to walk right on.  Towards the end of the day, there was over an hour and a half wait.  If it were the end of the day, or we needed a break, it would have also been a wonderful opportunity for us to just sit down and take a break.  Since it was our first ride, we were wide awake, well rested, and our feet didn't hurt at all.  I still liked it, but it's not something either or us are beating down the door to ride again.

After Na'vi River Journey, we decided to trek all the way across the park to Kilimanjaro Safaris.  The line was super short, and I'd heard the animals were much more awake in the mornings.  It didn't matter to us that we had a FastPass for it for Monday.  So, we walked all the way across the park, and we're both so glad we did!  I've been on that ride three times now, and that was probably the best safari I've done.  The amount of animals we saw was absolutely amazing.  I'm also incredibly glad I had my actual camera with me, as I was able to take some stunning pictures.

All of the giraffes seemed to be out and eating, which I, of course, absolutely loved.  They were all over the place, and, at one point, some of them were just wandering around in the road, so we got to stop (our driver said that we weren't going to be able to stop on this part of the ride, but she would drive as slowly as possible so we could see as much as we could).  I, of course, was absolutely beside myself, as I wanted to see as many giraffes as humanly possible.  There were probably eight or nine out, all gathered together.  Not only that, the painted dogs were up and playing with each other, which was awesome.  Even though they're wild dogs, they reminded me of Molly and Baxter.  It was hard for me to reconcile with the fact that these wild dogs are related to my spoiled, lazy dogs.  We always tease Baxter when we see the commercial for Blue Buffalo dog food, because it says inside every dog is the heart of a wolf, and we ask Baxter if that's the same for him, because that's super hard to believe.  What was really exciting was the fact that the lions were still awake and still somewhat active.  I ended up getting some great shots of the male as he wandered around, just hanging out a little bit before bed.  Usually when I see them on the safari (or even at the zoo), they're fast asleep, and the only movement I see is from one sleeping position to another.

After our wildly successful safari (no pun intended), we were supposed to have FastPasses for Dinosaur.  But, oh darn, the ride was closed.  There were absolutely no complaints on my part about that, as that's the ride I'd been looking forward to the least.  Instead, we wandered around and opted for some character meet and greets instead.  We started with Dug and Russell from Up! Even though I'm not a big fan of the movie, it was a blast seeing them.  Russell showed off the Wilderness Explorer badges he's the proudest of, and Dug showed me his favorite spot to be scratched (for future reference, it's his nose).  It was a lot of fun, even though Bryan's not that big into meeting characters.

After meeting Dug and Russell, we discovered Dinosaur was back up and running, and since they'd had to cancel our FastPass for it before, they gave us a generic FastPass to be used on select rides, including Dinosaur, so we decided to use it for that.

On our way over to Dinosaur, we ran into the Rafiki and Timon meet and greet, so we stopped there.  It was definitely a longer wait that Dug and Russell, but Rafiki and Timon were a lot of fun.  This is one of my favorite pictures from yesterday,  Timon took Bryan's hat and decided to give it a try himself.  They were a blast, and they really took their time with us.  They talked about the dinosaurs on our shirts, we asked about Pumbaa, and we overall had a wonderful time with them.

Once we were done, I knew we couldn't delay it any longer, and we had to head over to Dinosaur.  This was the ride Bryan really wanted to ride, so we were going to ride it because he agreed to this trip in the first place.

As you can see, I'm plugging my ears.  I hate loud noises, and I bought earplugs just for this ride, but I couldn't find them.  This caused me to panic, but I was going to power through it, and we were going to do it.  The ride was super bumpy and a little weird.  Some of the dinosaurs looked pretty realistic, while others looked a little hokey (such as the one eating another dinosaur).  The part that made me scream is really funny and absolutely pathetic.  It wasn't the giant dinosaur trying to attack us, it was the flashing light from the camera.  I know, that's so pathetic, but it's true.  Oh well, I survived, so it doesn't matter.

On our way out of Dinosaur, we ran into Pluto, so we stopped to say hi to him.  Bryan pointed out that an overwhelming majority of the characters in Animal Kingdom are collected in Dinoland, USA.  There are some scattered other places throughout the park, but most of them are all over.  After meeting Pluto, we headed over to meet Chip and Dale.  I was looking forward to meeting them, as they're so adorable and  fun, especially in their little dinosaur costumes.  I mean, how can you not love those outfits!?  As expected, they were extremely goofy and silly.  We talked about how Bryan loves dinosaurs and even has a stegosaurus onesie, just like Chip.  Of course Chip loved this, and he had to show off his onesie to us.  I was surprised, though, because they weren't as flirty as I remember them being, but there are going to be plenty of other opportunities to meet them throughout the parks.

