We woke up in all the
glorious splendor that was our fabulous room to a wake up call from none other
then Mr. Mouse and Mr. Stitch! I hopped right up as did Rob and we got ready
for the day! I was really looking forward to the character meal at Cape May
Café as we have only met Minnie once and we have never met Goofy at all!! We
walked over to the Beach Club which was nice and easy, especially since we were
headed to a big buffet breakfast it was nice to get a little bit of blood
flowing!
We entered the Beach Club and were given a beeper which prompltly went off less than 2 minutes later! We were seated on the same wall that the bagel station is on, just around the corner right next to where the Mickey waffles are located at the buffet itself! It was a great location! We loved the selection here! This was our first WDW breakfast and man were we hooked! Soooo good! The waffles were delish! As were the eggs, potatoes, fruits, and cinnamon rolls. I had tea and Rob had some coffee. Just as we had sat down with our first plates of food Dale came over for some pics!
And as soon as we finished eating Minnie was there! Perfect timing! I had taken a picture for the couple behind us so they offered us the same courtsey! So sweet! I began to draw on the placemat/tablecloth with the crayons we had been given when we were seated. And who should come along but the Goofster! He just walked right over and sat next to me! It was so funny! Rob got a pic right away! Then he took a crayon and started writing to us- he asked where we were from and we said New York, so he asked NYC? and we told him where we live in proximity to the city and he gave me the thumbs up and moved over to take a pic with Rob!
Great interaction! Another great character meal! I am a firm believer in meeting the characters at meals so as not to waste my park time and I just think you get better interaction there! This was another great example of this! After squaring away the bill and whatnot we headed back over the Boardwalk. This was originally our "Free day" but we decided to hit Animal Kingdom today instead of waiting. This way the next day, our last full day, would be available for whatever and whereever we wanted to go. I was really excited to head on over and I don't know why we didn't just catch the bus from Beach Club but I got some great pics of the view of the Boardwalk from Beach Club on our way out. I can guess that we just wanted to take the walk after eating or something? Who knows!
We entered the Beach Club and were given a beeper which prompltly went off less than 2 minutes later! We were seated on the same wall that the bagel station is on, just around the corner right next to where the Mickey waffles are located at the buffet itself! It was a great location! We loved the selection here! This was our first WDW breakfast and man were we hooked! Soooo good! The waffles were delish! As were the eggs, potatoes, fruits, and cinnamon rolls. I had tea and Rob had some coffee. Just as we had sat down with our first plates of food Dale came over for some pics!
And as soon as we finished eating Minnie was there! Perfect timing! I had taken a picture for the couple behind us so they offered us the same courtsey! So sweet! I began to draw on the placemat/tablecloth with the crayons we had been given when we were seated. And who should come along but the Goofster! He just walked right over and sat next to me! It was so funny! Rob got a pic right away! Then he took a crayon and started writing to us- he asked where we were from and we said New York, so he asked NYC? and we told him where we live in proximity to the city and he gave me the thumbs up and moved over to take a pic with Rob!
Great interaction! Another great character meal! I am a firm believer in meeting the characters at meals so as not to waste my park time and I just think you get better interaction there! This was another great example of this! After squaring away the bill and whatnot we headed back over the Boardwalk. This was originally our "Free day" but we decided to hit Animal Kingdom today instead of waiting. This way the next day, our last full day, would be available for whatever and whereever we wanted to go. I was really excited to head on over and I don't know why we didn't just catch the bus from Beach Club but I got some great pics of the view of the Boardwalk from Beach Club on our way out. I can guess that we just wanted to take the walk after eating or something? Who knows!
We had missed our Safari ride last year so we decided to just head right into Africa for some FPs and then hit the one area we have never visited- Rafiki's Planet Watch! This worked out perfect because we got to AK around 10:45 and our FP return was for 12:10. We hopped on the Wildlife Express Train and were on the same car as the conductor, Geoffrey!
I loved how Rafiki was there to point the way to the building! So cute! I always remember him singing in Lion King Asanta sana... squashed banana.... Anyways, we walked through Habitat Habit and into the Conservation Station. I took a TOOOOOON of pics of the animals here! Mostly bright frogs and turtles, some little bunnies at the vet... etc... my pics are pretty boring but I did have a favorite turtle! I love how his shell is so big an edgey!
We spent a decent amount of time here, deciding not to go to the petting zoo area. I did get to meet Pocahontas and get in touch with my Native American side (I'm part Cherokee, not Algonquian but I still always lover her!) Rob got a picture of us talking like he did last year with Belle. I think I was wearing the same jean shorts last year too! lol! Anyways, she asked me if my Prince behaves or if he gets me in trouble and I told her not to worry that I keep him in line! And she said thats how all princesses are! lol!
