Hot Times in the World: A June 2011 Trip Report!

We’ve been home for a week, I’m back at work, and reality is truly setting in. Time to escape it with a trip report!

The cast includes myself (Shannon, 27) and my husband Will (26) spending 8 days in WDW for our second anniversary!

Since this was an anniversary trip and all, here we are a little over 2 years ago on our wedding day…

…and 2 days later on our honeymoon!

We’ve been together since February 2005, and we met in math class during my junior and his sophomore year in college. NERDS.

This was our fourth trip to WDW together after the aforementioned honeymoon in May 2009 (Boardwalk Inn), a quick Thanksgiving trip with the in-laws in November 2009 (Boardwalk Inn – no trip report! For shame.), and another quick trip in February for the 2011 Princess Half Marathon (Port Orleans – Riverside).

For this trip we decided to rent DVC points for the first time as a way to save some cash. Will suggested we do a split stay (great idea since I couldn’t decide on one resort anyway) and we put our requests in with excellent results. For the first 3 nights we scored a savanna-view studio villa at Kidani. For the remainder of our trip we’d be traveling back to the Atlantic coast, staying in a “preferred/boardwalk-view” studio at the Boardwalk Villas. Woot!

Pretty early on in the planning process we ultimately decided that we also wanted to fit in a one-day trip to Universal, primarily to spend a morning frolicking in HP-land. Of the two of us, I am the giant Harry Potter fan (admittedly, more a fan of the books than the movies), and being the fabulous husband that he is, Will tags along with me to the movies and enjoys them, though I don’t think he fully grasps the awesomeness of HP since he refuses to read the books.

Other than that, we made our ADRs, put down some cash for a tour, changed said ADRs a million times, and had some major face palm moments along the way

Above all else, I was most excited to get to spend some quality time with Will. It seems like we were both (separately) super busy for the entirety of spring, and I was more than ready to put real life aside and have another adventure together in WDW!

Onward!

 

[Ariel484]

You two are so cute!! I LOVE your shirt!

Thanks! We're lucky enough to still have a Disney store in our mall and I grabbed it about a year ago for $10.

Ooh... I love your shirt, too, Shannon!

I totally get your frustration with CMs who don't snap away with the camera during meet and greets. I mean, with digital cameras, it doesn't make sense not to. This is why for quite some time now, one of us always walks up to the characters first, while the other person still has control over the camera to snap away. After whatever fun interaction ensues, we pass it off to the CM and ask for a quick picture of the two of us. Works like a charm!

That "hammered" shot of Will had me laughing aloud!

Thanks!

You know, now that you mention it, I think I remember reading in one of your trip reports that you guys started handing your camera to one another instead of the CM. We're definitely going to need to try that, because we did miss some fun moments. I was glad that the Chip and Dale CM was a little more on top of that...maybe that's because there wasn't a photopass CM there? I forget.

Glad you enjoyed the "hammered" shot! We got a good laugh out of that one too.

Aww your FOTLK pictures make me miss that show...I was surprised how much I enjoyed it.

I forgot how good it was after 2 years! Finding Nemo: The Musical is normally our show of choice at Animal Kingdom, but I'm glad we saw Lion King this time around.

I'm glad you ended up feeling better! Going in and out of A/C and crazy-hot temperatures is never easy to handle. My mom would takes us down in July and I swear I felt like I was moving in slow-motion from the heat. On one trip I will say that I had a mini stroke of genius when my best friend and I bought parasols in the China pavilion. They actually helped keep us cool. We got a lot of positive comments on them and I'm sure we helped make a few sales that day. :lol:

I know what you mean about "moving in slow motion" because of the heat. I kept referring to it as feeling like I'd been b*tch-slapped by the sun. Just the worst feeling. I did see a lot of people walking around with umbrellas, but not the parasols, the ones that looked like giant panda heads :lol: I wish we'd gotten one too!

So....after spying that chocolate Mickey waffle in the background of your Crystal Palace pics, I booked an ADR to try them myself! We haven't experienced a character breakfast before and what better place than Crystal Palace, right?

YES! :sohappy: Those chocolate waffles were delicious, and so was Pooh's Puffy French Toast. It's a fun breakfast, I hope you enjoy it!

I know you mentioned watching Wishes from Adventureland and it not "lining up correctly." We had the same thing happen in Frontierland when we saw Hallowishes. I have found the Tomorrowland side of Main Street is a great viewing place.

