Around the World in One Afternoon
Friday, May 18art Two
We took the boat to the Epcot Resort Area, and began the beautiful walk to the International Gateway.
We picked up where we had left off previously, by finishing up France.
By the time we finished France and reached Morocco, it had started to rain lightly, but we just switched to the waterproof camera, and continued exploring.
It was still raining when we arrived in Japan.
We popped into Mitsukoshi to wait out the rain. I love Kawaii and am very interested in Japanese culture, so this is one of my favorite stores in Disney World!
I bought this Yuzu soft drink and two kinds of candy. The soda was delicious!
By the time we left the store, it had stopped raining.
Next up was the United States! Josh wanted to do the American Adventure show, and I didn't really want to use up the chunk of time involved. In the end, the decision was made for us, because the show was closed for the day, so we just looked around a bit and used the bathroom.
I ate some of my chocolate covered strawberry gummies from Japan. They were really tasty!
After that, we moved on to Italy. We checked out all of the shops and sights.
After Italy was Germany. I loved that they had little topiaries in the train display that matched the big ones.
We checked out some more shopping and interesting architecture.
I munched on some also tasty kiwi gummies from Japan.
The last stop on our whirlwind world tour was my favorite World Showcase pavilion, Mexico! I just love the beautiful atmosphere inside, and I always sort of forget it's not really nighttime!
Once we had finished the World Showcase, we decided to do one of my favorites, Ellen's Energy Adventure.
I realize that this show is rather desperately in need of a facelift, but I still find it very relaxing, and I just love Ellen. I think she's just a very naturally funny person. When we arrived, the preshow was just beginning.
The show is very long, so I just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed. Josh, on the other hand, may have relaxed a bit too much. He laid down in the otherwise empty back row and took a nap!
After the show, we got a call from Mom. She had arrived in Epcot(Dad and Beth were a bit behind her because they had taken a nap),and wanted to meet up. We decided to peruse Innoventions together until it was time for dinner. The only big exhibit we did was the severe weather replicator.
Honestly, none of us really liked this. It was kind of boring. We continued across the plaza to the oter side of Innoventions, where we just sort of browsed a bit.
I loved the sparkly "roads." By this time, it was getting close to our dinner reservation, so we headed over in that direction to meet up with Dad and Beth.
We were eating at the Coral Reef Restaurant!
We had a little bit of a wait, so I wandered around taking some pictures of the lobby.
In a few minutes, we were taken back and seated. In our first disappointment of the night, our table was way up high, pretty far from the aquarium. Our view was both distant and obstructed by other guests. We looked over the menu, and placed our drink orders. I ordered a cherry Sprite, which came in a pretty blue glass.
The bread came out, and it was pretty good. A little harder than was really preferable, but it tasted good.
We ordered, and our entrees came up quickly. Beth and I both ordered the Seared Chicken Breast. I am not a picky eater, but this was not good. The chicken tasted like the grilled chicken from KFC, and the spaetzle reminded me of a Lean Cuisine microwave meal. It was mostly tasteless, with some peppers thrown in so they could pretend it had flavor. Beth didn't care for it, either.
Dad got the Lobster Orecchiete Pasta(basically a lobster mac n cheese). He didn't love his, either. He said he didn't taste the lobster at all.
Josh had the Seasonal Catch with a side of the Rustic Seafood Stew. He did not like either one of them.
Mom had the Grilled New York Strip, which she did like in a "it's pretty good" kind of way.
All in all, we really, really did not like the food here. It was our least favorite retaurant of the trip, and for me, became only the second Disney restaurant that I flat out don't like and would never go back to(the other is the Whispering Canyon Cafe). On top of the unpleasant entrees, it was insanely loud in there. You could barely carry on a conversation. The big draw is supposed to be the aquarium tank, but we couldn't see it that well and certainly couldn't take good pictures. I didn't really have high expectations going in because I don't like most seafood, but I was still disappointed.
Anyway, dessert came out next and was a good bit better than dinner. We all had either the Chocolate Wave(which was excellent) or the Creme Brulee(which was average).
One of the tables near the front had recently been vacated, so I ran over there to take a few pictures. Only this one really turned out.
It was almost time for Illuminations, so we walked over to the World Showcase to find a spot. We ended up right in front of the Karamell Kuche store.
We really wanted to take advantage of all the caramel-y goodness, but were still full from dinner. The park was closing soon, however, so we sent Josh over to check if the store was still going to be open during EMH. It was! Yay for caramel after the show! Soon the lights went down, and the fireworks started.
I love these fireworks! They're just so big and flashy and sparkly, and I was very happy with the spot we had. As soon as they were finished, it was time for Extra Magic Hours!
