My Disney World Vacation

Well, I'm back from Disney World and I had a blast.  I ended up going to all 4 parks.  Now it was all in all a great time. I came back with some great souvenirs. Now I'll be breaking this down into the highlights of each day I was there.   Now we'll start with the day, I arrived.



Day 1  (Arrival and Luau)

The first day, we arrived to our hotel.  This time we stayed at Saratoga Springs.   Though, we stayed in a treehouse.  That was pretty cool.

I thought this was a pretty nice treehouse and fit all of the family quite well.   I mean,  staying in this treehouse   were my grandmother,  my great uncle,  his girlfriend, my parents, and my sister and my adorable little nephew.   Who had no idea that he was going to Disney World for his birthday.    We didn't do much the first day bu that night we went to  Disney's Polynesian Resort  for a luau and oh my was the food delicious.    Easily, my favorite thing was the sweetbread.  My friend Travelling Mickey also enjoyed the luau (and in a future post you may see some more pictures of Travelling Mickey at the parks)

The show in my opinion was very much worth watching.   It features different island lifestyles such as Hawaii and I can't recall but I do think that New Zealand was also featured in the show.    Now admittedly, it did take us a while to get there but in the end it was worth it.  I also ended up buying some new pins there as I collect Disney's trading pins.  There I bought a pin of Rapunzel and one of Figment from EPCOT.  (I have a very cool story regarding Rapunzel coming up when I talk about my time at Hollywood Studios).   And as for the show, this was my favorite part.

I also gotta share this really cute picture of my nephew in the gift shop at the Polynesian

Day 2 (Magic Kingdom)



So, here we are Day 2.  We go to the  Magic Kingdom first. Now because of  some delays on our part, we get in the park late but no matter, we still had fun.  We started off by having lunch at  Pinocchio's Village
Haus.   A nice little restaurant in Fanstayland that lets you look in and see Small World.

I thought that was a nice touch. Another nice touch is that their sections in the restaurant are separated by characters and we were sitting in the Figaro section, which was right next to the Cleo section. Very nice touch. guys.   Now one of the first attractions, we hit was Mickey's Phillar Magic.   One of my favorites. A very fun 3D show where Donald steals the sorcerer's hat and it takes him through different musical numbers from classic Disney films. After that we went on the carousel and that happened to bring about one of my favorite pictures from this trip.

It's little moments like these that make me love being an uncle.    After this, we went on Dumbo.  Now , this was actually my first time riding Dumbo.   I was a little surprised that I'd never been on Dumbo seeing as that is my favorite film. Out of all the rides, I went on this had to be one of my favorites.  I actually ended up going on it 3 times in a row.

Now that hat, I'm wearing I bought at Magic Kingdom as I'd been wanting that hat for the longest time. Now  one of the neat things here is that with Fanstayland getting an expansion. They changed up the queue area for Dumbo to where it's now a playground where kids can go play and they give you  a pager like they do at places such as Outback Steakhouse, when they are ready for you. Though the one thing that this pager has over those is that Timothy Q. Mouse lets you know when they are ready for you. After this we headed over to Tomorrowland. There my nephew, mom, dad and sister went on Space Mountain.   I decided to take a break from riding rides at that point.  So that makes Space Mountain, one Disney that I've yet to go on. Afterwards, we went on one of my favorite rides in Tomorrowland, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.   I go into more detail in my article about Toy Story in the parks.  Now that ride was rather packed.and sadly even though I love this ride and I love shooting at the various targets, I still lost.  After this we went to Carousel of Progress, which is something as a Disney fan I love and I also really liked the fact that while waiting in line that they were playing a video of The Sherman Brothers and Walt Disney singing It's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.  Now the last big attraction, he did was Stitch's Great Escape.  I've always liked this attraction but I have to be honest that the two ladies sitting behind decided to talk over Stitch.   Really,  it's great that they were enjoying the attraction but couldn't they have let the other people hear Stitch.




Day 3 (Chef Mickey's & Animal Kingdom)



On third day, we started off at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Resort.   This is the oldest resort at Disney World at it opened when Magic Kingdom first opened. As for this character breakfast  Now this breakfast was a buffet while the characters walked around to the tables.   I'll admit we some great pictures and I'll be honest, I got pretty emotional when I saw Mickey.