And count me in with loving your cute Mickey balloon shirt!

So you know how we felt then - we had no idea that we needed to watch it looking directly at the castle. :hammer: Thanks for the Tomorrowland tip, we'll have to try that in January.

Love it all, the pictures, the comments, really fun to read! Looking forward to more!

Thank you! Glad you like it! :wave:

LOVING your TR!!!

Your meal at Jiko has inspired me to find a way to get there at some point in the future. Not in August- but at some point! Great to see that you can request the mac & cheese!

Also phenomenal view from your room and lots of great anniversary treats!!!

Your dog is sooooo cute. When I saw the pics I was thinking beagle-cavalier... funny that it's what the puppy is!

Can't wait to read more!!! :wave:

Thanks! Yes, you MUST try the mac and cheese. So delicious. I got the impression that as long as it remains on the kid's menu they'll let you sub it in.

We couldn't believe the view (still really can't believe that we got that view) and all of the treats! We got nothing like that on our honeymoon.

And thanks for the Monster love You know, I think you're the first person that picked his breed out correctly! Normally people guess a beagle/daschund mix. People always know he's part beagle but never guess the other breed. So bravo! :sohappy:

 

[Ariel484]

After our usual afternoon nap, we made ourselves look nice and purdy. For the 3rd afternoon in a row, we boarded a bus destined for the Magic Kingdom and hopped on the resort monorail. We almost rode the entire loop before disembarking at the Grand Floridian.

We spent a small amount of time here in February, and during this trip I came to really like this resort a lot. If they ever cut their nightly rate by at least half, perhaps we’d be able to stay here! :lol:

After browsing the shops for a bit, we checked in for our 5:30 ADR at Citricos.

I didn’t really know what to expect of this meal. I mean, I was sure that it would be good, since Citricos is a signature restaurant, but it doesn’t get quite as much attention as say, California Grill, so we were sort of curious and excited to venture into the unknown.

I know I’ve used the phrase “light and airy” quite a bit in this report…apparently “light and airy” really does it for me, because that’s how I’d describe Citricos, and I really, really liked it right away when we walked in.

One really cute and nice touch is that they made us personalized menus! (I took our name out.) That was a cool little souvenir.

We really, really liked our server, John. He was so adorable…just very nice and sweet. I wanted to hug him, especially when he brought out complimentary champagne from the chef!

The chef also sent out a complimentary amuse bouche for each of us, but this was sort of a distressing experience. John described it to us before bringing it out, and the first ingredient he listed was rock shrimp. We were so, so bummed. It was such a nice gesture for the restaurant to give us complimentary anything, but we are not seafood people. The one time I did try a shrimp, I only did it because an uncle paid me $5, and it was not a pretty experience.

I cannot even describe how guilty I felt over this! We both felt weird being like, “Hey, thanks for the free stuff, but could you change around the whole thing since we don’t like shrimp?” so we agreed to try it - if we were going to have good shrimp anywhere, it would probably be here. If we didn’t like it, Will would hide the shrimps in his napkin, go to the bathroom and dispose of them. This whole ridiculous conversation took place when John was in the kitchen putting in our order. And yes, I fully acknowledge that we most likely made too big a deal out of this and probably could have handled things better.

So…the shrimps ended up in the bathroom, but we did eat the rest of the amuse bouche, which was good. We told John to please thank the chef, and that the amuse bouche was really tasty and interesting, but I still felt bad about the whole thing, and sort of still do to this day. Isn’t it funny, the sorts of things we can beat ourselves up about??!

 

[Ariel484]

Anyhoo, we ordered a few drinks to go along with our champagne. Maybe this would help ease our guilt! What looks like a Stella for Will, and some sort of red for me (I forget what it is).

And we were at another fabulous table with a beautiful window view.

The beautiful dining room:

After the shrimp incident, we were served Kalamata olive bread (big hit with Will, who loves olives and can eat them like candy) with butter, which I believe had sea salt and some sort of citrus flavoring.

And then, dinner was served!

For Will, chicken with saffron and green pea risotto. He LOVED this dish, declaring the risotto one of his favorite eats from the trip thus far.

For me, Oak-grilled Filet of Beef with Spanish Onions, Peppadew and Banana Peppers over Quattro Fromaggi Crushed Potatoes and Veal Glace de Viande.

Quite tasty!