After some time in Dinoland, USA, we went to Flametree BBQ for something to eat.  I'd really been looking forward to the french fries with BBQ pork and cheese on top, and they were well worth it.  I'm even thinking of getting them again when we go back on Monday.

Afterwards, we went and met Pocahontas, but there was a wonderful surprise there.  As we got in line, we turned around, and Meeko was standing in line behind us.  This was a fantastic treat, as Meeko doesn't usually come out.  He's not a super rare character, but he's not around very often either.  Of course, he wanted to know what was in our backpack, wondering if there were any treats (we might have lied and told him there weren't any even though we did have some).  I also talked to Pocahontas, telling her I use her lesson to John Smith about how the Powhatans are fully capable of using the land on their own without the English help in my classroom (which is true).  She was incredibly happy and proud to hear that, and said it's important that we remember to respect the land.  This wasn't a PhotoPass location, so a cast member used my phone to take the photos, but they're gorgeous.  Some of them have this awesome rainbow going across them, almost like the colors of the wind.

From there, we headed over to Expedition Everest for our second FastPass of the day, and it was a blast!  It's definitely one of our favorite things we did yesterday.  The rollercoaster was thrilling and exciting, and the yeti was absolutely terrifying.  Unfortunately, Bryan wasn't wearing his glasses, so he couldn't see the yeti, but he still loved the ride. 

Then, we headed down to Pandora to explore a little bit more.  We took some wonderful photos, saw a banshee fly above us (okay, it was a magic shot), and headed to Pongu Pongu for a night blossom.  We opted for the rum version of course.  Unfortunately, Bryan spilled his, so we split mine.  Even though it wasn't very hot, it was still a delicious, refreshing drink.

Once we finished eating, it was time for our next FastPass where we got to meet the man, or rather mouse, in charge himself.  Right now, this spot in Animal Kingdom is the only place you can meet Mickey and Minnie together.  They were delightful hosts, and Minnie absolutely loved my polka dot nails and little Mickey decals.  We suggested she go get her nails done to match, and she was excited about that.  It was perfect having a FastPass for them, as there was an hour wait otherwise, which would have been insane.  We waited about fifteen minutes, if that.

After meeting Mickey and Minnie, it was about three o'clock, so we decided to get Bryan some coffee.  When we stopped at Creature Comforts that morning, I saw this cupcake, but I knew it was too early to get it, so I got it this time around.  This was the best cupcake I've ever had in my life.  It's the Valentine's Day one, so it's only there for a little while longer.  It's a chocolate cupcake with strawberry icing, little strawberry and chocolate crunchies on top and a chocolate covered strawberry.  Since I felt bad, I gave Bryan the smallest bite, but only a little one.  I could eat that cupcake every day for the rest of my life, which is saying a lot, because, honestly, I don't actually like chocolate cake.  This, however, was rich, and didn't have that weird chocolate cake taste that I usually don't like.

At this point, we wandered around a little, and Bryan bought a new hat.  I love that the first non-food related purchase of this trip came from him.  As much as he loves that fedora he wears, it's also made of wool and acrylic, so he was dying.  We found him a nice, lightweight hat that he'll probably end up wearing for the rest of our trip.

From there, we went to Yak and Yeti for our Valentine's Day dinner.  The food was delicious.  We got the dim sum basket, and then I just got pot stickers for dinner since they were so amazing in the dim sum basket.  Bryan got some sort of chicken wok, which he said was amazing too.  We then wandered around Pandora at night.  I discovered night mode on my camera, which, along with a little bit of editing once the pictures were taken, allowed for some stunning pictures like this one.  It really helped to capture the stunning lights all around Pandora.  I know it's just black lights, but still, it was gorgeous.

We ended our night with seeing Rivers of Light, the Animal Kingdom night show.  This was completely new to me, as there was no night show when we were here last time.  Since there are animals in the park, they don't use fireworks.  Instead, they use fountains of light, but it was easy to imagine what it would have looked like with fireworks. The show focused on the animals from Disney movies, along with animals in the wild, and how we should all work together as one global community.  We greatly enjoyed it, and it was one of our favorite things that day, along with Expedition Everest.  This is even though a few minutes into the show, they had to stop and restart due to technical issues, but everything was back up and running within five minutes, so it wasn't that bad.

