My Last Trip To Disney World 9.23-9.29.15

My Last Trip To Disney World I would like to begin with a little background. First, I have never had a less than magical experience at Disney. Not because of the “extras” that so many people expect, but because I truly believe that you create your own magic. I carry this philosophy not only at Disney, but in everything I do in life. My first trip to Disney World was when I was eleven, in 1991. My parents loaded us in the car to begin the 24-hour journey from Massachusetts to Florida. Not only was it our first trip, but we were going at Christmastime! Pretty awesome, mom and dad! We were mind blown at absolutely everything, and this solidified my infatuation with all things Disney. I couldn’t wait to get back to the parks! Fast forward to September, 2015. This was my twentieth trip to Walt Disney World! (And I’d even had a trip to Disneyland!) But this was different. I was finally going with friends, instead of family. We planned for a year. It seemed like time was moving so slowly, looking at my countdown on my phone every day. Even though I was going with friends, I had a completely different agenda than they did. They were looking to be more leisurely, while I was booked every minute! Finally, the big day arrived! We boarded our planes, and headed to Florida! ( I will admit, I am a huge Harry Potter fan, so I simply HAD to go to Universal to see the Harry Potter parks, which I did as soon as I arrived on the first day!) My friends headed to the hotel to relax. We were all meeting for dinner that night at Planet Hollywood. A tiring, but great first day! My second day, I had booked the Keys to the Kingdom Walking Tour. This is absolutely a must do! Our guide was Stephanie, and she was incredibly knowledgeable and fun! The tour takes you both onstage and backstage, and you are given plenty of information. I saw Magic Kingdom in a whole different way, after having my attention directed to the tiny details most people don’t notice. They also give you lunch at Columbia Harbor House, a “Keys” commemorative pin, and you get to go on rides without waiting. (I had Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise!) This is the classic tour, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go again! After the tour, I spent the rest of the day in Magic Kingdom, mostly taking character and décor pictures. For dinner that night, we had Chef Mickey’s. I had never been to a character meal before! It was so much fun! I loved the fact that the characters come right to your table! I was celebrating my birthday, and the “Fab Five” had all signed a card for me, and gave me a birthday cupcake, which was a nice gesture and totally unexpected! Something that happened this day, that I wasn’t too happy about, I somehow managed to lose both my Keys pin (which I was proudly displaying!) and my Birthday Pin. No idea how. The birthday pin was easy to replace, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to replace my Keys pin. Stay tuned! My third day, I was at Epcot, for the World DestiNATIONS tour. This is a relatively new tour; only in effect for about 4 months at the time I took it. It was a very small tour, with only 4 of us, and our guide, Matt. (Compared to the 20 or so of us on the Keys tour!) I loved this tour, too! We were again, both onstage and backstage. (Mostly onstage, but we did get to see where they keep the barges for Iluminations, which was cool!) Lunch was at Marrakesh, which no one was really happy about. I am extremely picky, and asked if they would give me nuggets and fries, and they accommodated me with no problem! I loved being able to walk through the countries without a lot of guests there. It was a surreal feeling of being in Disney, but without the crazy hustle and bustle! Another fantastic tour that I would definitely go on again! After the tour ended, I just hung in Epcot and did pretty much what I did in Magic Kingdom, which was take pictures. It was a challenge to try and time each meet and greet to maximize on characters! Dinner that night with one of my friends was at Via Napoli, which was simply amazing! Authentic Italian food (and I will actually eat sauce when it is from authentic places!) and we got to catch some of Illuminations after! Think I packed a lot in already? This brings us to our fourth day. This day was probably the craziest one! I was up early for Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios. Thanks to the EMH and my Fast Passes, I was on and off Star Tours, Tower of Terror, Great Movie Ride, and Rock n Roller Coaster with no issues before ten am. I caught a meet n greet with Goofy and Pluto, and spent some time wandering around taking pictures. Then, I left to go to Magic Kingdom for an 11:45 reservation at Be Our Guest. I enjoyed the décor at Be Our Guest, but the food was only ok. I left Magic Kingdom to finish up at Hollywood Studios (I wanted Toy Story Midway Mania, but they were having issues with the ride, so I did One Man’s dream and a picture with Buzz and Woody, and the Green Army Man. Before long, it was time for me to go again, this time to Fort Wilderness for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. This was my first time at the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue, and I had such a good time! Plus the food was amazing! Two words: Strawberry. Shortcake. I barely had time to digest before I headed over to Epcot. I did Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Soarin, and made my way amongst the Food and Winers to Akershus to meet my friends. My second character meal was with the princesses. Food was not my priority, as Hoop-Dee-Doo had more than taken care of it, but I would have to say their menu was my least favorite, being picky and not really eating different foods. The princess pictures were fun, though! If this day hasn’t been crazy enough, my friends decided we