Disney Trip March 2019

Hey guys,

Happy Monday! Or at least I hope it's happy! So I just wanted to do a post about my recent trip to Disney this past weekend! So funny story, we have had this trip planned since January but our original plan was just to stay one night, which was Saturday night. But somehow we managed to forget this and so the night before we left, my mom texted us and was like so guys we only have a hotel for Saturday night so we all got on our phones and tried to find another hotel to stay at! So we ended up staying at 2 different hotels. The first night was the Swan and Dolphin and the second night was at Shades of Green.

So on Friday, we ran around in the morning doing some errands and then we headed to Disney! Our first and only park of the day was Animal Kingdom! When we got there it was a little after lunch time so we headed for Pandora and grabbed some food. While we were there we only ended up riding 2 rides and watched one show. We rode the safari ride, which is something we pretty much have to ride every time we go and then we rode Dinosaur, which is also a favorite of ours. The show that we watched was the "Up! A Great Bird Adventure" show. We had never seen this before because it's fairly new so we figured we would give it a try! Also we waited till like the very last minute to book fastpasses so there wasn't much left! At this point we pretty much just go to the parks to enjoy them and walk around, take in the sites, and try some new food.

 

After we left Animal Kingdom we went to our hotel to go check in. We were trying to decide if we wanted to go to another park but we ended up just relaxing at our hotel and then we walked to the Boardwalk to find dinner. We were going to try a restaurant but by the time we got down there it was like 8 and the waits times were awful so thankfully we found a quick service place and I got a corn dog and some Mac n cheese bites, which weren't really that tasty. After that stuck around to catch some fireworks and then headed back upstairs to go to bed.

On Saturday we woke up and headed to Magic Kingdom! Which was super packed! We rode our 3 rides that we had Fastpasses for there which were, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion. We also took a ride on the People Mover and on the Steamboat to help pass time in between our Fastpasses. We ate lunch while we were there too and then at around 3-ish we headed to check in out our second hotel for the weekend! We stayed at the Shades of Green which is a military sponsored hotel. It's located on Disney property but they are not managed by Disney. You do still get some of the perks such as Extra Magic Hours and they also have a bus that will take you to the parks.

After we hung out at the hotel for a little bit we changed into some warmer clothes because it was supposed to get a little chilly in the evening and then we headed to Epcot. We ended up eating dinner here which consisted of a variety of things. Currently the Flower & Garden Festival is going on which means that they have different booths set up selling extra food than they normally sell. This is something that they do at each of their festivals and each festivals get something a little different. We ended up eating at 2 different booths and the first one was the booth in Canada. We had some steak, which was pretty good and my father had scallops as well.

We then made our way around the different countries checking out the different booths seeing if there was anything else to eat and by that I mean if there was anything else I wanted to eat since I'm such a picky eater. We stopped at the booth in Morocco and we had some chicken kebabs with dried fruit couscous. I shared with my dad and he ate the couscous and I ate the chicken! Next we ventured to Japan because we thought it was going to rain and we would hangout in their really large store that they have there but instead we ended up searching all over for the bathroom and discovering the cutest little quick service place that sold Ramen! It was really good food and I highly recommend it! Plus it's so hidden and absolutely adorable! I would say I'm shocked I didn't know it existed but I feel like we either learn or discover something new about Disney every time we go!

Next, came the rain and so we took cover in Germany. After it had slowed down a little we went and got dessert at Werther's in Germany and I had a caramel chocolate covered s'more. It was very delicious! Then we headed to Norway to see how long the wait would be for Frozen which said about an hour but  I believe we only ended up waiting about 45 minutes so that was nice. While we were at Epcot we also rode Journey into the Imagination with Figment! That was the first thing we did when we got there because we had a Fastpass. We thought about trying to get another one but once you make it to the World Showcase it's not easy to get back to the part of the park that has all of the rides.