Back at the hotel, we got a bottle of wine and some more cupcakes.  I saw this one on a Facebook group, and I desperately wanted to try it.  It's a vanilla cupcake with orange filling and strawberry icing on top.  Unlike the cupcake from earlier that day, this icing was super sweet.  It was a good cupcake, but it was easily overshadowed by the cupcake from Creature Comforts.  Bryan got a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter filling.  He said it was pretty good.  We split a bottle of wine, then we decided to call it a night around 11.  Overall, it was a wonderful first day in Disney World, and we have 7 more days to go!

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We Finally Made It!

I can't believe it, we finally made it to Disney World.  Honestly, it's hard to believe, because we've been planning this for so long.  On our last vacation in July, we even spent time then getting ready for this trip.  After all that planning, stressing and obsessing, we're finally here in Disney World.  Okay, maybe we're not actually in Disney World, but we're at our hotel.  It's after 12:30 in the morning, and we should be asleep, but we're not.  We'll just have to pay the price tomorrow.

First things first, I'm super surprised at how quickly today, and this week in general went by.  I was fully expecting this to be one of the longest days of my life, but that definitely wasn't the case.  My wonderful coworker gave me a ride to work, then another equally wonderful coworker gave me a ride to Bryan's office.  We drove his car to his friends' house, where it'll stay while we're gone, and they offered to give us a ride to the airport so we wouldn't have to Uber.  At the airport, we learned that TSA actually does find things in your bag, because Bryan forgot to take a corkscrew out of his medicine bag (oops).  Ironically, it's not the corkscrew that they had a problem with, it's the little blade attached used to cut labels on wine bottles.  We told them to just throw it out, we have three more at home.

After going through security, we headed over to Firkin and Flyer, which is a wanna-be English pub type restaurant.  It looked decent enough, so we had some appetizers and drinks before heading to our flight.  I'll be honest, my biggest concern was that something would go wrong, and we wouldn't be able to leave when we planned to.  A lot of that came from the fact that it's February, and it was perfectly plausible to get a snow storm.  As we got closer and closer to today (well, yesterday), those fears dissipated, but I was still a little worried.  Thankfully, there weren't any problems, and our flight went without a hitch.  Okay, so there was a tiny, dumb problem.  I couldn't get the dumb app to work to watch the free movies they have available on my iPad, but they also had live TV available, so I watched that on my iPad instead.  In all my planning and preparing, I can't believe I forgot to download some movies and TV shows onto my iPad for our trip.  I'll have to remember to do that for our return flight next weekend.

At Orlando airport, we grabbed our bags and headed for the Magical Express, which is a free service for those staying on Disney property.  I was also a little worried that it would take us a while to get to our hotel, but we were the second stop.  It's also worth noting that the first stop was Art of Animation, which is right next door.

Even though we did the pre-check in on the app and could have just headed straight to our room, we still stopped by the front desk to opt out of housekeeping.  My doing so, we've gotten a $70 gift card, on top of another gift card our wonderful travel agent had sent to us (it was a discount she got for our trip that was reimbursed in the form of a gift card).  So we have a little bit of spending money ready and waiting for us for tomorrow (today).  As expected, the cast members are all super cheerful and helpful.  I was also surprised to see some people walking around and hanging out even though it was close to 11:30.  I was also surprised that I wasn't tired, especially given the fact that I'd been awake since 6 in the morning and am definitely more of a morning person than night person.

Since it's nighttime, I didn't really take any outdoor pictures of our hotel, but I'll try to get some tomorrow on our way to the bus.  Our room is in the 50s part of the resort.  Each set of buildings is modeled after a specific decade.  Our includes giant statues of Lady and the Tramp, along with a 50s themed pool and large decorations, all in the shape of bowling pins.  It's a lot of fun and is pretty close to the building where we get the bus and also kind of near the skyliner stop, which we'll use on Sunday for Hollywood Studios.  Our room is wonderful.  It has a queen bed and the table can be used to support a second queen bed, which is actually a murphy bed in the wall.  It's the perfect size for us, especially given the fact that we probably won't be in the room very often.

I'm purposefully trying to keep this brief for two reasons: one, I don't have a lot to say, and two, my posts for the next week are probably going to be fairly long.  Tomorrow we head off to Animal Kingdom, and we're getting up early since there are extra magic hours in the park.  Be sure to come back tomorrow to know if I survived riding Dinosaur.

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A Valentine's Day Tribute

I'm going to warn you now, this is going to be a very mushy, romantic post.  So, you've been warned now.  I know Valentine's Day isn't until tomorrow, but since my goal is to talk about our Disney vacation starting tomorrow (I can't believe we leave tomorrow evening!), I wanted to write this post today.

