Hi Everyone! I am back and mainly unpacked (its been a week I should be 100% unpacked but whatever...) from my lovely vacation with the hubs to Florida. I miss Florida already, but we are back in PA and happy, cold, slightly sick, and stuffed with turkey because it was Thanksgiving about 2 days ago.
So I have lots to update on, lets start!
Disney! So much fun. We stayed at Disney and rented a car to go to Universal three days. I'm making the trip a two part post, first Disney, then Universal and conclusion. Sound good? OKAY! Lets go!
As previously stated, Hubs and I stayed at Pop Century on the Disney property and rented a car for going to Universal. People consistently were saying "save money, stay off ground, etc" but frankly, after you factor in parking and gas, etc, it was worth it, for hubs and me to stay at Disney. Disney has their own transportation system that will transport you to and from the parks if you are staying at their resort. Also if you know someone staying at another Disney resort, you can get a bus to one of the parks, then a bus from the park to that hotel and meet up with family or friends staying there, or take the monorail, which we did ride at one point... You can also use this to go to breakfast, lunch, dinner, whatever at the other resorts.
Magic Bands: Your magic bands have your name on them, and then are your ticket to the park, your key for your room, your connection for charging things to your room, and your dining plan swiper. I think Disney has some bugs to work out still, because I had an issue with my band a few times, and so did multiple other people I saw and talked to. Bands not working at their room, not matching with your finger print at the park gate, sometimes just not working. They finally had to take my picture because I could not get it to work at the parks for a fourth time on one of our last days.
You basically wear the band, and scan your finger so that they know it isn't being used by other people. Simple enough, but slight pain when one keeps glitching. You also have the option in the parks to purchase MORE magic bands, with fun stuff on them. I stuck with my orange one.
Now you have the basics, lets move on, taking this one day at a time….Sorry. I’ll try to be brief, but no promises.
Saturday: EARLY EARLY EARLY!
My mother in law drove us to the airport at 4:30 in the morning…. no joke. I was exhausted. We apparently love to torture ourselves because Hubs and I did the same thing for Jamaica, like 4 hours of sleep then a day of awesome! Got to Disney around lunch time, had lunch at Pop Century, got our cups (dining plan gives you cups) then off to Magic Kingdom we went! It was the first time my husband had been to any of the Disney parks, as he had only ever been to Universal a long time ago... PEOPLE if you ever get the chance to take someone to Magic Kingdom for their first time, DO IT. He was amazed because we got there in the middle of one of their parades and Oh my gosh, Hubs could not stop staring at everything. He said to me atleast three times "What is this place?" lol. It was pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie.
We got to meet Gaston, get on the tea cups, we only did like 3 rides at Magic Kingdom Saturday because there was an insane amount of people there. So we left and went to Epcot because we had dinner reservations at Biergarten which was AMAZING. Omg, best food. My husband and I are both German descent and have a small love of German food. Its in Oktoberfest, and its a buffet. If you want like drinks and an appetizer, go to Summerfest because thats not a buffet and we met a couple who made that mistake. Tried to be a beer crawl of Epcot, and went to Biergarten as a short stop… no. You don’t do that.
Best like everything I have ever eaten, dessert was amazing, vegetables were amazing, sauerkraut was amazing, just omg. The family we sat with were great too, very nice people from near where Hubs and I live now so.
Our room wasn’t ready until like WELL after 3pm (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t ready till 6 o clock… I may be wrong but I’m going to check it)
Sunday: We got super lucky and got Lunch Reservations at Be Our Guest. Apparently dinner is much harder to come by, but frankly we just wanted to go in there… Again, Food was amazing. When you do breakfast and lunch you go through a line and order at a touch screen, then you pick a seat, and MAGICALLY your food finds you. I asked how they find you and the girl looked at me so just done and goes “…Magic…” Okay lady, good enough for me… I got a roast beef sandwich, that came with fries, AND a cupcake with “Grey Stuff” on it. It was icing, lol. It was good.
Got on some rides, got to ride Dumbo, because frankly everyone should go on the Dumbo ride at least once. Because of the long lines we didn’t get on many rides at Magic Kingdom. We did get on the Splash Mountain ride, which was great because Hubs loves log flumes, and it was HOT!! Again, went to Epcot after magic kingdom, BUT! We ate the Akershus which was awesome too. This was character dining, where the Princesses come around and take pictures and say hi. Ariel was fascinated by my shirt because it had “bubbles” on it, and asked if I had been swimming. It was a polka dot shirt lol. Again food was amazing. Missed the fire works for Epcot because we were in dinner, but we caught them Monday.
Christmas Tea Pot!
Monday: Typhoon Lagoon. Kudos Disney for your wave pool. Those waves came and people SCREAMED. It was great. Water slides were good. I am not a fan of slides where I have to go down without a tube because my shoulder blades always hurt afterwards, don’t know why but they do. This day we got to meet up with my sister and her family after we had finished at the water park. So we left a bit before closing, went back got showers, and met up with my sister after dinner for fire works. We ate at the coral reef which was SO COOL. Everyone has a view of the fish tank which is awesome. They give you a list of what all the fish are too so you can see as they come past the glass. Also they had this black sea salt on their butter with the bread, OMG So delicious. I’m a salt person, who I lost my mind over this one food lol.
Fire works with my sisters family was great. My husband had my nephew on his shoulders so he could see better, and apparently the Monorail was in the way because he insisted my husband move closer.
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom again, but this time with my sisters family. We got lucky and SOMEHOW got to eat at Be Our Guest AGAIN but for breakfast this time. Hubs was like, “lets try it” and no joke, we were in and out in half the time as lunch on Sunday. Met up with my sister after breakfast and frankly we really got in more rides with them than we did on our own which we didn’t expect. My sister would go, “this fast pass” and i’d switch us to it and then we’d head over because on Tuesday this was less people and most of the rides we could take her kids on, had like NO waits. It was good. My nephew likes the Aladdin magic carpet ride, which is basically Dumbo, but with carpets and camels that spit at you, lol.
DOLE WHIP Hubs insisted he have pineapple dole whip.
We went to Hollywood Studios after Magic Kingdom, and I insisted Hubs ride Tower of Terror. I love it, its my favorite. We tried to get fast passes for different stuff but basically ended up canceling some of them and using them for Epcot later. We also got on rocking roller coaster and walked around just getting on different stuff. We did NOT ride Soarin’ as there was an hour and a half wait basically every day we checked it.
Dinner was at Epcot again… I KNOW I KNOW but it was so good. This time at Tokyo Dining which was again AMAZING. I was not disappointed at any meal in Disney. We got cloths before the meal to wipe our hands and we got to eat with chopsticks, which we love. They were very nice too.
We didn’t go to Disney again until Saturday when we left, and this post is long enough already!!! See part 2 for Universal, last day in Disney, and tips and such.
Happy Living!!
taxikab
ps. Happy belated Thanksgiving!
