Trip Report If you can see the floor, there's room for more- COMPLETED!

Let's see, I figured, I'd at least start updating about the road to Disney since, I'm sure once we actually get to Disney, my brain will explode and I'll forget all about this stuff...

So let's start:

Preface: Who are JZSquared?

I posted my pre-trip report way back in the Stone-age, so to save you all a trip, I'll just reintroduce myself [er ourselves?] to you?

Hi my name is Lyssa.... I'm not a robot without emotions, I'm not what you see... SORRY, 80S ROCK STUCK IN MY HEAD AFTER LISTENING TO IT FOR EIGHT HOURS STRAIGHT.

My better half [though personally I think that's debatable] is Justin.

We're both teachers from Houston, Texas. I teach special ed preschool [I have mainly autistic students] and Justin teaches the other end of the spectrum.... He teaches AP Computer Science and Calculus BC in high school.

This is us:

[though currently my hair is bright Cheshire Cat fuchsia...]

Since we're both teachers, we're really limited in when we can actually visit the world. We're basically limited to school breaks and summer breaks AKA when everybody else in the US also visits Disney, so it's going to be mad crowded whenever we go. We decided to join the craziest of the crazies and travel to Disney during the most-crowded time of year, New Year's Eve... I mean we could've gone over the summer, I suppose, but winter weather > summer weather, especially since it seems Florida is going through a big of a cold front [it is currently 43 degrees in Milton, Florida], which makes me happy [my NJ blood craves the cold... Justin's thin Texas blood, not so much.]

We also decided to road trip there because we both really don't like flying even though it's supposedly one of the safest things you can do... but we also really like road trips and seeing the US [our honeymoon was a road trip up the west coast, and down through the center of the US, so we hit Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain National Parks] and when we worked out the finances, really flying and driving were about the same price, so we decided to drive to Disney instead, plus that gives me the leniency to buy as many Starbucks mugs as I want and not have to worry about stuffing them in luggage and flying them back in a cargo hold of a plane.

Anyways, welcome to our trip, I hope you enjoy following along. Expect it to be corny and cheesy, hopefully entertaining though [This is my first trip report]!

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 14: Around the World in less than 40 days

Next up was Norway, home of Frozen Ever After, which already had like an 80 minute wait, even in cold and rainy weather.

Justin and I were pretty hungry by then since we hadn't eaten anything since our breakfast. We stopped by the bakery in Norway, Kringla Bakeri og Kafé, to have a quick snack:

Justin had some sort of chocolate almond covered pretzel.

I had a piece of the school bread. It was delicious. The bread was sweet. The vanilla cream and coconuts were diving. 5/5, would totally eat again, and now I can add it to DW snacks I fantasize about when I'm at home. That list also includes Dole Whip.

We sat for a little while, at the quaint little covered area behind the bakery, and ate while we watched the rain and tried to warm up with coffee with too much cream and sugar in it [because that's the way we both like it].

We had awhile before our FEA fast pass, so when we were finished eating, we continued to travel around the world.

Next up was China:

We went in and watched The Reflections of China video to try to escape the rain for a little while.

We both got a little teary-eyed for Texas when they mentioned the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in Harbin, China. Every year, Moody Gardens, which is this tourist trap in Galveston that we both love, flies in ice carves from Harbin China, and they have their own mini-themed ice festival there in a 9 degree tent... This year's theme was "Rainforest"

[Us and Santa in Iceland 2k17]

[a scene from Iceland]

We both enjoyed the movie, we like learning about new places. Though I think it'd be more awesome if they could find a way to put seats in there, and maybe have the seats move with the theater... but it being a 360 degree movie, I am unsure how they would accomplish that.

So in conclusion, very informative and well done movie with beautiful cinematography, but not a good place to go if you want to relax your tired feet and legs.

After China was Germany:

Snow White was signing autographs in Germany, and I felt bad for her because it was raining and it was pretty cold, and the poor princess looked like she was freezing. She didn't even have a very long line probably because it was so miserable outside, and only Justin and I were crazy enough to wander the world showcase in the freezing cold and rain.