We also got to see Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald as well.   I want to share with you some of my favorite pictures for these characters.  For Minnie, it's this one.

Okay, funny story but when I handed Travelling Mickey to Minnie, she hugged it tightly as if it were Mickey. I loved seeing the character's different reactions to Travelling Mickey.   Here's my favorite for Donald.

I don't know why but there is just something about the way, my grandmother is hugging Donald in his picture that I find cute.   Now for Goofy, it's this one.

There's just something about these three together that I find funny. Now something that I found odd and pretty cool is that almost all the places we ate, my nephew got a cupcake because it was his birthday.

Oh, also they had Mickey Mouse waffles.   Those were really good.  So after breakfast, my mom, my sister, my nephew and I headed to Animal Kingdom. The first thing we did was get pictures taken with Pooh, Tigger & Eeyore. Out of all those, this is my favorite picture and perhaps my favorite picture from the entire trip.

There's just something about my nephew's face that I find priceless in this picture.   It's so cute when kids get to see their favorite Disney characters.  I imagine we was even more excited because before he went to Disney World, Tigger called him at his house  to wish him a happy birthday.   Now I also got my picture with Tigger and when I went up to him, I was bouncing. So I got to bounce with Tigger.  That was one of many highlights of the trip for me.



Afterwards, we went and saw Finding Nemo: The Musical. Which I'll admit I had my reservations about but it ended up being one of the best stage shows that I saw at Disney World.   It does also help that the music for this  was written by the same team that wrote the music for Winnie The Pooh (2011)  Also the puppetry for the characters was amazing.

Afterwards, we went on Dinosaur.   I gotta be honest but I was bit disappointed by this ride.  I mean the premise is you are sent back in time before the meteor hits and kills the dinosaurs to look for a rare species.  It seemed okay but it was so dark that you couldn't see anything.  However, I did pick up an awesome souvenir at the gift shop.

If your reading this on ME, you've probably seen this as my avatar but I just like that Mickey is Indy Jones. It just seems really cool to me.   (I think it was my Indiana Jones article that I wrote earlier this year that compelled me to buy this).   After Dinosaur, my mom, my sister and I went on Expedition Everest.  Perhaps one of my favorite roller coasters at the parks. The whole premise of the ride is that you are going up Mt. Everest to see the Yeti. You get up and see that the Yeti has torn the track, so your car is sent in reverse and you see the Yeti's shadow and then you come across the real thing. It feels as though you are so close to him that he can grab you out of your seat.   Afterwards, we went on Kali River Rapids and if you recall my Top 6 Most Disappointing Attractions. That was # 1 on the list but that is not the case as I loved this time as I came off it soaked. So,  the ride is no longer on my Disappointing List as I had a blast this time around.  Afterwards, we went and saw The Festival of The Lion King. A very fun show that showcases the music from The Lion King quite well.  One of the cute features here is that with them having benches on all 4 sides of the theater, they break up the groups to different animals such as warthog, lion, giraffe, and I think monkey. And then they pull out people from the audience to teach every one else their animal sound. Then the show starts and we are treated to variety of songs such as Circle of Life, Be Prepared, and Hakuna Matata.

That night, we had dinner at was easily the worst place we ate during the entire trip.  We ate at the Tusker House in the Africa pavilion.   Now like Chef Mickey's, it too was a buffet but the selections were very limited and I understand that it was an African restaurant but still none of the food looked appealing and I have to be honest that my biggest gripe was that really only had one selection of vegetables besides salad.  It was just green beans and they weren't all that great.  Really other than that,  we had a good time at Animal Kingdom.



Day 4 (Nephew Goes Home and Downtown Disney)


Now on Day 4, my sister and nephew headed home as he had to head back to school.  We really didn't do that much that day except shop.   I ended up buying this new hat

The thing that attracted me to this hat was the fact that around the entire hat it was a timeline of Mickey's career.   Now  I bought this early that morning and the rest of the day after my sister and nephew went home. We really didn't do all that much.  Until that night, when we went to Downtown Disney. Which is really nothing more than  Disney's shopping district.  I didn't get that much there except for a Dumbo t-shirt that says The Ladies Think I'm Fly.    So, moving on.