Once we got off Frozen we then decided it was time to leave. But before we could do that we had to get our passholder magnets and do some shopping of course! My mom bought one of the Spirit Jersey's that's for the Flower and Garden Festival this year and then my sister and I bought the Tervis Tumblers which we buy pretty much every year. My mom also bought a couple mugs and I bought one as well! Once we got all of our errands done then we decided to head back to our hotel and call it a night!

On Sunday we got up and we were going to head to Hollywood Studios for extra magic hours but I didn't pack enough warms clothes so we didn't end up going. We ended up grabbing breakfast at the hotel and then we headed to Disney Springs. We ended up just walking around and taking in some new stuff that opened and then we did some shopping at Sephora! I haven't really shopped at Sephora  a few years and I've really been craving a good shopping spree. I didn't really do a spree per se but I did spend almost $200 so that's a lot for me especially because I've been trying to watch what I spent all of the time so I can pay off some debts and put some money in savings for trips and things around the house. After we finished at Disney Springs, we headed home and said until next month Disney!

Talk to you soon!

XO, Steph

Disney August 2018

Hey guys,

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you guys are enjoying your holiday! So I recently went to Disney with my family! We decided on a semi-last minute trip because we hadn't really gone all summer. We went in June but we didn't go at all in July and we weren't really planning on going in August either but we decided to take a trip before I started my new job and because I quit my old job so soon. We thought it would be a fun nice little vacation!

Anyways we left Friday after my sister got off from work at around 4:45ish. Our parents actually left a little bit before us since neither of them worked and then sometimes it's just easier to have two cars when you want to split off and do your own thing! So my sister and I got on the road after I picked her up from work (I dropped her off there that morning) and then we usually drive half way and switch drivers and get something to eat and go to the bathroom. This time we decided to stop somewhere else and switch drivers and eat at a Wendy's. We used to stop at McDonalds but we never really got anything to eat there unless it was breakfast time. I actually don't eat McDonald's and haven't in years except for the two times I ate there in Paris because I'm such a picky eater haha. 

Anyways once we got there we decided to take a walk on over to the Polynesian resort and see if we could see some fireworks. The resort we stayed at is called Shades of Green and it's their military resort. So you can only stay there if you are in the military or are retire from the military. It's not an official Disney Resort but it is on Disney Resort property so you kind of get all of the same perks except they don't have the typical buses and I believe you also won't get free parking at the parks. But the resort is like a 15 minute walk from the Polynesian resort which is great because from there you can hop on a bus or take the monorail somewhere. 

Anyways, once we made it to the Polynesian we kind of figured out that there wasn't going to be any fireworks that night because of a special event. So we ended deciding to go back to the hotel room and my sister and I took advantage of the extra magic hours and headed on over to Hollywood Studios. We ended up driving there because it seemed so much easier than taking a bus and I am so glad that we did because we basically got front row parking which like never happens for us!

The downside to going to Hollywood Studios is that currently it is still majorly under construction because they are adding a new Star Wars land next fall and they are also adding gondola rides to transport people from Hollywood Studios to different resorts and maybe some other areas but I'm not entirely sure where. I think tat it will be very exciting when they open them because they haven't added anymore monorails because of how expensive it is but it will be very nice for there to be a different way to transport people from parks to resorts.

My sister and I walked around Hollywood Studios for a bit and rode Tower of Terror which is our favorite Disney ride and then we were deciding whether or not we should wait in line for the new Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster. The wait time wasn't too bad but we decided not to wait and take advantage of the extra magic hours the next morning and ride the ride then.

The next day we woke up at like 6 and then got to the park by 7 so we could hop in line for the Slinky Dog Dash. We waited about 30 minutes for the ride and I am very glad we did! Then we walked over to the other side of the park and hopped on Rockin' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, both had very short wait times! After we got off of both of those rides we walked back over to the new Toy Story Land because we hungry for breakfast and there aren't that many places that sell breakfast at Hollywood Studios I guess. Also, we figured we would try out the new food at Toy Story Land! After breakfast we rode Toy Story Mania and then we headed back to the hotel because it was like 10 and we wanted to go back to take a nap!

