Weekend Magic

Hi-ho! Hi-ho! It's off to Disneyworld we go! Way back in May, it seemed a good idea, since I was planning to go back in October, to buy a annual pass to Disneyworld. And because I had an annual pass, any excuse to go would do! The excuse this time? I have an annual pass, there was a sale on hotels, and I would need to make a trip by the end of the year to ensure I keep my silver elite status on Continental. It didn't take much rationalization on my part!

Jana & I met up at the Orlando airport and were soon off to our hotel. This time we were staying at Pop Century. We arrived at the hotel, dodged the rain drops and checked in. Before heading to our room we made our first purchase, a Mickey poncho which turned out to be the best $6.10 I spent this trip! :) We got to our hotel, changed and were off to Hollywood Studios to catch Fantasmic, as this was the only night it was showing while we were there. We were greeted at Hollywood with the news the 9 p.m. show of Fantasmic was cancelled. As the rain had pretty much stopped, we decided to chance it and stay, assuming the 10:30 p.m. show would not be cancelled. We had dinner and did a bit of shopping and before we knew it, it was time for Fantasmic, which was as usual, Fanstasmic!! It is probably one of my absolute favorite things to watch at Disney.

Hollywood had extra early magic hours so we set the alarm and managed to make it there to enjoy some time before the park opened. We didn't manage to make it on Rockin' Rollercoaster as we decided to use our fast pass on Toy Story Midway and the regular line was just a little too long for our liking. But it helped knowing we would be back in October (so we can run in the Tower of Terror race). We finished up at Hollywood and set off for Magic Kingdom!! We arrived at Magic Kingdom in time for it to start raining - perfect time for lunch! We had lunch at Tony's restaurant (Italian - are you surprised?) and lingered over dessert as it was still pouring. Finally we finished, put on our ponchos and headed out into the rain. The scariest ride of the day turned out to be the Jungle Cruise - it was dark when we went on it and a little frog jumped into the boat and onto Jana. It probably wouldn't have been such a surprise had it not been so dark. The best ride of the day turned out to be Dumbo - we got on just as they were doing the fireworks and so we were flying while watching the fireworks go off - it was really spectacular! Magic Kingdom had extra evening magic hours and while we didn't make it until 2 a.m. we did get close.

Extra magic hours in the morning and evening makes for an extremely long day! It seemed as if my head had just touched the pillow when it was time to wake up. Off to Animal Kingdom! There were a ton of giraffes and rhinos on the safari ride!! After hitting the highlights (for us), we headed over to Epcot to visit Nemo, hang glide in Soarin' and tour the world. The previous day was catching up to us, along with the heat, so we decided to make it an early night.

We finished up the trip by exploring Downtown Disney until it was time to go home. See ya real soon!