Day 33- Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf & Pizza Planet at Hollywood Studios

Posted on October 17, 2014 by maymiller

Mini Golf day! We see the Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf Course whenever we head to Hollywood Studios, so we’ve been looking forward to playing here.

This is a really great course! It has some pretty fun theming from Fantasia… Some of the holes have a special sound or surprise that happens, too! Today, I chose a purple golf ball, Tooti has pink, and Twinkie has green! There are two little guys with their mom following behind us, which makes it even more fun! We start on the first hole and off we go… Each hole has a fun riddle to read and gives you hints on the best place to hit the ball!

This afternoon is pretty busy since it’s Friday. It’s nice to hear the happy golfers on the course as we play!

Next, we are off to Hollywood Studios. It is pretty close, in fact, just across the road! As we go through the parking gate, the cast member asked us what part of Texas we were from… “Dallas!” Found out she was from nearby Greenville and she was glad to see a fellow Texan!

The park is busy, but not too crowded as we walk through down Hollywood Boulevard. We noticed that the shops have put out some more Christmas merchandise! So beautiful!

We decide to eat at Pizza Planet! It is a fun quick service restaurant themed from Toy Story and there is even an arcade inside! They are fast and very accommodating for our gluten allergy! The gluten free pizza is great and we ordered sides of Caesar salad. While there is plenty of seating inside, we decided to enjoy the cool evening by sitting outside at one of many umbrella tables. You can see the Christmas store and the Stage One Company Store, which has a lot of Muppets merchandise, across the street!

It was a great day! 🙂

Day 32- Magic Kingdom

Posted on October 16, 2014 by maymiller

What a gorgeous day today! The high is only going to be 82 with a nice breeze. The day is relaxing for us as we head to Magic Kingdom. We asked if we could take a picture of this family, they were dressed as characters from Peter Pan and Jake and the Neverland Pirates! They are really cute and fun! We end up riding the Monorail with them and found out that they lived in Texas for a while. We enjoyed talking and hearing their story; their sons were amazing!

On the way to the Monorail, I saw that the ticket offices were sold out for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tonight. If you plan on going to this, you might want to plan way ahead for the night you want to attend; I know they are totally out of tickets for October 31. I do love going to Magic Kingdom ahead of the party and enjoy seeing all of the costumes! There is a tiny little baby in a Minnie Mouse costume… adorable! Then, little dudes decked out in little pirate costumes, and the cutest Elsa in a beautiful dress. I just had to ask her grandmother where they found it, turns out they found it at TJ Maxx! Of course, the little princess’ eyes lit-up as we adored her beautiful dress! The bustle is wonderful and the anticipation of the night’s activities is in the air.

Gaston & Belle

Service Dogs dressed up!

So cute!

🙂

Mario & Luigi!

We take a minute to enjoy the busy Main Street. We decide to go to the Main Street Bakery and get tea at Starbucks. We had a moment to wait for our drinks, so we visited with a mom and her son from Tennessee! They are full of energy and enjoying the day. I helped hold the door as she ushered her son out in his wheel chair, then another family came out, nice kids! Now, back inside to wait for one more drink.

I found that we got a last minute FastPass+ to get to go on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin!!! When it is really busy at the parks, like it is today, FastPasses are usually completely out. We begin walking fast and drinking our Starbucks quickly as we head to the ride. Today the standby line is only 20 minutes, but I am glad we have these passes. Again, I absolutely love this ride! I got my highest score ever- 344,000! Tooti and Twinkie made Galactic Hero status (999,999!); we took a pic of their scores and headed to the counter to claim their Galactic Hero celebration badges!!! Congrats, kids!

Now, off to catch the Monorail so we can pick up the pups from school! The costumes are numerous as we are approaching party time. If you are visiting the parks, know if you do not have a ticket for the party, the park closes at 7pm on the nights with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (party guests can stay until midnight). As we get to the TTC (Ticket and Transportation Center), we are seeing costumes everywhere! Ninja Turtles (some with tutus), pirates, the whole group from the Little Mermaid (including King Triton!), characters from Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, and so many more! So many fun and happy people.

Cotton “Candy Corn”

Castle show!

Heading back on the Monorail…

Day 31- Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater at Hollywood Studios

Posted on October 15, 2014 by maymiller

One month ago today, we began our journey of going to Disney for 365 days in a row! We are happier than a kid in a candy shop! Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, we are on our way and have 334 days to go. I love Florida life and living close to Disney, we can watch the fireworks from our front porch. It is so cool! Our pups enjoy watching them with us when we are at home and not at the parks.