should take advantage of Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom, so we ended the night (at 1 am!) there. Insane day, and almost did all the parks! Day five…I’m thinking it is going to start being more low-key at this point. HA! My feet were killing me at this point, as I was averaging 10-12 miles a day. I don’t have anything scheduled til 11:45, which was the Mermaid Makeover at Pirates League in Magic Kingdom. This Mermaid Makeover I cannot rave enough about. It was about an hour, and they gave you makeup, nail polish, a hair clip, a sash, and a necklace. The makeup also lasted 12 hours-until I took it off. And that was with extreme heat, a shower, and a torrential rainstorm. I was impressed! But even more so than that, the Pirates League staff are simply awesome! My artist was Jamie, and we quickly bonded when we found out we were from the same state! She did a phenomenal job, and after, they take you into the “secret” room where you get pictures taken. (At this point I should mention that we had the Memory Maker, and these pictures were included on the Maker, without charging me extra!) After the pictures, you go out and you pay for the makeover. Well, the pirates who waited on me were ALSO from my state! The people in front of me had done a pirate makeover, and I inquired as to what the paper with their name was for. They explained that as pirates, you take the pirate oath and you get a pirate name. I replied that that was awesome, and I would be back to do a pirates makeover next time, so I could a pirate name. They surprised me by offering to let me have one now! They read me the pirate oath and let me get a name. It was a nice, totally unexpected touch! Remember my beloved Keys pin that I lost? I had gone back to Magic Kingdom Town Hall and explained my plight the day before. They told me it was no problem, to just leave my name and come back the next day and they’d get me a new one. After my makeover, I headed back to Town Hall to reclaim my pin. They gave me not one, but two! After a promise to not sell them on Ebay, I took my treasures with me, tucked safely into the secret zipper pouch in my purse! Another time that Disney went above and beyond, completely shocking me! I went to Animal Kingdom after this. This was my first time back at Animal Kingdom since 2003. I knew I wasn’t going to have much time there, and at first I figured I would just do Festival of the Lion King, and maybe Expedition Everest, and call it a day. I did both of those, plus the Kilimanjaro Safari, which I absolutely loved! Animal Kingdom had changed a lot in 12 years, and I was disappointed I didn’t have more time. Was unable to come back to it, too, sadly. After Animal Kingdom, my friends and I headed out for dinner at Tony’s Town Square, followed up by Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. (Now you understand why I decided I needed to have the Mermaid Makeover!) The Halloween party was awesome, as always! I really enjoyed the Hocus Pocus Show, and of course, the Boo To You Parade, which is one of my absolute favorites! But my highlights of the night weren’t the lack of lines or the candy. I had two amazing moments: One, my friends and I were checking out the Gaston Fountain, when the man himself came strolling by. He said, “ I saw you guys checking out my statue, and thought you may appreciate the real thing!” Hilarious, and he was on my list to get a picture with, so it was perfect! He refused to take a picture with anyone else, and walked away! Awesome! The second moment was the meet and greet with Jack Sparrow. I absolutely LOVE the fact that the characters are SO in character! Because of my mermaid makeover, Captain Jack had to make “absolutely sure” that I wasn’t there to hurt him, and the interaction was just hysterical! (Oh-I guess my runner up was obtaining my poison apple cup…I was so happy to get that!) Day six was another Magic Kingdom day, and the day I had managed to snag a reservation at Be Our Guest for all of us, so we had lunch together. My friends ended up going to Downtown Disney (It was still Downtown Disney then! It didn’t change until the day we left!) and I stayed in Magic Kingdom to ride Mine Train (first time! It was awesome!) and get more character pictures (including Stitch, whom I’ve heard they have since retired from meet and greets!) I did end up going back to the room and relaxing before dinner at Crystal Palace, my 3rd and final character meal. I really loved this one, I would say this one was my favorite character wise, and Chef Mickey was my favorite, food wise! We stayed for the Kiss Goodnight, and it was nice just lazing around Main Street on our last evening! Day 7 was our last day. Of course, it was raining, but we went to Magic Kingdom. We were treated to the Rainy Day Calvacade Parade, which was fun. Remember my Mermaid Makeover Memory Maker pictures? They had never shown up on the band. (Go figure, as they were the only ones I couldn’t have backups taken on my own camera of!) We went to the photo service and they located and added in my pictures in record time. I totally appreciated all Disney did for me this vacation…pretty much everything was unexpected (the pictures being the exception, as I figured they would find them!) and personally, I think people going out of their way for anyone is worth its weight in gold! I didn’t need anything extravagant to make my trip special, but these special touches certainly enhanced it! This truly was one of the best trips ever, and will forever be in my memories! Even without my friends by my side the entire time, I still had fun! I talked to all kinds of people, adults, kids, everyone! Not one moment was I bored or unhappy being alone! The parks emanate a kind of magic all their own! I was just so happy to be there, to be home. That alone was enough for me, even with the heat and everything! Can’t wait for my next trip!