Flowers, VIP Lounges, and John Gidding: Oh my! March 2012 Trip Report!!!!

[StephaniexMarie]

One last picture from China before we move on. I really love this saying. I relate it to Disney World! You can watch and listen to videos and music of attractions and BGM from Disney World...but it's all the more special once you're really there.

Moving on!

As we made our way to Germany, we noticed this peculiar couple.

Cute outfits, no? They commented on my floral top and mentioned how I dressed perfectly for the festival! I love the little girl's face in the background. She's trying to process the interesting bunch in front of her. Can you blame her?

They were sweet and put a smile on our faces. Right behind them was the Haiti garden! One of my chorus/theatre teachers in school is from Haiti, so thinking of him, we decided to stop in.

Gorgeous flowers!

This info reminded me of my AP World History class, so I had to snap a picture.

Approaching Germany, my mom spotted the Snow White and the 7 dwarfs topiaries! I got some shots I REALLY loved here with Spaceship Earth in the background. Oh, what I'd do to be back there today!

My mom and Sleepy!

Italy was next, and we stopped to watch the Ziti sisters. This was something we have never done before, surprisingly, because my mom is Italian! She takes great pride in her Italian heritage, as do I. We really loved this crazy bunch. They made us laugh a LOT and their show involved quite a bunch of audience participation, similar to the World Showcase Players in the UK Pavilion (whom we discovered we completely adore during our Thanksgiving trip!)

A wedding was about to take place!

The show was over, so we continued on our merry way, snapping a few pictures as we went to The American Adventure pavilion.

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[StephaniexMarie]

This was the view behind me throughout the entire Ziti Sisters show.

After walking to the very back of the pavilion looking for the Lady & the Tramp topiary, we found it at the very front when we gave up and started to move onto the next pavilion.

Our next destination was The American Adventure, but we still had about a half hour until showtime so we grabbed a mickey pretzel to share and two bottles of water and we sat down on one of the benches by the stage where the Candlelight Processional takes place.

We had some entertainment going on behind us!

As we quickly finished our snacks, we got up and decided to stroll around a bit before the show.

Then we moved back further after checking out the pin cart and found ourselves among the Toy Story topiares!

I really love this picture.

Gorgeous Lotso topiary, front and back!

We realized that time had passed and the Voices of Liberty were about to begin, so to both my mom and my pleasure we stepped inside the wonderfully air conditioned building and grabbed a seat; me on the ground, her on a bench.

The show was beautiful as always, and my mom shed enough tears for the entire audience. Just kidding! But she always gets touched at the end when Golden Dreams plays. I absolutely love the song and the entire show myself. It continuously manages to instill American pride into me each time I see it!

Next we moved onto Japan, where we saw one of Pixar's famous dynamic duos in flower form!
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[IheartDDuck]

Oh, I fell a little behind!

You did dress very appropriately for the F&G festival, I have to say.

I love the Kringla bakery! I'm just sorry they wouldn't honor your request to take the coconut off the top of the school bread. At least you found a good option. Not that there are really any bad ones there.

 

[LifeIsDis]

Just got caught up with the whole TR!
You are such an amazing photographer. Your pictures are wonderful!

I can't wait to read more

 

[StephaniexMarie]

Oh, I fell a little behind!

You did dress very appropriately for the F&G festival, I have to say.

I love the Kringla bakery! I'm just sorry they wouldn't honor your request to take the coconut off the top of the school bread. At least you found a good option. Not that there are really any bad ones there.

It's completely fine! Glad to know you're back

Thank you!

Ah I love it too!! I'm going to try again in July to see if they could make it without the coconut, hopefully I'll get lucky again.

Just got caught up with the whole TR!
You are such an amazing photographer. Your pictures are wonderful!

I can't wait to read more

Thanks for catching up! & Thank you so much, that means a lot to me!

