‘Because we’re Disney veterans’ *Update 8/7: Saving the world, 1 drink at a time!

Day 2, Thursday April 12th


I really don't think I had ever been in Disney that long before without stepping foot in a park. Almost 24 hours.


We met L at the entrance to Epcot and after a painless few minutes their military tickets were validated and we were passing through the turnstiles.


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I made the girls stop for our first of MANY photopass pictures. In fact, it became a running joke of the trip that I was always making us stop for photopass pictures (ANOTHER one!?!) or had my own camera in front of my face, snapping away :rolleyes1



Sidenote: Unfortunately, I can't share our photopass pictures just yet. They are sitting in my photopass account until we come back from our June trip so I can order just one CD for the 2 trips. So I will share them at the end of this TR all at once. We got some really really good ones too!




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After admiring the topiaries for a bit, I did what I had been waiting to do for a LONG time: upgraded my ticket to an AP!! :woohoo: It was quick and painless, easy peasy. And I also got my TIW card while I was at it. Once we had done that it was off to WS to enjoy some tasty beverages and get some food--we were hungry for lunch and it was already 2 pm! We decided to high-tail it to Mexico to partake in some delicious margaritas.


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We did get distracted by some of the F&G goodies for sale before we made it there:

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Once in Mexico we headed to the Tequila Bar inside the pavillion because according to my obsessive research, this is where the better drinks were :thumbsup2


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We grabbed a table...


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...only to realize they didn't really have anything else than chips and queso to eat. So we opted to get our drinks to go! Gotta love drinking in Epcot ;)


I went with the Avacado which was delicious. So refreshing!


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The other ladies all went with the passion fruit. I tried it and it was very good too. You couldn't go wrong with either!


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Margaritas in hand, we headed out to La Cantina to get some food. We got 2 meals to share--the Cheese Empanadas and 3 tacos.


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The tacos were good, but we all agreed that the Cheese Empanadas were far superior to the tacos. I think it was the sauce and cheese on top!


(Continued in next post)
 
After our bellies were full and our thirst was satisfied for the time being, it was off to Norway for the first ride of our trip:


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Next we made a brief stop in China to get a photopass picture. Here's the one the CM took with my camera.


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By this time, we were starting to get thirsty again and nothing looked good in China, so we continued on until we spotted this:


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I have never noticed this before! So we decided to give it a try!


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I got the Hibiscus Lemonade:


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and D got the Hatian Coconut Rum punch, which was basically a frozen coconut drink on top of the Hibiscus Lemonade drink:


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Her drink was much better than mine! The Lemonade was very tart so adding the sweet coconut drink on top of the Hibiscus lemondae was a really good contrast to the tartness.




While passing Germany we enjoyed the train display being decked out for the F&G festival. See how much I'm enjoying it:


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Snow white!


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We passed by Italy for the time being as we wanted to catch a performance in the American Pavillion:


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This was a first for me (they were really good!), as was seeing the American Adventure. And now I know why that was a first. I think I took a nap during it. And needless to say, I won't be going back again. Oh well, it was a nice way to cool off and rest and I don't have to feel bad that because I dragged my kids or DH to something like that.



We decided to take the boat over to the opposite side of the lagoon, so we could head over to the Land. I can't remember exactly why we headed over there, but I know we still had some time to kill before our dinner ADR and we wanted to save the rest of WS for another day. I've never done it before, but the boat ride was nice:


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Up next: Time to SOAR?
 
Sounds like so much fun to be doing an adults and friends-only trip to Disney! That picture of you in front of the Germany's train display with a drink in one hand and a smile just says it all. :goodvibes
 




Isn't the Haiti booth neat? I think it was there just for the F&G festival... but could be wrong.

Mark got a drink or two from there, and I though the area was very pretty and relaxing.
 
Sounds like so much fun to be doing an adults and friends-only trip to Disney! That picture of you in front of the Germany's train display with a drink in one hand and a smile just says it all. :goodvibes


This trip was more fun than I ever possibly imagined! I was loving life in that picture.


Great Trip Report!! Sounds like so much fun so far!


Thanks!


So exciting that you got your AP! Sounds like a great first park day so far.


It was a very laid back, but fabulous day :thumbsup2


Enjoying your TR! popcorn::


Thanks for joining!


Isn't the Haiti booth neat? I think it was there just for the F&G festival... but could be wrong.

Mark got a drink or two from there, and I though the area was very pretty and relaxing.


It was very cool...I'm glad we stopped there. If its gone now I wonder what will be in its place in 11 days?? Something with a fabulous beverage I hope! Now I have to make sure to scope it out :cool2:
 
Day 2, Thursday April 12th



When I last left off we were in Epcot heading to:


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We made it there and obviously the wait for Soarin' was like 6347 minutes, so we did Living with the Land instead. Because we're Disney veterans, of course we don't wait in a line more than 20 minutes! :thumbsup2 And we knew that we'd be back in Epcot another day and we'd hit up Soarin' then.



Living with the land was the only thing we wanted to do there aside from Soarin' so it wasn't long before we were heading out:


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And as we made our way back to WS, I snapped this picture, wishing my camera took better low light pictures.