Honestly, I really like the way we did things on Saturday because we got there before like most other people and we were able to ride so many rides with barely any wait times. And then all we did was go back to our hotel after like 3 hours and took a nap for like an hour! Our parent's ended up doing their own thing in the morning. They went to Animal Kingdom and rode a couple rides over there and checked out all of the animals. The morning really is the best time to go see the animals! After they were done there they came back to the hotel and we ended up eating lunch together at one of the restaurants at our hotel.

Then we all went to Epcot together so we could ride Frozen together and a couple other rides! My sister and I went ahead of our parents because they wanted to stay behind a little bit and relax before going back out. My parent's had reservations at the German restaurant in Epcot and that's one of the main reasons we went. Plus Epcot is like the food park so it's nice to go to enjoy the food. Which is kind of ironic because the food that my sister and I got wasn't really the greatest. The best part was the dessert which we chose chocolate mouse! We all also rode Soarin' before separating which is a ride I hadn't been on in like 12 or 13 years. The last time I rode it was in California in 2005. The main reason I don't ride it is because I tend to get motion sick and I am also afraid of heights! We of course ended up right in the front row so that was great! But I actually enjoyed the ride for the most part and only had to close my eyes for a few parts. The taking off and landing parts were the hardest for me!

Anyways, after my sister and I finished with out dinner one of my friends that I've known since elementary school happened to be at the park as well and so we went to go visit with her for a little bit! It was a lot of fun catching up with her because we haven't seen each other in years but we still occasionally chat with each on social media! After we finished meeting with my friend, our parents were done with their dinner and so we all went back to Hollywood Studios so our parents could check out the new Toy Story Land. My dad had no interest in it whatsoever until my sister and I couldn't stop talking about it so of course he had to go check it out for himself.

 

While we were back at Hollywood Studios we first went to watch Fantasmic because it had been years since we had all seen in. After we headed back to check out the new land with our parent's and we all rode Toy Story Mania because the wait times weren't too bad. After that our parent's went back to hotel and my sister and I stuck around for the Star Wars show that they have at the end of the night. It was pretty neat show but I'm not really a big Star Wars fan so I didn't really know much about what was going on!

On Sunday we went to Magic Kingdom and we had fast passes for a few different rides that we rode together and then some that we didn't ride together. Some of the rides that my sister and I rode include, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Peter Pan. Together as a family we rode Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and The People Mover. Pirates was our last ride and after that we split up again and  my sister and I went to go look for stuff for a baby shower that we threw yesterday for one of our friends! She's having a little boy and the theme was Peter Pan! We actually didn't end up finding anything because apparently the parks don't really sell too much Peter Pan stuff anymore. After that we all headed back to our hotel to grab our cars. We somehow ended up beating our parents because they stopped to get ice cream and they took their sweet time exiting the park as well. My mom didn't really want to push herself because she knew she'd have to work for 12 hours the next day!

I plan on doing an entire post about the new Toy Story Land so keep an eye for that, which is why I didn't give too many details about the new section in this post! I hope you guys enjoyed this post and keep an eye out for more Disney Posts in the future! 

Thanks for stopping By!

XO, Steph

Disney June 2018 Trip 1

Hey guys,

So in the month of June I went on two weekend trips to Disney, one was with some of our friends and the other was with my mom, sister, my boyfriend, and my best friend and her boyfriend! I plan to blog about both trips but this blog post is about the first trip. The second one will come later! I got a little off on my days since I took a couple weeks off from blogging!

So we went up on Thursday after my sister and I got off from work! That way we could spend all day Friday and Saturday at the park and then leave at like noon on Sunday to head back home. On Friday we spend most of our day at Epcot walking through the worlds and riding some of the rides! We mostly just ate different foods throughout the countries and then some of the members of our group also drank around the world! My sister and I aren't really big drinkers so we didn't drink anything. 

