The Foodie "Canadian Themed" Musical of MillerPoppins

So here we are, home already. I don't remember ever being as bummed after a trip as I am with this one and I attibute that to it being so amazingly awesome. I believe this, along with the 2008 trip with my Mom, was at the top of the Disney trip list. I was so afraid that after months of planning, something was going to go wrong. Aside from one minor set back (more on that in a bit), the trip was perfect. So let's get started!

So to recap, this is my 9th trip to this World of ours and my boyfriend's very first. Tim has literally been all over the globe, seeing everything from the pyramids to rainforests to glaciers. When I heard that he had never been to WDW, I insisted that I would be the first to take him. And while he was very excited, he never wanted to see any footage, photos or anything Disney related except for the animated classics before we got there. It made it very difficult for me. However, it paid off greatly in the end. And as much I believe I have converted him, he's not completely on board with blogging on being on "Disney sites". With that being said, his photo will not be posted. You'll have to settle for photos of me and some awesome scenic ones he took.

So our trip started the night before as he scrambled to pack and I had been pretty much ready for a week. After he zipped up his case, we went to our local sushi joint for a quick and non messy dinner. After rolling out, we had minor food coma and crashed. Wake up call came quite early though at 3:30am and we headed out the door. To my knowledge at that point, we were set to go! I was so excited and could barely contain myself as we headed though security and stopped for a quick coffee before heading to our gate. As I was waiting in line, I was digging though my bag and could not find my phone...

To back track, two years ago on the night before the trip, my cell phone was stolen enroute to my parents house. I had to spend two frantic hours trying to cancel service and have a new phone sent to All Star Movies. It was an experience I did not want to repeat. However, here I was on my vacation and it would be the second Disney trip that I had a phone dilenma before I even left. Thankfully, Tim had his so I wasn't as upset. What could I do?

After a quick two and a half hour flight, we were in paradise! We marched right up to the DME, boarded and were off within 10 minutes with one other family on the way to All Star Music. We couldn't help but crack up though that the song from the Canadian Pavilion movie was on in the bus. Tim is from Canada and our dinner that night was in Le Cellier. Thoughout the trip, Canada seemed to be quite prominent through other guests, shirts and themes. After our little video, we were there! Our front desk agent Dianne was extremely gracious and granted every request I had. A king sized bed in the Jazz Inn and it was ready!!! What more could I want??? We headed to our room and as we walked out towards the pool, I started getting emotional. We were finally here..after two years of waiting, months of planning and lots of saving pennies.

We were thrilled with the room, changed into "Florida" clothes and headed to Epcot. We were ready for some Food and Wine Festival goodness and Future World Fun!

We headed to Soarin, got fast passes and decided to grab lunch from Sunshine Seasons. I was a bit apprehensive about the crowds. The place was packed! I ran though my head thinking what could be going on that I wasn't aware of? I had come down during the same time a couple years ago and it was NOT like this. I tried not to let it bother me and looked forward to some yummy Sunshine Seasons goodness. Tim got the Pork Chop and Caramel Apple cake for dessert while I got the Grilled Salmon and Key Lime Tart.

 

[MillerPoppins]

What the heck is poutine? That plate looked like cheese fries to me. :shrug:


Millerpoppins...lovin' the report. Keep it coming. Crystal Palace early is my favorite ADR to get...but that has nothing to do with the restaurant. That's just the cherry on top of the awesomeness of Main Street early in the morning.

BTW, hubby's baby brother married a Canadian girl from Niagara-on-the-Lake. I think that's a little ways away from Toronto, tho. My one and only trip to Canada was for their wedding. The area right there when driving from Niagara Falls up to NotL is so freaking gorgeous! Too bad the sis-in-law turned out to be of the flaky variety. I'd have liked to have gone back to visit again.

Thanks! I was extra excited for the Crystal Palace ADR being that we could get into the park before opening and this would be Tim's first views of MK. It was wonderful.

I haven't got up to Canada yet and I'm dying too. From what I saw in his photos, the Canadian Pavilion film and then the Olympics this year capped it off, I really really want to go!

