Around the World in 2 days - 4/7-10 - Baby giraffes and Easter Eggs

Neon Cactus

Old Run Disney Addict
Joined
Feb 10, 2016
Thanks to my birthplace and a job that had me covering a Florida territory, I've had the fortune of going to Disneyland and Disney World over 100 times each. I get asked a lot why I keep going, don't I get bored? Never! One thing I love about Disney parks is that I always seem to find something that I haven't done before.

This trip came about thanks to perfect circumstances. I'd bought a $99 package for 3 nights at any Hilton Grand Vacation resort in the Orlando area and had to use the nights by July. After the Marathon this year, I bought an annual pass, intending to do it again, and so I'm on the lookout to use the pass as often as possible. And I was able to find airfare round trip from Dallas for about $100, when it's usually over $300. I had to leave late Sunday night and fly home early Wednesday, but I was fine with that.

So Sunday was a long day. Six Flags over Texas had passholder exclusive ride time on some of their best rides, so I started the day there, came home and tried to distract myself for the rest of the day. My flight was supposed to leave at 10:25 PM and thanks to lousy weather and flight delays, we didn't actually leave until about 11:15. So instead of getting there at 1:40 AM technically Monday morning, we landed at 2:30. I was staying at the Hilton Parc Soleil, which is about 3 miles from Disney Springs.

So Monday morning after 3 1/2 hours of sleep, I had to pay the true cost of the $99 rate - a "two hour, no pressure" timeshare presentation that turned into a 3 1/2 hour, high pressure presentation. I could have done a later presentation, but I went with the 8:15 AM since it was the only one that had some time when the parks weren't open. Hilton finally took no for an answer and I was already ordering a Lyft to Animal Kingdom before I got out of there. So instead of getting to AK at 10:30, it was noon, but now the fun part of the trip began. The first order of business was to get my annual pass and then head inside to a sight that never gets old:

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My first Fastpass was Everest at 12:30. I'd checked the wait times on the app the week before and I was a little worried because the waits had been pretty long. But I found a short standby line for Primeval Whirl and went on that and then rode Everest. My next Fastpass was at 1:30 for Festival of the Lion King. I had some time, so I just walked around the park, soaking in the atmosphere. Animal Kingdom is my favorite park overall. I walked through the Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw the tigers sleeping. And then went over to the Lion King and had a pretty nice seat. This is one of my favorite shows at Disney World.

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When I got out, I had a little over an hour until my last Fastpass for Navi River Journey expired (since I was staying off-site, I could only get them 30 days out and FoP was long gone). My app said the wait time for the Safaris was 45 minutes, which would have been pushing it, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be that long and it turned out to only be 25 minutes. I really wanted to see something on the safari anyway - Jabari, the baby giraffe born on Marathon Weekend, was supposed to be out. And, sure enough...

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So I got off the safari with about 20 minutes to spare. I hadn't been on Navi River Journey before and I haven't heard good things about it. I didn't really like it. I don't really know how to describe it. It seemed like the E.T. ride at Universal (in a boat instead of flying bikes) except E.T. at least attempted to have a plot. Oh, well, now I've been on it.

At this point, it was about 4 PM and I wanted to also get over to EPCOT that day. I realized I still hadn't eaten since dinner the night before, but figured by that time, I'd just get over to EPCOT and eat at the Flower and Garden Festival booths. So I went out to the bus stop and instead of taking the EPCOT bus, I wanted to see if the gondolas were being tested, so I waited to see if the Beach Club or Boardwalk bus would come first. The Boardwalk came first so I rode there on the bus. The first stop was actually the Swan and I was pretty sure I could walk faster to EPCOT than wait to go to two more bus stops, so I got off and walked around the Boardwalk. The Boardwalk to Go had some pretty decent prices, so I grabbed a snack there before heading into EPCOT. There weren't any gondolas running, so I was ready for park #2

NEXT: EPCOT - Butterflies, milkshakes and Illuminations
 
PART 2: EPCOT

One advantage I had on this trip is that I was just here in January and know I'll be back in September, so my main focus with EPCOT was more on the Flower and Garden Festival and to see Illuminations one last time, or so I thought (the day after I left, it was announced that it will run through September 30, so it will still be here when I come back). So after I used my AK Fastpasses, I checked the wait times and they weren't bad, so I just took an Illuminations fastpass and did standby for the rides. My plan for dinner instead of one of the restaurants was to go to the various festival kiosks. First stop was Canada. They turned out to be my favorite as well. They had beef tenderloin tips with mashed potatoes and they also had a maple popcorn shake. I'm a sucker for anything maple, so I had to try it. You can get the shake with Crown Royale as well for about $7 more, but I opted to just go with the regular shake. Especially after not eating most of the day, it was amazing.