I think we left the park at around 3 or 4 and headed back to our hotel! We didn't technically stay in a hotel, we actually stayed in a vacation rental that I think we found through Airbnb. It was super cute and I would definitely stay there again. There were 3 bedrooms and plenty of beds for a large party! There was also a little pool in the back which was perfect just for hanging out in and chit chatting! There were also plenty of bathrooms for many people!

Once we got back to the vacation rental, we all kind of did our own thing. I actually watched a tv show and then took a nap, however, my nap was not very long and so I woke up feeling more tired than when I went to sleep so it made it extra hard to get back up and go to another park! Some of the friends that we were with have season passes just like us so we decided to go back out and check out Magic Kingdom! I am so glad that we did because we got to a couple rides and check out their newest fireworks show! I also got to eat the most delicious ice cream sandwich ever! it was absolutely delicious and I crave it all the time now!

On Saturday we went to Animal Kingdom! We rode quite a few rides and ate at the fast food place that's at avatar! It was very interesting! I'm such a picky eater that I actually ordered off of the kids menu and have a hot dog! It was good! My sister tried their burger things and they were pretty good so I might try those the next time we go! Two of our friends left about half way through their day to go check on their daughter was staying the grandparents house! And then the rest of us stayed behind and waited in line to ride the Avatar ride. You know the one with the ridiculously long wait time! I'm probably do a review on my experience a little later so keep an eye out for that!

While we were at Animal Kingdom, we did the safari ride twice, once during the day and it was wonderful! We got to see so may animals and we also did it once at night! Which was such a cool experience. If you are an avid Disney goer then I definitely recommend riding the safari at night at least once. We surprisingly saw a lot of animals! After we finished with Animal Kingdom we all headed back to where we were staying.

On Sunday we all got up and met for brunch at around 10 or 11 and then once we were finished with brunch we all headed our separate ways to head back home. It was quick weekend trip but it is so much getting to see our friends and the little families that they are starting! We call ourselves their kids aunts because we pretty much always plan to be super close to them and love them forever! I hope everyone enjoyed this post and hopefully I'll be able to write some more over the next couple of weeks!

Thanks for stopping by!

XO, Steph

Disney's Epcot Rides Ranked

Hey guys,

So I organially planning on writing these and posting them in the order of my favorite parks but I realized that there are so many rides at Magic Kingdom that I think that one is going to be posted last because of how much I am go to have to write lol. So I thought I would start with a park that doesn't have too many rides.

So if you follow this link, it says that Epcot has 35 attractions, however most of them are not rides they are activities to do. So I'm not really going to count those items in this list. This list is only going to consist of rides that you can actually ride at the park. 

1) Test Track

So this is the most exhilarating ride at Epcot and it used to be the most popular with the longest wait times but I assuming since Frozen has now opened that Frozen probably has the longest wait times. People may still prefer Test Track but Frozen is still too new and everyone is waiting in line to ride the ride for the first time still. However, this ride is a lot of fun and one that I recommend if you like riding roller coasters. It's not technically a roller coaster but

2) Frozen Ever After

Thankfully we were able to ride this ride the last time that we went to Epcot which was in January. (You can read about that here!) This ride is a lot of fun and to be honest, it's really gorgeous. We were kind of concerned about how it was going to turn out after reading all that they had planned but the characters inside look so life like, it really turned out perfect! The ride felt like it was almost 5 minutes long and by the way it's a water ride but thankfully you don't get wet. You may get a little splashed but it should dry fairly quickly in the Florida heat haha.

3) Living with the Land

This is one of our favorite rides at Epcot. You ride on a boat thing and it tells you all about eco living and recycling and stuff like that. And then it takes you through to a green room and tells you how everything food item made on Disney property is actually grown on Disney property and is actually pretty healthy for you. They also have their own fish that they grow instead of purchasing them from unhealthy fish farms.

