WDW Sisters’ Trip II -- Day 8 (final)

For the final day of our epic Sisters’ WDW trip II (9 November 2013), Shannon and I had big ambitions to start the day early and stay out late. We started off by taking the 7:30 am bus from our hotel to Hollywood Studios where we stood in line for a little bit before heading off with most of the crowd towards Toy Story Midway Mania. This ride is pretty fun, but intense if you are trying to get a high score!

Next we backtracked to the Tower of Terror. I noticed on this ride that when you finish falling and the elevator reaches the ground floor, if you look behind the car there are lots of props from Twilight Zone episodes (the ventriloquist dummy was especially creepy-looking). After Tower of Terror, we had breakfast at the Starring Rolls café, where I had an éclair and iced coffee. 

Shannon and I next took a tour on the Great Movie Ride (fortunately the ceiling alien didn’t drool on Shannon again!). From here we took a ride on Star Tours before wandering around the Streets of America again—we were on a mission to find the famous purple cat (a Halloween decoration hidden amongst all of the Christmas lights) and baby Sinclair from the Dinosaurs TV show. We were successful in finding both of them!

We took another break by touring around the One Man’s Dream exhibit before foraging for some lunch at the Backlot Express (I had a tasty cheeseburger, water, and pumpkin cupcake for dessert). At this point, we decided to head back to the hotel to recharge, have some tea in our refillable mugs, and nap before the night ahead.

We took a bus to EPCOT around 4:15 pm and promptly rode Spaceship Earth. We seem to really like the easy-going slow rides because we next visited the Living with the Land ride before heading back out to the craziness of the Food and Wine Festival. We drank some delicious fresh watermelon juice from the Terra booth and enjoyed another silky coconut ice from China. 

Like our last Sisters’ Trip two years ago, our final dinner was at Teppan Edo (which Shannon and I both love)—I had scallops, noodles, rice, green tea, and green tea soft serve ice cream! We burned off some dinner calories by wandering around World Showcase before meandering back to Future World to ride Spaceship Earth for the last time. From there we planned to visit the last park of the trip: Magic Kingdom.

We traveled via monorail to the Magic Kingdom and walked over to Tomorrowland to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Peoplemover. We took a spin on the Tea Cups and rode the Little Mermaid ride. Next up, we visited the Haunted Mansion, followed by a popcorn break.

Next we wanted to ride some of the mountains. First up was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad followed by Splash Mountain (we got pretty soaked by those dumb water cannons!). We relaxed by visiting the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jingle Cruise (the décor of the Jungle Cruise was recently changed to fit a Christmas theme and I was really glad that we got to experience this—the skippers all wore Santa hats too!).

We shared one final Dole Whip before making our way back to Main Street to wander the souvenir shops before catching our bus back to Coronado Springs—we were in the parks until 1 am!

Shannon and I had a really great time on this trip and I was really glad that we had the chance to see some things that we had never seen before in WDW (Osborne Lights—though not turned on!, Jingle Cruise, Food and Wine Festival, MK castle cloaked in X-mas lights). Although the Food and Wine Festival was really fun, I don’t think I would visit again during this time of year—the crowds are just too intense and there are far too many drunk people around. I think Shannon and I agree that we would return during the same time of year that we visited on our last trip: mid-September. Although it is a little warmer than in early November, the crowds are some of the lowest of the year so the experience is a little more relaxing (and you just hop onto any ride that you want!). It’s almost been a year since this trip—sorry for the long break in posts...I still have to post about Australia and more México stuff. Shannon, when should we plan our next Disney trip? Hehehehe

WDW Sisters' Trip II -- Day 7

We had grand plans to eat around the world today (8 November 2014): in other words Shannon and I were headed to EPCOT to enjoy the 2013 Food and Wine Festival! We were up and at the bus stop catching a bus to EPCOT around 8 am. Upon arrival we had a short wait before opening (we were the first in our line and the nice ladies behind us enjoyed my pretzel necklace and our map of the food stalls in World Showcase). Our first ride (as is our usual plan) was Soarin,’ which we rode and retrieved fast passes upon exit. Next we raced across the hub and rode Test Track (another fast-paced but really fun ride that we usually ride immediately after Soarin’).