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I had been to the Flower and Garden Festival when it first started and it is so much bigger now. I love the topiaries and butterfly garden and now they've added food to it. I had a great time there. Just some of the sights from the day:

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I did manage to get a few rides in. I went on Journey into Imagination, the Seas with Nemo and then the Gran Fiesta. And good timing, too. The weather forecast was for thunderstorms in the late afternoon and I was hoping they wouldn't cause Illuminations to be cancelled. They hit while I was in Mexico. It was really raining hard, so I went and bought what I came to call the magic poncho. Because as soon as I bought it and went to the pavilion entrance, it had stopped raining. It wouldn't be the first time it worked magic on this short trip. So I walked around World Showcase, checking out the topiaries and the food. I saw Impressions de France, one of my favorite attractions there. And right after, the Boulangerie sounded really good, so I got a ham and cheese croissant and creme brulee. That croissant really hit the spot. It was about time to get ready for Illuminations and so I walked back to Japan and got a Kaki Gori, because apparently the creme brulee wasn't enough junk food. And then headed to the Fastpass viewing area. This was the first time I've ever had a Fastpass for it. The viewing area was near the souvenir shops at the front of World Showcase. And honestly, it wasn't really my favorite spot to watch it. I usually watch it from around Italy. So I won't worry too much about trying to get a Fastpass for it.

I did consider getting the dessert party at one time. It was $69 and included all you can eat desserts and then you see Illuminations and then they escort you to ride Frozen after the park has closed. I booked the dessert party at the Magic Kingdom and was going to do it here too, but then thought better of it, since you can watch Illuminations from pretty much anywhere with a good view and why spend $70 on dessert when they have the desserts at Boulangerie and a great chocolate shop in Germany, not to mention the kiosks. So I passed on it this time.

One of my traditions has always been after Illuminations to take a lap around World Showcase Lagoon while the post show music plays. It's never really felt that far since I'm usually in Italy, but this time it was a true full lap, but it was great to see the scenery. And when I got to Germany, I got a little reminder that AP registration is this week.

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Now I've always asked who needs sleep at Disney World. It was really rhetorical, but after 3 1/2 hours, I was finding out. Thought I'd done pretty good and hadn't fallen asleep on any rides. But then I made an error I still haven't forgiven myself for. I wanted to go to the Grand Floridian and see the Easter Eggs I'd read about. Maybe it was the sleep, maybe it was too much staying at Pop Century and Port Orleans, but I walked right past the monorail ramp and out to the buses. What was I thinking? Once I figured out why there wasn't a bus stop for the Grand Floridian or any of the other monorail hotels, I walked back and took the monorail over to the Floridian.

At that point, I looked at my Fitbit. Between Animal Kingdom and EPCOT, I'd walked over 14 miles that day.

NEXT: EASTER EGGS
 


PART 3: Grand Floridian Easter Eggs

Thanks to my post-Illuminations lap around World Showcase and going to the bus stop first, the monorail was nearly empty. Even better, when we got to the TTC and I switched monorails, they had one in the station that I was able to get right on without waiting. I've been going to Disney World pretty regularly since 1993 and when I covered Florida for work and visited a lot, one of my favorite things was visiting the different resorts. I love the architecture and theming and just the overall atmosphere. The Grand Floridian has always been one of my favorites to visit, whether it's dining at Narcoossee's or 1900 Park Fare, grabbing a quiet drink at Mizner's Lounge or listening to the music in the lobby area, it's always nice there. And when it comes to edible decorations, they're second to none. The first time I experienced that was going to see Christmas decorations several years ago and seeing the giant gingerbread house. And so when I read online that they had decorated Easter eggs, I knew I was going to have to make time to stop there. I've always joked over the years that I'm Disney powered and that seems to be true. I'd had less than four hours of sleep, I'd been going since 8 that morning and it was past 10 PM, but I wasn't the slightest bit tired.

The Easter eggs were amazing. I'll post some pictures here but the detail there is incredible. If you have the opportunity to see these in person, I recommend it. Most of them were Disney themed and I easily spent 45 minutes and probably could have spent more looking at them. It was a Disney geek's dream!

