Tuesday, October 11, 2011

WDW sisters trip! - Day 6

Today was our 6th day in Disney World and it also happened to be the day that I turned 30! I can’t think of a happier place to turn 30 while running around and acting like a kid~ We had a fun-filled day planned, which involved hanging out at EPCOT, having a fancy birthday lunch at Le Cellier in Canada, and touring the Magic Kingdom!

As usual, Shannon and I woke up and got ready to head out and catch a bus at 8:30 am to EPCOT! Again, the park was nearly empty (we were there right after opening at 9 am) and we walked right on to Test Track, riding it twice with no wait.

Next, we went on Soarin’ and the Seas with Nemo and Friends. The Seas is pretty nice (you get to ride in a cool clam-mobile), but I really like looking at all of the underwater creatures in the aquaria -- especially the manatees and cuttlefish!

We wandered over to Innoventions (an indoor place with lots of random games and mini-rides) and checked out the Great Piggy Bank Adventure -- it taught us how to save money, woo hoo! It sounds boring, but was actually pretty cute and fun.

We were done with Future World (for now) and decided to head up to World Showcase, starting at Mexico and next visiting the bakery in Norway. Shannon and I had a nice pastry breakfast (I had a cloudberry horn and Shannon had school bread) before riding Maelstrom and then continuing our walk around the world.

In Germany, we stopped by the Werthers caramel store and picked up a little bag of fresh caramel corn to fortify ourselves -- it was really good, but there was SO much in this tiny little bag! We ended up saving some that we browsed on over the next few days (it wasn’t as good when it was stale).

We walked through Italy, the USA, Japan, Morocco, France, and the UK before stopping in Canada for our long-awaited lunch at the steakhouse there: Le Cellier!

Reservations are really hard to get at this restaurant, but we planned ahead and were able to get some for an awesome birthday lunch. Shannon and I snacked on tasty sourdough and pretzel bread while we waited for our entrees. We both had the same thing to eat: the mushroom risotto filet mignon (a specialty of this restaurant) and it was so tasty! We both cleaned our plates (almost!) and had dessert: maple crème brulee for me and a chocolate “moose” for Shannon. That chocolate moose was so cute!

After our huge meal, we waddled over to Spaceship Earth and rode it to relax and digest before taking a bus back to the hotel for our afternoon break (it was around 4 pm). Around 4:30 pm, we took a bus over to the Magic Kingdom to ride a few of the rides that we had missed on our previous visits (especially Splash Mountain). When we arrived, we were very surprised to learn that the park would close early for a “special function” (not my birthday party) and we would have to leave at 6 pm -- that gave us only an hour and a half to play! Bummer, but we were really lucky and a couple of nice ladies gave us four fast passes (for any ride) as we entered the park. Yay, that meant no lines for us so we went right on Splash Mountain and got only a little soaked.

After Splash, we visited another nearby mountain: Big Thunder Mountain!

We didn’t have a lot of time left before park closing, so Shannon and I headed to Aloha Isle and shared a delicious Dole Whip float (pineapple soft serve ice cream with pineapple juice)! I love Dole Whips -- they are definitely another Disney tradition (along with giant dill pickles!).

The park was closing soon so we walked to the bus stop and took a bus back to Coronado Springs around 6 pm (so early!). We had an uneventful dinner at the hotel (worst nachos EVER!) and spent some time playing in our pool before calling it a night. I had such a fun birthday!

1 comment:

Jubie said...

OMG I love Dole Whip! I haven't been able to find that stuff in ages. :)

Also, I am surprised you two were not waddling around the park after all that food, holy cow.