Disney Adventures - Part Three

Day three of my Disney trip with Leilani started off with a pre-opening tour at Epcot. This tour was not on foot but done by SEGWAY! Think... Paul Blart Mall Cop. 

The Segway tour was fun. We learned quite a bit about the park and riding a segway was actually pretty fun. Driving on a downward slope was a little hairy at times... and it certainly was even more frightening thinking you would run into another park goer once it opened! 

If you don't know much about Epcot at Disney World, it is very different from the other parks. Half of Epcot is the "World Showcase" and the other half is "Tomorrowland." I won't get into the vision of Walt Disney, but it is pretty interesting what his vision was for what is now Epcot. 

After our Segway tour, we rode the "Soarin" ride, which is an aerial ride that takes you through the different areas of California. In hindsight, this ride was probably one of my favorites that we rode the whole time we were at Disney. It was very cool and wasn't roller-coaster-ish which still being exhilarating. 

Next we rode the "Mission: Space" ride and I did not like it. This was a simulator and you could pick two levels at which you'd like to ride. I chose the "tougher, more manly version" and wimped out royally. Pretty much thought I was gonna puke for about 30 minutes. Quite embarrassing. Leilani was a good sport but I'm sure she was thinking... I warned you Amanda... 

A very cool part of our trip was that it was during the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. We got a passport book that had foods from different countries and tried out many of them. Fortunately and unfortunately we had a dinner reservation at the French restaurant in France at Epcot. It was good but we had to cut our Food and Wine tour snacks early. It was quite yummy. I would recommend this event for adults and I guess adventurous kiddos. I believe they have it every fall and it really was a blast. However, because it does have wine and other beverages, I believe there might be an unusually high amount of tipsy and intoxicated individuals as the night draws nearer! 

I took this picture when we were in Germany at Epcot. Germany was modeled after the German city of Rothenburg , Germany. I thought it was pretty awesome because I have been to the actual city of Rothenburg in Germany when I was in middle school. My dad and I visited two of my very favorite people in the world, my cousin Doug and his wife Marybeth, who were living in Germany and we took a weekend trip to this amazing city. See this wikipedia link on information on Rothenburg. 

I'm fairly sure this was taken in Norway...

Food and Wine Festival

After the food and wine festival, we headed to the other side of Epcot and rode "The Seas with Nemo and Friends" and saw the show "Turtle Talk with Crush." 

We didn't do a few rides which I think would be really fun, especially if you were going with kiddos... "Living with the Land" and "The Circle of Life." We just ran out of time... there is seriously SO MUCH TO DO HERE!!!

We had dinner at Chefs de France. Remy from the movie Ratatouille joined us for dinner. :) Dinner was quite yummy and I had French Onion soup for the first time ever. It was good but a little too oniony for my tastes. Leilani, however, had a seafood soup and it was excellent!

Sometime after, or before, dinner we went to the show in America and also saw an a Capella group that was amazing. I loved hearing them sing and I believe Leilani said this is one of her favorites while she is here too... seriously amazing. 

I guess I thought since we were in Florida that it would be warm and I wouldn't need to worry about sweatshirts or anything long sleeved. Wrong. Leilani and I spent some time in the gift shop trying to find something to buy since we were both FREEZING in the evening. I wish I would have bough a sweatshirt the first day... it was considerably more chilly than I had expected!


Another random story of the trip... as we were heading from the countries back to the "other side" as I like to think of it, we ran into Alice from Alice in Wonderland. After a quick photo op, we headed on our merry way. We then ran into a very intoxicated woman who had been partaking in the Food and Wine Festival and the "bar" in one of the countries. I say "bar" lightly, because obviously at Disney, it is not the intent to go to a bar and get intoxicated. The lady informed us of much trivia about Epcot and proceeded to entice us to go to the bar itself. In Aggieville or another bar district, this might not have been that weird, but at Disney, it just seemed a bit out of place.

We found Mickey, Minnie and Pluto in one of the buildings outside of the Epcot sphere.

What a cute pic!

Probably my favorite character picture of the trip, aside from those with Ariel -  as she is my absolute favorite

The evening show at Epcot was good, as they all are. It was cool because it was over the lake and was more of a laser type program. Music plays all around you out of speakers that are hidden everywhere in bushes, trees, etc. Epcot was not my favorite show... what can really beat Cinderella's castle?... but very cool anyway. 

This might surprise Leilani, but I think my favorite part of the entire day was the O'Canada presentation in Canada. Canada is seriously a beautiful country, that I genuinely want to visit as soon as possible, and the presentation given in the video really highlights the country. Maybe it was also because I was dead-tired and it was a relaxing show... but who knows!?! I do know that I would like to take in every video and show the different countries have to offer in Epcot. Apparently I'm nerdy like that and I want to learn on vacation. :) 

Disney Adventures - Part Two

Our second day of Disney Adventures had us getting to the park before it opened so we could have breakfast with Mickey, Donald, Daisy and Goofy at the Tusker House Restaurant in Animal Kingdom. It was served buffet style and was very good. I don't know much about character meals, but this one was great! We were able to see and get pictures with all of the characters. The characters did a little parade around the restaurant and some little kiddos marched behind them. It was very cool. FYI - we did have a reservation for this... I believe you have to have one for any character meals or certainly the ones that are more popular. 