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I loved the Moana themed one. The attention to detail was amazing.

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The Lady and the Tramp egg was awesome. It looked like it was sitting in a bowl of spaghetti.

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The next table had some pretty nice ones, too. With Stitch and the Toy Story Aliens and the Claw.

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So when I finally had a chance to see all of the eggs, I was ready to go back to the hotel. It would have cost me $9 more to take Lyft from the Floridian than Disney Springs, so I took the bus to Disney Springs and then got my ride back to the hotel and got back a little after 11. Overall, I was very happy with the day. I had gotten more rides in than I expected, the Flower and Garden Festival was a lot of fun and I got to see Illuminations again and then the Easter Eggs. Two parks down, two to go.
 
PART 4: Disney Studios

I woke up fairly early the next morning, but had a decent night's sleep. I wanted to get to the Studios before it opened, just on the off chance they opened Toy Story Land early. Not that I was going to buy into the Hilton timeshare anyway, but I wasn't extremely impressed with the hotel. It has a pretty nice pool but I had a studio and there wasn't anything really unique about it. And GPS around there is hit or miss. It directed the Lyft driver around to the back of the property and I had to try to give him directions to the front. At least it was pretty easy to find where I was going. So we got to the Studios around 8:40 after all of that. They were testing the gondolas out and I can't wait to try them.

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When I got to the park, Disney had opened Toy Story Land. I could see they hadn't opened up Sunset Blvd. yet, and when I got to Toy Story Land, there was already a pretty long line for Slinky Dog. I hadn't been on it yet and so I waited in line. It took about 45 minutes, which is pretty short from the wait times I've seen on the app, and at least they didn't have any riders with Fastpass since the park wasn't officially open yet. I liked the ride. I wouldn't wait 2 hours for it but it was a fun family coaster.

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They do take your photo on the ride, but Disney sent me someone else's photo instead of mine. There was a family of 3 with a young girl on her first coaster and she was awesome. She was screaming her head off. Her dad sat next to me and we were laughing the whole time. So by the time we got off the ride, it was about 9:30 and so I headed to Sunset Blvd. to see the winner of our DISboard March Madness bracket:

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Unfortunately, the wait time was already 65 minutes. If it had been a more normal trip, I would have waited, but with only one more day and Fastpasses at MK in a couple of hours, I passed on it this trip. It's my favorite ride and I know I'm coming back and will have FP for it next time. So instead I went to Rock N Roller Coaster and went in the single rider line and was on the ride in under 10 minutes. My original plan was to do Slinky Dog, Tower and Rock N Roller Coaster and then head to the Magic Kingdom. Since I didn't do the Tower, I noticed that Star Tours only had a 10 minute wait, so I rode that and saw MuppetVision. They had banners all over the park about it being the Studios 30th anniversary, so I figured they'd have shirts or merchandise for it. I looked all over the gift shop and asked one of the cast members. He said they didn't have it out yet and was surprised by it. They did say they expect to have some at some point, so hopefully when I come back in September, they'll have merchandise then.

I called my clothing on this trip the dead rides. The day before when I visited EPCOT, I wore my Maelstrom shirt and got a lot of positive comments on it. Today's shirt was the Great Movie Ride. A lot of cast members told me it made them want to cry. One of them at the Haunted Mansion used to work on the ride. When we finished talking, she said "I'll see YOU in the movies." Speaking of the 30th anniversary of that park, it's one ride I really miss and was my oldest daughter's favorite. So I really hope Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway is awesome.

So I took the bus over to MK. Before I went in the park, I had a very important stop to make -- to see my brick, possibly for the last time. 25 years ago, I took some friends from California who had never been to Disney World before for a weeklong trip. They were selling the Walk Around the World bricks for $75. We debated the whole week whether to spend the money and my friends didn't want to. I finally talked one other friend into doing it and we each bought a brick and put our friends' names on it. They'd guaranteed they would be there for 10 years. So when we came back the following year, we found our brick and we always stop there every time we visit. It's definitely weathered and I've joked many times that I was bringing paint and cleaning supplies to make it look like new. But it's in the entrance area of the Magic Kingdom just steps away from the turnstiles and it's awesome to always be that close to MK.