I enjoyed looking at the model train village, but there was no train running. But I still enjoyed how detailed the village was.

I also enjoyed the Christmas decorations that were still being displayed.

Next up was Italy:

I don't really have much to say about Italy. It had some pretty parts, but it didn't wow me or anything.

Interestingly enough, when reading on Wikipedia to remind myself about where we were in Epcot, especially because Imgur doesn't load my photos in the order I try to upload them in, there were all these dark-rides or just rides, in general, that were originally considered for Phase II of Epcot, which never happened.

Italy was supposed to have a gondola-themed dark ride and Germany was supposed to have a ride along the Rhine River, but those plans were canceled. Epcot would have been such a different park had it had more rides like that, and I kind of wish those rides had happened.

Next up was the American Adventure:

[we were very wet and sort of cold]

Justin and I didn't stop and see The American Adventure though because we had to head back to Norway for our FEA fast pass.

Of course, when we got there, FEA was down and off-line. After assuring everyone that their fast passes would be active for the rest of the day [because god help the rage of parents, whose children did not get to ride FEA due to technological difficulties!] , we shrugged, and decided to continue traveling around the world.

We didn't go back to American Adventure for some reason.... Instead we started at Japan.

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 15: Let It go, Let It go

In the last chapter of our saga, our two nerdy introverts had just found out that FEA was closed. So instead of throwing temper tantrums like several five year olds and their families, our two brave heroes continued their fearless journey around the world in less than 80 days.

We wound up at Japan after we found out FEA was closed.

Today's history lesson: For years Imagineers had considered building an indoor roller coaster based on the Matterhorn Bobsleds from Disneyland but themed to Japan's Mount Fuji inside a replica of Mount Fuji. Another proposed attraction would have been a walk through version of "Circle-Vision" like the movie in China, but guests would board and walk through a bullet train and look through windows [which was actually a film screen, like the Hogwarts Express at Universal] that showcased Japan's changing landscapes and the train would have shake and moved like a train traveling through the countryside.

All those ideas never happened... again though, I can't even fathom what Epcot would have been like if all these attractions had come to life.... so instead we went to Mitsukoshi. I enjoyed looking at all the cute things and was even tempted to buy an eevee backpack, but instead we decided just to buy some Asian sodas that Justin's best friend had gotten addicted to and just wander. We probably saved tons of money that way because there was so much cute stuff I wanted to buy!

We just walked through Morocco, we didn't really do much there... I mean there really wasn't much to do there except eat and look around We weren't hungry, so we just looked around.

We just looked around France too. We did see Aurora out to meet and greet guests, and I'm happy that she at least was wearing sleeves and didn't look like she was freezing like Snow White did. She actually had a sizeable line of people, who wanted to meet her.

I was sad we didn't see Alice in the UK. She's probably the only Disney character that I would've possibly wanted to meet because I love Alice in Wonderland, so much. My wedding was even Alice in Wonderland themed. Today I had even worn a Portal meets Alice in Wonderland inspired shirt to show my dedication to my fandom... [and that shirt also got a major shout out by a cast member at Nemo]

I looked all around the UK Pavilion to try to find the AiW themed tea that they sold. I didn't find it in the UK, but I did find it at DW, a few days later.

Justin and I enjoyed walking around the UK, the shops had some really cool pop culture things like Doctor Who, which we're both a huge fan of.

One day I would love to eat at the Rose & Crown Pub, I love British food.

We ended our tour of the world at Canada.

Over the summer, Justin and I went to Alaska and Canada on a cruise, and I really thought the Canadian Pavilion did a great job with capturing the essence of Canada.

I've actually been to the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, Canada, and I thought the Pavilion's mini versions of the gardens were totally realistic.

After Canada, we went back to Norway to finally ride FEA.

I thought the ride was really cute.

I was impressed with how much more realistic the Audio-Animatronics were compared to older rides.

I thought it was a very cute ride, I miss Maelstrom, which I have fond memories of riding with my papa, but FEA wasn't a bad replacement, I just think I may be slightly part of that cult following that prefers Maelstrom to FEA.

