I need some Magic!!

"Emily, you just won the (fill in the blank), what are you going to do next?"

"I'm going to Disneyworld!"

And off we went. I took the red-eye and arrived Thursday morning and met Jana at her hotel (she had flown in the night before). After breakfast we made our way to the Magical Express. The line there was incredibly long!! All of a sudden we started wondering if this was a foreshadowing for how our park experience would be. But the line kept moving and finally we were at our hotel. We checked in and were off to Epcot! The food and wine festival was going on and you could have very easily eaten and drank your way around the world!! Last time we were thwarted in our efforts to ride Soarin' but not this time. We got our fastpasses and soon were Soarin'!

Friday we went to Hollywood Studios where we watched the High School Musical 3 Pep Rally! I'm not sure Jana enjoyed it as much as I did! :) At some point we decided it would be really cool to get matching Mickey shirts to wear on Sunday when we visited the Magic Kingdom and so began the great shirt search. We found the shirt we wanted to wear but did not find it in Jana's size at Hollywood, but not for lack of looking! We ended the day by watching one of my favorite shows, Fantasmic! We weren't able to do the newest Toy Story ride but since we had some time on Monday before leaving for the airport we decided to come back then to try the ride.

Saturday we went to Animal Kingdom. I had never gone out to the petting zoo which was a lot of fun! After finishing at Animal Kingdom, where we were unsuccessful at finding the matching shirt we were looking for, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and to do some shopping. We ended up eating dinner at an Italian restaurant. Sitting next to us were these super cute kids, probably about 3 or 4 years old. The little boy all of a sudden said "I'm Corbin Bleu" and I just cracked up laughing. His mom noticed me laughing and was telling us she had no idea where he had watched High School Musical - turned out his cousin had been babysitting and that's where he had seen it. It was probably one of those you had to be there moments but it was just so funny, probably because he did kind of look like Corbin Bleu. We were still on a mission to find the matching Mickey shirt but once again came up empty handed.

Sunday we headed to the Magic Kingdom. Still determined to give it one more shot before giving up on the matching Mickey shirts, we walked through the stores on Main Street hoping to find the shirt. No such luck. Finally Jana decided to get another Mickey shirt so at least we would both be wearing Mickey shirts. Since we had decided to go back to Hollywood the next day we thought we would try the matching shirts again - this time with a red Mickey shirt that we were pretty sure was in both our sizes at Hollywood.

Sunday was Extra Magic hours at the Magic Kingdom which meant we could stay until 1 a.m. We decided to play it by ear and see how long we made it. We had started off the trip with Halloween cups and napkins but finished the trip with Christmas cups, napkins and decorations!! So much for Thanksgiving. It is no secret I am not the best roller coaster rider but I finally was able to put my hands in the air on a roller coaster (granted it was Barnstormer, which is a kiddie roller coaster but still...). After many hours of old favorites (Peter Pan, Big Thunder, Mickey's Philharmagic) and new favorites (Aladdin's Magic Carpets) it was time to go home. We didn't make it to 1 a.m. but we did make it to midnight.

I do have to say for entire trip we had fantastic bus magic - usually the bus would be pulling up as we walked up to the bus stop. All this ended Monday morning. Granted we didn't wait super long for the bus to Hollywood, but it was significantly longer than any of previous bus wait times. We arrived at Hollywood and were greeted by a very long line, which neither of us expected. Finally inside the park we headed over to the new Toy Story ride only to find the line very long. Oh well, it gives us something to look forward to next time. Next on the list was to find the red Mickey shirt but it was not to be. We decided our magic had run out at midnight, a little like Cinderella. Either that or it had slept in since we were out so late the night before!

It was a great trip! See you real soon!

ETA: I almost forgot the best part!  We were standing in line with a family whose girls had gone to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and found out it is not just for little girls!  Big girls can get their hair and makeup done like princesses too!!  Guess what I'm doing next time! :)