4) Spaceship Earth

We ride this ride almost every single time we go. It's actually really interesting and the reason so many people like it is because it actually takes you up inside the giant ball that Epcot is famous for. It talks about how things we made and how we've evolved (and by evolved I don't mean how we went from being monkeys to humans haha) so much over time. It's actually a lot of fun!

5) The Seas with Nemo & Friends

This ride is a lot of fun if you are a fan of finding Nemo! It basically takes under the sea and you get to see Nemo and all of his friends. You ride in a shell and you actually go through the aquarium and get to see real life fish while on the ride. They also play the song from the musical that plays at Animal Kingdom.

6) Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros

This ride is located in the World Showcase which means it's located where all of the countries are located. It's located in Mexico and it also features Donald Duck. It's another ride and it's a pretty fun ride. Most of the rides at Epcot are very kid friendly and this one is actually pretty cool because it's inside the temple in Mexico and everything it so open. Like there's a restaurant inside of the temple too and when you are on the ride you can see the restaurant and people at the restaurant can see the ride as well.

7) Ellen's Energy Adventure

This is the ride that you can ride if you need a break because it's very long! It's like 40 minutes long and it's also basically a history lesson. And by the way, if you haven't caught on yet, Epcot is a very educational park! They like to make sure that when you leave, you have learned something new haha. This ride features Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy. He educates Ellen on many things because she is playing a game show in the ride and she's not doing so well. She misses quite a few questions and so he has to teach her all about the questions that she's missed.

8) Journey into Imagination with Figment

I honestly don't really have anything to say about this ride because I can't tell you the last time that we went on it. It's actually one of my friends favorite rides haha (although I don't think it really is) but he rides it almost every single time he goes.

9) The Circle of Life

This ride features characters from The Lion King and I don't really remember much about this attraction at all. It technically isn't a ride, it's actually just a 20-minute long fun educational video about conservation and protecting the Earth.

10) The American Adventure

So to be honest, I really don't remember what this is and I possibly may have never ridden it haha. So I don't really have much to say about it and the only reason it's landed above the two rides listed below is because I really don't like the two rides below because they give me motion sickness and almost every single time I ride them I end up getting a really bad headache that won't go away no matter how much Tylenol or Advil I take.

11) Mission: Space

This is really bad for people with motion sickness. Basically you sit/stand in this circle thing and then the walls like close in on you and then I believe you start to spin and you basically play like a video game on your own screen and it's supposed to make you feel like you an astronaut in outer space. My sister and I regret riding this almost every time we ride it but whenever they make changes to rides that we've ridding in the past we like to re-ride them just so we can see what was different. We rode this one, I'd say about 3 or 4 years ago now and after the last time I don't think I will ever go on it again. It made me so nauseous and I had such a bad headache afterwards. I didn't end up feeling better until the next day after I had slept all the pain away haha (not to sound dramatic or anything).

12) Soarin'

My sister and I first rode this in California. I actually don't even think we've ever been on the Florida version because the one in California made us so sick. And I don't really remember it other than that because that was more than 10 years ago now. All I really remember is you sit in a thing that looks like those glider things that you see people in at the beach or flying over a mountain and you stare at a giant screen that has a bunch of different views from all over the place (maybe even all over the world?)

Aside from all of these rides there are plenty of other attractions at Epcot as well. There are also plenty of character meet and greets throughout the park and there is also a Kim Possible adventure that kids can go that will take you throughout different countries in the world showcase and I think throughout the rest of the park as well. There are also plenty of educational areas for kids to learn and play!

Epcot is also famous for all of their restaurants and if you plan on staying the whole day then I highly recommend making reservations for lunch and dinner at two different restaurants. I've eaten at almost all of the restaurants there and some of them even twice. For some of them, depending on the time of year, you might not need a reservation but I still highly recommend getting some just to be on the safe side. 

XO, Steph

Disney Art Festival Review

Hey guys,

So I wanted to talk a little bit about the Epcot International Festival of the Arts that is going on at Disney. It's every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday from January 13 to February 20.