I wouldn't wait more than maybe thirty minutes to ride FEA, unless of course, I had a young child who was OBSESSED with all things Frozen, but it was a good use of a FP.

After FEA, we bid the World Showcase Adieu:

'

Justin was saddened to see that TT had like a 200 minute wait, so we opted not to wait for that, and instead decided to leave Epcot all together, and park hop over to the Magic Kingdom, especially after we saw how short the waits were on the lines app.

 

[fractal]

Love the Epcot pics! I would take either Fuji Mountain or Bullet train.

 

[amjt660]

I am late to this tr but I am really enjoying your take on the parks during the nye season

Max

 

[Lyssa]

Love the Epcot pics! I would take either Fuji Mountain or Bullet train.

Thank you very much and both those rides would've been awesome I just wish Epcot had more rides!

I am late to this tr but I am really enjoying your take on the parks during the nye season

Thank you I'm glad you're enjoying it

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 16: The Happiest Cruise that Ever Sailed

We're having some CRAZY weather in Houston, folks. It is literally raining ice outside. My lawn has a layer of ice on it. I had to bring in my cacti because they were getting covered in ice. It is 27 degrees. School was even canceled, which was probably for the better. I mean I'm from the north, and I learned how to drive in sleet and freezing rain, though I prefer not to, but Houstonians surely have no idea how to drive in this weather, so I think it was safer to cancel school with tons of buses and parents and children all on the roads around the same time. I'm sure we'll have to make up this day, but better safe than sorry, and a day off from school gives me more time to update this.

So where did we leave off?

Oh right, our introverted nerds had finished traveling around the world in way less than 80 days and decided to park hop on over to the Magic Kingdom.

It was still rainy, gray, and freezing [though not as bad as Houston is today] as we left Epcot. We walked over the monorail, hitched a ride, were delayed for a bit before the MK monorail arrived due to some issue with one of the trains, but after only about a fifteen minute delay or so, we were at the Magic Kingdom.

Hello Train Station.

Hello Christmas Tree.

Hello Castle, Hello Gray Skies.

Hello Selfie in front of the aforementioned castle.

I checked the lines app to see what rides didn't have really long waits, and saw Haunted Mansion, which is one of my favorites only had about a twenty minute or so wait, so we decided to head to that one first.

I guess everyone else had the same app and checked it at the same exact time because the wait had jumped from about 20 minutes to 40 minutes, but we decided to wait anyways since it's one of my favorite rides and we had 3ds' in our pockets, which is the perfect activity to do while wasting time on a line. Also the dreary weather seemed perfect to ride HM.

I don't remember the old queue, so I don't have much to compare this one too, but it was a clever queue. Justin seemed to enjoy the interactive elements just as much as the little kids on line did, but at the same time, that line moved really fast, which is a great thing, but doesn't give you much time to interact with the queue. But I think I'd rather ride the ride than wait in a line longer and play with some "haunted instruments," but I'm sure on days when this ride does have a huge wait or it breaks down or something, those things are lifesavers to parents with kids.

When I was little and Nintendo was a thing [I'm totally showing my age now, aren't I?], my brother had this Disney game for Nintendo and one of the rides as The Haunted Mansion, and that was one of our favorite levels, you had to throw candles at the ghosts and find the hidden ghost. [there was also an asteroid like game based on Space Mountain, a racing game based on Audiotopia, a side-scroller based on Pirates of the Caribbean, and a run away train game based on Thunder Mountain]

Anyhow the ride was just as I remembered, always a classic, still a classic, and we both love that ride. Justin thinks it's one of the best conveyor rides at all the parks.

After HM, we strolled through New Fantasyland, and noticed that Small World didn't have much of a wait, so we hopped on the line for the happiest cruise that ever did sail.

The restaurant that was next to It's a Small World, Pinocchio Village Haus, had this one section that overlooked the ride, and there were these people just sitting there and holding gigantic cue cards that said things like "Start the wave," "Do the chicken dance", "high five a stranger", "fist bump the person in front of you," and things like that, and I'm not sure if that was a part of PVH, and they just have the cards there for anyone to hold up to the window, or those people, who were sitting there brought them for their own entertainment, but the family in front of us was having a blast with those cards.