Needing a little break (already?) we stopped at the Fountainview Café, which has become one of the recent outposts of Starbucks in the Disney Parks. With our coffees in tow, Shannon and I made our way back to the Land pavilion to enjoy a light breakfast of strawberry shortcake at Sunshine Seasons. By now it was time to use our Soarin’ fast passes so we went to fly over California followed by another of my EPCOT favorites: Living with the Land. We enjoyed our calm boat ride and decided to have another relaxing trip, this time on Spaceship Earth.

After that, Shannon and I decided to attempt to ride the Universe of Energy ride again. If you don’t remember, we tried to ride this three days ago on our trip, but we were foiled by some lame-o who disembarked the ride after the last call was made, shutting everything down for the rest of the day! We braced ourselves to watch the pre-show movie (again!) and we were finally successful in riding the full ride—it was pretty nice, but soooo long (over 45 minutes) so make sure you have the space in your day for that.

After our Universe of Energy accomplishment, Shannon and I headed to the World Showcase to visit the Three Caballeros boat ride in Mexico (another favorite!). Visiting with Donald and friends was fun and after that we walked to Norway to see some trolls on the Maelstrom ride. Staying in World showcase, with a couple of boat rides under our belts, we decided to start eating our way around the world! We began by visiting the China food booth where we shared a coconut silky spun ice (with fortune cookie). This turned out to be one of my favorite treats from the Food & Wine festival (we even came back tomorrow for another sample). Next we tried the cheese plate from the Cheese booth (how aptly named!). It was good—you can’t really go too wrong with cheese! Following cheese, we visited Poland and tried the pierogi with kielbasa—Shannon liked this one, but not as much as the pierogis that her Polish friend makes. We next visited the Hops and Barley booth where I tried a griddled lobster tail and while it was tasty, it was waaay too small a portion to justify the steep price (luckily we used a Dining Plan snack credit). We stopped by Japan to refresh ourselves with a melon kaki gori (shaved ice) and by this time is was...lunchtime! We ate at the Katsura Grill in Japan and I had a nice teriyaki chicken with rice, green tea to drink, and green tea ice cream for dessert.

After lunch (and eating around the world), Shannon and I were pretty stuffed and ready to leave EPCOT for the day so we took a Friendship Boat to Hollywood Studios. Upon arriving at Hollywood Studios, we wandered through the souvenir shops lining the main streets before making our way to Star Tours for a “leisurely” ride through space.

We were pretty lucky with this trip in that we were able to see the parks decked out in Halloween/Thanksgiving decorations (at the start of our trip) and Christmas decorations (at the end). Tonight was the first time that the famous Osborn Family Lights would be lit at Hollywood Studios, so we made our way to the Streets of America for a look at the lighting ceremony. Shannon and I snacked on a jalapeño cheese pretzel while waiting for the lights. We waited...and waited...and waited...and finally we had to leave before the lights were turned on in order to make our dinner reservation at the Boardwalk.

We took a boat to the Swan and Dolphin hotels (and saw some of the Osborn lights from the boat) and walked to the nearby Boardwalk, making our reservation at Kouzzina just in time! This was a new restaurant for both of us and it was pretty good. I had the California fruit bomb wine flight, short ribs with feta mashed potatoes, and no-sugar cheesecake for dessert.

The Boardwalk has a walking path to EPCOT so we wandered over there and meandered around the World Showcase for a bit before stopping to buy some souvenirs at Mouse Gear (one of my favorite shops in WDW). We took a tranquil ride on Spaceship Earth to round out the night and headed back to the hotel via bus ~9:30 pm. Tomorrow was our final Disney day for this trip—wah!