While we were eating, we noticed something funny going on at the table next to ours. It was a family with two small boys, and John was bringing over an extra chair and tablecloths. Turned out the younger boy was asleep at the table – passed out cold – and John was actually fashioning a makeshift bed from the chairs and tablecloths! Talk about service…only at Disney.

By now I think you know that I can’t turn down dessert. We put in an order to share and John offered to take a picture of us when he brought it out…I wish I’d had better posture for this one, but what can ya do?

And now, the trio of gelato (vanilla, raspberry and chocolate):

All were very tasty and creamy, but we both agreed that we liked the chocolate and vanilla better than the raspberry.

As we were enjoying our gelato, we were debating which signature meal we liked better…Jiko or Citricos? Ultimately we decided that the restaurants are way too different to pick one over the other. We like the ambiance of both, and we liked all of our entrees and desserts (though I did like the mac and cheese at Jiko better than the potatoes at Critricos), and our servers, Hassan at Jiko and John at Citricos, were excellent. But we’re glad we ventured into the unknown - we LOVED Citricos, and hopefully we’ll get to dine there again soon!

 

[Ariel484]

I tell ya, these meals sure can put a person in a food coma!

Originally we’d planned to monorail over to Epcot after dinner, but we changed our plans after having had to leave the MK early the night before. I wanted to see Wishes, darn it!!

So we headed out of Citricos toward the monorail platform.

LOVE the floors here.

 

[Ariel484]

We hopped on the monorail and were back in the Magic Kingdom lickity split. Our first stop was a return visit to the Laugh Floor!

They used a lot of the same jokes as they did the night before, but it was still fun.

We must have been heading toward Space Mountain after the Laugh Floor, because my next few pictures are of an intergalactic pup jammin’ near the Tomorrowland stage!

We sort of cruised around the park, taking our time to soak in the little details. As you can see in the next couple of pictures, the sky was threatening to open up again.

At about 8:15 we decided to stake out a spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade in front of Liberty Tree Tavern.

While we waited, we were treated to an action-packed duel between two young boys near us. One was armed with a pirate sword, the other with a light saber. It made the time pass quickly.

During our wait, we could hear thunder in the distance, and the parade itself was delayed for about 10 minutes. I was beginning to think that our MK evening curse was living on…

 

[Ariel484]

…but then the parade began! And my gosh, was it hard to photograph!

Two bad things came out of this parade-watching experience…1. I got 6 bug bites, 5 of which were on my FEET of all places (note to self: bring bug spray next time!), and 2. I haven’t been able to get Baroque Hoedown out of my head since.

After the parade, we headed out to Main Street USA and parked ourselves right in front of the train station. We watched Magic, the Memories and You!, which I thought was cool, but went on a bit too long. Then, we FINALLY got to see Wishes! Curse broken! It was fun because we were right next to two CMs who were loving every second of the show. Turns out the one CM was new but had seen Wishes tons of times and knew the show by heart, while the other CM had been at WDW longer, but was actually seeing Wishes for the first time. It was so neat to see that the CMs get excited by the same things we do, and that they love WDW so much.

 

[Ariel484]

After our first-ever successful viewing of Wishes, we high-tailed it out of the park and to the bus area. Once again, we hopped on a bus bound for the Yacht & Beach Club and got off at the first stop in front of the Yacht Club lobby. Fine by me…it was a perfect time to get some more Boardwalk nighttime photos!

And now, we make our way across the lake…

I felt sort of silly when I was trying to get this one (because I was practically lying on the boardwalk!) but it’s one of my favorites from the trip.

REALLY zoomed in!

Love this sign.

And then…bedtime!

 

[jhoff3405]

Just read from start until now....great report! And your pictures are wonderful.

Regarding celebrating a 2nd anniversary, why not take everything you can get? Your green man is awesome!

Totally understand the claustorphobic feeling regarding WWoHP. I can't even imagine going there for another 2-3 years until some of the "hub-bub" has died down.

Looking forward to more....

 

[foreverbelle]

I felt sort of silly when I was trying to get this one (because I was practically lying on the boardwalk!) but it’s one of my favorites from the trip.

OK I love this shot, I don't care how silly you may have looked its gorgeous..and I am a sucker for shots like this. I really think it would be cool framed.hmm..come to think of it I need some like this around.:ROFLOL:

I am all caught up after my weekend visiting my sister so let me see if I can go back.

You and your hubs are so darn cute. What a cute couple you make!!

The food in Kona is good, but we have a hard time loving it since we are in love with O'Hana's ourselves. Its just hard to measure up to that place if you know what I mean so I totally get what you are saying.