The second trip report I read today before breakfast, and the second one that involves food. What am I thinking?! Okay, time to take a break before reading the next!

Great TR! Thanks for all of the (delicious) food photos!

So those cheese fries (sorry if there's more to them than that) are called Poutine? (Rhetorical question.) That's an odd name. Interesting that they use "real" Canadian cheese curds. They look delicious!

Thanks WDWFigment! Hope you have a wonderful time on your Christmas trip! I'll be excited to see those photos!

So yeah apparently, from what BF told me, Poutine is traditionally hot fries with cheese curds on them and then super hot gravy is poured on top to melt the cheese. He was disappointed in them at Le Cellier, I thought they weren't too bad.

 

[MillerPoppins]

Day 2-Magic Kingdom

So Day 2 started for us at 6am when we received our Mickey wake up call. We had 8:05am ADR's at Crystal Palace and I wanted to factor in travel time, plus I knew he'd go nuts taking photos of Main Street. We got dressed quickly and headed out. It was a first for me, I had never gotten up when it was still dark to get anywhere in WDW, but I knew it would be so worth it.

Luckily, we had no lines to contend with..

Our bus came and after a few short minutes, we arrived at MK. The sun was just rising over the Contemporary and BF was thrilled taking photos.

While he took photos, I was an emotional mess. To put some story behind this, my last trip to WDW was with my Mom in Nov 2008. We had a amazing week long vacation of just the two of us. In April of 2009, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully, after three surgeries and 16 weeks of chemo, she is now a survivor. While her and I have had many trips together over the years with my dance company and other times together, this trip gained a lot of meaning. Disney has always had a special place in my heart for the way that it puts relationships a priority while you are there. You forget the stress of everyday and focus on your time with the ones you love. Additionally, one of the side effects of my Mom's situation, was that I had become A LOT more emotional. I was never a crier but now, it doesn't take much. So combine all that together with the fact that I had been waiting two years for this moment to bring Tim here. I thought it about it so much. Needless to say, I was misty eyed when we walked into the park..

Enough about that now..let's get on to the day!

While Tim wanted to take photos, we were limited on time as they herded us into a line before they let us all in at one time ten minutes before our ADR time. I promised him that we'd come back for photos but we did manage to get a few.

 

[Rach&Eric]

The second trip report I read today before breakfast, and the second one that involves food. What am I thinking?! Okay, time to take a break before reading the next!

Great TR! Thanks for all of the (delicious) food photos!

So those cheese fries (sorry if there's more to them than that) are called Poutine? (Rhetorical question.) That's an odd name. Interesting that they use "real" Canadian cheese curds. They look delicious!

Yup, Poutine and are they ever freaking good. Oh sure looks like a hot mess but I assure you, if they're done right you are in heaven...ok well now I've gone and made myself hungry :slurp:

 

[Tiggerish]

Great trip report, gorgeous pictures!

That's terrible that you didn't enjoy your LeCellier dinner! If you had admitted to the waiter/ress that you didn't care for your entree, they would have replaced it for you with pleasure--the one time I ordered the filet with mushroom risotto (everyone goes crazy for that one, right?), I discovered that I didn't care for the risotto at all, and I love (with a capital L) mushrooms. The server noticed that I hadn't eaten it, and when I said that I didn't care for it, but was quite satisfied with the steak, (I'm not much of a complainer) he insisted on replacing it with mashed potatoes or whatever I wanted.

Looking forward to the rest of your report!

 

[MillerPoppins]

Breakfast was awesome as usual. I don't do a whole lot of character breakfasts usually but I really do love the Crystal Palace. Tim was equally thrilled. Being not a big fan of buffets, I was slightly concerned what he would think. But he was impressed with the food and the characters.

We scarfed down our breakfast, which was delicious! No photos because to be honest I forgot to take any, I was so excited. The only complaint I had was that the biscuits and gravy were a bit cold, but I didn't even care. They were still delicious! All the characters came around and Tim was very happy. He had no idea going in that this was a "Pooh" breakfast.

We rolled out the door by 9am and headed towards Frontierland. This time, I had a plan, but let him take in the photos on the way. We were on our way to Big Thunder!

