Wednesday, June 22, 2011

WDW Trip Report - Day 5 - The Whole Country??

Any good Walt Disney World fanatic knows that a great trip starts with detailed planning including, but not limited to, an elaborate spreadsheet. I knew I had picked the right person to travel with when I mentioned making a spreadsheet, and Kyle offered to email me the one he had started! You're probably laughing at how maniacal it sounds to have a spreadsheet for a vacation. After all, the Tanner family's vacation was very nearly ruined when Danny lost his vacation planning notebook at Walt Disney World on Full House, but know that just because one has a spreadsheet, one doesn't have to live and die by it.

I say all that because Kyle and I started to veer away from our plans on Day 5. For starters, we were supposed to watch Magic Kingdom's Rope Drop on that morning, but I didn't want to get up that early, and since it was my "must-do" that I was willing to skip, we slept in a little. From there we were supposed to head over to Epcot and then go back to Magic Kingdom the following day to get in some last attractions. Day 6 looks nothing like our spreadsheet said it should, but I'm ahead of myself! That's the next post.

When we got to Magic Kingdom, we only had a few attractions that we really wanted to ride before park hopping to Epcot. We stopped for a quick PhotoPass picture:
I had already started filming us in the hotel room that morning, so maybe it's better on this post for Kyle and I to tell you what we did. Excuse how bedraggled I'm starting to look in these videos. Remember, I hardly ate the night before, and the lack of sleep and food was starting to make my eyes look a bit dark:


At the start of the video we're talking about how we would see the Disney's Magical Express paperwork on our door handle when we opened the door that morning. In all fairness, Kyle had been patiently waiting on me to be ready to leave that morning, and I was s-l-o-w. And yes, to answer your burning questions, I did make Kyle pull the apples back out of the fridge to eat while we filmed. 5 points to whoever knows what "Don't pull the rope!" references. Apparently it was my day to "whoo hoo!" on film a lot too.

From there we took the Monorail to Epcot (as stated in the video). The crowds were getting crazy big in Magic Kingdom, and when we got to Epcot, they were huge there as well. Not willing to be scared off from our favorite park, we decided to go find food and enjoy the World Showcase. Again, we vlogged our way through the park. Before you click play, a few words of warning: we were tired and hungry at the start of the video. At the 2:00 mark, we start filming in World Showcase, and we're MUCH more fun! In fact, the 2nd half of this video is my favorite video especially the "the whole country??!!" line at the end.


After we left lunch at Sunshine Seasons, which I was able to eat (YAY!!!), the rain started coming down. Despite my pre-trip insistence that I would be wearing a poncho on water rides and in the event of rain, I did not get a poncho or run for cover. Instead we strolled through the rain! It helped cool us off. The humidity rose like a tidal wave of heat right after the rain though, so that was a bit of a bummer.

We spent most of the afternoon shopping and slowly browsing in World Showcase. At some point we got to see the Voices of Liberty perform in the American Pavilion. They are AMAZING, to say the least, and I never feel like I've heard enough when they finish their show. Their first song on this video always makes me laugh (as you can hear in the video - sorry). The second one is especially neat to me since my hair is indeed (naturally) black.

The snack we mentioned was this lovely treat from Germany:
The caramel is the German Chocolate Caramel from Karamell Kuche. It was about an inch thick and had a layer of pecans and toasted coconut through the middle of it. One caramel was plenty for me, and I had a hard time finishing the last bite. The Oktoberfest beer was tasty but got hot fairly quickly in the heat of the day. Kyle said he really liked his cookie. I swear that thing was as big as my head.

Dinner was at San Angel Inn that night, and we both kind of described our meals in the video. The tables in the restaurant were super close, but after a little while I didn't really notice our neighbors. As always, we put away our phones (as much as we could) and enjoyed some great conversation full of laughter that night, and that made it one of my favorite meals. Also, the waitress called us "Mr. & Mrs. G_____" and then suggested we ride the Three Caballeros attraction because it's so romantic! We just laughed it off instead of trying to explain we're good friends and travel buddies. Sometimes smiling and nodding is easier.

The part of the video that's after San Angel Inn was after we partook in a responsible amount of adult beverages which Kyle sweetly pronounced on the video (and did NOT drive afterwards- feel the need to be clear), so I was super giggly which you can obviously see for yourself in the video. What surprises me watching that video is the giggly was balanced with super serious looks from me. Weird to watch yourself sometimes, no?

Remember the Duffy ears hat and how I said it showed how Kyle was always willing to wear random hats to make me smile or be in random photos when I asked? Norway was another place that this was quite evident in the photos. After we got off Maelstrom (you know, when we "rode Norway"), I saw a Viking hat and popped it onto his head and named him Viking Kyle as I snapped a pic:
This epic photo is his Facebook profile pic right now because Viking Kyle is pretty awesome. Since Kyle pulled the Troll Vinylmation the night before, I thought it was fitting for say, "ooooh Kyle, go stand by the troll!" while I snapped a pic:
The actual troll in Norway (above) is much cuter than the Vinylmation version of itself. The troll is on the right by the way, ya know, if you couldn't tell. ;-) Hee hee! This picture would only be more perfect if I'd begged him to keep the Viking hat on a bit longer.

After dinner we watched IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth again, but our viewing location wasn't quite as good as the time before because we were back from the railing. Afterwards we shopped in Mousegears once again. I wanted a cute cupcake necklace, and Kyle bought a really great watch he'd been eyeing the whole trip. On the way out we snagged another photo using the PhotoPass:

After shopping we went back to the room to pack and then do our usual chatting before bed. Our last full day in the parks went fast, but it was nearly perfect. While we missed some attractions, I really do think not standing in super long lines was the best choice overall for us.

Next post: Our last day in the parks and our last video. Our spreadsheet said we should go to Magic Kingdom, but we didn't! Where do you think we ended our vacation?

7 comments:

  1. I haven't finished reading the post yet. I'm still in the first paragraph. But I have to be a sitcom bully and say it was the Clipboard of Fun, not a notebook.

    As you were.

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  2. And didn't they lose it at the beach, not WDW?

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  3. They went to WDW in one or more episodes, but you're right, the Clipboard of Fun was actually lost in Hawaii:
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=clipboard%20of%20fun

    In fact the WDW episode was the one where Stephanie let Michelle go ahead of her (or something) trying to pull the Sword from the Stone, and Michelle pulled it out and got to be princess for the day and be in the parade and all sorts of fun stuff, but middle sister Stephanie got to be a boring nobody when it somehow should have been her. Despite all that, they (total surprise!!!) hugged it out in the end.

    In regards to the WDW episode, I found this blog post which is HILARIOUS as it describes how "Full House Screws Up Walt Disney World". Totally worth the read:
    http://thewebgangsta.com/index.php/2009/02/full-house-screws-up-walt-disney-world/

    Really, though, you now have to ask yourself why you know more about Full House than your 7 years younger sister-in-law. You can't claim you watched it with a little sister...

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  4. Okay finished reading now. Glad you were able to eat by the time you got to San Angel Inn, because it is greatness. But no fried plantains is sad. Not "you got to DisneyWorld and it burned down" sad. But sad nonetheless.

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  5. Yes, that was a good food day, but San Angel Inn's food this go-round did not live up to the menu we experienced when we were there January 2009. I say why mess with a good thing? *Sigh* Maybe they'll redeem themselves next time as it's a place I don't mind going to over and over again.

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  6. Regarding Full House...
    Just because I wasn't on the Hindenburg, doesn't stop me from knowing it blew up.

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  7. I love Full House!

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