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 Magic Kingdom Rides Ranked

Hey guys,

So this is the last post for the ranking of the rides at Disney. I saved this one for last because there are sooo many rides/attractions at Magic Kingdom. There are a total of 41 rides located at Magic Kingdom according to the Disney website. However, there are some rides that I don't really count as rides and so I will not be ranking them (I explain below). 

1) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

This is probably my favorite ride at Magic Kingdom. It's a lot of fun and it's also a pretty long roller coaster. If I remember correctly, I believe it lasts for about 5 minutes or so. It's not the most exciting roller coaster but it is still pretty great! Disney is know for being very kid friendly which is why they don't have that many crazy rides that kids can't ride.

2) Space Mountain

This is my second favorite! It's inside and you can't see like anything at all except for tiny little white lights everywhere which represents stars. Since, it's in the dark, it make it a little more exhilarating because you don't know what's coming next.

P.S. We rode Space Mountain Mission 2 while visiting Disneyland Pairs and it was good except for the fact that the seating was so uncomfortable it made the ride miserable. This version went upside down (which is great) but I wasn't able to focus on that because of how much pain I was in.

3) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

This one would be my favorite ride however, even though it's been open for more than 2 years, the line is still so incredibly long and once you've ridden it a couple of times, you just don't really see the point in waiting in line. It's a really fun ride to ride but I just don't ever feel like waiting the 75 plus minutes it takes to wait in line.

4) Pirates of the Caribbean

So we pretty much ride this ride at least two times every time we go to Disney. We absolutely love this ride, mostly because of the movies but also because of Johnny Depp. We also, really enjoy riding it because my parents come on this one with us. Neither of my parents ride roller coasters so it's nice to be able to have something to ride with them.

5) Haunted Mansion

This is also another ride that we ride with our parents. It's a lo fun and the ending is probably our favorite part!

6) Under the Sea: Journey of The Little Mermaid

7) Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

This ride is a lot of fun and a nice ride to hop on whenever you need a break. The wait for this line is very rarely ever long and it's unique because you actually get to ride through other rides while on this ride.

8) Jungle Cruise

So this is a boat ride and you go through the "jungle" and you get to see wild animals (but they aren't actually real haha) and then there is basically a lot of dry humor.

9) Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

This is a shooting game. It's basically like a real life video game. You have a little gun that shoots out lasers and then you have to try and see how many points you can get by shooting at the targets (and defeating the bad guy, Zurg) and then at the end of the ride it tells you what level you are depending on how many points you earned.

10) Walt Disney's Carrousel of Progress

This ride is neat because you sit down in a mini auditorium and watch the show that plays out before you and then the auditorium rotates around to another stage and time passes while you rotate to show how technology and stuff has improved people's lives. To be honest, it probably needs a revamp but at the same time I don't think they've really made any changes to it since it's opened (other than repairs and cleaning things up a bit) but this is one of Walt's original rides so it would be kind of sad to see it changed or removed.

11) Peter Pan's Flight

This ride is ridiculously popular. I am not entirely sure why but I've only been on it a handful of times. We ride Winnie the Pooh more often than we ride this ride because the line is always like 75 minutes or more. We always try to keep an eye on it to see if it's ever any less than that but it's very rare. Every couple of years we will get a Fastness for it just so we can make sure that we are still riding it so we don't forget what it's like haha.

12) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

This is a ride for kids of all ages. Like I'm pretty sure you can take your baby on this ride if you really wanted to. It's cute and fun and the line isn't usually very long.

13) Mickey's Philharmagic
14) Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room

This show features birds (they aren't real) that sing to you and perform different numbers for you. It's cute and fun and the songs are very catchy haha.

15) "it's a small world"

We don't ride this ride very often because it can be kind of annoying haha. The song gets stuck in your head but I like to ride it because it takes throughout the world and shows you different cultures.

16) Splash Mountain

So this would normally be at the top of everyone's favorite rides at Disney list but not so much for me. I am terrified of heights and the drop on this ride is pretty high up which normally would be totally fine if I were strapped in. However, if this ride all you get is a really big lap bar that has never come close to touching me at all. I am pretty skinny and even if someone the same size at me sat down next to me the bar still doesn't go down far enough for it to touch me. But I typically always sit with my sister is a little bit bigger than me and then I always will just hold onto her and the squeeze the bar in front of me and then usually I'm good haha. Granted I have never fallen out so you would think that over time my fear would go away but for some odd reason it just got worse as I got older. I still ride this and I definitely recommend that everyone ride it but I am still scared it and there are other rides that I prefer to ride over this one.

