Category: Travel

This morning it was back to the Magic Kingdom. We decided to get the monorail since we hadn’t been on it yet. I prefer the ferry but it’s fun the travel through the Contemporary Hotel.

We were behind the initial flurry up Main Street so I stopped to take a few photos of the castle (you can never have enough) …

On our way to meet some Princesses. We had planned to meet Cinderella but the line was already at 30min wait so we headed to Tiana and Rapunzel.

Tiana was lovely.

As was Rapunzel – who chatted to Athena about their bunny and how good he was at playing hide and seek (like her sidekick Pascal).

Just as we were leaving Rapunzel requested a hug from Athena. It’s been touching (and kind of amusing) how so many of the cast members see Athena on the scooter with their headphones on (to help with noise sensitivity), dressed in Athena’s quirky way  and assume they are mentally disabled.

From here we went to Enchanted Tales with Belle. It was pretty new last time we were here and the waits were always long so we had never seen it.

Belle’s house….

With the Beasts castle in the background…

Inside were photos and LOTS of books…

The “show” is a retelling of the Beauty and Beast story re-enacted with kids from the audience.

So cute. And the special effects in here are wonderful.

Athena did get a lovely photo with Belle (see above comments about cast members) but I can’t seem to get it upload into Flickr so I can share it here.

We had planned to meet Aerial next but again the line was too long. I think the park was more crowded than expected today as a lot of the wait times were longer than predicted. Kevin wasn’t feeling the best this morning so had headed back to Main Street to get a coffee and sit and read.

Time for Under the Sea. Cute ride but luckily we walked right on (after walking through the LONG queue line). Of course, afterwards I realized we had fast passes for this :-).

By now it was time for a break at Gaston’s Tavern.

We sat in a different side to last time and saw Gaston’s huge chair. Love all the details that Disney are so good at providing.

Christy and I opted for drinks while Athena enjoyed some of this Cinnamon Roll.

Time to check out Storybook Circus. I don’t really remember this but I’m sure we would have visited on our last trip.

I’m forever admiring and taking photos of all these amazing looking candy apples and cookies but I don’t think I could ever eat one as they look to nice to eat :-).

I finally got to get a photo of the Goldie that we had spotted this morning. So cute. And the first one we’ve seen since we left home. There are SO many service dogs in America – you really don’t see too many in Australia.

By now we were all feeling pretty hot and tired, and the park was getting more crowded, so we headed back towards Main Street to meet Kevin (after a detour to Tomorrowland in search of a top that Athena wanted) and checked out the shops on Main Street. We didn’t buy anything though.

After catching the monorail back to the Ticket and Transport Center we grabbed a wheelchair for Christy for the walk back to the car, as she’s been getting pains when trying to walk any faster than a snails pace. Hoping it will settle down as we still have quite a few park days ahead.

Back at the room Kevin promptly feel asleep, I made nachos for lunch and manage to shatter a glass dish after placing it on the granite counter (I assume because it was much cooler than the dish). I managed to save enough nachos for the kids and cooked myself an Amy’s meal after cleaning up as best I could.

Around 3pm we decided to get ready and head back to Typhoon Lagoon to use the lazy river and wave pool. This time Athena came with us. After a swim it was nice to sit and warm up in the sun. It had been a lot hotter today (around 30C) so the water wasn’t as warm (which is what you want). We also shared another funnel cake.

And I managed to get a photo of the water spurting out of the boat.

We left shortly before it closed at 5pm. Dinner tonight was some filled pasta.

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Caught  a bit of what looked to be a spectacular sunrise this morning.

We had breakfast (bagels again for me) in the room then set of for SuperTarget.

Athena bought a lot of stuff, I just picked up a few bits and pieces. Shopping over here is really showing me just how much my shopping habits have changed. I even picked up a few things and put them back knowing I didn’t really need them (like pretty notebooks).

I loved this teal pyrex wear, but of course it’s too heavy to take home.

After Target and a quick stop at a Sketchers store we went to Fridays for lunch (not sure what happened to the TGI part).

We had a lovely dinner here on our last trip and luckily we were not disappointed this time.

I ordered a  hot dip and tortillas for my main, with a side of sweet potato fries. So delicious. Athena had two mini burgers, Christy mac n cheese (yet again) and Kevin had a brushetta chicken pasta which he raved about.

We then went back to the apartment to get changed into our swimmers and drop Thee off, and headed to Typhoon Lagoon – which is less than a 5 min drive.