Here's the Dumbo shirt.







Day 5 (Hollywood Studios)


Ah, this day had one of the biggest highlights of the entire trip for me and y'know what even though, this is going out of order, I've got to talk about it first.  You see their is an animation campus and one of the things offered is a drawing class taught by a Disney animator.   My mom, dad, grandmother and I just happened to stumble across but we decided to give it a shot. When everyone had entered, he listed a number of characters that we could draw, the choices were Jiminy Cricket, Donald Duck and Rapunzel. Well, Rapunzel ended up getting the most votes and even though I tried drawing my Rapunzel looked more like mash potatoes then Rapunzel.   Though the true highlight was at the end, the animator asked a question about Tangled and said whoever answered the question correctly would get to take his drawing home. For those of you wondering, I do not remember the exact question but needless to say I now have a drawing of Rapunzel hanging on my bedroom wall.

Now let's rewind the clock and go back to the start of the day. It was 10:00 when my mom and I arrived at the park. The first thing that we went on was Star Tours: The Adventure Continues.   Which I'll be honest right here and I say that I've always preferred Star Tours to Star Wars. I don't know why but that's the way, it's always been. Perhaps, it's because it was the first simulator ride that I ever went on and started my long love of simulator rides.  I will say for the new version, they did not disappoint and actually improved the ride.   My mom and I were lucky enough to get the front row and I was sitting right behind C-3PO.   Even though I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, I thought that was really cool.   Afterwards,   my mom and I went to MuppetVision 3*D.   I have to admit as much as I liked this when I was a kid and it's still fun, it's time this thing gets an update.  Out of almost everything in Hollywood Studios, I feel that this s showing it's age the most and I'm really disappointed that Disney didn't think about updating this when the new film came out.    Ah, well.   Now their is one other gripe I have. As you see there is a Muppet gift shop near the theater for Muppetvision.  At least I think it was supposed to be for The Muppets as it appeared as though the store had been taken over by Phineas and Ferb. Not saying I don't like Phineas and Ferb but...   After this, My mom and I met up with my dad and my grandmother as they had just entered the park. From there, we went to lunch at the ABC Commissary.  A nice little quick service placed themed to ABC and as you walk by,  they'd play different ABC theme songs such as the theme to Home Improvement and inside the building, they had a Binford hammer signed by Tim Allen, which was next to a blow horn signed by Ty Pennington from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  Again, very cool.  Afterwards, we saw Indiana Jones: Epic Stunt Spectualar, which I've talked about previously and let's just say, it's still as good.  If you look closely in the upcoming picture, you can make out the sign for it behind mine and Max Goof's head.


 Anyways, moving on, I'm just going to skip to the picture of me with Max. Which I was so happy that Max was there as he is one of my all time favorite Disney characters.

Also I know I said earlier that I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, yet here I am in this picture wearing a Star Wars shirt. There are two reasons for this as you see I own so many Disney shirts that for this trip I tried to find a shirt that would match the park, we were going to that day and Star Wars happened to fit with Hollywood Studios and plus it has Mickey as Luke Skywalker fighting Bobaa Fett.  That is awesome.    Oh, there is one more thing to mention that I suggest if you go to Hollywood studios, that you must check out.  It's a little a museum/film called One Man's Dream  and any Disney fan should see this as it'll give you a greater appreciation for Walt. It starts out as a walking tour through the history of the company and you see different things such as the multiplane camera that was used for The Old Mill (thought of you, Jason).   Some of the sketches for the films and layouts for the parks and then it ends with a short documentary about Walt Disney that I wish would be released on DVD. Sure, it's a bit on the short side but I think it warrants that. I'm sure someone probably uploaded the film on YouTube but this is the one time, I beg you to not watch it there as it needs to viewed on a big screen.   That's all I want to cover at Hollywood Studios for now as these were the big things.


Day 6 (EPCOT)



Now here with EPCOT, it was pretty special as it was the week of EPCOT's 30th anniversary when we went and there was a lot of great merch.  Such as this nice t-shirt that I got before we left the park.

Some of the big highlights for me were listening the Voices of Liberty in the America Pavilion sing as it was just gorgeous.  Here's a sample from YouTube.







