WDW Sisters' Trip II -- Day 4

Today (5 November 2013), Shannon and I set out for our first day at Hollywood Studios. We got up at our usual time and hopped on a bus leaving Coronado Springs around 8 am. We waited in line for a little bit at the entrance before we were let into the park. We first made our way to Toy Story Midway Mania (this ride fills up fast and runs out of fast passes very early). We ended up riding twice in a row because the trigger on my gun didn’t actually work the first time around. Shannon and I both like this ride but agree that it really isn’t worth the hype and craziness that everyone has for it!

Next, we wandered over to and rode the Tower of Terror followed by the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. This ride is OK, I don’t love the way it whips you around the track, but it’s fun to ride once.

 

From there, we walked across the park to ride Star Tours. I don’t remember the route we had on the ride, but this is one of my favorites at Hollywood Studios. By this time of the morning, we needed a little energy so we stopped by the Writer’s Stop Café to share a carrot cake cookie and milk.

We walked around the back area of the park in the Streets of America ands saw that the Osborne Family Christmas lights had been hung up all over the streets in preparation for the show that would start in a couple of days. We went on the Backlot Tour (which was closed during our last trip) and decided that for all the wait, it really isn’t that great, but worth at least one ride. Following our stroll in the backlot, we went on the Great Movie Ride—my favorite scene is from Aliens with Ripley fending of the Xenomorphs. At least the alien in the ceiling didn’t drool on Shannon this time!

We had a pretty eventful morning and by this time we were ready for some lunch at Fairfax Fare. We had read about the gourmet hot dogs here so I decided to try the macaroni and cheese hot dog. It was OK, but way too rich for me! We also stopped at some nearby vendors to pick up snacks: a dill pickle and Mickey head-shaped licorice of course!

By this time, we found ourselves back around the streets of America and watched Muppet Vision 3D—a classic, fun show as usual. We looked around some shops for a little while before deciding to head back to the hotel for our usual mid-afternoon break (around 3 pm).

Shannon and I watched a little TV and rested in our room before catching a bus to EPCOT (around 5:15 pm) to head over to our dinner reservation in the UK. We had a nice dinner on the patio of the Rose and Crown Dining room; I ate some tasty corned beef and mashed potatoes. We looked around the UK shops (I bought some holiday tea that we could drink from our refillable mugs back at the hotel) and also shopped for some souvenirs at MouseGear before we went back to the hotel for evening tea and popcorn (around 9 pm). We had a great day and were excited for Animal Kingdom tomorrow!

 

WDW Sisters' Trip II -- Day 3

Today (4 November 2013), Shannon and I planned to spend our entire day at EPCOT, exploring the Food and Wine Festival with fewer crowds than we encountered on our first afternoon there. We headed out of Coronado Springs around 8 am and promptly caught a bus to EPCOT, arriving before the turnstiles open at 9 am. Luckily, they let us in early (around 8:45) and we headed straight for the Land to ride Soarin’ and pick up fast passes to ride again later in the morning. After gliding over the beautiful lands of California, we walked across Future World to ride Test Track. This ride has been revamped since our last trip (2 years ago) and while it is still very fun and a great ride, I think I like the old version better (where they put your car through the rigors of safety/environmental testing).

We stopped by Sunshine Seasons for some breakfast (a slice of pumpkin cheesecake and milk for me) before riding Living with the Land. From there we took an obligatory ride on Journey Into Imagination (neither of us really like this ride, but we have to see Figment - the little purple dragon). We recovered by riding Soarin’ again (with our fast passes). Next, we rode the Seas with Nemo and Friends and looked around the marine animal tanks afterwards. We saw Big Lou the manatee and tried to find my favorite cuttlefish exhibit, but it was nowhere to be found.

 

 

After thoroughly exploring Future World, we made our way to the World Showcase to sample the Food and Wine Festival. Our first stop was the Refreshment Port, where we sampled a Dragonberry Colada. Despite its small size, this turned out to be one of our favorite snacks of the trip! We also tried a little cup of cheddar cheese soup at the Canada booth and it was OK, but very salty. We headed towards Mexico to find more substantial food in lunch at the Cantina de San Angel (I had a cheese empanada and paleta de coco).

One of our goals this trip was to ride the Universe of Energy (also known as Ellen’s Energy Adventure)--a 45-minute theater ride through the time of the dinosaurs. We didn’t catch this on our last trip and decided to try it, thinking that it might be gone by the time we visit again in the future (it is one of the older, less popular rides in Future World). Well, after our tasty Mexican lunch, we attempted visit this ride and made it through the pre-show film and got into our mobile theater seats (which you cannot exit during the ride because they move along a track). We were ready to go and some punk got out of the ride, causing it to shut down and malfunction. We had to exit and the ride was closed for the rest of the day!