The wait was maybe twenty minutes or so, before we had front row seats with no leg room, for....

I have a friend named Marie, who went to MK with her family, and got stuck on SW for over an hour and they had to listen to the song over and over and over again, and to this day, she refuses to ride the ride in fear of that happening.

I would have to say, that's probably also one of my biggest fears, luckily our ride worked just fine.

My grandparents always loved It's a Small World, I remember being little and riding it with them and only wanting to ride in a pink boat.

I think I prefer the Disneyland version, to be honest. I just really liked seeing the Disney characters incorporated into the ride at Disneyland, and looking for them as we sailed room to room.

But still, this is a classic Disney ride, and a version of it exists at every single Disney park in existence.

After our cruise, we were hungry since we hadn't eaten anything since our snacks in Norway. We didn't have any ADRs or anything, so instead we just went next door to eat.

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 17: The Ride that breaks up Marriages

Justin and I wandered over to Pinocchio Village Haus to grab a quick dinner. I was said they were out of a seasonal cupcake that was on their menu though.

I had chicken nuggets and fries. Justin has breadsticks that he said tasted a lot like the breadsticks at Olive Garden, and he had a pepperoni flatbread pizza.

The nuggets were tasty and the breadsticks were good. Justin said his pizza wasn't bad.

Neither of us thought the food was extremely overpriced for Disney, and there was a lot of empty seats throughout the resturant. We easily found a corner booth, just not in the room that views It's a Small World.

After eating, we wandered over to The Hall of Presidents.

The only comment I will make is this.... I really thought the Presidents looked at the new President with disapproval on their faces when he started to speak.

You can kind of see it here.

Justin and I made a lot of other comments that we both found funny, but I won't be typing them here.

After The Hall of Presidents, we decided to go to Tomorrowland.

The Castle looks so pretty when it's all lit up.

We instantly went to Buzz Lightyear because that is one of Justin's favorite rides, and there was no wait. He was determined to be a galactic hero on this trip.

GET READY TO TAKE YOUR BATTLE STATIONS.

Did he succeed?

He got close.

I did not. I'm first class, he's a cosmic commander, even after googling how to get a perfect score on his phone right before we rode.

Justin says I look ed, I told him I was concentrating and determined.

Next we rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover. It was freezing up there, where we got into the ride. There was quite a windchill going on.

This is the only picture I got:

A picture of the beauty parlor of tomorrow.

It was my first time ever riding TTA. I enjoyed it. I was surprised with how fast the actual car went. I somehow thought it'd be a slower ride? It was also freezing cold. Justin and I both enjoyed it though I think Justin was a little disappointed that the lights were not on in Space Mountain as we passed through it.

Next we watched Carousel of Progress. I vaguely remember this from when I was little. I enjoyed it a lot. I think I have more of an appreciation for the attraction now that I'm an adult. Justin enjoyed it too and was impressed that so many of Walt Disney's visions of the future do indeed exist today.

Unfortunately for Justin, Space Mountain, his favorite ride in the entire world had a crazy wait even in the cold weather, so we left Tomorrowland, and headed on a quest to find the Winnie the Pooh ride.

When I was little I vaguely recalled there was a sky ride in Disney in Tomorrowland, sort of like the Disney gondolas that they've started to build, and I remembered riding with my nana. A quick google search told me that there was one that was there till the late 90s when they did the big refurbish of Space Mountain and such, so I wasn't crazy, it really did exist. I even have a picture of my nana and me on the Skyway somewhere.

Anyhow...

On the way, Justin saw his other favorite ride, and my least favorite ride.

Oh Mad Hatter's Tea Party, how I hate thee, let me count the ways...

Justin and I stopped in Disneyland on our honeymoon, which was a road trip up the west coast, and we went on this ride, and Justin spun the teacup so hard that I was extremely sick afterwards, and to this day, we joke that it's the ride that causes divorces.

He really wanted to ride it, and he said it was no fun alone, so I reluctantly agreed to ride with him, as long as he kept the spinning to a minimum, and for the most part, he did, but I really really hate that ride. I think it's the only ride I hate.