I was so shocked there weren't more people here! Especially families! There was no crowd and no line for Poca! I mean, its not common in WDW that after a little train ride and some animal exhibits you can walk up to a Princess! In any case, we ended our "Two week trek away from Harambe" and reboarded the Wildlife Express. We were able to walk right over to the Kilamanjaro Safari with perfect timing since our FPs were now active!!
I have tons of Safari pics and this was even more amazing then the last trip we took on Simba One!! Some great stuff we saw included: 2 baby Elephants and a baby Giraffe! Another Giraffe that leaning pretty much into our Jeep! Rhinos who stopped in our path and then ran RIGHT NEXT to us! And a plethora of animals we didn't even know were on the safari like Ostrichs and Gazelles! I bet Rob could have reached out and touched the Rhinos--one of them came so close to us!!! It was amazing!
We had such a great ride
and although it seems silly to come to AK for a few attractions, I guess thats
the beauty of the Park Hopper, right? We were glad we had decided not to skip
AK and actually thought about grabbing lunch at the Yak & Yeti
counterservice! We walked a bit and I admitted I wasn't hungry and Rob agreed
we may as well just wait it out! On our way out we saw DeVine... though we
didn't stop to watch. We hopped on our bus- which was waiting for us when we
arrived at the little station- and headed back to the Boardwalk!
We decided to take a swim to cool down from all that extra AK humidity and headed over to the Luna Park Pool. We didn't take any pics this day but we did enjoy some more Pina Coladas from the Leaping Libations pool bar and split a bag of Baked Lays. The pool was wonderful and relaxing, as it was our whole trip. We also planned what we would do Friday (our last full day). We sort of went through everything we had done and did one of these: MGM (CHECK!), ANIMAL KINGDOM (CHECK!) but then we realized we still had more to do in Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Since after dinner we were heading into Magic Kingdom we decided to switch some ADRs around so that we could go to San Angel Inn for Lunch Friday, then we could finish Epcot up and head to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping and we would have conquered all 4 parks before Departure Day! Rob also wanted me to try and get us another Breakfast ADR.
After swimming for about an hour or so we headed back to the room and freshened up. I called Disney Dining and got our ADR changed to a Friday Lunch in Mexico instead of a Saturday one and with the help of the experts there, we also got a breakfast ADR for our departure day at Yacht Club's Captain's Grille (this was labeled as something else in the Passporter so I was so glad the lady I was on the phone with was so knowledgable)!
With our plans set and in order and a list of rides and atrractions to hit at Magic Kingdom we headed to Spoodles for some Cuisine of the Sun!
There was hardly anyone there but we had an ADR anyways since thats how I roll. We got to our meal just on time for our 5:05 ADR and were seated then! Rob snapped a few picks as our waitress told me how much she loved the Little Mermaid (I had a Mermaid tee on)! We had a great meal here! I was so happy that I came! We had originally been torn between this or Flying Fish but were so pleasantly surprised here and now it has changed hands (plus now you can dine with an Imagineer at Flying Fish which is on my ADR to-do list)! I would recommend Spoodles to anyone! Rob had Mussels for an appetizer then Lobster Ravioli for his entree and cheesecake for dessert! He was a stuffed and happy man when he finished it all! And I had Panzanella for an appetizer which was this delish bread topped with salad, and Lobster ravioli for dinner, I had pancotta for dessert which was okay but I was too stuffed to eat anyways! I am not sure how Couzzina is but its predecessor was divine!
We decided to take a swim to cool down from all that extra AK humidity and headed over to the Luna Park Pool. We didn't take any pics this day but we did enjoy some more Pina Coladas from the Leaping Libations pool bar and split a bag of Baked Lays. The pool was wonderful and relaxing, as it was our whole trip. We also planned what we would do Friday (our last full day). We sort of went through everything we had done and did one of these: MGM (CHECK!), ANIMAL KINGDOM (CHECK!) but then we realized we still had more to do in Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Since after dinner we were heading into Magic Kingdom we decided to switch some ADRs around so that we could go to San Angel Inn for Lunch Friday, then we could finish Epcot up and head to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping and we would have conquered all 4 parks before Departure Day! Rob also wanted me to try and get us another Breakfast ADR.
After swimming for about an hour or so we headed back to the room and freshened up. I called Disney Dining and got our ADR changed to a Friday Lunch in Mexico instead of a Saturday one and with the help of the experts there, we also got a breakfast ADR for our departure day at Yacht Club's Captain's Grille (this was labeled as something else in the Passporter so I was so glad the lady I was on the phone with was so knowledgable)!
With our plans set and in order and a list of rides and atrractions to hit at Magic Kingdom we headed to Spoodles for some Cuisine of the Sun!