After that adventure, we visited the nearby Food and Wine Festival Center followed by a little trip to Innoventions. From there, we rode Spaceship Earth (another classic and favorite!). At this point in the day (around 2:30 pm), Shannon and I were feeling a little tired so we took a bus back to the hotel for a little mid-day break.

After a refreshing break, we took a bus back to EPCOT around 5 pm. We rode Spaceship Earth (again!) and wandered the World Showcase for a bit (Canada -- UK -- France) before ending up in France for our dinner reservation at Les Chefs de France. We ate a delicious dinner here (onion soup, salmon, mashed potatoes, and sorbet/gelato for me) and resumed our wanderings around the world (France -- Morocco -- Japan), visiting the shops and sights at each country.

We left EPCOT around 9:15 pm and rode the bus to El Centro (the main entrance of our hotel) where we got off to visit the resort gift shop (Panchito’s). After a fun, full day we finally ended up back at our room around 10:30 and got ready for bed. Tomorrow we will visit Hollywood Studios!

Treebert

Last weekend, on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Carlos and I ventured out to Eastern Market to buy a little Christmas tree for our place. We usually don't put up a tree at home because we travel during Christmas, however this year we really wanted to have a little tree around to look at.

There were lots of options at Eastern Market and we decided to buy a cute little Fraser Fir that we call Treebert! Carlos carried him home and we gave him (the tree, not Carlos) water right away. We strung some colorful lights on Treebert and decorated him with all of our ornaments and it was a perfect fit! Most of our ornaments are souvenirs from our travels around the world (we try to bring an ornament home to commemorate each trip) so it is nice to reminisce about our trips while looking at Treebert.

Yes, that tree topper is an agouti and yes, he has "drunk eyes" just like the drunk angel that tops our tree at my parents' house!

We leave for Washington state on 17 December and we will be gone for 12 days so we aren't too sure what to do with Treebert when we leave. Maybe we can fill up the tub and stick him in there for the duration of our trip...

WDW Sisters' Trip II -- Day 2

 

(this was the "logo" for our Sisters' Trip II that I made stickers of for our trip journals)

We started our first full day in Walt Disney World (3 November 2013) bright and early, leaving the hotel around 8 am and arriving at the Magic Kingdom about a half hour later. We watched the welcome ceremony and made our way to the Main Street bakery to get some coffee (I had a cinnamon dolce latte). Next we wandered over to Tomorrowland in search of a breakfast pretzel (but the pretzel shop didn’t open until 11 am so we crossed the main hub into Adventureland.

We rode the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. After those classics, we rode my favorite fast ride in the Magic Kingdom--Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We next wandered around Frontierland and Liberty Square (we bought some Mickey head-shaped licorice pieces in a shop there) before making our way to the Haunted Mansion. Because it was still pretty early (maybe around 10:45 am at this point), we walked to the new Be Our Guest Restauurant to see if there was a line for lunch--and it stretched as far as the eye could see. NOPE!

 

We rode It’s a Small World and followed that quiet little cruise with lunch at Columbia Harbor House. We found a really nice little table upstairs near a window where we could people-watch while eating lunch (shrimp, coleslaw, and fries for me).

We attempted to ride the Liberty Belle boat that departed at noon, but it was broken so we were out of luck for now. To console herself, Shannon had her first dill pickle of the trip! We caught the train in Frontierland and rode it to Main Street where we toured the shops in search of souvenirs. After a while, we hopped aboard the train again and headed back to Frontierland where we rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with Fast Passes we secured earlier in the day.

 

Feeling a little hot (it was pretty sunny out that day!), we stopped by Aloha Isle to eat the first Dole Whip of the trip! After our snack in the shade, we ventured over to Tomorrowland and had a relaxing ride on the Peoplemover. Finally, the Lunching Pad was open and we were able to snack on a sweet cream cheese-filled pretzel (Shannon wasn’t a big fan of this one, preferring the jalapeño cheese pretzel). We toured around Fantasyland, enjoying all of the new scenery there before seeing a Philharmagic show.

 

 

 

At this point in the day (around 5:30 pm), we decided to hop over to EPCOT for our dinner in Germany (we hadn’t eaten here before and were very excited to try a meal at Biergarten!). We rode monorail black from the Magic Kingdom to the Transportation and Ticket Center and from there we rode monorail orange to EPCOT.

We tasted the new drinks at Club Cool (my favorite was Melon Frosty) before riding Living with the Land. At that point, we made our way around the world showcase to Germany where we had dinner reservations at Biergarten for 6:10 pm. We had a very lovely buffet dinner (one of my favorite meals from the trip!) where my favorites were mushroom soup, pretzel rolls, tomato salad, cheese assortment, and Bavarian cheesecake. Shannon also was called to the stage to participate as an Alpine bell ringer--she did a nice job!

 

 

 

  

After our time at EPCOT, we walked to the nearby Boardwalk hotel to catch a bus to Downtown Disney (~8 pm). We browsed lots of stores and decided to make our way (via bus) back to our hotel around 10 pm--this was quite a long, but fun day!