 

[StephaniexMarie]

The back area of Japan was not opened during our Thanksgiving trip, due to refurbishments, so we were overjoyed that it was open once again now! We discovered this area last August after we tried Kaki Gori for the first time and needed a place to sit and eat it. I immediately fell in love with the decor and the small fountain with the ducks nearby.

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If you couldn't tell, I like ducks. Especially Disney ducks!

While ducks are my cup of tea, my mom prefers Bonsai trees!

As fun as looking around the Japan pavilion was, we wanted to get a move on. As we strolled into France, we saw the show where the man stands on the chairs was going on, and boy did it attract a big crowd. What we also saw was the Beauty and the Beast topiares. Beauty and the Beast is my FAVORITE Disney movie!! We ran over and the photopass photographer told us we had perfect timing. Since everyone was watching the show, there was no wait for pictures! And here is what we got.

We thanked the woman and moved back into the pavilion.

Chip.

Cogsworth and Lumiere.

Super cute. We were going to stay for Impressions de France, but we wanted to finish World Showcase in time for our Test Track fastpasses - especially since this week was the start of enforcing times.


We breezed through the United Kingdom.

 

[LifeIsDis]

I have to go to the flower & garden festival one year. The topiaries are so amazing.

Ducks!

I love the Pooh and friends topiaries. Adorable!

 

[StephaniexMarie]

I have to go to the flower & garden festival one year. The topiaries are so amazing.

Ducks!

I love the Pooh and friends topiaries. Adorable!

Haha they really are!

 

[StephaniexMarie]

We peeked into Canada's gift shop to buy some of these candies sent from the gods!

Mmmm, gotta love Canadian M&M's! We stock up every couple of months in Disney. In fact, I just had the last box from this pile a couple nights ago! I cannot wait to restock in just a couple more weeks.

While we waited for the CM to assist us at the desk, I snapped this pic.

The CM who helped us was very sweet. My mom and her were discussing Canadian food places, like Tim Hortons, which is one of my mom's clients at work. They had something to bond over while I looked at the moose stuffed animals like a cool cat.

And then we were on our way! Like I said in the previous update, we had Test Track fastpasses that we HAD to use, considering this was going to be our last ride on it until the refurb is complete in late fall.

A sand structure was being built for a Disney Nature movie. I snapped these next few with my iPhone 3GS. I recently got the iPhone 4S, so I cannot WAIT to use the better camera on this upcoming vacation! And I love the camera that faces towards you, that must be my favorite and most-used feature on my phone. I love taking pictures!

What would this trip report be without some more pictures of topiares?

Even an instagram pic!

It's a good thing we gave ourselves time before getting to Test Track, because instead of walking straight past Mousegears to get to the attraction, we walked through this path. I gotta say, this was pretty cute! They even had a little play structure for little kids. If I was younger, you can bet I would have spend more time in here!

Silvermist.

Fawn.

Cute!!

Tinkerbell.

 

[StephaniexMarie]

Hey guys! Just popping in to tell you a little more about what's been going on in my life recently. I finished my first week of work! I wrote it in the beginning of the trip report, but I work at my local Day Camp with 2-3 year olds, and I love it SOOOO much! The kids are just precious. I can tell this summer is going to be a great one. Especially because I'm going to Disney in just NINE MORE DAYS!! One more fun week of work then I'm off for 2 weeks for Disney! I'll try my best to do a few more updates before I leave, I just wanted to write something to bump this thread and remind everyone updates are soon to come!

 

[LifeIsDis]

I will have to get Canada’s version of M&M’s next month! Thank you for saying something about them.

The Flower and Garden festival is just so beautiful.

If I don’t get the chance to tell you, have an awesome time on your trip! Will you be doing a TR for it?

 

[StephaniexMarie]

I will have to get Canada’s version of M&M’s next month! Thank you for saying something about them.

The Flower and Garden festival is just so beautiful.

If I don’t get the chance to tell you, have an awesome time on your trip! Will you be doing a TR for it?

Thank you so much! Our flight is tomorrow at 3:55pm, arriving at around 6pm, and today we are making sure we have everything ready to take and we're getting everything packed. I'm so excited!!!!! I probably will whenever I get the chance, but I'm going to try to finish this one first.