Today, we chose to go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios; we haven’t had lunch, so Sci-fi Dine-in Theater Restaurant is sounding like the restaurant of choice for a good hamburger. We arrive with an hour to spare, so we walk around and see how the Christmas lights are coming along. Today I notice they have added the Christmas carolers in front of two buildings in the Streets of America. It is perfectly busy and I can hear some of the crowd singing as they exit the Frozen Sing-along, the funniest is a grandma acting out “Let it go!” Cute!

Movie Star names!

Streets of America!

Carolers!

Tons of Lights!

Singing in the Rain!

Now, we check into Sci-fi Dine-in Theater Restaurant, it is so very busy. Quite a few folks are trying to see if there is availability, but you must have a reservation to be able to eat there in the late afternoon to evening times. I haven’t seen it this busy since the end of summer crowd. After about 25 minutes, they call us to be seated. We sit in a three-seat car that looks like a ’57 Chevy! Tooti and Twinkie are in the front seat, me in the next one. A little later, they seat someone in the third row!

I love it, as you look around, it is reminiscent of the days gone by with the wooden fence, the stars in the sky, and the speakers on the post for your car sound. I remember going to drive-in movies when I was a kid. Mom would pile blankets on the top of our station wagon, and we would have our pillows up top in the luggage rack! I am not sure how many movies I actually saw, seems that I fell asleep more times than not.

Anyways, back to the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. There is a full screen with vintage scary movies playing as your car hop takes your order, we got dairy free “milkshakes” and 2 gluten free burgers and a gluten free corned beef sandwich! YUMMY, they have the best French fries too! We finish our dinner and head out.

It is chilly tonight as we are heading back to the front of Hollywood Studios. It is busy, but not too crowded, a nice flow of people. We parked pretty close, so we walk about 10 minutes to our car and head home. I must remember a jacket, it is finally chilly at night! Let’s see: backpack, magic band, water bottle, umbrella, appropriate shoes, now to add a jacket for the sudden drop in temperatures! Yes, it is feeling like fall this evening.

Day 30- Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian & Magic Kingdom

Posted on October 14, 2014 by maymiller

Today is a celebration day! We have completed 29 days, and today is our 30th day! Now, where to celebrate? DISNEY WORLD! Yes, and today, we should celebrate with high tea! So, off we go to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa to celebrate.

We noticed it is monsoon-like outside; I think Valet is a great choice as I am dressed to the nines and need to look nice for tea. As we are walking in, we see Richard, who is often greeting guests at the resort. We first saw him back in March during our visit on Dapper Day. He is dressed to the nines as well and is so very kind and happy.

There are a few minutes to spare and that will be a wonderful time to browse the stores upstairs around the Grand Room. There is piano music playing in the lobby; it is so relaxing and wonderfully dreamy.

A little shopping…

Looking out the window of the shop!

Mad Hatter’s Hat!

That’s a LOT of water!

The Lobby

Basin White!

Love their soaps!

Piano player…

Overlooking the resort…

Tea Time! We are seated by the windows, which is perfect because I love watching the people going by outside. Our waitress is wonderful and our tea is perfectly hot as we begin our teatime. We chose the “Buckingham Tea”. The chef made us the most amazing gluten-free tea sandwiches for the first course. Our second course was special breads from Babycakes with lemon curd, Devonshire cream and a jam. Finally, our last course had amazing chocolate mousse and coconut macaroons. It was a delightful time!

Now, we are off to the parks. Tonight we are going to Magic Kingdom, and the rains are pouring down once again as we head to the Monorail. Then, as we are exiting at the Magic Kingdom stop, I realized that with Florida life, you just get used to the flood of water pouring from the sky. So many kids were having a blast kicking up their heels and wading through the ankle-deep water. Did I say that we usually have shoes that work with the water and rain? Today, we only have our tennis shoes, so our feet are soaked. No problem, a little rain can’t stop us, nor can a monsoon! (Monsoon is Texan for tons of rain!)

Storm rollin’ in!

Rainy Monorail ride…

Windy on the water…

Lots of rain!

I stopped in to get a Band-Aid at the First Aid Station, when a lady came in and asked a question I had never heard. She asked the staff, “When do they determine that it is time to shut down the park?” The attendant said, “This is Florida life, we don’t ever shut down the park for rain.” She was amazed that the park would allow people to stand under the awnings until the rain stopped. It was a funny thing to hear as we headed out in the pouring rain with our umbrellas, wet shoes, soppy purses, and dripping dresses to ride our first ride of the day! It’s a rainy day in Florida, good thing Mickey has a raincoat!…

First ride is Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin! It is one of our favorite rides and we love the challenge of hitting the Zurg targets with the cool laser shooters.

