Park Hopping

We started our day back at Hollywood Studios. Now that we have been to all four parks this is definitely our favorite! It was back to Toy Story first thing, the ride is so great, I want to build it in the backyard. We also saw "The Little Mermaid" live show, and then American Idol, where people visiting the park audition and they perform throughout the day until they chose a winner at the last show of the night. The finale winner gets in first at their local audition. We saw three really good performances, although my favorite did not win, isn't that always the way?



Then we had lunch at the SciFi Drive in, where the tables are all in cars and you watch previews and clips from science fiction movies from the 50's, like "Attack of the 50 foot Woman" and "Plan 9 from Outer Space". Very fun and really well done. We had good luck getting into the sit-down restaurants without a reservation, likely because there are only two of us.




The whole trip we had been trying to get photos with the characters, but the lines were so long! We ran across Lightning and Mater tucked away in a corner and finally got a character picture! We later tried Mickey's house but that was just crazy crowded.





We then went back to Magic Kingdom for dinner, the parade, and fireworks. The parade broke, but the got it fixed after 20 minutes, so we did get to see it. It was great and so were the fireworks!

Animal Kingdom

We spent Tuesday at Animal Kingdom. It is really beautiful and lush, unfortunately the true jungle feel was complete because it was really hot and humid. Does Disney have that much power or was it that way all over Orlando? And to top it off the water ride, Kali River Rapids was not running! But we did get to ride Everest, the big roller coaster there, which was a good one!

The best ride was the Kilimanjaro Safari, where you travel by truck through a replica of the African savanna. The animals a roaming free and you get pretty close. It was about 20 minutes, but I wish it had gone for a lot longer, it was really beautiful and amazing. It was fun when you would see a giraffe or elephant and all the kids on the truck would yell and get excited.

Then it was back to Epcot to the World Showcase to visit the Food and Wine festival and eat eat eat! We went to a lot of the little booths, where you get a small portion of a regional dish from that country. And thank goodness it rained while we were there, so it cooled down a lot.

Only a day and a half left on our trip, we are feeling the need to cleanse ourselves of all the magic and dreams, maybe we'll hang out a casino full of drunk people gambling...

Epcot

Epcot! We got to the park right when it opened, and it was empty! We headed over to Test Track, which was supposed to be a high speed roller coaster...not so much. Fun, but not what expected. Then I went on Mission Space, Chuck passed on that one. I wimped out and took the "less intense" version which was really fun. I am still debating riding the full version that spins you...maybe tomorrow...

We rode on Spaceship Earth, the ride inside the big golf ball. It takes you through the history of mankind, pretty good for a ten minute ride! Then they put you in the future...evidently I will be a pinhead in the future! And why would Chuck wear a ball cap inside a space helmet? The future looks to be a bit weird!

Next we went over to the World Showcase, a lake surrounded by a dozen countries around the world. They are having a Food & Wine festival, so they have smaller stands where you can try food from about 20 different countries. We had reservations for lunch in Germany, so we will come back and eat our way around the world for dinner on Tuesday. The German restaurant was fantastic!

We then headed back to Magic Kingdom for a while, we decided to take the ferry instead of the Monorail, and they must have known we were coming, they brought Chuck's boat! He spent the whole ferry ride bossing people around.

Hollywood Studios

Saturday we spent the day at Disney Hollywood Studios. I didn't know that Disney actually has production studios here! The park is really big, themed like Hollywood in the 40's. This park was a lot of fun for us because most of the rides and shows were new to us, so we had a lot to explore. Chuck was just happy he could get a latte, he was going through withdrawals! First up, Tower of Terror, always fun!

We then went on the Aerosmith Rock and Roller Coaster, which was great! Very fast and very fun! We immediately got Fast Passes after we got off so we could ride again! The intro to this ride has a great appearance by Aerosmith inviting us to join them in their limo, but I never did see them on the ride...

We did a lot of rides and shows, The Great Movie Ride, Studio Backlot Tour, and Chucks favorite, a stunt show called Lights, Motors, Action! The premise is they are filming a chase sequence for a film, there was some amazing driving! They must go through a set of tires every day. And they sure blow a lot of stuff up at this park! We then slowed down a bit and saw a movie about Walt Disney, mostly to sit in an air conditioned theater...Chuck even sat through Beauty and the Beast's live performance!

One goal of the day was to ride Toy Story, which is the most popular ride in the park, it's a 3D arcade type game. The wait was well over an hour and Fast Passes were gone early, we got lucky and went at dinner time and only had to wait half an hour. It was great and we plan on coming back and riding again, better planning next time. We've been lucky, that was the only ride we have had to wait for. We ended our day at Fantasmic, which was amazing, and more stuff got blown up! Next stop, Epcot!

The Magic Kingdom

We spent Saturday at the Magic Kingdom, what we call Disneyland at home. The park was decorated for Halloween with Mickey pumpkins everywhere. We came at the right time of the year, not too crowded and not too hot. The park is almost like Disneyland, so we knew our way around already. Really liked Stitch's Adventure, and was sad that Space Mountain was closed.


We used Ed's patented Fast Pass system, so we had no problem going on all the rides we wanted to, we spent very little time in line. Splash Mountain sure comes in handy when it gets warm! It's fun to see the little differences in the rides compared to the same ones at Disneyland. We saw Mickey's house in Toontown, I think he may be a little self involved...

We had a nice dinner at the Liberty Tavern, it was good to have a sit down dinner, the fast food options at this park are pretty limited, I am sure Epcot makes up for it! We didn't stay for the parade, we are going to do that on Tuesday when it's sure to be less crowded. Next we are off to Hollywood Studios, where we will really put the Fast Pass system to work!

Orlando

Friday was our travel day to Orlando, everything went smoothly, we even arrived early! Chuck had called for a car to take us to the hotel, we were supposed to get a Town Car but to our surprise a stretch limo was waiting for us! Chuck had never been in a stretch limo before, so he was living it up!

We arrived around 6:30 at our hotel on the Disneyworld grounds, so we headed over to Downtown Disney and had dinner at Bongo's for tasty Cuban food. I forgot my camera at the hotel, so you get to see a photo of Chuck enjoying the limo. Saturday we are off to the Magic Kingdom!