We were surprised to find the carpark almost empty.

The grounds are beautiful. So many different trees and flowers.

We EASILY found some seats to leave our stuff on and headed for the lazy river, thrilled to discover it was heated.

We then went on the fun, but rather short, family raft ride.

Kevin & Christy rode again, then went on some single raft rides.

Then it was back to the lazy river…

And around to the wave pool.

we had thought this was just a normal wave pool (which I’m not a fan of) so were surprised and happy to find it was a little different. So much fun. I won’t give it away in case you haven’t been before.

Then it was into the lazy river again (quite a bit warmer than the wave pool) and it definitely our fav. thing to do.

After another full lap, Christy went off to do some more slides and Kevin and I got a cup of tea/coffee and shared a funnel cake…

while enjoying the view…

and the last warmth of the sun…

We left about 4.45pm and I watched a few videos before having a lot of issues downloading my video camera.

Kevin and Athena were lying on the bed watching one of my vlogs (don’t worry Thee is dressed – just wearing a pale pink dress).

Dinner was from the freezer. I tried some of Gardein vegan “chicken” pieces that are pretty hard to find in Australia (I haven’t yet found any). It was really good too. Had this with some potatoes (that I had cooked for Christy) and fries. Kevin & Athena also had a frozen chicken meal that Kevin had picked out.

Later we had the key lime pie we had bought at Publix. Yummy. But half a piece was quite enough for me.

Everyone did their own thing this evening and was off to bed by 9pm.

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It was another relaxed start to the day. Shortly before 10am, Kevin, Athena and myself headed to Disney Springs and Starbucks.

It was very busy so we sat outside to eat our breakfast. I had a green tea frappe and a delicious toasted bagel (American bagels are the BEST – which is why I’ve been having one nearly every day).

We then checked out all the shops we hadn’t yet visited.

The Marvel store was a surprise for Athena. I knew about it but hadn’t told them.

The guy working here had a big in depth conversation about the movies with Athena.

I still can’t get over just how beautiful Disney Springs is.

The Kipling store…

Didn’t go here but I hear the burgers are good and it looks super cute…

Outside guest relations…

Kevin’s selfie with lego Buzz…

This amazing huge lego sculpture…

After our explorations, Athena was in pain again – having walked today instead of taking the scooter. We dropped them back at the resort and Kevin and I went to get some groceries. We first stopped at Walgreens for some medical supplies (not realizing the supermarket also had a chemist).

We chose to visit Publix this time.

Such a lovely store. We really enjoyed shopping here until we came across the live lobsters for sale :-(. Don’t like the fact that they could be bought and boiled alive – so we won’t be shopping here again.

They did have a lovely salad bar so I made myself another salad for lunch. It’s interesting that you always get mandarin segments for your salads here – whereas in Australia it’s normally pineapple. I don’t mind as long I get some fruit. Kevin got some clam chowder, Athena some Asian and Christy some mac n cheese.

Back home Kevin and I sat out on the balcony to eat our lunch. Athena had fallen asleep and Christy was busy watching some TV shows.

We had a few hours rest and then, after a few false starts, headed to EPCOT with the plan to explore some more of World Showcase and see Illuminations.

Christy opted to go and do more rides instead of World Showcase.

First stop around the world was Mexico.

The ride here – Gran Fiesta Tour – is pretty cute.

Then was on to Norway. Not sure if the lines for the Frozen ride or meeting Anna & Elsa will ever be short enough for us to do but maybe later in the trip.

On our way to China Kevin found this rather weird Flamingo hat. Much as I love flamingos we didn’t buy the hat :-).

China…

Unfortunately I started to experience a lot of foot pain here so opted to sit outside and wait while Athena & Kevin checked out the shops.

Sunset view of the lagoon…

Germany – and it’s performers…

As you can see the park was rather crowded.

Athena was kind enough to let me ride the scooter for a bit and it was very much appreciated.

We went around to Japan to have dinner. Unfortunately the only thing vegetarian was sushi – which Kevin got for me – but I really don’t like sushi. I did try it but like it. Kevin also didn’t like his teriyaki chicken so I ate his plain rice. Athena thought the chicken was okay. We had such a nice meal here 4 years ago so it was rather disappointing. Nice atmosphere though.

We headed back to Italy..