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Here's the view from our brick:
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So when I went in the MK, I went to City Hall. If you bought a brick, you can get a voucher to have a replica brick made for $10, instead of the regular price of $30 (they have larger bricks for $50). So you have to go to City Hall and they verify your name and that you have a brick and then give you the voucher. I get the idea (and hope) that they may be planning something similar for whatever they replace Walk Around the World with. They had me fill out a form with my address, email and phone number, so they're making sure they get current contact info for everyone who bought a brick in the past, so I'm thinking they may be contacting us if there's another personalization option coming. Otherwise, there's no real point to taking all this information down when they could just email us or hand us the voucher without all of that. The line for City Hall was pretty long, it took about 15 minutes and everyone I saw around me was also there for the brick. Once we got the voucher, we had to take it to the souvenir shop next to Space Mountain and then there was a video screen where you could personalize your replica brick. I apologized to my friend, but said I have daughters now and they're replacing him on my replica brick. He was there a couple of weeks ago and bought a replica himself so he was ok with it. They told me I could pick it up in half an hour and it was time for the rides!

Next: Happily Ever After
 
PART 5: Magic Kingdom

It was 7 minutes until my first Fastpass was available and I was in Tomorrowland. The app had shown about a half hour wait for Peoplemover the week before and it was only 10 minutes at that point, so I figured I'd better get on it. So first ride of the day at MK was the Peoplemover. Usually it's my go to when the park is crowded and I want to be off my feet for a while, but at MK, I never waste a short line.

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Once I was off that, I headed across the park to Thunder Mountain, which was my first Fastpass. I got on very quickly and was disappointed. Granted, I like Disneyland's better with the new effects they have, but none of the effects were working. There was no waterfall at the top of the first hill, no falling rocks on the last hill, no water in the usual splash down area at the end. It was still fun, but it wasn't as fun as usual. My next Fastpass was for Peter Pan in close to an hour. It was lunchtime, so I used the mobile app to order at Columbia Harbour House. I was doing the Happily Ever After dessert party that night (more on that later) so my strategy was to eat a big lunch and then get a snack later if needed so I would be able to eat a lot of desserts. So I had lunch there. The standby lines had been long but not as long as I'd seen on the app in the prior week, so I was thinking Spring Break must be pretty much over. I went out of the restaurant to go to my next Fastpass, Peter Pan, but saw a lot of people moving towards Haunted Mansion. It had been closed all day, so I walked over and they had just opened, so I was able to get through the standby line and into the ride in about five minutes. Perfect timing! Then I went and rode Peter Pan. When I got off Peter Pan, it was raining hard. So I put on the magic poncho I bought at EPCOT and started walking out in the rain and almost instantly it stopped raining. Because of the rain and the threat of more to come, a lot of the standby lines started to go down. So there was no line for the Teacups. My next Fastpass was for Space Mountain. While I was waiting to get in the car, I went on the app and was able to get a Fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean for just 10 minutes later. So I went on Space Mountain and then over to Pirates. And as soon as I was in there, I got my next Fastpass for It's a Small World for about 20 minutes later. When Pirates was over, the standby line for Jungle Cruise was 25 minutes, which is extremely short for that. I got in there and the time went pretty quickly watching a duck and her baby walking through the line and out onto the dock looking for food.

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After that, I went over to It's a Small World and got a Fastpass for Splash Mountain. I saw Country Bear Jamboree while I was waiting for that time and even the standby line for Splash was very short. While I was waiting to get on the ride, I got a Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear and then went to see Carousel of Progress, then did Buzz Lightyear. I had about an hour before the dessert party, so I started looking for short standby lines. I was able to walk on Little Mermaid and Dumbo. I hadn't been on Dumbo in years and at least this helped towards making me forget how much I didn't like the new Tim Burton movie.

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At that point, I went back to the gift shop to pick up my replica brick and then went to the Tangled area where they have charging stations and charged my phone for about 10 minutes. At that point, it started to rain pretty hard again and even the magic poncho didn't work. So I went over to the dessert party at Tomorrowland Terrace. So some things about the dessert party and me. I'm one of those who have always said I can't believe they charge $79 for dessert. I've never done it before. Since this was just me and it was a short trip and I was getting deals on the air and hotel, I figured I would give it a try. Mostly because getting a good spot for the fireworks show can sometimes be tough. I love the castle projections and I wanted to make sure that I got a good place to see them. So I did it. In fact, I booked the EPCOT show for the night before at first, because they also took you to ride Frozen after the park closed, but I cancelled that one because why would you need a dessert show there when you have the Boulangerie in France?