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But we couldn't linger and take pictures long because we had a very important date...






...with some steak!!!



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We didn't have to wait too long for a table or our drinks. We weren't going to have anything to drink after all that we had indulged in that day, but our server talked us into some sangria that sounded good. So it was sangrias for everyone!



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The Sangrias were delicious and worth the try even though we hadn't planned on it!


We all had a variety of dishes that night, but I only managed to take a picture of our apps:



the soup


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and the tomoato heirloom salad


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I must have lost interest in my picture taking at that point because that's all I got! D & I had the filet which was good and H had the scallop appetizer as her meal. They were very yummy! We all wished that we had just a little more room because we couldn't even finish our meals. We were stuffed! We used my TIW to get our 20% discount and before paying figured out what each person owed. Which was a LOT of math after a glass of sangria. :laughing: So after that we learned our lesson and decided that I would just pay for meals for all of us and we'd figure it out later and the girls could pay me back.


Disney veterans, remember? ;)





The food was good but service here that night was SO SLOW. In fact, we sat down at 7 and didn't leave until Illuminations was ending. This meant we were leaving dinner as there was a mass exodus out of the park. Exactly what we were trying to avoid.



But it's ok, because, (say it with me)...




we're Disney veterans!!!




So did we exit with the giant crowds?



Heck no! We headed back to FW to do a few things to kill some time and let the crowds at the busses die down.





First it was Nemo:


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Then we checked out the fish. And here is where I broke my first rule...I used the flash to take a picture of the frog fish! :rolleyes1 All of a sudden H is scolding me for breaking all the rules! Opps. Apparently there were signs saying that the fish were sleeping so please don't use a flash. I truly didn't see the signs. I Guess they put those up at night. Hey, even Disney veterans can make mistakes, right? At least the picture turned out good:



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Before we got kicked out of Epcot for using flash photography, we headed out of the Seas. On the way we saw this cute rabbit:


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And since there was no wait, we decided to stop for a ride here to let the crowds clear out even more:



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One last picture...




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...And we finally headed out of the park. We had good bus karma because there was practically no line and a bus pulled up right after we got to our stop.


It was a fairly quick trip back to Pop and even though it was late when we got back to the room, we had a good time chatting and catching up before we finally called it a night.






Now that we're Disney veterans AND breaking all the rules, what trouble is up next??



 
Tsk tsk, rule breaker! ;)

I loved reading about your Epcot day. Makes me want to be back there right now!
 
I'm finally here. I am so behind on TRs and PTRs.

I have decided that we will stay at the Poly for our next trip too. (Our next actual full week trip, not a precruise trip) I love that you can see the castle fromm the pool and I really want to be able to eat at Kona and Ohana for breakfast and dinner. I'm a little worried b/c some people love it while some people are disappointed about the darkness and browness so I think we will do a split stay with a few days at the Poly and a few days at one of the Universal resorts.

The carriage and the CMs are so beautiful:) It must be awesome to get married at Disney.


We won't wait past 30 minutes for any ride either. That is the best part of knowing that you will be back again. On Caitlin's first trip we arrived in the afternoon and went to Epcot. We waited 60 minutes for TT and after that we agreed never again. I am glad we waited though b/c know Caitlin knows what it is like to wait and doesn't mind when we skip certain things.


Did your friend in the purple not get the memo to wear her Mickey Mouse shirt that day?


I've never seen that stand in Haiti. That's pretty cool if they only have it for the F&G festival. Makes it a little more special.
 
Those poor sleepy fish! They have no eyelids you know. :lmao:
I love reading about everyone's Le Cellier dinners. It just makes me look forward to it even more! :thumbsup2
 
I'm BBAAACCKKKK!

Sorry for the lack of updating, but we were busy visiting a little place you guys may have heard of. ;)

But now we're home :sad: so it's back to TRing to get my Disney fix! ::yes::


Tsk tsk, rule breaker! ;)

I loved reading about your Epcot day. Makes me want to be back there right now!

Don't worry--I've still got more Epcot to come which should hold you over until October!


So cute! Tell us more!


Now that we're back I've got more updates coming your way! :thumbsup2


I'm finally here. I am so behind on TRs and PTRs.

I have decided that we will stay at the Poly for our next trip too. (Our next actual full week trip, not a precruise trip) I love that you can see the castle fromm the pool and I really want to be able to eat at Kona and Ohana for breakfast and dinner. I'm a little worried b/c some people love it while some people are disappointed about the darkness and browness so I think we will do a split stay with a few days at the Poly and a few days at one of the Universal resorts.

The carriage and the CMs are so beautiful:) It must be awesome to get married at Disney.


We won't wait past 30 minutes for any ride either. That is the best part of knowing that you will be back again. On Caitlin's first trip we arrived in the afternoon and went to Epcot. We waited 60 minutes for TT and after that we agreed never again. I am glad we waited though b/c know Caitlin knows what it is like to wait and doesn't mind when we skip certain things.


Did your friend in the purple not get the memo to wear her Mickey Mouse shirt that day?


