WDW sisters trip! - Day 7

Waaaaaah -- today was our final day at Walt Disney World and we were sad, but determined to get the most out of it!! Shannon and I started the day as usual, waking up, getting ready, and catching the 8:30 am bus to Magic Kingdom from our super-close bus stop.

When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom, we headed over to Tomorrowlad where we rode Buzz Lightyear (we were getting pretty good at finding high-scoring targets on this game!). Next, we rode a nice relaxing favorite: the Peoplemover.

After a cool slow-paced tour of Tomorrowland, we wandered back to the central plaza to look at the castle. Usually the walkway underneath the castle is closed, but this morning it was open so we passed through to admire the pretty Cinderella murals.

Next, we visited the Haunted Mansion (I love this ride!) then stopped for a Dole Whip to refuel. We visited the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean (classics) before catching a quick little lunch at Pecos Bill’s Café.

After lunch, we rode Big Thunder Mountain then hopped on the Disney Railroad at the Frontierland station. We relaxed and rode the train around the park once before wandering back to Tomorrowland for another spin on the Buzz Lightyear ride (our scores were great!). By this time it was about 1 pm and we took a bus back to the hotel for our regular mid-afternoon break (these breaks were a good idea).

Around 1:30 pm, we set back out to our final park visit of the trip: EPCOT of course! We rode Spaceship Earth again (such a relaxing and interesting ride). Next, we checked out Innoventions and rode the Sum of All Thrills -- a ride that uses a Kuka robot to create a virtual roller coaster than you design. Our roller coaster (known as the “Slippery Phantom”) was a little lame because I didn’t want to go upside down, but the ride itself was pretty cool!

Shannon and I ventured out to the World Showcase and visited Mexico to ride the Gran Fiesta boat tour (MEXICO!). We wandered around all of the countries and stopped for a Kaki Gori (shave ice) snack in Japan. This is another of my favorite Disney snacks! I love the bright green melon-flavored ice. It looks absurdly sweet, but it is just right -- and it doesn’t even make your mouth bright green!

We looked around Japan before our dinner reservation at Teppan Edo (a teppan yaki restaurant). This was one of my favorite meals of the trip! I had shrimp, rice, and noodles (Shannon had the same but with filet mignon instead of shrimp). We also had green tea pudding and ginger chocolate cake for dessert. Such a fun and delicious dinner! We wandered the Mitsukoshi shop to pick up some last-minute souvenirs before heading to Canada where we watched Illuminations.

EPCOT was open until midnight tonight so we shopped for souvenirs and visited Germany where we tried a little wine flight (apple wine, Riesling, and ice wine -- all good!). In Norway, we rode Maelstrom again and took our time as we headed to the exit. We were back at Coronado Springs around midnight -- wah! Shannon and I packed a little and prepared for our departure tomorrow.

The next day, Shannon headed out to the Magical Express early (her flight was changed by the airline a few weeks before the trip so she left earlier than me) and she was on her way back to California. I visited Downtown Disney in the morning and ate a very tasty veggie sandwich at the Earl of Sandwich before heading back to the hotel to grab my bags and catch the Magical Express to the airport.

This was such a fun trip and everything worked out very well for Shannon and me -- we had great weather, low crowds (we barely needed to use fast passes to bypass lines), good travel mojo, a great hotel (minus the nachos at Pepper Market), which all combined to a great vacation! I had a really nice time traveling with my sister and I know we should try to take some more sister-trips in the future. I also came back to DC with a lot of souvenirs! Most of the things I bought were gifts, but I came back with two EPCOT t-shirts, a cookbook, CD, Christmas ornaments, and pins! We are already thinking about planning an entire family trip back to Disney World some time in November of 2013, woo-hoo!

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!

WDW sisters trip! - Day 5

Wow, it was already the fifth day of our Disney trip -- time flies in the happiest place on earth! Today was our first day at Hollywood Studios (Formerly MGM) and we woke up as usual to catch a bus at 8:30 am. We arrived right as the park opened and headed straight for the Toy Story ride. When Carlos and I visited last year, this ride was SO crowded that we never tried it, but Shannon and I went straight on without a line whatsoever. The ride was really fun -- kind of like a 3D midway game in a moving car. We also picked up fast passes to ride again later (this ride is so popular that fast passes often run out by the afternoon!).

We wandered over to the fake Mann’s Chinese Theater to ride the classic Great Movie Ride. As per tradition, in the Alien scene, the xenomorph in the ceiling drooled on me (not Shannon this time!). This is a fun ride, but it might need a little update.

Next, we went on Star Tours. This ride was very recently updated and I thought it would be stupid and have Jar Jar Binks in it now (I hate him), but it was actually really cool! C3PO is your pilot and there are TONS of different endings and planets that you can go to -- this time we went to Hoth, the ice planet.

We needed a little breakfast so we found the elusive Writer’s Stop café where we ate a delicious carrot cake cookie sandwich filled with cream cheese frosting -- it was so good (especially with milk) and made a perfect breakfast.

We headed over to the Tower of Terror and rode that (woosh, those drops are intense!) followed by my first ride on the Rockin’ Roller Coaster. This one goes upside down so I was a little worried about it, but it was very fun! We needed another snack after that so Shannon found another dill pickle to tide her over (pickles are another Disney tradition).

Since we were in the neighborhood, we rode Toy Story again using our fast passes -- they were really useful because the line for this ride was getting long. After this ride, we picked up another set of fast passes to use later!

We walked around the back of the Studios, Shannon posed for a picture with Mike from Monsters Inc. and we snacked on some Mickey-shaped licorice. Next, we went to see the Muppets in 3D -- this is another classic!

Feeling hungry for lunch, we ate some tasty pizza at Pizza Planet (it was really crowded here!) before riding Star Tours again -- this time we went to the Wookie planet!

We rode Tower of Terror again followed by our third and final time on Toy Story Mania before boarding a bus to return to the hotel for a little half-hour break.

Around 5 pm, we bussed it over to EPCOT for our dinner at Via Napoli (in Italy). We had some delicious food (prosciutto y melone pizza for me and tasty creamy pasta with peas for Shannon) here. Trying not to stuff ourselves too much, we had a dessert party to get to over in the Magic Kingdom!

After dinner, we zoomed over to the Magic Kingdom via monorail (we had plenty of time) to check in for the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party at 8:15 pm. This was a REALLY cool reservations-only party where you get to sit with a great view of the castle to see the fireworks show and eat tons of desserts! The desserts were pretty good and they had milk to drink -- bonus! Our table was also the best of them all because we were right in front of the balcony with a great view of the castle.

We enjoyed the fireworks show, then headed out right when it finished to try and beat the masses of crowds. After an easier than expected exit, we lined up at our bus stop and caught a bus back to our hotel around 9:30 pm (a little delayed because some dads were starting a fist-fight on the bus!). Whew, three parks in one day. It was busy, but very, very fun!