Then another big one for me was going on Nemo & Friends, a very entertaining and cute Finding Nemo ride that at first glance isn't anything to special but when you see Nemo projected onto windows to make it look as though he's swimming with real fish, I thought that that was awesome and add on there were also people scuba diving.  Which leads me into something else as you see that night, my dad and my uncle went scuba diving in the The Seas With Nemo & Friends. Which is the same location as the ride.   Now you do have to be certified to take part in this but it was fun watching the divers as they went in and seeing them interact with  the kids on the other side of the window. Also there were some hidden Mickey's throughout such as this one.

This was perhaps the best part of my time at EPCOT.




Day 7 (Back to Magic Kingdom & EPCOT)


It was our last day at Disney World (insert sad face here) , so my mom & I decided to head back to Magic Kingdom and EPCOT to go on some rides that we missed before and also see some things that we hadn't before. One of the first things that we came across when we got to Magic Kingdom, this trip was this bench that I'd been looking for.

Now I'm sure you all know that's Minnie but how many of you know who's sitting with Minnie.  That's Roy O. Disney, Walt's brother. You see this bench was built as a companion piece to the famous statue of Walt and Mickey which is titled Partners. I don't know if this bench has a name but what I take away from it is this meant as way of recognizing the partners of Walt and Mickey.   From the cartoons, we know how much Minnie loves Mickey and well with Roy, he may not have always agreed with his Walt's decisions but he went along with them.  Now  after this we head on over to the Tiki Room as it had been reverted back to the original show and the New Management had been fired (YAY!)  Let's just say that this was a delight as I had wanted to see the true Tiki Room for years and finally getting to see it, the way it was meant to be seen. There are no words for how good that felt.  After this we went on the Haunted Mansion, the perfect ride for the month of October. Now there had been some updates to the ride mainly the hitchhiking ghosts as they are now more interactive. As you see and I must say thanks for Disney magic, they pulled off a trick where in the mirror, it looked as though my head was on my mom's body and vice versa.  Afterwards, we went on The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh.  The best way to describe this ride is adorable.   It's just so cute, I mean you ride in hunny pot. How cute is that?   Also you do encounter Heffalunps and Woozles  (what a frightful sight)  Though my favorite part is when you get to the portion with Tigger, he asks you to bounce with him and your hunny pot starts bouncing. I thought that was really cool.   Also here I am at Eeyore's house.

After Pooh Bear (which I think is now one of my favorite rides), we went on my all time favorite ride in the world, Splash Mountain and even though, we didn't come off as wet as I'd hoped, it was still a great ride. Also I may be wrong while I was in line I passed by a shadowy figure that was being projected onto the wall of queue area and maybe I overreacted by I thought that figure was Uncle Remus.  I can't confirm nor deny this but at that moment I thought I saw a reference to Uncle Remus in Disney World and if that's the case, I say good on Disney but just release the film already. (Sorry, sorry didn't mean to go there).  After Splash, our last night at Magic Kingdom was Big Thunder.   The thing that sticks the most for me about this isn't even the ride but rather there was a little girl right next to my mom & I who was going on Big Thunder for the first time with her dad and she was scared. My mom and I tried to help feel better and by the time the ride was done, she loved it as she declared "That was awesome".    To me that is the perfect thing to in Disney World.       After that, we left Magic Kingdom, hopped on the monorail and headed back to EPCOT. To take part in two attractions, Journey Into Imagination with Figment.   Now this was the ride that I had my heart set on going this trip and let's say even though, it's not the version, I've covered in the past, I loved it as it was just so much and so silly and plus Figment is one of the cutest Disney characters ever.

Just look at him, he's adorable.   The second thing, we did at EPCOT was Captain EO.   This is a 3D movie starring Micheal Jackson that was worked on by George Lucas and they stated it was from '86 and let's just say that this film showed it's age and I think I walked with some of the '80s dripping on me after this. Was it bad?    By today's standards, probably but it is oh so highly entertaining.  I would love to see someone like MT3SK do a riff on on it because of how cheesy it is.  




There you have it,  my Disney World vacation.  Overall, I had a very good time and even though  I didn't cover everything, I tried to cover as much as I could. I know this article is pretty long but I had a lot that I wanted to talk about.   Peace!