17) Country Bear Jamboree

So this ride is actually a show and I totally forgot that it existed up until last year when my sister was like we should go see this because it's been forever and I was like I don't even remember what this is at all except for the fact that bears are in it and they sing. I do recommend seeing this show at least once because it's cute and can be very entertaining for little ones.

18) Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor

So this is another show and it's more entertaining for little kids in my opinion. They tell a lot of cheesey jokes and they try to make you laugh instead of scaring the little kids like in the movie. It's fun if you need to sit for a little bit but waiting in line for it can be kind of annoying haha (but what's new). Also, a helpful tip, if you do plan on riding this, I do have to mention that it isn't open all day. It's only open for a certain amount of hours during the day. So be sure to check the times sheet when you get into the park and make sure to plan accordingly because there have been times when we were going to check it because we had done everything else that we wanted to do and the ride was closed for the day. I don't think it's open first thing in the morning and I think it closes around 6 or 7 in the evening or maybe even earlier.

19) Tom Sawyer Island

So we recently just rediscovered this place. We pretty much just stick to our favorites whenever we come to Magic Kingdom but when we had a our annual passes we decided to try out some new (but technically old) things whenever we would go. I guess we would go on this more when I was younger but then when I started riding the older rides we stopped going but one time when we went last year I was like "So exactly is Tom Sawyer's Island?" and so we decided to take the life raft over to the island and check it out. It's actually pretty cool and there are like different trails you can walk on and explore the way the boys lived on the island. I totally recommend this for families with little kids because there are some neat things for them to do on the island.

20) The Hall of Presidents

So we pretty much only ride this whenever we get a new president so either every 4 or 8 years depending on if someone new is elected or not. So that means it's been over 8 years since I've seen it and I don't really remember what happens other than the fact that every president is in it and they either sing or give some type of speech lol.

 21) Stitch's Great Escape

So this is fun except the seating is horrible! its an over the head restraint that weighs a lot and pushes down on your shoulder occasionally throughout the show.

22) Enchanted Tales with Belle

If you have small children then you totally need to do this because they get to reenact the story of The Beauty and The Beast and they also get to meet Belle and take a picture with her.

23) Liberty Square Riverboat

I rarely will ride this but only because I find it kind of boring. However, my parents ride it all the time. Basically it's a Riverboat that goes up and down a small river and I'm not really sure what else happens but I think it's a good ride to ride if you need to take a break but don't want to just sit down on a bench.

24) Swiss Family Treehouse

This is a pretty interesting attraction. Basically, you climb up a treehouse and you get to see how the Swiss Family Robinson's lived in their treehouse. There are a lot of stairs so if you aren't good at them or don't like to climb then I don't recommend this attraction.

25) Walt Disney World Railroad

So I don't really count this as a ride too much only because it's mainly supposed to be used as a form of transportation. There are three different stations and it can take from the front of the park (Main Street Station) to the either Fantasyland or Frontierland. There are fun things to see along the way which is what makes it an attraction.

So the following are either rides that I have never ridden or rides that I have only been on a couple of times and don't plan on riding them again unless I'm with someone who has never been to Disney before and they want/need to get the full Disney experience!

1) Astro Orbiter

I have never been on this ride and I will never go on this ride. As I've mentioned before, I get motion sickness and this ride would most likely give me motion sickness. I am also totally afraid of heights and in order to get on this ride you have to an elevator up to the second level and then when you're on it, I think the arms stretch out over the side which means you basically are looking down to your death (and yes, I am trying to be really dramatic haha)!

2) The Barnstormer

This ride is technically for little kids but we had never been on it so one day my mom, my sister, and I decided to hop on and see what it was like. And we didn't like it. The seats were extremely uncomfortable and I think even if I had a kid, I still would not ride this ride again. It was boring and I just can't get over how uncomfortable the seats were.

3-4) 

These next 3 rides are basically fancier fair rides. I don't think I've ridden any of them and I probably won't ever ride any of them unless I have children that really want to ride them.

3) Dumbo The Flying Elephant Machine
4) The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
5) Mad Tea Party

6) Prince Charming Regal Carrousel

I love carrousel's however, my sister does not so I haven't been on this in forever. Someday I'll find my prince charming and get to ride Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel! haha

7) Tomorrowland Speedway

This ride is fun if you're like 5 and super gullible and think that you are actually driving a car. However, if you are an adult and riding this then it's extremely boring and makes you want to visit Old Town and ride the real go carts! haha And if you don't know what Old Town, then you can visit this link and learn all about it!

Sorry this one went up a little late. It actually took me quite a while to write this up since there are so many rides at Magic Kingdom that I recommend everyone tries out.

XO, Steph

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