Next, we head for the People Mover! It ended up pausing twice for a couple of minutes inside of Space Mountain. Instead of darkness like usual, the lights were on and we got to see what the track and structure actually look like! It was pretty amazing to see.

Puddles!

Inside Space Mountain…

Then, we have a FastPass+ for Peter Pan’s Flight, my favorite ride! Ok, one of my favorite rides at Magic Kingdom!

Now off to get a Dole Whip for Twinkie, this is her first day back with us after being sick. We are tickled pink that she is back up to speed for day 30!

Time to head home. We get on the monorail with a great young family! They were so fun to talk to! We were so glad to meet them and their son. As we get off the Monorail we look to see if it’s still raining, make that monsoon-ing, as we head home…

On Main Street…

Day 29- Hollywood Studios

Posted on October 13, 2014 by maymiller

Disney is always at the forefront of our reason for our stories… However, there are some funny things that go on behind the scenes. For instance, Twinkie was sick this week so it gives way for some funny things to happen. Like, Twinkie wanted a cup of hot tea, so she poured the hot water into her cup. She got the tea tin out, read it and set it back into the cabinet, set the timer and when it went off, she looked into her cup and there was no tea bag! hehe!

Sometimes, the funny things that happen aren’t always as funny until the second time around. The next night, I made a cup of Ginger Tea and put the tea bag in the cup, got the pups a treat, sat down and couldn’t find my hot tea. The next day, I found my cup with the tea bag, and yes, I had forgotten to add water!

Back to today! We are off to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for Columbus Day… I love how organized the parking attendants are, I appreciate their efficiency and they are very helpful. Since we have been going daily, it’s always interesting to see where we park. Some days we are way out there at the very end of the row, and other days we’re only a few cars from the tram or smack dab in the middle. Today, it looked like the line was finished and I would be driving all the way to the very far end. I began to turn into the lane and she waved me into the very first spot! Right there just steps away from the tram! Then, she filled in the next several spots beside us. YAY! Sometimes special little things like this make the day even better!

The tram was full and we had a jolly ride up to Hollywood Studios! It was busy going through bag check and the lines were busy scanning Magic Bands since there are Extra Magic Hours later tonight. We started down Hollywood Boulevard; I love the Art Deco buildings, the colors and the beautiful style of that era.

We walked down Sunset Boulevard and people were flooding towards Fantasmic. The theatre was already full and standing room only. FastPasses are available for it, but it is so worth the wait and such a great show if you decided to see it without one! It is a beautiful and fun way to end the evening as you get to see so many characters in one place!

Then, we headed to the Streets of America. The streets are calm and sparsely populated. As we looked down the road, we noticed how many more decorations have been put up this week. I love seeing the Christmas lights being set up ready for that wonderful season! I wanted to stop by The Writer’s Stop. Tooti and I had coffee and looked at all of the books. There are a few I am totally going to add to my library… After coffee and looking at some of these books, we start toward the front gates.

In front of Mickey’s giant hat, there was Mulch, Sweat & Shears playing in the center and they are really, really good! The band recently celebrated 10 years of performances together. We stopped and enjoyed their performance and the cool way they brought in their stage! So, very inventive!

Day 28- Animal Kingdom & Finding Nemo- The Musical

Posted on October 12, 2014 by maymiller

Today is a beautiful day to go to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park. If you are planning a trip to Disney right now, it is hot! As we get out of the car, there is a wonderful breeze on this 91-degree day. We are parked close enough to walk to the gate.

I am surprised how many people are still coming to the park at 4pm. We found that Animal Kingdom is open tonight until 8pm, so there is plenty of time to have a great visit. My first stop is the Allergy Kiosk for a gluten free Cinnamon Donut, next, Royal Anandapur Tea Company for iced tea. Then, we sit and watch people go by as we eat our Cinnamon Donuts. Yummy!

Our next stop is Finding Nemo – The Musical. This is the first time we have had FastPass+, so we get to sit way down front, second row to be exact! Soon the entire theater is full, and the show begins. It is so beautiful as the actors make the movie Finding Nemo come to life! A young family from Minnesota is sitting beside us; this is their kids’ first trip to Disney! They are so very excited to see Nemo and his dad, Marlin. I love this musical and all of the detail; the songs are so well written that it draws you into the music. Soon, it is over and there is thunderous applause for all of the characters we saw! There are even bubbles floating down from up above. Beautiful.