We were on the first train of the day for BTMR and I was psyched. Afterwards, we grabbed fast passes then headed over to Splash. Tim wasn't sure of doing a water ride so early, but once he saw there was a 0 minute wait time, he was in.

This became an instant favorite for Tim, which I kinda knew was going to happen. He couldn't get over how it was a log flume and a cartoon all wrapped into one. It was so great to watch his reactions as he took everything in for the first time.

 

[MillerPoppins]

As soon as we got off, we ran right back around and hopped on again. He wanted to video the whole ride and I was out to get some more photos. Plus, we got drenched the first time through as we were in the front seat, might as well just get wet some more!

After two rounds on splash, we headed over to Adventureland and Pirates. I had some hesitations bringing him to POTC. To me, this is the main memory I have from my very first trip to Disney so it has always held a special place in my heart and memory. But for someone who has never been on the ride and only seen the action backed Pirates movies, I thought he would think it was a disappointment.

He liked it, but it wasn't at the top of his list. We watched a few minutes of Captain Jack's Tutorial and then wandered around Adventureland a bit more. Afterwards we hit up BTMR for our fast passes.

Afterwards, we mustered up some room for my favorite...dole whip! Tim had heard a lot about this and was excited to taste the famous snack. We got one, sat down and....he wasn't impressed. He said it was ok, but was hoping for something more tart. Side note, later we went back because he wanted to try a pineapple float with orange flavored dole whip.. LOVED THAT. Oh well, that's why there's different flavors.

Soon after, we headed to Liberty Square and headed into the Haunted Mansion. We apparently beat a massive crowd because when we got out, the line was back to the Belle's entrance.

At this point, we happened to stumble upon the Main Street Philharmonic. I think I mentioned that Tim is a trumpet player so live music is something he loves seeing.

While he recorded and photographed the performance, I wandered into Christmas Shoppe in Liberty Square. I was also trying to get away from the crowd at this point. Magic Kingdom was a LOT more crowded then I expected. I was kinda annoyed/aggrivated with this as last time I came to WDW in October, it was relatively empty. The only place that was crowded was Epcot on weekends for Food & Wine. This time around we were overwhelmed with Brazilian Tour Groups and just people everywhere. We couldn't walk three feet without being cut off by someone and everyone just seemed really rude. It was an adjustment that I hoped we wouldn't have to deal with the entire time and luckily we didn't.

Tomorrow..the rest of the MK.

 

[MillerPoppins]

So we proceeded through to Fantasyland, although I was worried about this because of the crowds.

We hit up Mickey's Philharmagic which is one of my favorites.

Tim was super surprised that there was a Pooh attraction, he had no idea. This was another reason it was so great to have him know nothing going in. He really enjoyed it.

Afterwards, we made our way into Toontown, which was another mob scene. My cast member friend Jen had pointed out that with as many Fantasyland attractions down, the overflow rolled into Toontown.

At this point we were making our way into Tomorrowland and both of us were hungry. So we made our way into Cosmic Ray's. If I thought Toontown was bad, it had NOTHING on Cosmic Rays. This place was PACKED. We ordered quickly, Tim got the half rotisserie chicken and ribs and I got one of my all time favorites: chicken breast nuggets. I LOVE them so much!!!! We managed to find a spot and I went and stocked up on my fake cheese sauce that I love so much.

Tim was so hungry at this point that he dove into his before I could get a photo. We both liked the food but felt like the battle to find a table and get through the lines kinda ruined it. After lunch/dinner, we rushed out to go grab a spot for the parade.

 

[MillerPoppins]

At this point, it was literally 2:55pm and I thought we were completely stuck for a spot. Thankfully though, since there was just two of us with no kids, we could wedge in for a spot in Liberty Square. And by wedge, I literally squished myself in between the rope, gate, a light post and a trashcan. I wish we got a photo of this but unfortunately, I did not. I was also surprised how excited Tim was for the parade. He was actually psyched to see some characters because other then Pooh, we hadn't seen Mickey or anyone else.

We got some great shots!

My girl and Bert!