There was hardly anyone there but we had an ADR anyways since thats how I roll. We got to our meal just on time for our 5:05 ADR and were seated then! Rob snapped a few picks as our waitress told me how much she loved the Little Mermaid (I had a Mermaid tee on)! We had a great meal here! I was so happy that I came! We had originally been torn between this or Flying Fish but were so pleasantly surprised here and now it has changed hands (plus now you can dine with an Imagineer at Flying Fish which is on my ADR to-do list)! I would recommend Spoodles to anyone! Rob had Mussels for an appetizer then Lobster Ravioli for his entree and cheesecake for dessert! He was a stuffed and happy man when he finished it all! And I had Panzanella for an appetizer which was this delish bread topped with salad, and Lobster ravioli for dinner, I had pancotta for dessert which was okay but I was too stuffed to eat anyways! I am not sure how Couzzina is but its predecessor was divine!
After our meal we headed
back out and took a nice stroll through Epcot to hop on the monorail! It was
off to Magic Kingdom! A great end to what was turning out to be our best day at
Disney yet!
In any case, so we headed to Magic Kingdom via Epcot. We hopped on the monorail and made our way over to the #1 theme park in the world. I was speechless and breathless for a moment when we walked in. The entire park had been transformed. We had went from a few pumpkins above shops and harvest colored flags to a Halloween spectacular! Complete with that SMELL!!! From the moment you stepped through the main entrance it was nothing but the smell of sweet cinnamon pumpkin! Amazing! And if you all recall I was bummed before our trip that Rob admitted not wanting to go back for a while (which included canceling the race I wanted to do there next fall)!
It was just perfect! And this is one of the reasons I loved this day of our trip so much! A painless morning in AK, swimming at my favorite resort pool ever, a delish and fun breakfast and dinner... and now the magical Magic Kingdom! We had left off having hit everything on the west side of the park we love-- so we headed over to Fantasyland to ride some of our favorites! We fast passed Peter Pan, then walked on to a ton of great rides! First was a must-do for us "Its a Small World". Then we hit TTA, and we had amazing luck with a walk-on to Buzz Lightyear! I beat Rob for the first time ever, although I don't remember the score. I just remember I hit something that gave me 100,000 points! Yeow!!!!!
Afterwards we walked onto Stitch which I think is a decent mix of gross and cute! lol! And finally we finished up Tomorrowland by walking onto the Indy Speedway (a first for us, but a lot more fun than we'd expected)! Rob drove and as the co-pilot I took lots of pics!
After we got done with the Mad Hatter's party we headed over to Peter Pan to use our fast passes! It was a great night, with low crowds, walk on rides, and conquering Magic Kingdom!
By now we were starving from not having any lunch earlier so we headed over to Cosmic Rays. We grabbed some meal- Rob had a burger, I had the chicken sandwich. This is one of the most consistent counter service places we have been too. Its always the same (unlike Robs beloved Pecos Bills which does silly things like make you pay for cheese sauce now). Anyways, Rob inhaled his meal in the time it took me to use the bathrom and as I sat down to eat Amanda texted me to tell me Michael Phelps would be at MK the next day! We were excited to be there then and not have to worry about the hourds of people who would gather tomorrow!
We thought about sitting there to catch Wishes which was minutes away... but changed our mind when a CM there told us you can't really see the full fireworks because the overhang blocks it. We ended up walking towards the Mickey/Walt statue but instead of walking straight took the little shortcut to the left that gets you from Tomorrowland to Main Street and stopping in the circle there. We had a great view of the castle and I took pics of it in every different color. We also took pics of eachother with it-- I was hoping someone nearby would offer to take one of the both of us but was too tired to ask! lol! It was nice to be able to sit for the fireworks again!
It was kinda nice to see Wishes off to the side... it was different than any of our other visits. And we had NO idea the depth of the fireworks. It was beautiful!!
In any case, since I knew on the way out that we were bidding Magic Kingdom a fond farewell for a good amount of time I took some pictures as we left! But that pumpkin smell sure did put the sweet in BitterSWEET!
After catching the bus (we opted to hop on the BC/YC bus since the line was significantly shorter than the BW/Swan/Dolphin one) we walked back through the Boardwalk and since everything was closed instead of snacking some waters at Seashore Sweets, Boardwalk Joes, or the Bakery we purchased them at the Spoodles pizza window. Oddly enough, I think we had two snack points left when we left WDW! lol! I guess that was the perfect amount of food/snacks for us!
In any case, we took a quick swim in the Quiet Pool before calling it a night!
From start to finish we had a wonderful, long, relaxing, and magical day-- and yet we were able to get more done then a lot of people who go commando! It was perfect! Annnnd we still had another full day left or our Year or a Million Dreams vacation!
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