And then to Germany…

It was only about 7.30pm by now so no-one really wanted to wait until 9.30pm for Illuminations. So we agreed to meet Christy at Spaceship Earth and ride that before heading home.

Isn’t the Christmas tree absolutely stunning at night? Despite the crowds I’m glad we got to experience EPCOT at night.

On the way out Athena did their first pin trading (only just having bought pins this morning). Both the kids have pins at home from previous trips but none they wanted to part with.

Back home I had an Amy’s dinner, downloaded the cameras and was in bed just as Illuminations would have started :-).

Unfortunately I was right with my prediction of how I would feel this morning and I woke with a lot of a body pain and a bad headache. I took my meds, turned off the lights and closed the blinds and hoped I’d improve. It was not to be though, so I opted to take a fibro time out for the morning.

Since it was the 1st December, Christy and Athena opened their Disney chocolate calendars that we had purchased from Goofy’s Candy Store.

The rest of the family decided to head back to the Animal Kingdom. Kevin and Athena both vlogged but as you can tell from the photo below Kevin had a few failed attempts – getting photos instead of video.

They did the safari we’d missed the other day.

Had Starbucks for breakfast…

Saw this cute squirrel…

Christy rode Expedition Everest 7 times as a single rider before starting to feel a little squimish. Athena and Kevin visited the Wilderness Explorer places and checked out more of Dinoland.

When they got back around 12.15pm we decided to go have lunch at one of the resort cafes and then have a swim. Christy stayed behind because she just wanted to rest. I still wasn’t feeling great but hoped getting out would see me improve. And it seemed to work.

This is the view we could have had if we were on the other side of the building.

Took some more photos today to show you the resort. Our building (no.5) is on the right. Last time we stayed in the one on the left.

We went to the Back Bay Bar & Grill (which is part of the hotel).

I had the Floridian Salad which was very yummy.

Kevin enjoyed a chicken & avocado melt but Athena found the wrap too spicy (with their funny tummy) so just ate the fries.

We stopped for a swing on the way back to the lazy river…

where we enjoyed floating around for a few laps…

Then it was back to our apartment where I showered and an hour or so later we headed to the Hollywood Studios. Knowing I wasn’t feeling great and due to visiting two parks in the same day, Kevin had bought the preferred parking (an extra $15) so we could park closer. Doing this they discovered we can just ask for medical parking since we have the scooter.

I love how this park looks, especially when it’s decorated for Christmas, but I did miss seeing Mickey’s sorcerers hat.

Since I still had a massive headache I opted not to ride Star Tours, which we had fast passes for. Kevin enjoyed it but the kids just said was okay and didn’t make any sense since they hadn’t seen all the Star Wars movies.

We then watch Muppet Vision in 3D, which I always enjoy.

And we loved this movie poster :-).

We then bought some Christmas decorations at a little Christmas shop. Love these themed shoes – so cute.

Kevin got a little bored (after picking out his Merida ornament) and went to wait outside.

From the moment we had entered the park Kevin had been going on about churros (having moved on from chocolate bananas) so was very happy when he finally got one. I had just got a refill of popcorn.

We then checked out some of the shops and admired the Christmas decorations.

Had some photos taken.

Thee was still in the shop when Christy jumped into our photo session.

I bought this Merida for Kevin’s birthday – we have a few pieces by Jim Shore and I love his style. I also got a Jack Skellington as Santa.

Then the moment we’d all been waiting for – it was time to ride the Tower of Terror.

Love that I caught this couple about to kiss in the lobby.

Such a fun ride. Another family fav.

Then it was time for Rock n Roller Coaster – which is my fav.

And it was just as fun as I remembered. And remains my fav :-).

Kevin got himself another churro and I opted to have a Mickey Pretzel. Not as good as I remembered (though I think the Wetzels Pretzels are the better ones) but I ate it all (with some help from Kevin) while we waited for Fantasmic. Unfortunately Kevin stole some before I could get a photo !!

We were seated in the back row right by the entrance but the view was still great (and it meant a quick easy getaway at the end). Of course, everyone was on their phones as we waited for the 15mins or so for the show to start. Do you like Christy’s new night ears?

Athena loved Fantasmic. Kevin and I enjoyed it but wouldn’t rave about it (but we’ve seen World of Colour so it’s hard for anything to live up to that).

On the way back to the car we stopped to admire the gorgeous Christmas tree all lit up.

Then it was back to our room for dinner and a brief relax before heading to bed around 9pm.