It all started with a rumor. K and my favorite ride at Disneyland was the Tower of Terror so when they changed it to the Guardians ride in CA, we were a bit nervous. So, we planned a trip for just the two of us to go to Disney World because it was rumored the Florida Tower of Terror would be changed in late 2018. We had everything all set in April, before we went and rode Guardians in CA while there with family. We loved the Guardians ride but were still really looking forward to visiting Disney World during Halloween season (and when K was scheduled to have a 4 day weekend while D and M had no extra days off).
Day One
Why I thought waking up at 3am to catch our flight would be okay, I don’t know. Luckily we made it through a long security line just in time to line up in our boarding place. (K and I much prefer the Orlando airport to Denver.). The flight was great — we watched “Hocus Pocus” after talking to the neat grad student next to us that trains with a former gymnastics silver medalist in preparation for the Halloween show at the magic kingdom. After having K watch Avatar a couple weeks ago before going to Pandora I felt like we were really ready for our Walt Disney World trip.
After the Disney Magical Express brought us to the All Star Music Resort we ate lunch and our luggage arrived just in time for us to go swimming in the Piano Pool (so fun to play together with a beach ball in warm weather) before heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We rode the Rockin’ Roller Coaster (such an awesome ride!) and the Tower of Terror twice (the ride we really came for). We squeezed in Muppet Vision 3D before Alien Swirling Saucers and Star Tours. We are at the Sci Fi Dine In Restaurant and were impressed by the feeling of being at a drive in movie and eating inside a 50s convertible. We finished our dessert just in time to see the end of the Star Wars fireworks before heading back to the hotel. Our feet were sore (my phone says we walked over 6 miles) and we had been up for way too long but it was a good kind of exhausted and we went to sleep content.
Epcot
Thank goodness for a Test Track fast pass. Epcot was insanely crowded, partially due to the Food and Wine Festival. I have never seen so many tipsy people at a Disney Park before!
The only place K really wanted to eat was the Garden Grill. She remembered how it goes in a circle and that’s where N fell in love with Pluto as a baby. After meeting characters and eating until we were stuffed we road Living with the Land to let our stomachs settle before riding Soarin’. We shouldn’t have worried because that wait was an hour. We love that ride and there was a fun trivia games on a giant screen while you waited in line that helped keep us entertained.
We had liked the Maelstrom ride in 2014 and were curious to see how it was now that it was a Frozen themed ride. K wasn’t so sure it would be worth it but when it said the stand by line was 10 minutes we walked right on in. One hour later we decided it was good but probably not worth an hour wait. We might have been in line for an entire hour in Mexico to ride the Tres Cabbaleros had it not been for a kind family that was nice enough to include us when there was a mix up with the line and we were all being told to start over at the back. When the grandma complained, her family and K and I were let in by a cast member at the wheelchair entrance. Thank you, nice lady! Luckily riding the Seas with Nemo and our Journey into Imagination with Figment was quick and easy.
K and I rode Mission: Space for the first time and it was amazing. I have now idea how a simulator can feel that real. I was pretty worried that K insisted on doing the orange training instead of green, especially when I saw those barf bags in there but I’m sure the Dramamine I took is the only reason I didn’t have to use one. Mission: Space is now K’s favorite ride in all of Epcot! Although I was impressed with how great it was, I did refuse to go again. We did go eat a late quick serve dinner and K got a Henna tattoo in Morocco before we headed back to the hotel. K says she thinks they are going to be the next trend at her elementary school. It’s beautiful and took barely any time at all.
Magic Kingdom
We set the alarm clock so we wouldn’t miss our 10am breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest restaurant and arrived right in time. That building was gorgeous! I’m convinced it’s the best deal around for quick serve because of the pastries provided. They even had yummy gluten free bread for me too. Yummy GF bread. Now that’s rare.