I am so lucky to have Bryan in my life.  I know everyone says that his or her significant other is the best, and I know that's true for them, and I'm no different.  Bryan is the most amazing man in the world, and every single day I'm grateful to have him in my life.  We met a little over two and a half years ago, but it doesn't feel like that long at all.  We met online, and I actually scrolled past his profile before going back.  I've told Bryan this many times, and that I'm forever grateful that I went back and clicked on his profile, because that's how we met. 

I know this sounds corny, but every day we're together has been an adventure.  Even if we're sitting around watching television (we binge watch a lot of shows together), I still know we're going to have a great time and will always end up laughing at something.

The Bryan that everyone sees is goofy, funny and laid back.  He always makes me smile, and it comes so natural to him.  He doesn't even need to talk to make me laugh, he makes silly faces at me all the time, and they always make me smile.  There's another side to Bryan, however, and that's a side I'm fortunate enough to see on a regular basis as well.  Bryan is one of the nicest guys I've ever met in my life.  When I'm feeling upset about something, he goes out of his way to cheer me up.  Sometimes that includes listening to me rant and rave, other times it simply involves holding me until I feel better.  No matter what, though, I know he'll always be there to help me and hold me up.  This has especially been true since my dad passed away.  Bryan was there at the hospital with us all night, even though he knew he had work the next morning (and a huge project to work on).  None of that mattered to him.  He knew I needed his support, and even though I kept offering for him to go home, he refused.  This was a side my family knew he had, but they hadn't really had the opportunity to see it, as he's usually his usual laid back, goofy self when he's around them.  I'm glad they were able to see this other side of him, just not under those circumstances.

The past two years have been a whirlwind of adventures, laughter and tears.  I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.  Tomorrow we leave for Disney World, which is something I know he's not nearly as excited about doing as I am, but he's been a wonderful sport, putting up with my excitement and constant planning.  It's definitely going to be an adventure, and I can't wait to go on it with him.

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Our Final Pre-Trip Walt Disney Wednesday

That's right, I can't believe it!  We're just under 60 hours until our plane takes off and we head for Disney World.  It's been a whirlwind planning for this trip since May, and now we're in the final hours.  We started the countdown at over 200 days, and it's practically here.  Bryan and I just have to get through this week, which easier said than done, especially for Bryan.  He has a lot to do for work this week, so it's been particularly stressful for him.  We spent some time together last night, but we didn't really have a chance to go over any last minute plans for the day of.  I've managed to get a ride to work and a ride to Bryan's work from two absolutely amazing coworkers, and then we're going to leave Bryan's car at his friends' house (they live near the airport) and Uber from there to the airport.  It sounds complicated, but it's actually way easier and cheaper than leaving his car there for ten days.

So, I've been driving Bryan a little bit crazy obsessing over our FastPasses.  I haven't cancelled anything, but we didn't use all our Hollywood Studios FastPasses.  Since I wrote my Hollywood Studios blog post, they did change up the FastPass tiers, which I was happy about, but we still didn't get any new ones that we really wanted.  Like I talked about in my FastPass blog post, once you use up all three of your FastPasses, you can get new ones, but you have to use up both Tier 2 ones, which is a little unfortunate (but it makes sense).  I added Muppet*Vision 3D to our Hollywood Studios day and the meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie in Animal Kingdom, but those were just so we had them, they can easily be changed later on if we need.  I don't want to change the Mickey and Minnie one, but we may change the Muppet*Vision one to another time if necessary.

In terms of packing, I have a pile of stuff that's been accumulating for a few weeks now.  Whenever I think of something I need to pack, I simply throw it into the pile.  I do have a list, so when I pack, I'll go through the list and make sure I have everything.  When it comes to clothes, it's actually been fairly easy because I made all our shirts for our trip.  In the short run, this was a pain because I had to cut all the vinyl, assemble everything and iron it on.  There were some stressful moments, and I did mess up a shirt or two, but not in a way that's overtly noticeable.  I'm purposefully not posting the final products because I want to keep it all under wraps until we get to the parks.  You'll just have to check back each day either on Facebook, Instagram or right here on my blog to see what we wore and what I made.  I will tell you that each shirt was carefully chosen, and they might not match, but they follow the same theme.  Also, Bryan had complete control over what shirts he will wear.  I've been asked how I got Bryan to wear shirts like this, and it was actually pretty easy since we picked them together.  We did this before at AwesomeCon, and then we did have matching shirts (pictured to the right).  Bryan was actually the one who said, "Let's do Star Trek shirts" and picked the design, while I'm the one who made them.  It's one of my favorite shirts that I've made, and we got some compliments on them, which is always reassuring.