Afterwards, we wandered into a few stores and back over to Tomorrowland.

I hadn't ever done the Laugh Floor before and had recently fell in love with Monsters Inc. I'm a little embarrassed to say I just saw it this year. Boo has become one of my FAVORITES! I really enjoyed the Laugh Floor and "That Guy!"

So at this point, we had grabbed Fast Passes before the parade and we headed back to Space Mountain.

Tim asked me my thoughts on it and my response was "I ride it every time but it's not one of favorites." Well, this became one of my favorites immediately because of Tim. Tim got the front seat and we headed in. For being a big, 6'3" grown man, he screamed like a girl! During one drop, I hear him yell "OH S*&T! I at this point, could NOT stop laughing the entire time. He had no idea that it was all in the dark and a roller coaster. Now he LOVES roller coasters, but this caught him completely off guard. Once we got out, I looked drunk in the photo and he looked SCARED. He would be horrified that I wrote all this but my stomach hurt so bad from laughing. Now he claims all of this was because the front seat was "scary". Side note: I found this to be true later during the Halloween party when I got the front seat after having a Lapu Lapu at Ohana. I thought I was tripping out!

We hit up Buzz, the People Mover and wandered around the Hub in front of the Castle. I heart Toy Story Merchandise and of course Toy Story. It falls right behind Mary Poppins for me. I get bummed though because there isn't a lot of adult merchandise for it.

At this point it was getting dark and I wanted to grab a spot for the Main Street Electrical Parade. We went wandering for a snack. Tim got his pineapple float with orange dole whip. I went in to Main Street Confectionary and grabbed my Minnie's Bake Shop cookie (I'M OBSESSED!) and a bag of Cheddar Cheese Popcorn.

We watched the parade, ducked into the Emporium for a bit and then watched Wishes. Unfortunately, because it was so mobbed, we did not get a great spot for the show. Additionally, Tim's feet kept getting ran over and stepped on by strollers and other people. By the time Wishes ended, we BOLTED out of MK. And I mean ran within record time. Thankfully, with being his size, people move when he's coming. We got to the bus stop which was loaded with people. We noticed that the All Star Sports line was empty. Sure enough, a Sports bus showed up and we booked it over to the line and was off within minutes. Once we got back, we dragged ourselves over to our resort and crashed. We had an early rise the next morning to take part in the Toy Story dash at Hollywood Studios.

 

[MillerPoppins]

Day 3
Hollywood Studios

We were up by 7am and out the door by 7:45a to head to the busses. I had explained to Tim the demand of Toy Story and thus, the reason why we had to be at the park before park opening.

We arrived at HS around 8:15am. Tim was psyched to take more photos. He had this huge thing with the sun being in the right place which really did result in better photos.

He was very happy that we came early.

They started letting us in 15 minutes early and we were cracking up that people then were running to the rope they had up at Sunset Blvd.

Sadly, at the pre show they announced that the ride was down. We were bummed since we had the plan (probably like everyone else) to hop in stand by. Instead, there was going to be a massive run for Fast Passes. So Tim took photos, and I took off when the rope dropped.

We mapped it out where he was going since I did not have my phone if we got lost. The army soldiers were directing and picking on folks in the process.

Well, after a good amount of pushing and shoving by a few hundred people, I got my fast passes! Tim was proactive in jumping in line for the Woody/Buzz meet and greet.

I was psyched! I love what they did adding the Pixar area to HS. Tim was also really enjoying looking at everything. It was great seeing what impressed him and what he thought was awesome. He loved how the characters took time with the littles ones and made them feel special. Also in the process, he kept thanking me for everything that had happened so far. It really made me happy seeing how much he was enjoying himself.

And I was having a little fun myself..

We met up with the characters, wandered around Pixar then headed to pick up fast passes for RNRC.

 

[MillerPoppins]

We got our Fast Passes and at this point, I was itching for coffee. We actually never had an actual breakfast in our food court. Most mornings, we opted to grab something in the park. Most of our dinners were early, so we had an early lunch instead and something small in the am. However, like most, I can not function without coffee in the morning. Some days, I can make it about two hours in or so. Most days, I ducked into the food court, grabbed a coffee while Tim grabbed a vitamin water and we hopped on the bus. Today, with all the anxiousness of the running, we did not get anything and the food court was mobbed. So I said we should make a pit stop at Starring Rolls to make a caffeine break and then check out the cupcake that I had been hearing so much about...the Butterfinger.