[sadly enough I never remembered to take a picture of this in the daylight]

[I like the Cheshire Cat]

We continued our quest to find The Winnie the Pooh ride, though I don't recall why I was so eager to ride it that night.

We took a few wrong turns:

Then eventually came to this:

And decided to ride The Voyage of the Little Mermaid instead.

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 18: We never found Pooh

So, we never actually found the Winnie the Pooh ride. I mean, we did eventually ride it, on Wednesday, when we came back to MK, and it was light out, and we could actually see, where we were going. But judging from the location we found it at on Wednesday, we just somehow completely missed it that night, and we walked right past it!

So instead we rode Voyage of the Little Mermaid:

[is it just me or does Ariel look very unsure if she actually wants to prince to kiss her... and when you think about... Ariel is ONLY 16, why is she in a boat with a strange prince anyways?????]

This ride was identical to it's Disneyland counterpart. Still a cute ride, still rarely gets a long wait, which makes it a winner in my books! It's a cute ride, I enjoy it.

Next we headed towards Frontierland to ride two mountains, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.

BTM is one of my favorite rides, though ironically, I don't think I've ever ridden in during the day. We tend to only ride it, at night. It had only a 10 minute also know as 0 minute- it takes ten minutes to walk to the train- wait. We walked right and rode it. This is another one of Justin's favorite rides. I think it's better in the dark.

Splash Mountain had no wait either, and even though it was cold, and freezing, we figured we'd ride it anyways. I'm sure people thought we were insane.

As we started riding it, the fireworks started, and I must say, it was very cool to watch the fireworks as we were riding Splash Mountain, it was totally unplanned, but totally awesome.

The one thing that did bother me was that everything in this room said "zip-a-dee", but that song wasn't playing, it was some other song, and it just seemed like "zip-a-dee-do-dah" should be playing! I mean that's the song they sing in Disneyland for this ride, if I recall. Instead it was some other song.

This was the first of many entertaining photo poses for this ride throughout the trip. You've been warned!

We got off the ride just as the fireworks started to finish.

[the only firework pic I got]

We barely got wet on the ride, but the guy in front of us got soaked.

We then decided to go to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean, where I had to explain to Justin that the ride came first, Johnny Depp came later.

As of January 1st, the red head is still for sale.

Pirates will always be one of my favorite rides, Justin enjoyed it too, even though he got splashed pretty badly from a cannon ball.

After that we headed back to Tomorrowland to ride the last of Disney's trifecta of Mountain, Space Mountain.

There was still a pretty long wait, even at like eleven pm. The wait was 80 minutes. We probably waited about 80 minutes. We got lucky though because we were only a party of two, and sometimes people's families lacked two people, so we actually got to probably cut about 10-15 minutes of waiting because the cast members needed a party of two.

SM is an awesome ride, though I think the bad 80s techno is louder and more prevalent in the Disneyland version, and I sort of missed that, but a great ride.

After SM, we were tired, and our feet were killing us, so we headed back to Main Street and towards the buses:

We took a very crowded bus back to Pop Century, filled up our refillable soda mugs, went back to our room, and fell asleep.

That was Day Two.

On Day Three, we tackle Hollywood Studios, and Ohana.

 

[amjt660]

Great day at MK when you can ride all the mountains!!

Max

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 19: What? It's not called MGM anymore?

It may be called Hollywood Studios, but in my head it will always be MGM, and I still refer to it at MGM because when I went there for the first time with my brother, it was MGM, the ToT had just opened, and him and I rode it like 5 times in a row while my mom waited on a bench.

Justin and I got up and headed to the bus early today because HS had EMH in the morning, and we wanted to try to beat the crowd for the one ride we didn't have a FP for.

I should preface this by saying I really don't like HS. I think it'll be AMAZING in 2021, when Star Wars land and Pixar Land are open [and the Tron coaster will be open at MK, which is why I said 2021] because they'll be more to do. But right now, there are only 4 rides open, at a park that gets just as many visitors as the other parks, and all the people fight for those four rides, and the lines are awful and the streets are crowded, and there's just not much to do, IMO, to have a full-day at the park. But the rides are amazing, the rides that are open [and I am sad I missed The Great Movie Ride by a few months] are probably some of the best themed and most thrilling rides at Disney World, but right now, the park itself, is in a needs improvement stage, which it is getting, it's just going to take some time.