 

[StephaniexMarie]

I'm not quite sure this fairy's name (I've only seen the first Tinkerbell movie - and that was a couple of years ago - don't kill me! )

I know for a fact that this fairy is Terence.

And this is Vidia!

We were about to exit, but this cute bench drew me into another area!

And this is where I found Rosetta.

And Iridessa! One of my favorites.

Our dillydallying was put to an end once we reached the end of the walkway. We had our fastpasses out and we were ready for one last ride on Test Track! Woohoo!

We breezed through the line and had our fastpasses taken by a CM, and then were put in the loading zone for the briefing room. And here is where a problem occurred. The weather outside was not complying and it was storming. Badly.


5 minutes passed. We waited.

10 minutes passed. We began to grow tired.

30 minutes passed. We were ready to leave the queue!

But then we saw a bunch of CM's that looked as if they were getting ready to do something. So we waited another 5 minutes, and eventually the briefing room doors opened! Unfortunately because of the delay, they skipped the pre-show and led us straight to the next queue. I wanted one more time to hear "2..5..and...7" "7?" "Yeah, 7. " Gotta love that!

We got in a car soon enough and enjoyed our last ride on Test Track. It was well worth the long wait with our "fastpasses"

I'm not quite sure what we did after TT, but I know we went back to World Showcase. What happened after that until dusk is beyond me (great memory, huh?) but I see we ended up here at nighttime! Jose Feliciano was performing, my mom had to remind me that he sang Feliz Navidad.

To our right, a bunch of CM's from the Mexico Pavilion were watching and dancing along! It was kind of funny to see the Mexico costumes in the American Adventure pavilion. Reminds you of why the Utilidors were created in the Magic Kingdom - it's kind of strange seeing costumes in places they don't "belong."

For Illuminations, we wanted to go to our go-to spot on the steps of the Canada Pavilion. This spot is always reliable for us and we manage to get a place 20 minutes prior to showtime. Although this is a good spot, I have to say I love being at the front middle of World Showcase to watch the best.

Before reaching Canada, we went through the UK. I tested my photography skills by taking topiary pics at night. They didn't turn out too hot, but it's memories!

I really like this one, with the pink in the background and in Sleeping Beauty's dress!

Soon enough we reached Canada, and waited for the show to begin. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

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[StephaniexMarie]

Bravo, bravo! What a beautiful show. Can't wait to be watching it this Tuesday.

We made our way out of World Showcase after Illuminations and took advantage of Extra Magic Hours. I believe we made it to the Land pavilion and Imagination. No pictures though, so just use the power of your imagination. (What? No of course I'm not listening to Fantasmic! as I write this... )

I wanted to relax in the Seas for a little bit, but both my mom and I realized we would end up falling asleep in there. We were THAT tired! So, we made our way to the front but had to go on one last ride before we left.

Now it's time for what you've all been waiting for....some blurry Spaceship Earth pics! Hey, at least I tried.

 

[LifeIsDis]

I haven’t seen any of the Tinkerbell movies so I couldn’t tell you any of the fairies’ names. Except Tink of course!

That flower bench is ADORABLE!

Awesome Illuminations pictures

OH MY GOODNESS! You leave tomorrow! Have a magical time!

 

[StephaniexMarie]

I haven’t seen any of the Tinkerbell movies so I couldn’t tell you any of the fairies’ names. Except Tink of course!

That flower bench is ADORABLE!

Awesome Illuminations pictures

OH MY GOODNESS! You leave tomorrow! Have a magical time!

Haha the first one was actually really good! I wasn't expecting to love it but I really enjoyed it. Thanks so much!! I'm trying to fall asleep but as you can see I'm writing this at 12:30 am on my DIS app on my phone, I'm too excited to sleep!

 

[archdandy]

Wow, you guys sure got a full day in at EPCOT! I hope I can make it to the garden festival this spring, those topiaries look awesome.