Caramel and Mickey Bars, Dude!
Friday, May 18: Part Four
As soon as Illuminations was over, we ran straight to Karamell Kuche for some yummy, caramel treats.
We got a chocolate-covered pretzel with caramel drizzle
And plain and chocolate-covered caramels.
While some of the others took a bathroom break, I took some nighttime shots of Germany.
We then to decided to go over to Future World, were Beth got one of her favorite chocolate-covered bananas and Josh enjoyed his very first Mickey Bar!
He really liked it, so I don't know why he was making such a solemn face! Next, we rode Spaceship Earth with no wait. Here is our future:
Next up was Mission:Space. I do the Green version, while Josh and Beth prefer the Orange and Mom doesn't ride at all. Dad waffles back and forth between all three of those, and I don't remember what he did this time.
After my ride, I met back up with Mom in the game area.
Once Beth and Josh were done(their wait was longer than mine),we went over to the Seas pavilion.
We also did Turtle Talk with Crush, which I love!
This little pufferfish was looking right at me!
On the way out, we noticed this funny shirt in the gift shop.
We finished up our night with a ride on Soarin'.
We then all hopped a bus back to POR. By the time we got back to our room, my feet were killing me. I have extremely high arches, and if I spend too much time on my feet, the bones in the tops of feet start to ache horribly(being overweight certainly doesn't help). I can walk if I have to, but I go really slow and Jos hates it, so he decided I would be spending Saturday in a wheelchair because boy, did we ever have a busyday planned!
The Crazy World of Star Wars Weekends
Saturday, May 19: Part One
This was to be our very last land day of our trip, and Josh and I had big plans! We were hoping to visit every park one last time. We got up bright and early and headed for the bus stop.
It was Star Wars Weekends, and we were going to begin our day at DHS "before it got crowded"(we'll see about that). Our plans were:
-Do Star Tours first thing
-Get Josh a custom lightsaber
-Josh wanted to shop at the Muppets store
-Have breakfast
-Ride Rock N Rollercoaster since we hadn't done it yet this trip
Our bus came quickly, and we were soon on our way into the park.
We arrived pretty much right at rope drop, and it already look like that! So much for beating the crowds!
As soon as we got through the gates, we booked it straight for Star Tours.
Thankfully, we basically arrived with the crowd, so the wait was still short. We hopped in line.
I parked the wheelchair outside(the store was insanely crowded), while Josh got in line to make his custom lightsaber.
He was very excited!
I noticed this interesting pin:
On the other side of the path, Chewbacca was signing autographs.
Josh paid for his saber, and it was time to move on.
Our next stop was the Muppet gift shop. Josh absolutely loves the Muppets, and he had quite a bit of souvenir money burning a hole in his pocket.
He bought an Animal t-shirt, which he loves, and also an Animal antenna topper. Next we needed to use up a couple of CS credits, so we decided to have breakfast at Starring Rolls. Let me just say that while I love this restaurant for lunch, breakfast was overcrowded, the way the credits worked was confusing and the food was just okay. I had a chocolate muffin, a banana and some chocolate milk and Josh had a croissant, yogurt and OJ.
Next we headed for Rock N Rollercoaster.
The wait was already over an hour! We decided we had too much planned to waste that kind of time in line, and joined the much shorter queue for Tower of Terror instead.
After our ride, we noticed Darth's Mall, and decided to check it out. On the way over, we ran into a photographer doing magic shots with Darth Vader. We stopped, of course!
After our photo shoot(in which I apparently held my light saber wrong), we went into Darth's Mall to check out the special Star Wars merchandise. There was some really cool stuff in there!
Having done pretty well with our plans for DHS, we exited the park and waited(forever) at the bus stop to move on to park number two.
Yetis and Hippos and Dinos, Oh My!
Saturday, May 19: Part Two
Eventually, we caught a bus over to my favorite park, the Animal Kingdom. We had three main goals there:
1) Do Kilamanjaro Safari, since we hadn't gotten to it yet
2)Re-ride our favorites:Everest, Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl and It's Tough to be a Bug
3) Eat at our favorite quick service restaurant, Flame Tree Barbecue
We arrived, and quickly got through the gates, proceeding immediately to Harambe.
The Safari line was already pretty long(which, considering it was a Saturday, was not really a surprise), so we got a Fastpass and decided to begin by checking Everest off of our list. We left Africa and soon found ourselves in Asia.
Once we got to Flame Tree, Josh went to place our order and I wheeled myself off to find a table. I ended up going quite a long way and finding us a table with a gorgeous view!