So I went to Tomorrowland Terrace. There are a couple of options. You can get the desserts 90 minutes before the show, you have the desserts for an hour and then they take you to where you view the show. Or you can view the show first and then have the desserts after. I originally booked that, then realized that would mean I wouldn't have that little window after the show to get on a ride. So I went with the desserts first. They're very efficient. They check you in and then you are escorted to a table and they put a Reserved sign on it, and then they have a buffet spread of desserts and drinks. At EPCOT and DHS, their dessert parties include alcoholic drinks, but not at MK. But they do have lemonade, strawberry lemonade, passion-orange-guava juice and a couple of others, plus a table of sparkling cider, plus coffee, hot chocolate and hot water for tea. The desserts were plentiful. Chocolate covered strawberries, raspberry cake, cookie dough bites, a pineapple mousse with pineapple, toffee cake, ice cream, a decorate your own brownie and cookie station, and brownie cheesecake bites, among others. And they were all really, really good! They also have cheeseburger egg rolls, spinach dip, fruit and cheese as options.

I tried almost all of the desserts and my eating strategy that day worked very well, except that the desserts were very rich and I rarely eat desserts anyway, and none that rich and sweet. So I did well, but got pushed to my sweet limit quickly. I will say the brownie cheesecake bites were amazing, as was the cookie dough. And the hot chocolate! It was perfect. It didn't taste like too much chocolate, but more than that, it was the perfect temperature. It was hot, but not scalding. After two plates of desserts, I went for the cheeseburger eggrolls to balance out the sweets and they were very good. So when you're done, they escort you to the viewing area. It's a park area with a great view of the castle and it's big enough to easily handle a large number of people without feeling herded in.

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As for the show, I'd seen it from Ohana while having dinner with my daughters this past summer and I really like it. Up close, I like it even better. The first time I'd seen the castle projections, I was amazed at what they can do and it just keeps getting better and better. This show features a lot of music you don't often hear, including music from Hunchback, Tangled, Moana and Go the Distance from Hercules. On a side note, there's a website where you can pay to have celebrities personalize a greeting. My daughter's birthday was this month and Susan Egan (Belle on Broadway and the voice of Meg from Hercules) just joined and I had her do a greeting for my daughter's birthday, so I was very pro-Hercules at the time, plus Go the Distance is always in my marathon playlists. There were some cool firework effects like fireworks shaped like the symbol in Moana and bell-shaped for Hunchback. Very cool.

So the fireworks were over about 9:35 and the park closed at 10, so I immediately headed to the Seven Dwarfs. The Fastpasses were gone when I was able to make my reservations, so I figured this would be the best time. And it said a 25 minute wait, but in reality was more like 10-15 minutes, so I made that my last ride. And I didn't realize that they also do a show using castle projections and a few fireworks when the park closes, but as I was coming by the castle on my way out, I heard Gaston yelling about storming the castle and I was able to watch the rest of it. To me, it was just Disney magic.

So I'm not sure why it was so different, but on this night, the difference between getting a Lyft ride from the Contemporary vs Disney Springs was only $4 more, so I walked over to the Contemporary and got Lyft from there back to my hotel. When I got to the Contemporary, I checked my Fitbit and I'd walked over 11 miles that day. I remember around 6 miles, my feet were hurting and I told myself this is good training for the Dopey Challenge next year. I felt pretty good, over 25 miles in two days and in much older shoes. So I got back to the room, mostly packed everything and got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep again before I had to go to the airport to catch my 6:15 AM flight home.

As always, it was much too short (I'd say that if I was there for a week, though), but it was a nice, fairly inexpensive Disney fix and a chance to start using my annual pass. My next scheduled trip is in September for the Food and Wine Festival, 12 days after the opening of Galaxy's Edge. I'm going to keep an eye for any discounted airfares from Dallas but being summer, I'm not counting on that to happen. But the day after I returned, I registered for my first Dopey's Challenge, which also means it will be my first Disney World 5k, 10k and half marathon. I talked one of my friends into signing up for the 10k and he's going to also try to get the 5k when it opens for general registration. So I already can't wait to go back!

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They had beef tenderloin tips with mashed potatoes and they also had a maple popcorn shake. I'm a sucker for anything maple, so I had to try it.
I had the beef a few weeks ago and they were really good! I’m also a sucker for anything maple. But then again, I am Canadian. LOL
 

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