We pass by DinoLand U.S.A. and I love seeing the huge dinosaur that stands as the entrance into that area of the park. Then, back around through Discovery Island on the way out. It is a busy day at Animal Kingdom, and a fun day!

Since we are at Animal Kingdom, the Disney Character Warehouse is just a few minutes away, so we swing by for a few minutes and then head home! I love the Disney Character Warehouse. We found some cute shirts and it’s always fun to see what new stock they have at the moment!

Day 27- Small World and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom

Posted on October 11, 2014 by maymiller

Today is Saturday and Magic Kingdom is open until 1AM, with extra magic hours until 3AM. The weather is a hot 94 degrees on this October day, so we are waiting until this evening to go to the park. We arrived at the parking gates about 7PM. There were the two lines for parking tonight and they were both backed up and stopped. That means it is going to be busy.

Yep, I have never parked that far out, but the trams were running on a good schedule. Our Monorail was full; everyone was happy and we were in a good crowd of people. As one was pulling away, another was ready to pull in and load up! Nice! As we arrived at Magic Kingdom, I could see the front gate was very busy and full.

As we went into the park, there was a steady flow of people coming in and a steady flow leaving out of the park.

Our first ride is in an hour, so we decided to get a Dole Whip. We sat near The Magic Carpets of Aladdin to enjoy our vanilla pineapple floats. It is a nice place to sit, not too busy, and a quieter spot to relax for a minute.

Getting a dole whip!

Sitting by the Magic Carpets!

We have a FastPass+ for It’s A Small World and the lines are long tonight. I love FastPasses! Our boat is loaded and we are off. If you look up to the right as your boat takes off, Pinocchio Village Haus restaurant is there and you will see little children waving through the windows overhead, so we wave back and they smile! With it being so busy, we had time as we waited to disembark and began chatting with the family in front of us, and then the family behind us joined it. It was fun, and they were nice! As we exited the boat, the chimes from the Small World clock were going off for the 9PM bells!

With twenty minutes until our next FastPass, we sat on the stone wall near the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. A lady and her mom sat hear us, and in a few minutes, this little dude walked up. He said that he lost his mom; I listened and the grandma told him not to worry. I jumped up and said, “We can let a cast member know and they will find her [his mom].” The lady agreed. I turned, and Tooti was already on her way to the cast member that was near Pinocchio Village Haus. The cast member was great! She asked if his mom got lost, and the little boy said, “Yes.” She talked to him for a minute and he was doing well. In just a couple of minutes we heard his name being called and the whole group of us jumped up and pointed his family in the right direction! It was the coolest thing to see the oldest daughter, she was about 9 or 10, and she ran and just wrapped her arms around her now found little brother in the cutest bear hug! Success: child reunited with this family. We could hear his mom yelling for the family and the sister was yelling, “WE FOUND HIM!!!” We were elated; thanks to all of the people that helped! Happy!

Now, it is time for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Tooti asked if we could ride in the front. I love riding in the front, it is not jerky, and it is a smooth ride. At the end of the ride is the Seven Dwarfs’ cottage and you can see Snow White dancing with the Seven Dwarfs around. I love this cottage! Ew! There is the wicked witch at their door. Oh, now we are exiting the Mine Train and the path takes you around to see the other side of the cottage as you exit.

The entrance…

FastPass!

Lights…

The end of the ride!

The park is crowded with the late hours, and we are going to head home. As we get to the transportation center and onto the tram, I can hear the fireworks going off, and could see them through a few spaces between the tram station and the monorail area. But, as we head towards the parking lot, I can get glimpses of the fireworks! Beautiful.

Leaving the park…

Day 26- Epcot: Living with the Land & Circle of Life

Posted on October 10, 2014 by maymiller

The day is absolutely gorgeous, a nice breeze and great sunshine! We are driving into the Epcot parking lots on this Friday afternoon and there is a constant stream of cars. We are directed to the Discover parking lot and it is fairly close, so we walked to the gates.

Heading to The Land

Our destination is The Land to ride “Living with the Land”. It is a cool boat ride that shows you some of the working greenhouses. There are fish that are also used in their restaurants. It is amazing to hear about how the use the space is used and how much can be grown efficiently with this type of greenhouse. I want to go back through and see it all again, there are so many different kinds of fruits I have not seen before! It is very interesting how they grow some lemons that are 9 pounds. A large variety of fruits and vegetables and lettuces are grown here, too. Sunshine Seasons and the Garden Grill actually serve some of the produce and fish that are grown here.

