Trip Report Part I

Hi, everybody! Sorry I haven’t blogged during my trip so far, but it has been jam packed! I’ll write about many of the activities in more detail in coming blogs, but I just wanted to give a quick recap of what I’ve been up to for the last week. It’s been amazing trip so far, and I’m so excited to see what we do during the last few!

Thursday was arrival day. Tom, Julie, and I landed at Orlando International late in the afternoon and couldn’t wait to see each other and meet up with Don at Pop Century! After getting settled we headed to Downtown Disney to try Cooke’s of Dublin, do a bit of shopping, and try to ride Characters in Flight. However, Characters in Flight wasn’t running since it was a bit gusty.

Friday we were up at the crack of dawn to get to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for opening and Studio 20. The fans who gathered to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the Studios were treated to a lecture given by three of the Imagineers involved in the design of the park. If you haven’t heard already they let it slip that they are not fans of the hat! The rest of the day was spent enjoying the park with friends. That evening we got to experience Sanaa with a group six friends. Sanaa was really great and I highly recommend it. I’ll flush out an entry about it shortly after I get home.

Saturday we headed back to the Studios to take in a few more attractions before going to the ESPN Club for lunch. We took the stroll from the Boardwalk into Epcot’s International Gateway to start our drinking around the world and hit some Future World attractions. We were only able to get Mexico and the UK crossed off the list before heading back to DHS to go to 50s Primetime Café. Unfortunately, both the server and the food were mediocre. Then it was back to Epcot to use a fastpass, enjoy a cocktail in France, grab a Moosehead beer in Canada and take in Illuminations.

Sunday we moved to the Wilderness Lodge. We had a bumpy start at the resort, but enjoyed our day spread between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We snagged an ADR at Le Cellier that night, and it was lovely as always.

Monday was water park day. We started at Typhoon Lagoon in the morning. My favorite park was the wave pool! In the afternoon we spent a few hours at Blizzard Beach. I think I preferred Blizzard Beach, but I’ll get into those details later.

Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom in the morning then took the monorail to Epcot for the rest of the afternoon. We crossed China, Norway, Germany, and the American Adventure off of the drinking around the world list. We were able to get preferred viewing for Illuminations with the UK booking package. It was a nice way to take in my favorite fireworks.