The first thing we did when we got to HS was go to Starbucks, which had no line, and get my HS mug to add to my collection, and then we ran over to Midway Mania because it was the only ride we didn't have a fast pass for, and the wait was already at like 30 minutes, and that was probably the lowest it'd be all day.

As you can see, it was still a gray and cold day like every other day had been except for the first day, where we did get some sun at AK, but other than that, temps were 40ish degrees at the highest, and in the 30s, at night, and it was very cloudy and gray.

I will say this about Midway Mania. The area for the ride is so beautifully themed and detailed. It's probably one of the most detailed queues out of all the rides we had ridden. I loved all the details and life-size toys and things.

[I used to love Tinker Toys!]

I don't have much to say about the ride. We rode the one at Disneyland, and waited probably about 90 minutes for it. The HS version was pretty much the same. I don't know if we got the new track or anything since I have nothing to compare it to, but Justin and I both really enjoy this ride, a lot. We enjoyed it in Disneyland, and we liked the HS version, as well.

As usual Justin kicked my butt [and I was jealous he got the cat prize], but I had better accuracy than him, so there! And he did google how to get a perfect score on this ride, and would've ridden it again, if the wait wasn't over 60 minutes when we left the ride.

We decided to head to Star Tours next, passing the sad and empty Chinese Theater and took a selfie:

Then we headed to Star Tours, which had a 10 minute aka no minute wait:

Justin really likes this ride. I don't remember much about the movie we saw except I was not the rebel spy... We did get Kylo Ren, Finn, and Maz though. I think they we were really pushing "new" Star Wars because The Last Jedi had just come our a few weeks ago.

After Star Tours, we wound up in the gift shop, and met Jedi Stitch:

Apparently Jedi Stitch even has his own Instagram page. That light saber in front of Jedi Stitch the light saber that Justin built. He was the biggest little kid in the line for the "make your own light saber" in the gift shop. He also made one in Disneyland. Justin is a huge Star Wars nerd.

After that it was time to get our Fast Pass for Rock and Roll Roller Coaster, so we headed to Sunset Boulevard.

Hello ToT, I can't wait to ride you later.

The RnRC opened way after I had been to MGM er HS, so other than the fact it's a roller coaster, I didn't really know much about it, so I couldn't really warn Justin about it in any sort of way.

[Personally, I like all the interaction from the rides with the magic bands.... I know it's sort of like 1984 and Big Brother is watching and things like that, but I think it makes the trip more fun]

I think it's time to go to a concert.

We both loved the ride! It was amazing and awesome. Such a fun roller coaster!!! Justin even said it was one of his favorite rides on the trip [and he also said that this trip really made him overcome his roller coaster phobia].

{sorry for the quality]

I think we were both smiling in the picture.

After RnRC, we had plenty of time to kill before our lunch reservations and our next FP, so it was the perfect time.... to force Justin to see Frozen Live

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 20: Do you want to build a snowman?

It just so happened that as we were walking around, I noticed that The Frozen Sing Along was about to start, and we really had nothing better to do,so I dragged Justin to it.

Here's some Frozen sing along spam:

The show was cute, and even Justin enjoyed it. I totally caught him singing along to "Let It Go!" Our historians [I forget their names] were hysterical, and we spent a lot of the show laughing.

We still had a bit more time to kill, so we saw Muppets 3d:

The fountain is no longer Ms. Piggy's Garden of Sin, it is back to being a fountain.

The show was exactly as I remembered it being when I was 11 and last went to MGM. I wish they'd update it. I guess I didn't really find it as amusing or funny because even so many years later, I knew what jokes were coming up, and it was all the same.

Random tidbit: When MGM first opened, there were supposed to be two Muppet themed attractions. One was Muppet Vision 3d, the other was supposed to be a dark ride, sort of like The Great Movie Ride, but muppet themed, however, the deal fell through after Henson died, so there was no Great Muppet Ride.