We headed for Splash Mountain because it was already hot and loved it so much we ended up going back at night when the line was much shorter and rode it another 4 times. It’s definitely K’s new favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom! We then rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Seven Dwarves Mine Train before accidentally getting in line to meet Ariel instead of the Ariel ride. Whoops! There went an hour down the drain but the woman working there had mercy on us and put us in the fast pass line for the ride. Nice save! Our mistake made us late to our lunch reservation at Tony’s but they were kind and got us in quickly. K loved the Mac and cheese and my steak was delicious as well. My raspberry sorbet was wonderful but so intense I couldn’t even finish it and K couldn’t finish her cheesecake either.
Eating at Tony’s meant we only had to walk next door to meet Jack Skelington and Sally. It was a two hour wait but it was the number one reason we bought tickets to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. K says it was worth the wait since this was the only way to get to see them. After getting our party wrist bands we hit the Haunted House (with fun pics), Space Mountain, watched the Hocus Pocus show, Pirates of the Caribbean (with live actors) and had Dole Whip floats for dinner. We watched the “Boo to You” parade half way in between riding Splash Mountain for a total of 5 times for the day. Once we even got to see the fireworks as we rode the ride. That short wait time plus helping us cool off plus how great that ride is made us pretty happy as we walked out. I don’t know if we will ever go to the MNSSHP ever again so I’m glad we did when we had the chance.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Monday was the day we got to meet up with K’s best friend and have her ride the Tower of Terror with us! C. was pretty worried she would hate it but ended up loving it. (I’m glad she did because I would have felt really bad if she didn’t.) We also watched the Beauty and the Beast show with her family before eating lunch at Mama Melrose’s. It was plenty hot so they went back to where they were staying but K and I used our Rockin’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror fast passes before picking air conditioned attractions such as the Little Mermaid show. We also got to check out the new Toy Story Mania waiting area before using our Slinky Dog fast pass. That was a fun little coaster. If the stand by line wasn’t ridiculous we would have been happy to ride it again. Instead we got ice cream treats, watched the Little Mermaid show (hooray for air conditioning and neat effects!), rode Star Tours, grabbed dinner on Sunset Blvd. and used our Fantasmic fast passes we got from Mama Melrose’s to get 3rd row seats right in the middle. So fun! I loved our view even though it got pretty smokey and misty but it was totally worth it. My favorite part might have been being in such a concert atmosphere with children gasping at the sight of favorite characters and people dancing along to the music or doing the wave while waiting for it to begin. As we walked out to the Star Wars fireworks we were able to have a picture taken with the fireworks going off behind us. It was a great end to our last full day at Disney World.
Time to go home
Our final park was the Animal Kingdom. We arrived 15 minutes after opening time and got to ride Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids (both of those twice — yay!) and the Primeval Swirl (meh) before using our Avatar: Flight of Passage fast pass (awesome!). We especially liked how it was like Soarin’ but even better. Sort of felt like you were riding a horse through Soarin’. Definitely not as intense as they warned — pure enjoyment for us. K and I loved it so much that we felt like even two hours would have been worth the wait (which is about what is was for those poor stand by people). It is definitely K’s new favorite ride out of all 4 parks and we agreed that the next time we come to Disney World (we are dreaming of coming back for the 50th Anniversary in 2021) we should allow an entire day for the Animal Kingdom. I’m sure Pandora is beautiful at night. We opted not to wait for over an hour for the river ride in Pandora because we had more than one person tell us it wasn’t with it so maybe that can be on our list for next time.
We ate at the Flaming Tree BBQ with the Spoonbills (birds) before using our Expedition Everest fast pass — the last ride of the trip. I could not convince K to watch the Lion King show with our fast pass even though it would be in air conditioning and we were hot. After another Mickey Bar for K and another frozen banana for me, we headed back to our hotel to catch the Disney’s Magical Express for the Orlando airport. The hotel helped us check in online and tagged our check in luggage for us before we left for the park — so convenient. Even though the bus was half an hour late we still arrived in plenty of time to eat dinner and wait to board the plane. I enjoyed talking to my mom and D, M & N before we got in the plane. I love my family so much!
I am so glad K and I got to do something so wonderful just the two of us and really realized how important one on one time is. We need to have that more often so will have to find a way to do so without being so extravagant!
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