Now Tim isn't a huge peanut butter flavored anything fan. But he was willing to try it since it was something I had heard about from my friends on here and was anxious to try.

I was surprised at how small this place was inside. Grant it, I was expecting something huge, but it was smaller then I expected. Nevertheless, I snapped my shots for Blackthidot and the rest of the food loving crew out there.

I truly was leaning towards the Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcake, but I went with the Butterfinger for the sake of discovery. Ok, photos do not do this thing justice. IT's HUGE!

We grabbed a spot on one of the grassy areas and balanced this as well as an iced coffee. Me not being a big sweets person, it was a bit rich for me. However, it was definitely worth trying. It was super chocolately and loaded with icing. Loaded with sugar and caffeine, we continued on. I had promised Tim time to take photos since he was all but herded into this park.

 

[MillerPoppins]

At this point, we decided to do The Great Movie Ride before it was time for our TSMM fast passes. Although the TGMR gets a lot of slack for being a bit outdated, I love it. I feel like it matches the feel of the park perfectly. Plus, it doesn't hurt that my girl Mary gets some credit outside the building, in the queue and through the attraction. Plus, Tim is a big Judy Garland fan (no he is absolutely not gay lol) so I knew he would love the Wizard of Oz section.

He enjoyed it very much and then it was time for our TSMM fastpasses! I was so excited since I only rode it once before.

Sadly, one time was not enough for me to dominate.

Tim kicked my butt. I didn't take it too hard since I whooped his in Buzz. However, I should have felt badly since he couldn't do that great with Buzz because he's color blind and had trouble seeing the targets. But I didn't. I was pumped!

It was also time for RNRC at this point. So back down Sunset Blvd we went. The park was getting really full and we were really happy that we came in early. Tim absolutely LOVED RNRC and was a big fan. We wanted to get him on TOT next, but the FP's were gone! Standby was over an hour. So we figured we'd hit it up a little later closer to Fantasmic.

We wandered some more then headed to catch Indy. Sadly, we were closer to the back of the line going in and got seats all the way in the back.

 

[MillerPoppins]

Yay for Tatooine Traders being open!!! I thought for sure this was not going to be since Star Tours was down for refurb. Yeah, I'm a Star Wars nerd. A big one. As seen here...

and here...

And they must have seen suckers written all over us because then there was this...

So after there was substantial money dropped in there, it was on to Muppets!

This was the most I ever saw of the pre show as well. One of my biggest pet peeves in WDW is when cast members explain the process of moving all the way across the aisle to make the most room...and then no one does. It drives me irrationally nuts. Sure enough, being that half of the audience was part of a Brazilian Tour, this became an issue. To make matters worse, most of the folks literally shoved and pushed their way through the pre show area up to the doors so they could get in first. It got so annoying to have to deal with this at every attraction. Again, due to their being just the two of us, we could slide around pretty well ourselves. But Tim gets just as bothered by this stuff too. So I wasn't alone in my anger.

After Muppets, it was time for some lunch at Pizza Planet. Tim was excited to eat there based only off our Halloween costumes (more on that later) and the fact that there was an "actual" Pizza Planet restaurant like in the movie.

I pulled mine apart to cool.

Tim's Vegetable Pizza

We got rice crispy treats as our dessert but were full so we took those along with us. This was my first time doing the DDP and overall we were really happy with it. I liked not carrying around extra money or having to worry about having enough to cover everything. It was great to know you could order whatever you wanted because it was already paid for. The only down side that I found to it was that neither one of us are huge dessert people. Every now and then, we are up for it. But over all, we'd both like to have an option sometimes of either dessert or appetizer. In some restaurants, we paid for appetizers out of pocket just because we wanted to try it. This is of course just our opinion. For all those sweet tooths out there, I'm sure you guys love this!

