Disney
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Melting Around the World
Welcome to Wednesday! Today we are hitting Epcot. Two park closures in a row meant I slept in. So we just had time to hoof it to the boat and ride over to the other side of the lake for our lunch ADR. The beautiful blue skies leaving the Village. Here is the full day’s video – but keep reading for the pictures and comments. Walking into Epcot. The Food and Wine Festival was going on. It wasn’t exceptionally crowded as far as we could tell though, while we were here. A quick shot of us. Unintentionally coordinated in blues – right down to the lanyard and magic bands. I…
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Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
My most favoritest reason for being here finally arrives! Magic Kingdom in FULL HALLOWEEN GLORY. Despite a strongly afflicting phobia of certain things with 8 legs (to the point where not only is the technical term for them absolutely too much, but even the common s****r term is generally avoided) Halloween continues to be my #1 holiday. It is undeniably difficult to avoid the thing which I hate most at that time of year but thankfully it’s on the spookier end of things enough that Disney chooses not to use it in decorations so I am SAFE! Seriously – I had to speed read/half skip *that* part of Harry Potter…
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Toy Wars Stunt Spectacular of Terror
Thursday! We managed to get up a bit earlier than the day before, but still didn’t actually get to the park until noon. Grabbed “breakfast” at the little shop in the lobby. First we finally got down to check out the pool. No pictures of the pool area as I don’t have a waterproof case. These guys crack me up. Hidden Mickey! Love the other details – like the well-worn English to Spanish dictionary. The hat is no more here – glad for the shots I got of it. Off to the Pixar area… To use a FP for Toy Story Mania! Scores Look! Castles under the Castle sign. As…
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Thundering and Splashing In the Magic Kingdom
Now it’s time to ride! We have a Fastpass so make our way over to the other side of the park. On the way out of lunch, I spot this balloon, and boy was I tempted to get one of my own. We didn’t have time to stop to talk with Belle, but I love the sign. The windmill moves the gears which makes the candlestick ‘arms’ dance. Rapunzel’s tower is still beautiful. I managed to come around in time to catch the Liberty Belle and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad lined up. Speaking of BTMRR – that’s our Fastpass destination! I grab an awkward shot from the ride before…
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Lunch at Be Our Guest
I had heard many mixed reviews on Be Our Guest, and decided that if I got the mysterious invite email directly from Disney then I would reserve a lunch there. I did get the email, and so here we are. After checking in and confirming we had reservations (the CM was visibly relieved, she said it was so hard to tell people trying to just walk up that it basically wasn’t possible on most days to get in without an ADR) we walk along the bridge to the entrance. Such a sad gargoyle. Once inside – you walk down a hallway, and you can hear Lumiere and Cogsworth whispering. Then…
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Our Morning in the Magic Kingdom
Tuesday morning arrives – and runs off while we’re sleeping. Hey, I never pretended to be a morning person, and that 6am start wasn’t going to be a trend. Eventually we get going and head to the car. I snap a shot in the elevator. Let me take a quick moment to say THANK YOU to my ever patient husband for always toting the camera gear. It’s hard to see the size here, roughly an average diaper bag, and at least as insanely packed. He knows how much my photography profession (and obsession) means to me. The parking garage of course had Lion King theming – we were most often…
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Return to the Yachtsman Steakhouse
First fancy dinner night! After initial sticker shock over the prices (I did not yet know the beauty of a prime steak) in 2011, the Yachtsman Steakhouse fast became and stayed our favorite (and yes, most expensive) meal. Since he was our waiter each time (and a few times on my parents’ earlier visits) previously, we wanted to make sure we had the impeccable David guiding us through our meal again. I tried to call and get David’s section, but sadly only got a voicemail. Once we arrived and checked in, we had a little wait for our table, so of course that meant picture time! Yup, we’re goofs. At…
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Our Kidani Room and Lunch at Sanaa
After catching a tram back to our section of the lot – cranking the A/C – we make our way back to the resort and hit the front desk to get assigned our room. We’re just a little ways off the main lobby in room 7225. We would learn the parking at Kidani is actually awesome. There is an underground garage, so we were right under our room and just took an elevator up. You can see the HUGE swath of grey parking that is the AKL Jambo House parking. I can’t imagine walking all of that at the end of the day. The magic bands are very cool for…
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Kidani Village and Animal Kingdom
At 6am Monday morning the alarm goes off, and we head over to our home for the week. We have to stop in at the resort to get our magic bands activated before we can go to our breakfast ADR in the park. Still groggy, I take a few quick cell phone pictures as we walk up in the dark stillness. The sound of crickets and birds quietly drift across as you head to the doors. There’s a savannah out there, I’m told. Very Lion King. Also the last time you will see a sunrise photo from me. Check in was very smooth, but they had no anniversary buttons left.…
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Bits and Bobs and All the Rest
[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”14770″ alignment=”none”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]This spot is for all the other little tidbits that aren’t quite part of the trip but someone might find interesting. I’ve got some reviews, some crafts, and just a few other observations that I didn’t want to clutter in the regular posts. Some of this might get techy as I talk photography stuff. Feel free to skip past that. ;)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Getting an extended view… I purchased the Memory Maker package again this trip, as I already know and love the benefits of stopping at the photopass photographers in the parks, and having all of the ride photos bundled in. That only tells part of the story…