After we watched Muppets 3d, it was finally time for our lunch reservation at the Sci-Fi Drive in.

The lighting wasn't the best for photos, but here is my meal:

A gingerbread milkshake, which was delicious.

A caprese sandwich and fries.

The sandwich was decent and the fries were yummy, but it wasn't out of this world amazing or anything. Justin had a bacon burger, he said it was a burger, and it tasted good, but he missed his Beaches & Cream patty melt.

I enjoyed the theme of the restaurant and the atmosphere of the restaurant. I don't think we'd go back though. I think next time, we'll probably try another restaurant because there's nothing really that stood out about the cuisine for us, whereas Beaches & Cream, Justin still talks about his patty melt and his ice cream.

I also felt like they tried to hurry us through our lunch. I understand it's a very popular restaurant and a lot of people want to eat there, but we both felt extremely rushed through our meal.

After lunch, we walked around for a little while to look at HS' Christmas decorations:

[they should've decorated the theater for Christmas]

Then it was finally time for the Tower of Terror...

Random Tidbit 2: From a certain angle in Morocco at Epcot, you can actually see the back of the Tower of Terror, so Disney made it so the back of the ToT blends in with Moroccan architecture, so unless you're looking, you don't actually know what it is.

I love ToT and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is one of my favorite rides in all of the Disney Parks and may even be number 1 on my list. Justin does not enjoy it as much, but will ride it with bribes. I bribed him with a mickey pretzel and/or mickey ice cream pop to ride it with me.

From the top of the tower, when the doors open, I got a really good view of the construction for Toy Story land. The slinky dog coaster looks like it's going to be a good ride.

After ToT, we decided to leave HS, I was extremely exhausted, and just wanted to take a nap. The park was super crowded, all the attractions had waits so long that it would take hours to reride any of them, and neither of us saw a point in staying any longer.

So we took the bus back to Pop Century, picked up a few packages that had been delivered to Everything Pop, went back to our hotel, and even I fell asleep. I rarely nap and I am an awful sleeper and I suffer from bad insomnia, but I napped for several hours, so that shows just how tired I was.

A few hours later, we woke up, and got ready to go to Ohanas.

 

[EricTheRed]

Our last Compose Your Own Figment email took nearly 5 months to show up. We made it on June 5th and the email was received October 20. So you should get a nice surprise sometime this Spring!

 

[Lyssa]

Chapter 21: Next time can we stay at a different resort?

Justin and I woke up from our naps, showered, and got ready to head over to the Polynesian, so we could have our dinner at Ohana. We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then rode the monorail to the Polynesian... There was some sort of technological difficulties with the monorail, and we ended up stopped at the TTC for awhile, and while we were stopped, fireworks started:

So at least there was something to watch while we were stopped.

We had given ourselves a lot of time to get to the Polynesian, so we weren't really that concerned.

Justin loved the Polynesian. He wants to stay at a place like the Polynesian next time we go to Disney. He liked how it just seemed like one big building [little does he know that there are lots of little buildings that house hotel rooms within the Polynesian just like PC] whereas Pop was all over the place. He also liked that there was a real lobby with chairs and bars and people were just hanging out in the lobby.

He told me that next time [yay, at least he said next time] he wants to stay at a place like the Polynesian.... Only I'd hate to break it to him, but I doubt we can afford a place like the Polynesian on our teacher salaries!

We went to check in for our dinner, and the cast member gave us a pager, but warned us that they were running really behind.

Well... what else to do.. then go to the bar and kill some time.... right?

I had the Bahama Mama, and Justin had a Long Island Iced Tea.

It was SO good and I didn't even taste the booze, which is a good and bad thing I had 2.5 of those [though I chugged the rest as our pager went off] and I was feeling good.

Justin enjoyed his Long Island Iced Teas.

I'm not even going to lie to you guys, I was not mentally there during most of our Ohana dinner, I was in a happy place, that was probably more similar to Journey Into Imagination than anything else.

I don't remember our server's name or anything... But he was a good server and attentive when it came to refilling drinks and things.