At this point, we flew out looking for a spot for the Pixar Block Party Bash. It was literally 3pm so I thought for sure we wouldn't find somewhere for it. I'm not very good at the whole, "Find a spot a half hour before thing". Miraculously, we found a front line spot for the two of us in front of the American Idol Experience. While we waited, I made friends with a little boy named Zachary. He was absolutely adorable and so much fun to talk to. We compared our love for Toy Story and were excited to see the parade.

 

[MillerPoppins]

As the parade came along, we found ourselves in the Monsters Inc area. As I mentioned before, I fell in love with the movie this year and especially Boo. So I was super excited that she was coming along in the parade since we can't have a meet and greet with her. I was shocked at how into this parade Tim got. He was dancing and waving the entire time.

So my bummer came that Boo never came over to our side. So by the time the parade was starting to pack up, the two of us turned into the equivalent of 13 year old Justin Bieber fans. We started screaming "BOO!!!!!!! BOO!!!!!" trying to get her attention. One of the dancers heard the two adults screaming uncontrollably on the other side of the street and got her attention.

I realized after this encounter that I really have no shame about how big of a kid I am. I couldn't stop gushing over Boo being the cutest thing ever. Tim thought the parade was so much fun and one of his favorite things he had seen thus far. So I waved goodbye to Zack, and we made our way back to Lights Motor Action for some good old fashioned car chases!

 

[Tiggerish]

Just popping in here to say how much I am enjoying your report--every time I've gotten an email this afternoon to say you'd added a new post, I abandoned work to check it out!

 

[MillerPoppins]

So we got our seats and this was when the Brazilian crew really got out of hand. They wouldn't slide in and actually started screaming at the Cast Members who were trying to make the most room possible for everyone. I wish there had been a manager around to throw them all out but sadly there wasn't. This also happened prior to the Block Party Bash when one of the leaders came up after the parade started to a cast member and demanded a spot for all 40 people in their group to watch. I am all for people all over the world coming to WDW and experiencing the magic, but you need to have manners and follow instructions like the rest of us. The man sitting next to me at LMA actually got so upset, he wanted to leave.

Anyhoo, Tim loved this show and I was happy to see the whole thing too. Last trip, it got rained out half way through.

We made our way out and wandered into the HISTK playground, which was another thing I had never really been in. We enjoyed going through there.

Afterwards, we made our way over to Beauty and the Beast. Being that Tim was a musician, he is all for live performances of music or stage shows.

He loved the show which was great. It was about 5:45 at this point and there were two Fantasmic shows that night. The original thought was to do the later show so it hopefully would not be as crowded. But then we decided to brave the earlier one and maybe hit up DTD for dinner. I wandered over to a cast member and asked what time they were opening the ampitheatre for seating. He told me because it was so crowded, they opened it two hours early and were advising folks to head in as early as they could. I was stunned! I had never heard of it opening two hours ahead of time. We aborted the idea to go to the Magic Of Animation and headed right into the theater.

It was a good thing we did. The place was almost full at this point. We happened to grab a seat and then I went to get us some snacks for the long wait. We also made friends with a british couple next to us who were super nice.

Of course, I loved this. Fantasmic is my favorite night show and I was happy that Tim liked it so much. It was a little windy so the effects weren't as spot on as they could have been. Getting out became another issue. Apparently, most of the crowds thought the "Just push each other" idea would work and that will get everyone out. We ganged up with the British couple and worked our way out the other exit to the front of the park.

 

[MillerPoppins]

Just popping in here to say how much I am enjoying your report--every time I've gotten an email this afternoon to say you'd added a new post, I abandoned work to check it out!

Thanks Tiggerish! I am off from work today and the weather in my area is awful. I've been catching up on my report since I'm so far overdo. Thanks for the nice feedback!

 

[MillerPoppins]

We hung out in some of the stores for a few minutes to let some of the masses clear out. We wanted a photopass photo done at night on the street.

We got our photo, and made our way over to DTD. This is when we found out that there is no longer a bus offered at the parks to go directly to DTD. This was a major bummer as it would have been, as it always was, so easy. But as a cast member told us, there were folks that did not want to pay for parking at the parks. So they would park at DTD, then take a bus in. So as it usually works out, a few ruined it for everyone.