I am so sorry to hear that you were sick! How horrible is that. But it sounds like something went around. We were there for a kid free trip this past March and my husband had something, it was just horrible you don't want to be sick at Disney. I am crossing my fingers that we will be ok this go around in a week and a half I always get so nervous that one of us will get something...

We have never done breakfast at Disney, but have Chef Mickeys scheduled this time, thanks to your report I feel a litle better about it, I am going more for the adventure than the food. But I think we will be ok. I am just not a huge breakfast person to begin with...

Ah the Laugh Floor, and the Festival of the Lion King, I love the laugh floor, we always do it at least once, its fun, and cheesy and incredible silly But all for good times....The Lion King, I haven't done in ages, since our honeymoon but hoping to take my son to it, as long as he will sit through it that it.

Once again, great report and I can't wait to read the rest!

 

[HollyBelle]

Mmmm... Citricos! Will's chicken with risotto looks like a spring version of what I had there last fall. Honestly, best piece of chicken I've ever eaten in my life. That story about the amuse bouche is hilarious! I would've had trouble saying "no thanks" to a complimentary dish from the chef, too. I was laughing out loud though at the thought of you two discussing how to dispose of the shrimp when it came. :lol:

Love your night shots around the Boardwalk!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

LOL I thought this whole situation was sort of amusing. (I hope you don't take that the wrong way!) It's funny how we get into these situations and it can be so hard to know what to do sometimes! Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! And then chalk it up to a learning experience and something you will probably chuckle about later...:animwink:

… Then, we FINALLY got to see Wishes!

YAY!!! Finally! I kept waiting thinking you were going to say that the thunder and lightning canceled the show! What a relief! I'm so glad you got to see it!

I felt sort of silly when I was trying to get this one (because I was practically lying on the boardwalk!) but it’s one of my favorites from the trip.

This photo is just AMAZING!!! GREAT JOB!!

 

[grwnupprincess]

You can tell I was pretty pumped to meet her!

I'm a little behind from being away from a computer all weekend...hope you, Will and Archie had a great 4th! I love this pic of you guys...and your dress is super cute...love it!

Ariel is my fav princess...being a fellow red head makes me a tad bit biased

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Your night pictures from the boardwalk are amazing! And love the one with the park bench!

And if you don't mind me asking how do you get those awesome night shots?? I always try different things with my camera but they just never seem to come out right.

 

[disneygirl1]

Thanks! I love AKL too...I'wanted wanted to stay there for over 2 years and it did not disappoint!

I was impressed by the Harry Potter area as well...I loved the little details..it looked great.

Yes, the DVC issue sucked. Initially I freaked out about it, but I believed them when they said it had never happened before, and our other reservation at the Boardwalk for the rest of the trip worked out fine - no issues whatsoever. We actually have another reservation already set up for January (renting points at the Beach Club) through the same organization that I made before this happened, so hopefully it will work out. That reservation is still showing up fine on Disneyworld.com, and I'm pretty sure we're going to use them again for future trips. Are you going to go through a website or contacting a member directly?

Yes, there's a possibility that something can go wrong, but I think it's pretty rare. Good luck! :wave:

We are going to go thru a website. Is that what you all did too? How far out should you book when renting?

We are looking to go the 1st frew days in April of next year.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Just finished reading the whole thing and I'm LOVING it!!

First off, congrats on 2 years!! :sohappy: Celebrate all you want!!

Second, your pictures of the Boardwalk at night are FABULOUS!! I love photogrpahy and I'm hoping to invest in a good camera between our November and May trips to the world.

And I'm so jealous Ariel was in the Princess room when you were there. When my family and I went in May it was Belle rather than Ariel. I've met Belle a million times but never met Ariel. Maybe we'll give it another shot next time and get lucky!

Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[Ariel484]

Just read from start until now....great report! And your pictures are wonderful.

Regarding celebrating a 2nd anniversary, why not take everything you can get? Your green man is awesome!

Totally understand the claustorphobic feeling regarding WWoHP. I can't even imagine going there for another 2-3 years until some of the "hub-bub" has died down.

Looking forward to more....

Thanks, glad you're enjoying it!

I know what you mean about just accepting the little treats they gave us...I think we just weren't expecting much since we really didn't get anything like this on our honeymoon in 2009, so it threw us for a loop. And yes, the LGM is awesome! He's currently residing on my key chain!