I've never seen that stand in Haiti. That's pretty cool if they only have it for the F&G festival. Makes it a little more special.


Glad you're here! L wasn't into wearing the Mickey shirts like the rest of us. Crazy girl!


Those poor sleepy fish! They have no eyelids you know. :lmao:
I love reading about everyone's Le Cellier dinners. It just makes me look forward to it even more! :thumbsup2


I did feel really bad about the flash photography. But it was funny because then we started to notice all the rule breaking we were doing from then on out. It became a game.
 
Day 3, Friday April 13th

We were up this morning a bit earlier than I expected, considering we went to bed rather late. It wasn't long before we were heading out the door and to a bus. On our way, I took a few pics of the big wheel (our room was right next to this):


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Disney details:

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We caught a bus and I caught H breaking another rule:

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It wasn't long before we were arriving here:

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In case you hadn't noticed at the beginning of my update it was Friday the 13th and where else do you go on Friday the 13th when you're in Disney?


The Twilight zone of course!

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But first, since we're Disney veterans, we headed to TSM to grab some fastpasses. Our return time was after lunch. By the time we made it over to ToT, the line was still a walk on. :thumbsup2

This is H's favorite ride in all of Disney. She was in HEAVEN.

I was in...well you know where.

The drop completely freaks me out. As we were riding, H was yelling as the elevator was moving into the shaft, "I am having SSOOO MUCH FUN right now!" Meanwhile, I'm yelling back at her "I hate you right now!". Of course, even though we were riding on Friday the 13th, we didn't plummet to our death and made it off safely. WHEW!

Since I made it off I managed a picture:

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And then girls talked me into going again! As much as this ride freaks me out I do really love riding it. Also, our first ride picture didn't turn out that great and we wanted to get a good shot of us riding. So, we braved visiting the twilight zone a second time. Not only did we make it back unscathed, but we scored an awesome ride picture to boot!

I'm waiting on my photopass cd, now so I'll have to share the picture with you once I get it.

After our 2 drops of terror, we grabbed a coffee. Here's proof we made it off:

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Next we headed over to RnRC. This was my very first time riding this ride. That's because when I visited when I was younger it wasn't there yet. And since we've been going with the kids, they were too short to ride and I'm too much of a chicken to ride by myself, so DH and I have always skipped this one.


I screamed my head off like a little girl but this ride is so much fun! H and I even managed to get the very front row :eek: which made me nervous, but it was worth it! I think it may be my new favorite ride.


Next, we made our way back to the center of the park and we stopped to check out the bakery next to the villian's store. I took a picture of these:

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because D absolutely hates when people walk around eating Turkey legs at Disney.


We did the GMR and then headed over to Star Tours.

Before we got in line, we saw lots of younglings being trained:

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I hadn't been on Star Tours since they had refurbed it so I was excited to ride!

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Ready to go!

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I love the new version of Star Tours! The simulator didn't make me too sick, but I definitely couldn't ride it more than once! :sick:


Next we had lunch at Pizza Planet. We split 2 meals which ended up being the perfect amount of food for the 4 of us. I got a beer and my total was $6.66.

And it was Friday the 13th.

FREAKY!

Even the CM that rang me up noticed and made a comment.


(continued in next post)
 
After lunch it was almost time for TSM! We made our way in that direction through the streets of America because we were looking for something specific. A photo op that none of us had done before. And who can pass up a good photo op?? Do you know what we were looking for?



Not this:



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While searching, I found this building:


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It's my last name, so of course I had to have my picture in front of it! I've never noticed this building before. I just love it when you discover new things at Disney!! (Oh and now that I've told you my last name, it would probably be a good time to make sure that none of you are stalkers. So you aren't, right?!? :laughing:) I wonder why this building is named this. Anyone know?





But as fun as finding a building with your name on it is, we still hadn't found what we were looking for.




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Still not it!






Finally we turned a corner....





.....and success!!









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After singing in the rain, we headed over for our midway ride.


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This was D's first time riding. She was excited:


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Our scores:


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Obviously I was not scoring up to par that day because D was close behind me and it was her first time riding! I blame the beer I had at lunch :rolleyes1



We rode the Backlot Tour and then walked through One Man's Dream (which was my 4th first of the day, in case you're keeping track!).

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A picture of the original Mickey Mouse club:



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Why you ask?


Because I'm actually related to one of them in this picture.


Annette Funicello. She's the person in the middle, but I'm sure you all already knew that because she's oh-so-famous.


That's right, that means--I'm practically famous! ;) But alas, no body recognized me while we were there, which I'm ok with. I wouldn't want my vacation to be interrupted you know?


In an effort to stay on the down low, we moved on.



Here's H with her favorite ride:


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I'd like to go here one day:


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New fantasyland ride model:


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Afterwards, we decided that we would head back to POP and relax for a couple of hours. We had big plans for the evening and we didn't want to be too tired!
 
Welcome back! Now I can't wait to hear about both trips!

Loved your updates today. The weight limit for the Big Wheel had me laughing out loud in my office. :goodvibes
 

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