We had to take a bus to Saratoga Springs and then re-route to DTD. Side note, I never realized how HUGE that resort is BTW. It's massive! About a half hour later, we were in the marketplace.

We hit up my buddy Wolfgang's to sample some of the premium counter service fare.

I dropped the ball on this one and did not take photos. One, it was dark and two it was so good, we dove right in. We split the BBQ chicken pizza and the Pennette Chicken Alfredo. It was DELICIOUS! I highly recommend Wolfgang's for a counter service option. We each had a glass of wine as well and enjoyed dessert included as well. The creme brulee was wonderful and Tim got a cookie.

We wandered around and into the Team Mickey store which I knew Tim would love since he's an ESPN fanatic.

We also spent a decent amount of time at Pin Traders. Surprisingly, this was something that Tim fell completely into. I have a decent amount of pins, most of them were gifts from my cast member friend Jen, but don't do much trading in the parks. I buy what I like and wear one or two a day while in the park. However, he was bummed that there wasn't a whole lot of Pooh ones available to buy. Next I thing I know, he has bought an ESPN lanyard starter set and about 6 other pins for the two of us. I knew right then that he was hooked....

We made our way into most of the stores before Tim starting hitting a wall. I give him credit, he was doing really well considering he was pulling 12 hour days with little to no resting periods. We did make a stop in one of my absolute favorite spots in WDW: Goofy's Candy Co. I had become addicted to the cookies here almost ten years ago. I eat about 4-5 while I'm down there and then bring another 6 or so home. I also wanted Tim to see first hand how awesome this place was.

I picked up a cookie and we wandered around a little more. He understood my addiction to them after seeing how awesome they looked up close. And then of course having some.

We made our way out, stopping at the Create A Tee store as our last stop.

I debated making a Boo shirt, but passed for the night to head back. We hopped a bus and made our way back. It was an awesome day and we were definitely ready for another fun one at Animal Kingdom next!

 

[MillerPoppins]

Day 4
Animal Kingdom Day!

I had told Tim that we didn't have to be up at park opening this day, but at this point he had definitely been bitten by the bug and wanted to be there for the 9am start. So out we went without a coffee this morning. I realized now that I did have a coffee for the Toy Story dash the day before, but not today.

We powered in and discussed our game plan. I knew he was going to love taking photos in this park so I figured we'd wander through. Plus, we were also tipped off that the Brazilians would most likely not be joining us in Animal Kingdom today so we were hoping the crowds would be less.

We made our way back towards Everest. Tim snapped away and I fought to wake up. I had mentioned how much detail there was in this park and he was loving it with all the photos.

Although the park was just opening, we opted for FP's for Everest since there was a pretty long standby long at this point. I wanted to head to KS to get some good shots of the animals in the morning.

We got some more shots along the way and I went looking for coffee. I was going to stop by the Tea Company but then I thought I probably wouldn't be able to take it with me on the safari. So I waited.

 

[tiaragirl]

What an amazing TR! You look so happy, it's excellent.. especially the "I GOT MY TSMM FASTPASS TICKETS BOOOORAH" picture.

Adorable!

 

[MillerPoppins]

I can't stress how NUTS Tim went taking photos in this park. Actually, the whole trip, if I haven't mentioned yet, brought in over 2000 photos. That includes our Photo Pass photos. It was ridiculous.

So we made our way over to Harambe Wildlife Refuge. Of course there are a load of photos here but I'm going to spare us of the animal photos. There are a few good ones but over all nothing really different then any other safari. Tim liked how realistic this was and how many animals you actually saw.

After this, we made our way back to the Everest area for us to use the FP's.
I knew Tim would absolutely love this as he is a big coaster fan. What I didn't know, was that he really had no clue about the ride. So when we got to the point where the track is ripped and we fly backwards, he was shocked. And laughed the entire time! By the time we plunged out the front, he was in heaven. Of course, I wish the yeti was in full effect for him to get the true experience. But he was a big fan.