I agree with you about waiting a few years before returning to WWoHP, unless you can go at a less crowded time. But isn't there a rumor that they will be expanding?? Will it ever die down??

OK I love this shot, I don't care how silly you may have looked its gorgeous..and I am a sucker for shots like this. I really think it would be cool framed.hmm..come to think of it I need some like this around.:ROFLOL:

Thanks!...Actually, that one is framed on our mantel at home

I am all caught up after my weekend visiting my sister so let me see if I can go back.

You and your hubs are so darn cute. What a cute couple you make!!

Thanks! I think we're cute too, but I may be biased...

The food in Kona is good, but we have a hard time loving it since we are in love with O'Hana's ourselves. Its just hard to measure up to that place if you know what I mean so I totally get what you are saying.

You may have a point there...going to Kona the day after eating at 'Ohana maybe not have been a great idea. I hadn't really thought about that.

I am so sorry to hear that you were sick! How horrible is that. But it sounds like something went around. We were there for a kid free trip this past March and my husband had something, it was just horrible you don't want to be sick at Disney. I am crossing my fingers that we will be ok this go around in a week and a half I always get so nervous that one of us will get something...

That stinks that your husband had a little bug! I know it could have been much worse, and was really probably just because I needed to get more sleep/water, or something. This was the first time in 5 trips I got sick, so I guess it was bound to happen eventually...?!

We have never done breakfast at Disney, but have Chef Mickeys scheduled this time, thanks to your report I feel a litle better about it, I am going more for the adventure than the food. But I think we will be ok. I am just not a huge breakfast person to begin with...

Ooh, I bet your son will love Chef Mickey's! I hope he gets some great character interaction. At our character breakfasts it did seem like the characters took a decent amount of time at tables with children. We're really not normally huge breakfast people either, but it was a nice, relaxing way to start the day. We may be converted!

Ah the Laugh Floor, and the Festival of the Lion King, I love the laugh floor, we always do it at least once, its fun, and cheesy and incredible silly But all for good times....The Lion King, I haven't done in ages, since our honeymoon but hoping to take my son to it, as long as he will sit through it that it.

Once again, great report and I can't wait to read the rest!

If your son likes the movie at all, I bet he'll love the Lion King show. One thing I forgot is that they have the parade at the end with all of the kids, so he might get to jump into that. And the show wasn't too long, maybe about 20 minutes? Is that too long for him?

Mmmm... Citricos! Will's chicken with risotto looks like a spring version of what I had there last fall. Honestly, best piece of chicken I've ever eaten in my life. That story about the amuse bouche is hilarious! I would've had trouble saying "no thanks" to a complimentary dish from the chef, too. I was laughing out loud though at the thought of you two discussing how to dispose of the shrimp when it came. :lol:

Love your night shots around the Boardwalk!

Ooh, I'll have to let Will know that there's another version of that dish in the pipeline. He LOVED that meal.

Yeah, the shrimp... What is the proper etiquette in a situtation like that? We told another friend about it and she was like "You should have lied and said you had an allergy"...but that's no good either!

Thanks for the compliment on the night shots!

 

[Ariel484]

LOL I thought this whole situation was sort of amusing. (I hope you don't take that the wrong way!) It's funny how we get into these situations and it can be so hard to know what to do sometimes! Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do! And then chalk it up to a learning experience and something you will probably chuckle about later...:animwink:

Nope, not at all! We know it was completely ridiculous. I still don't know if we should have done something differently...??!

YAY!!! Finally! I kept waiting thinking you were going to say that the thunder and lightning canceled the show! What a relief! I'm so glad you got to see it!

Not this time! Booyah!!

This photo is just AMAZING!!! GREAT JOB!!

Thank you!!

I'm a little behind from being away from a computer all weekend...hope you, Will and Archie had a great 4th! I love this pic of you guys...and your dress is super cute...love it!

Ariel is my fav princess...being a fellow red head makes me a tad bit biased

Hope you had a great 4th too! We did yardwork while Archie hung out and munched on sticks...he wasn't too freaked out by the fireworks this year, which was a relief. I hope Dutch is doing well!

I really love the cut of that dress I have on in the Ariel picture (I have it in 2 other colors)...so comfortable! Although it pales in comparison to Ariel's beautiful dress.

Ariel is my fave too! (Hence my WDWMagic name.) Yay!

Your night pictures from the boardwalk are amazing! And love the one with the park bench!

And if you don't mind me asking how do you get those awesome night shots?? I always try different things with my camera but they just never seem to come out right.