Up until this week, I've been avoiding looking at the weather for two reasons: I know it's going to change, and I didn't want to jinx it.  With less than a week left, however, I figured the weather would pretty much be accurate (ish), and I had to know what to pack.  To be honest, I was expecting temperatures in the mid-70s, not in the low to mid-80s.  It's definitely a pleasant surprise, especially given the fact that it's been dreary and in the 40s or 50s here (it's apparently going to be freezing here in Maryland the day after we leave, but that's not our problem).  So, that's cause me to rethink my packing list.  Previously I planned on packing pants and short sleeve shirts.  With this shift in temperature, however, I'm opting more for capris and t-shirts.  I don't want to pack shorts because it's supposed to be in the mid-50s or 60s in the evening.  This also means I'll have to bring a few sweaters to carry around in the park for the evening.  I'm definitely excited about the warmer weather because that means I get to wear sandals, but that means I want to get a pedicure in addition to the manicure I'm getting after school today.  Oh well, I'll look cute.

Speaking of packing, there are a few things that I'm definitely going to make sure I pack.  First, an unhealthy number of external chargers.  I have two larger ones (including one affectionately called "the brick"), along with a few smaller ones that size of a tube of lipstick.  I doubt we'll need all of them, but it's better to be safe than sorry.  I just need to make sure to pack enough micro-USB cords to charge all of them at night.  I also bought a tube of Epsom salt gel.  Theoretically, you put it on your feet at night, and it helps with some of the pain and discomfort from walking all day.  I have no idea if it actually works, but some of the Disney Facebook groups I'm in highly recommended it, so I thought it was worth a shot; it's not like it was very expensive.  I also bought us ponchos.  I don't do rain, I hate being wet.  I know it rains often in Orlando, and I wanted to be prepared.  Hopefully we won't need them very much, but they're better to have and not need than need and not have.  Even though I'm excited to wear sandals all week, I'm also bringing some closed toe shoes to rotate through if my feet need a break.  This is another tip I learned from the Disney Facebook groups.  I'll probably wear my sandals two days in a row and then see if I need a break from them.  In all, I'm bringing a pair of sandals, a pair of sneakers and a pair of ballet flats that are super comfortable.  Finally, we're bringing our own water bottle.  Many years ago when we were in Dollywood in Tennessee, we learned if you bring your own water bottle into a park and ask for water, they'll fill it for free.  It's usually tap water, which may not be ideal, but it's way better than paying $4 for a bottle of water.

In terms of preparation for next week, I've asked my professor for the work for next week so I can do it this week and not have to worry about it on vacation.  Unfortunately, my professor is sick, so he hasn't given me the work yet.  I still have time before we leave (the assignments for this class don't take me nearly as long as previous classes), so I'm hoping he'll get back to me by Friday morning so I can crank it out before I leave.  Fingers crossed.

When I first outlined this blog post, one of my biggest concerns was getting a boarding group for Rise of the Resistance.  I've heard stories of people getting to Hollywood Studios at 6 AM so they could get a boarding group.  At the same time, I recently heard about people who got there at 6:45 and got a boarding group that rode the ride by 11:30 AM, so I'm torn about how early to get there.  Our travel agent and her husband just went this past week and rode it, so I'm going to ask her (or, Mrs. Bobby, if you're reading this, let me know).  It's definitely something we want to ride, and, like I said before, we have an entire day dedicated to Galaxy's Edge and Star Wars stuff because we're not entirely sure how long the lines are going to be.  There are now FastPasses for Smuggler's Run, but by the time we found out, they were all gone.  Unfortunately, this means a significant wait in line to get on, but we already know that that's going to happen, so it won't be as bad (in theory).

All in all, I can't believe our trip is practically here.  It's been a whirlwind of planning, which, strangely enough, I've absolutely loved (I love planning trips).  There have been some stressful moments, but we're finally (almost) there!  Even though we started planning this back in May, I spent almost 11 months before that begging and pleading to go to Disney World.  Now, we're almost there.  I wonder what I'll ask for next...

So, next time I post about Disney World, it'll be from our trip.  My goal is to post every day after we get back from the parks, but we'll see if I actually follow through on that.  It'll all depend on how exhausted I am.  It's going to be a long, exhausting and exciting trip.

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