Justin loved the bread. He ended up ordering another bread after we finished the first bread. I chose not to inform him that the bread had coconut in it, since he despises coconut, or at least thinks he despises coconut.

I really liked the peanut butter dressing on the salad.... I liked it so much that I've been trying to google a copycat recipe of the aforementioned salad dressed because it was that good!!!

I found a few contenders, but have yet to try them.

The wontons were delicious. I liked the vegetables, and the noodles were so sweet and delicious. I didn't eat chicken wings though because I don't like things with bones and refuse to eat them, but Justin said they were good.

I think it was around then, when the entertainer called up couples, who were celebrating things, and in my drunken happy place, I mentioned we were celebrating our anniversary, so we got called up and we were given leis. We were celebrating our 7th anniversary and another couple was celebrating their first. As Justin was supposed to kiss me to put my lei on, HE REALLY KISSED ME, and I wanted to kill him, but he loved the attention.... He did the same thing at our wedding when he was supposed to feed me cake... The entertainer was like to the other couple "THAT'S what happens after 7 years of being together," and everyone laughed.

I demolished most of my food before I remembered I was supposed to be taking pictures of it. The chicken was delicious. I wasn't a big fan of the steak. I like my meat so rare that's practically still mooing, and the meat was more medium than rare, but I know they probably cook it like that for safety purposes. The shrimp was delicious, and that's what I was looking the most forward to, but I was too stuffed full of chicken and steak by the time they finally gave us shrimp, so that made me sad.

We got a little cupcake to celebrate our anniversary, it was actually the first time the entire trip our anniversary had been acknowledged by anyone even with our pins on, so that was nice.

The bread pudding was amazing, and I'm sad I was too stuffed full of other things to devour it all,but it was so freaking good!

In conclusion, we both really liked Ohana, but we felt it wasn't the best place for just two people. There's so much food and such, way more than two people can eat, that we felt it was more of a family or group restaurant. The food was delicious though, and eventually we'll be back, but probably not till we have a larger group to enjoy it with, but we did enjoy it and we were glad we tried it

We got out of Ohana late since our meal had been pushed back. Our reservation had been at 9:45, and I don't think we got seated till close to 10:15 or so because of how crowded it was, so after the meal, we hopped back on the monorail, walked to our bus, and went back to the hotel, and prepared for the next day, which was a full day at the Magic Kingdom.

 

[Tuvalu]

Fun Muppet fact~ When MGM was newly opened there were indeed two Muppet attractions: Muppet Vision 3D and a live stage show called Here Come the Muppets which was performed on the stage now used for Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

I don’t have any photos but have it on an old VHS tape (from our August 1991 vacation) that my kids watched constantly.

 

[Lyssa]

Fun Muppet fact~ When MGM was newly opened there were indeed two Muppet attractions: Muppet Vision 3D and a live stage show called Here Come the Muppets which was performed on the stage now used for Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

That's awesome I did not know that I wonder if there are clips of it somewhere on the interwebs

Our last Compose Your Own Figment email took nearly 5 months to show up. We made it on June 5th and the email was received October 20. So you should get a nice surprise sometime this Spring!

I'm excited for a Figment filled spring surprise I might have to dig up this trip report and add it to it LOL

 

[EricTheRed]

Here's the Figment my daughter made

 

[LadyBelle]

The show was exactly as I remembered it being when I was 11 and last went to MGM. I wish they'd update it. I guess I didn't really find it as amusing or funny because even so many years later, I knew what jokes were coming up, and it was all the same

I’m the opposite. It’s one of the last where we him Jim Henson’s voice as Kermit. I can never get used to the new voice(s) and I want to hold onto the original version for as long as possible.

 

[MegRuss626]

Team MGM here too!!

 

[Lyssa]

Team MGM here too!!

Yay for Team MGM

I’m the opposite. It’s one of the last where we him Jim Henson’s voice as Kermit. I can never get used to the new voice(s) and I want to hold onto the original version for as long as possible.

I understand that

 

[Lyssa]

@Tuvalu was this the video you were referring to?

Meet the Muppets at MGM