Thanks!

I'm certainly no photography expert, but here's my attempt at some advice...for the night shots I went with a slow shutter speed (30 seconds for the bench shot, for example). If you can't adjust the shutter speed on your camera then I think you want to put the camera on the nighttime picture setting without the flash on. More importantly, I think, you need to find a way to stabilize the camera (on a tripod or something)...I didn't bring a tripod so when I was going around the boardwalk I was putting my camera on tables, on fence posts (with the camera strap around my neck in case it fell off) and on the ground to make it stable. Something else I did was put the camera on a 2-second delay so that it wouldn't shake when I pressed the shutter button (so I'd press the button and it would take the picture 2 seconds later).

...um, make sense at all?!

For a less rambling, much better explanation, check out this link.

We are going to go thru a website. Is that what you all did too? How far out should you book when renting?

We are looking to go the 1st frew days in April of next year.

Yes, we went through a website. We booked in August 2010 for our June trip and got our first choices. I'm not sure how far out you should book?! I think it depends on where you want to stay...for example, we tried to book Bay Lake Tower in March for our January 2012 trip and there was no availability! Personally I like to book as soon as I have the dates nailed down and if I know I have the funds to pay it off right away, since that's what we needed to do with the site we used (pay a deposit the day we put our requests in and then pay the balance the next day), but I think that's just because I get my heart set on a place and want to make sure we get it! It's the insane OCD planner in me rearing its ugly head...

Just finished reading the whole thing and I'm LOVING it!!

First off, congrats on 2 years!! :sohappy: Celebrate all you want!!

Thank you, thank you! :sohappy:

Second, your pictures of the Boardwalk at night are FABULOUS!! I love photogrpahy and I'm hoping to invest in a good camera between our November and May trips to the world.

Thanks! Ooh...2 trips coming up for you! Lucky! I got my current camera between our November 2009 and February 2011 trips and I LOVE it...one of the best purchases I've ever made.

And I'm so jealous Ariel was in the Princess room when you were there. When my family and I went in May it was Belle rather than Ariel. I've met Belle a million times but never met Ariel. Maybe we'll give it another shot next time and get lucky!

Can't wait to read more!!!

I was so pumped to see Ariel! :sohappy: If she's not in Town Hall I think she might still be in Adventureland...maybe?! I hope you get to meet her!

 

[Ariel484]

Day 7: Sunday, June 19.

Today was bittersweet, for sure…our last full day in the World.

But we started it off with a bang…breakfast at ‘Ohana, where lots of Father’s Day celebrations were taking place.

First up, the fruit plate:

Probably my 4th or 5th Mickey waffle of the trip:

Loved Stitch this morning! He was lots of fun.

Lilo cruised by sort of quickly…no worries.

And Mickey and the Pup rounded out the crew.

We were seated in the back of the dining room, right where all of the characters enter the restaurant, so we met everyone probably within 15 minutes. All meal long, and at Crystal Palace as well, I was wondering how the characters keep track of which families they’ve seen and which they haven’t yet. It seems like a tough task with families coming and going throughout the meal period!

 

[Ariel484]

Some more pictures from our breakfast…a full house:

The breakfast skillet. We both agreed that we liked the food here better than the food at Crystal Palace, since it was fresher.

It probably goes without saying at this point, but we were given yet another window-view table! :sohappy:

And then the parade began!

Just like with Crystal Palace, I’m positive we didn’t get our money’s worth as far as the amount of food we ate, but breakfast at ‘Ohana was still really fun. We both agreed we preferred that meal over the one we had at Crystal Palace. This trip definitely made me want to try more character meals on our future trips, and to book more sit-down breakfasts as well, which we hadn’t ever done until this trip. It’s just such a nice, relaxing way to start the day.

 

[Ariel484]

After breakfast, we made the trek to the Transportation and Ticket Center on foot, checking out the grounds of the Polynesian on the way.

I became somewhat obsessed with these little boats…they are so cute!

Upon reaching the TTC, we boarded the express monorail to Epcot.

We are such Disney noobs, and are apparently really unobservant…we didn’t even realize that this is the monorail that actually goes THROUGH the park, so that was a nice surprise!

Our first stop in Epcot was, of course, The Land to grab Soarin’ fastpasses. Living with the Land’s wait time was a whopping 0 minutes, so we headed there next.

Time to enter the Sustainable Agriculture Production & Research Cent…er.