Sorry for the delay since the last post, school this week has been crazy!
Incase you missed them:
Pre-trip,
Day 1, and
Day 2.
Dad’s Birthday Bash
Cast of Characters:
My Mom: Marla, 44- Looking forward to a break from the real world.
My Dad: Don, 45- Hasn’t been to WDW since June of 2007. Ready to go back!
Me: Erin, 19- College sophomore, looking forward to escaping to my happy place before really diving into the school year.
Hotel- Pop Century Standard View Room w/ Free Dining
The Trip
August 28- September 1
Mom and Dad have 3 day park hoppers and I have an Annual Pass.
Sunday, August 31: We were up bright and early to head to the MK so I could go to
Ye Olde Christmas Shop and get a set of four Mickey ornaments personalized with my name and the names of my three roommates back at school. Once we got there we realized that we had left our voucher for our free 5x7 from Photopass back in our room at Pop. Since this was our last day we had to get the picture. Dad volunteered to go back to the hotel and get the voucher and we would meet back up at
EPCOT. While Mom and I waited for Ye Olde Christmas Shop to open I took a few
pics. Once it opened we picked the ornaments I wanted and filled out the paperwork to get them personalized. We left the ornaments and headed towards the park exit. On our way out I stopped in front of the castle around the hub to take
pictures of the
Halloween statues in
front of the
castle. Once we were out, the monorail was not running back to the TTC so Mom and I hopped on the resort
monorail to transfer to an EPCOT monorail where we saw
deer. It seemed to take forever! Thankfully Dad’s bus ride to Pop and then to
EPCOT took a while too. We ended up meeting up by Soarin’ at the same time. We grabbed Soarin’ fastpasses and then hopped in the standby lane. It moved relatively quickly and soon we were Soarin’ over California. No matter how many times we ride this, we still love it! After our flight we decided to travel the world. We had several CS Dining Credits still so our plan for lunch was to eat our way around the world. We started in Canada where Mom got an adorable Merry Christmas door hanger with a little black bear on it. A quick stroll through the UK and we were in
France (it was a bit breezy that day!). We stopped in the Patisserie for a treat. Normally we get a chocolate croissant and cheesecake but this time we decided to try something different. The Raspberry Schuss was really good! Almost like a cheesecake with a raspberry topping and the bottom was coated in powdered sugar. Soon we were walking through a Moroccan Marketplace. The smells coming from the Tangerine Café were too much to resist so we started our lunch around the world here. The three of us split a Chicken & Lamb Shawarma Platter and Baklava. This is now one of our favorite CS restaurants! It was very flavorful and was just the right size to split between us. In Japan we stopped and watched Miyuki for a while. The way she can turn candy into a work of art is amazing. In the USA we were lucky enough to see the Voices of Liberty perform. As a music therapy major, I thought this was wonderful! We then watched the American Adventure show which we had not seen in a few years. It was better than I remembered. I think now that I am older I have a little more respect for shows like these. After the show Dad decided he had to have a turkey leg so we grabbed one and walked through Italy and Germany. In China mom and I wanted the wonderful Orange Chicken we had over spring break so we used another CS credit to split it. It was just as good as we had remembered. The ginger caramel ice cream we had for dessert was good, but not our favorite. We spent quite a bit of time walking through the shops in China. I just love all of the unique items. In Norway we bypassed Maelstrom and its 45 minute wait. It amazed me that most of the other rides in the parks had very little wait, yet Maelstrom had a line out the door! We walked through the shops where I spotted the Helly Hansen jacket and hoodie I found back in March. I almost bought the hoodie until I saw how much it was. $100 was just too much! $210 for the jacket was even worse! Those would have to wait. However, there was one thing that would not wait. I splurged and got a bottle of Laila perfume. I fell in love with this scent in March and wished I had bought the gift set they had as a special at the time. It is the only perfume I have ever found that is advertised as allergy free and it doesn’t make me sneeze! It smells amazing and was definitely worth the $55 price tag. Our final stop around the world was Mexico. We took a ride with the Three Caballeros and shopped around the “outdoor” market. In the crystal shop I picked up a Cinderella Slipper for my friend Alyssa who was taking care of our dogs back home. We went outside to the cantina and used another CS credit because Mom wanted something spicy. We got the Plato Combinacion and a churro and sat by the lagoon to eat. The cheese quesadilla was really good and it was actually fried and crispy which was different than any other quesadilla I had ever had. Back into the future world area Dad wanted to run into the Test Track shop to see if there was any car related stuff that he wanted. Mom opted to sit outside on a bench and wait for us. There was nothing he couldn’t live without so back outside we went. We decided to get a Mickey Bar
since we hadn’t had one yet this trip and it would burn up one of the 8 remaining snack credits we had. We stepped up and told the CM what we wanted and then he asked us to wait one moment. He grabbed a phone from his pocket and started talking, “Yes sir Mr. Mickey”. I just looked at Dad wondering what was going on. The CM then hung up and told us that Mickey had just called and since it was Dad’s birthday the ice cream was on him! So much for getting rid of a snack credit. We thanked him and walked away to tell Mom what had just happened. We wandered through Innoventions and went to the new Storm Struck attraction. It just opened in August and is a 3-D interactive movie that takes you through the virtual experience of a tornado. As a group you have to choose ways to help build a better storm ready house. It was really cool and informative, though our group consisted of all adults and older children. I think it might be a little scary for younger kids. There were actually a few times I jumped and grabbed my Mom! Our last EPCOT ride was Spaceship Earth. When Mom and I went on this in March they didn’t quite have all of the bugs worked out of the interactive part yet and our pictures didn’t show up on the screens so this time it was neat to see ourselves as cartoon characters in the future we created. We made one last stop at Gateway Gifts to pick up a Mickey Mouse bag I wanted and then we were off to the MK. Once we were back at the MK we got a locker to put our purchases for the day in and then we were off to Tomorrowland. After getting our EMH bracelets we rode Buzz and took a trip on the TTA. Then we joined Stitch in his great escape before heading over to the Laugh Floor Comedy Club to join Mike Wazowski and “that guy” We later set sail on POTC and took a trip through the Jungle on Jungle Cruise. Our skipper was alright but we think she was new because she stuck straight to the script. No improv at all. Since it was evening EMH we also went to Fantasyland to ride Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan, and It’s a Small World. We also saw PhilharMagic. At the last minute we decided to watch
Wishes and ended up by the bridge to Tomorrowland with a decent view.
Tinker Bell flew right over us. Somewhere during all of this we stopped at Pinocchio’s Village Haus for our favorite Figaro Fries! We ordered 2 to split between the three of us using snack credits and when we got them we were hit with MK food disappointment #2 for the trip (the first being the removal of the Lighthouse Sandwich at CHH). Figaro fries are no more! Instead of the wonderful crispy fries topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and ranch dressing we were given fries with just bacon and cheese. When we asked the CM why they had changed them she said it was too much prep work. Why do they have to change a good thing!?
Dad's Birthday Bash Final Day, Departure, and Final Thoughts
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