My family has been attending the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival for the last 9 years or so and we've also gone to the International Food and Wine Festival at least once and when they announced that they were going to be adding a new international festival I knew we had to check it out. I definitely don't think that it was as popular as the food and wine or the flower and garden but this is the first year so people might still be a little wary about going. 

I wasn't really that impressed, I'm not really a big food person so I didn't like most of the foods because they were all very artistic and meant to look really pretty and in my mind, if the food is really pretty then it's probably not going to taste as good haha. Which in my opinion was true. We tried a few of the desserts and one of them (my favorite one) was a chocolate chip cookie that was made to look like an artist palette (picture below) and in my opinion that was the best one.

Granted the main reason we actually went was because we're obsessed with Disney and my mom has been talking about going back for while. We haven't been back since we let our passes expire last May. Our plan was to get new ones this year but we still haven't made up our minds yet. 

We also went so we could finally ride the new Frozen ride that is located in Norway in Epcot. We used to love riding Maelstrom which was what Frozen replaced and when we found out that a Frozen ride was going up, we were so excited, a little sad but mostly excited! We couldn't believe that they were putting in a Frozen ride! 

So to talk about our experience, we got there first thing in the morning, I think it was around 10 something. We left our house around 7:20-ish and we have about a 2 hour and 45 minute drive give or take a few minutes haha. And we went straight to Epcot and as soon as got there, we found a restroom real quick and then bolted to Norway so we could figure out how to get in line for this ride. We figured that there would already be a really long line but thankfully there wasn't. We knew that the World Showcase didn't open up until 11 so we weren't really sure if we would be allowed in or if we would have to wait in a line at the beginning of the World Showcase but thankfully we just walked to Norway and got in line. The sign said it was a 45 minute wait by the time we got there and so we hoped in line and waited. I think it only took us about 30 minutes (maybe, not even?) before we were on the ride. 

I didn't take any pictures of the ride mostly because I wanted to make sure that I was fully paying attention because I wasn't sure when I would be riding it again and so I put my phone away and enjoyed the ride. I did however, take some photos of the line. I also took a cute video but I didn't include it in this post because I wasn't entirely sure how to. 

The ride was absolutely amazing and so gorgeous! I loved every second of it and I highly recommend riding it if you are able to get the chance. We were unable to get any fast passes for it and I know that they are booked up as soon as possible so make sure to pay attention for them if you plan on going. Or you could always do what we did and just get to Epcot super early in the morning and head straight to Norway and wait in line. 

I also think that the amount of time that put on the screen is just to cover their butts when a customer complains about how long the line is. We experienced something similar when we waited for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The wait said something like 75 minutes or so and I think it took us less than an hour before we were on the ride. I'm not saying that every ride at Disney is like this but I think that some of their more popular rides will report a longer wait time so customers know what they might be getting themselves into haha.

So as for the festival, I was personally a little disappointed. However, I'm not really an art type of person. My sister and mom were more into it because they like art and there were several pieces of art that they wanted to buy, they just don't really have the space to put any of it. 

However, I totally recommend it if you are looking for something fun to do over the weekend, if you like artsy food, and if you are in need of some new artwork. I do have to let you know though, that most of the art is Disney related, which is why it's hard to buy something. Whatever you bought would have to match the theme of your house and personally, none of the art we saw really matched our house. There were couple of pieces that I really loved but I have no idea where we would have put them because they didn't really go with the theme of any of our rooms. 

Also, I do have to add that we didn't stay the whole day at Epcot. We left and went to Hollywood Studios (MGM for those of you who refuse to call it by it's newest name which will probably be changing again sometime this year or next year) for a few hours and then we went to Magic Kingdom afterwards. So I can't really say too many bad things about it. We didn't get to stay to see any of the performances, which I'm sure were wonderful! One thing that was really neat was getting to help paint a mural. We didn't get to see what it looked like finished but it was still fun getting to help participate in something like that, where a bunch of random strangers come together to make something beautiful!

XO, Steph

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