Leilani and me before breakfast. 

With Goofy (I mean, Me and Goofy)

Leilani and me with Goofy. I actually look pretty Goofy here too!

With Donald

After breakfast, we headed out into the park. It was open so we went straight to the Safari to see the animals. I have heard that people view Animal Kingdom as a "glorified zoo". While I agree that it certainly has zoo-like qualities, I think it really does have the "Disney touch" to it. 

The Kilimanjaro Safari was pretty cool. Traveling by animals on an open-aired bus was awesome. I love going to the zoo and watching the animals and thought this was the closest I have gotten to some of these animals. The really awesome thing is, they are not in fences or any sort of cage. The creators of the park really did a great job and all the "fences" are natural barriers. You don't even notice. 

For some reason, Hippos are one of my favorite animals

Random Fact: One of my favorite songs from a Disney movie is, "Never Smile at a Crocodile" from Peter Pan. However, I'm not 100% sure if these are alligators or crocodiles.

After the Safari we hit several of the other sights. We rode Expedition Everest, saw other animals, rode the DINOSAUR ride and Wildlife Express Train. They also had a fun kid friendly area that reminded me of a carnival. We rode the Primeval Whirl which was a fun ride that even younger kids could do. 

Mt. Everest

Must have been loving this ride. However, the girl in front of Leilani might be loving it more! :) 

The DINOSAUR ride

There were trails in the park that you think you'll just be taking a leisurely stroll then run into some animal exhibits. We saw this bat colony and interestingly, these two bats are completely going at "it". Leilani and I were thinking, "oh my" and then we got to talking to the Disney staff person working there. Apparently this was a penal bat colony and they didn't know what was sending the bats into try to mate with each other. Needless to say, Leilani and I got a good chuckle out of what seemed to be a very "unDisney" experience. :) 

This tiger was another "find" when we were walking through a random, yet obviously un-random path... Pretty awesome. Could have watched here for hours. 

Probably my favorite part about all of Disney, not just Animal Kingdom, were the shows. Animal Kingdom's shows were amazing. Out of all the parks, Animal Kingdom was definitely the most "artsy" and you could certainly tell by the shows. 

I absolutely loved the Finding Nemo musical. It was all done with puppets and I think I was in awe the whole time. Finding Nemo is one of my favorite movies and the musical version was pretty darn cool. 

The Festival of the Lion King was the other show at Animal Kingdom and it had acrobats, singing and the best part... DANCING. I was ultra impressed with most of the dancing we saw at the parks. The dancers had great technique which was surprising to me. The Lion King show had a ballerina that was as good as any  ballerina I've ever seen. It. was. awesome. I feel like I've said that a few times during this post, but it really was!

Of course, Animal Kingdom has a parade. Again, the parade floats were more artsy than the floats at other parks. I loved the colors and how these looked.

Duck Bill

Going to Disney with someone who is an "expert" makes for an even better experience. Leilani knew that there was a street performer to be in the area we were around and you'd never guess what it was... 

DiVine

Can you find her? 

More of Leilani's expert knowledge introduced me to Hidden Mickeys. Apparently, there are hidden Mickey Mouses and other Disney references everywhere at Disney. They have books on these that you can buy before your trip. I think when take the boys this would be an awesome way to experience the park. It's much like a scavenger hunt and we would all enjoy it!

My favorite Hidden Mickey of the trip

We also spent quite a bit of time looking at the Tree of Life. The tree is a carved tree that has different animals carved all over in it. It was also probably one of my favorite things I saw at Disney. The time that was put into creating it and the detail was just amazing. 

Also inside the Tree of Life was the "It's Tough to be a Bug" show that was pretty funny and was a nice break from walking around!

 

The Animal Kingdom park closed early the day we went, so we headed to Magic Kingdom for dinner and the fireworks show. I was in heaven as what we saw when we walked in was... 

Not only was the castle dripping in icicle lights, it also changed colors from purple to pink to blue to green... *sigh*

I mean... how BEAUTIFUL is this? Even looking at this picture now makes me smile and my heart happy. The Christmas decorations at Magic Kingdom were unparalleled by anything I've seen. Just absolutely amazing. 

We found a perfect spot to watch the fireworks and grabbed a quick dinner from the store next to where we were sitting. The best part? We bought cotton candy to eat while watching the show. Leilani and I were not worried about overindulging. :)

I was enjoying myself. 

Main street all lit up

Would have been a perfect Christmas card. However, it's missing some very important people. :)