The next stop is, Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable. It is a film with Simba and Timon and Pumbaa. It talks about nature and the subject of conservation.

Now, off to Mexico to have Nachos at La Cantina de San Angel Their menu has just changed to have most items gluten free and we can now have most everything on the menu! Tonight, I cannot wait to have nachos! We found seating on the little area over the Lagoon. As we finish, we are able to give our table to a family waiting to sit at a larger table. It has been a fun Friday evening at Epcot!

La Cantina de San Angel

The Menu

Eating by the water

Our view…

Nachos!

Day 25- Tokyo Dining at Epcot

Posted on October 9, 2014 by maymiller

Some days life happens. We are living in a house that was once owned by a Disney Imagineer and we have been intrigued with all of the extra wiring and history of this home. When we had our basic cable put in, it took quite awhile while the technicians figured out all the extras in the network wiring. Today, we had the security system activated. The technician took a look at the wiring and after a short time, he advised that this is a custom security system. This was going to be a full day’s work and we might have to reschedule. He had spent an hour assessing it, soon I found that he had called in backup and the two of them went into overtime. But, by 5:40 they successfully got our system going, trained me on how it works, and off they went!

We ran and picked up the pups from day school and take them back home, so we have a very short time to go to Disney and pack in some fun!

Epcot in the evening!

Three of the parks close early today, so off to Epcot! It is 7:45 p.m. and they are still parking lines of cars. We catch the Tram and head for Epcot. It is just me and Tooti today; Twinkie is at home sick.

Me and Tooti on the tram!

We walk to Japan as fast as we can. Our reservation is at 8:00 at Tokyo Dining and this is our first time to eat here. It is a beautiful setting and very elegant, located on the second floor in the Japan Pavilion.

Checking in…

Lots of stairs! 🙂

The entrance…

We were seated in a part of the dining area where you can watch the chefs make sushi. It was so nice! We had miso soup, hot green tea and vegetarian sushi made with a special gluten-free soy sauce they have available. It was fun time for both Tooti and me! As we were finishing, we heard the patrons say, “AH!” as Illuminations was starting. We looked and the fireworks were so vivid and bright, they seemed to be so close to the widows, they are beautiful! We soon were on the porch and could see them so bright and beautiful. What a wonderful surprise!

Place setting…

Yum!

Making sushi!

Green tea 🙂

GF Soy Sauce!

The restaurant

Miso soup

Vegetarian Sushi

Yum!

Fireworks…

right outside the windows!

Bright and beautiful!

I looked out and the whole area is full of people. It is 9:15 and it is time to go home. We had a wonderful relaxed evening and enjoyed our strolling through the sea of people as we walked back our car on aisle 20. As we got closer to the car, we could see the Not So Scary fireworks going off towards Magic Kingdom and even saw the beautiful finale! So nice!

Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Fireworks in the distance!

Day 24- Sugar Ray at Epcot

Posted on October 8, 2014 by maymiller

Epcot is bustling with so many people enjoying the Food and Wine Festival! I am seeing so many families that need someone to take a picture. I love getting to help, and today, people are so happy to have someone to take a picture for them! It is a good day.

We are going to see the Sugar Ray concert in the America Gardens Theatre. My kids are very excited to go and see them! As we head out, it is a hot 92 degrees, and I am hoping those fluffy white clouds will bring a cool breeze. We get in line 50 minutes early and already the line is getting long. As it nears 5PM, they begin seating, and we can sit under the roofed area, on the third row! Yay!

The line…

More people! 🙂

3rd row!

Great view!

The concert is incredible; Mark McGrath is amazing, he keeps going into the crowd and taking pictures with fans. He is so fun and full of energy; what a great concert! He thanked everyone that he had met during the day for scheduling their vacations around this concert series! This is Sugar Ray’s 5th year to play at Disney World. Very nice.

Epcot is a great place to walk, so we had turned to the left towards Mexico (to walk over to the concert), so now, we turn right to go through the rest of the World Showcase. Once you get to the World Showcase Lagoon, it is 1.1 miles around through all of the countries. If you stop and go into each country, you can add quite a bit to your overall mileage for the day.

We took a detour in France to go to Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie bakery for a crème brulee. The chef was just caramelizing a tray of these beautiful crème brulees; he smiled as we were taking his picture! We sat for a moment to enjoy our treats. As we were leaving, we looked through the shop that is just across the way.