Josh soon arrived with the food. I had the pulled pork sandwich and he had the ribs. Both were wonderful as usual.
Since we were still trying to use up CS credits, we also got this magnificent fruit plate. It was totally worth the meal credit! Absolutely delicious! I don't think I will ever eat here again without getting a fruit plate.
As a matter of fact, I really want it right now!
After lunch, we had only one more goal to take care of--It's Tough to Be a Bug!
On our way out of the park, we stopped for a few last pictures.
Then it was time to say goodbye to the Animal Kingdom until next trip
Where would we stop next? Well, here's a little hint.
Graceful Creatures, Flexible People and Yummy Food
Saturday, May 19: Part Three
Our next park, in you haven't figured it out yet, was Epcot. We had three main goals here as well. They were:
1)Visit Club Cool because I love it
2)Go to the Seas and try to see the sea turtles and the manatees because I have not really seen them before
3)Eat dinner
By the time we arrived, it was late afternoon, so we had a limited amount of time before our dinner reservation. We hustled through the gate, stopping for a quick photoshoot.
We walked straight over to Club Cool to try out the soda samples.
I'm not sure if they've gotten rid of it or were just out, but they didn't have my favorite, the apple soda from Mexico. We then headed over to the Seas.
There wasn't really a wait, so went ahead and did the ride, then we went over to the tanks for some turtle(and Mickey) spotting.
I had never seen sea turtles before, so I was really excited. We also went over to look at the manatees, but you can't really get good pictures of them. This is all I have.
Since we had some time to spare, we decided to head over to MouseGear for Josh to spend up some more of his souvenir budget.
We were getting close to dinnertime, so we decided to begin moving toward the restaurant. On the way, we noticed that the acrobats and such were out in China, so we stopped to take in the show!
This lady balanced and tossed a stick with two other sticks(I'm sure they have correct names, but I don't know what they are).
This man was a contact juggler, which is much cooler in person than it looks in pictures!
Then, they all did some pyramids and ended the show.
It was time for dinner, so we made our way over to Italy and checked in.
We were dining at Tutto Italia. This was one of our longer waits, but it really wasn't bad--maybe five or ten minutes.
First up was some bread and olives. This was okay, nothing special really, just bread.
Our entrees were up pretty quickly. Josh had the Risoto al Frutti de Mare. He didn't really care for it, especially the risotto. He would really have preferred pasta.
Mom had the Lasagna alla Bolognese, and she loved it!
I had the Tonnarelli. I really did not like this at all! The pasta was too firm, the sauce was soupy and I didn't care for the flavor of the cheese. I was pretty disappointed.
Beth had the Fettucine Vecchia Roma, which was basically fettuccine alfredo with bacon, and she loves alfredo, so she was very happy with it.
I'm pretty sure Dad's was the Gnocchetti, and it was just okay.
It was time for dessert, and we decided to get different things and share them. Here is the menu:
I had the panna cotta. It was so good I didn't really want to share, but I did!(A couple bites, anyway!)
Mom had the ricotta parfait thing, which was also delicious.
Josh had the tiramisu, and the loved it.
Beth had the torta, which was also very good.
Dad had the cannoli, which was pretty good as well.
After dinner, we all hurried out of the park, so we could finish up the night elsewhere, getting one last photo on the way out.
Four Parks, One World
Saturday, May 19: Part Four
Since this was our last evening before the cruise, we decided to finish out the night with a bang, and we all hopped the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.
Our plan was to stay until closing, getting as many rides as we could under our belts. We started out with a ride on Splash Mountain, which we all love. Unfortunately, it had been an extremely long day, we were all very tired and getting wet did not exactly leave any of us in as good a mood as we had hoped. I'm being gentle here--we were all downright grumpy, so we decided(unanimously, I might add) that that was our last ride for this trip. Mom, Dad and Beth went back to the room, and Josh and I decided to do a little last minute shopping on Main Street before we headed back as well. We went through the whole line of Main Street shops, but were so tired that I only took pics in the Confectionary.
We finished up our night by using our last two CS credits at Casey's.
We had fries, sodas, hot dogs, Cracker Jack and a brownie. We actually stuck the brownie in our bag for later, but everything else was wonderful, and it put us back in good mood. It was nice to just sit and enjoy the beautiful park and see the other families enjoying themselves. It was great to end our last land day on a good note.
On our way out of the park, we stopped for one last photo shoot.
We went back to POR and went to bed as quickly as possible. We had an early day planned!
We've booked our next trip! It's going to be a Christmas-ish trip in December. I am so excited to experience my first Disney Christmas, and I would love for you to check out my brand-new(only one post) Pre-Trip report, here!
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