I'm Back (from Disney!)

I know you all missed me, here in the blogosphere... but I'm back! I just returned home from a trip to Orlando (we left on Friday). It was very cool and I would like to share some of it here, of course! I'll include some of our magical photos as well. At Disney, we had a Memory Maker, which gave us unlimited photos, a great feature for someone like me who loves pictures!

It all started with a mouse... wait, different story. For us, it all started with our super fun two flights to Orlando. Now that we live in NW Ohio, we really see how great we had it when we lived in the NW burbs of Chicago... nothing beats living 15 minutes from one of the biggest international airports (O'Hare). But for us here, we had to drive an hour to Detroit, and then take two different planes to get to Orlando, sigh. Nick flies standby so he didn't make it on the second flight, so that was fun (he made it in about four hours later). My dad picked us up from the airport and off we went to our resort (courtesy of my Grandpa who let us use his timeshare!) to settle in and then to Downtown Disney to enjoy some Disney-time on our first night, because duh! The next day is when the real fun began.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to head over to Epcot! Our first day was devoted to the Food and Wine Festival, which none of us had been to before - as a huge Disney World fan who has been quite a few times in my 23 years, it is exciting to do something we have never done before. This was one of them - we were pumped to eat around the world. I used my Disney Dream Reward Dollars form my Disney Visa card to fund the entire day, which was a definite perk (and made me less guilty about getting so much food and drink... well less guilty about spending, not so much about eating all that). We ate from a bunch of booths: Greece, Italy, Japan, China, Australia, France, South Africa, Patagonia, Germany, and a Craft Beers booth.Nick and I really loved the food from Japan and Greece, though they were all super delicious. We had such a blast eating and drinking around the world - it was very crowded, but it was so fun and unique - we loved it! I highly recommend making a trip there when you visit WDW.

Sunday was another fun day (har har); we experienced another Disney First! Before that though, Nick and I made a solo trip to Animal Kingdom for the morning and early afternoon. Enjoying some animals, both extinct ("dinosaurs") and real (ummmm giraffes!), plus a couple shows. My favorite thing to do at Animal Kingdom is to go on the Kilimanjaro Safari, which is a pretty real deal safari on the wildlife preserve... each time is different because, well, animals are animals. We got a great look at giraffes this trip though, which I obviously loved. My other favorite attraction, Expedition Everest, was closed, le sigh. Still, we had a nice time before the main event later that afternoon...

Yes, one of my absolute highlights of the trip was attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! It is the one time of year that "adults" can wear costumes and trick or treat with the best of them. I went as Belle (the less fancy Belle) and Nick went as Buzz Lightyear... which perplexed many photographers and cast members - we didn't make much sense as a couple. This tshirt was the best I could do for Nick, he wouldn't have agreed to much else. I, however, decided to embrace the party and dress as my favorite Princess! Not going to lie, it was really fun to have cast members and characters refer to me as "Belle" and "Princess" - I for sure got to be a kid again, which is pretty darn magical. We enjoyed rides, candy, fireworks, and the Boo to You parade (as seen coming behind us in this photo!)  - it was pretty amazing. Again, I highly recommend this experience - next on my list is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (maybe we will go in a few years).

Oh! I almost forgot! Another awesome part of our time at Magic Kingdom during the Party was eating at Be Our Guest. This is in the brand new section of Fantasyland - it is literally in Beast's castle. The only way into this bad boy is to venture in during lunch time (which is no small feat) or to get a highly coveted reservation for dinner. You can make your reservation 180 days out... and even then you are probably too late. I tried every day, twice, for about six weeks and one day I magically got the most perfect reservation! I nearly cried when I got the reservation, so you best believe I welled up when we walked in for dinner on Sunday night. The service was great, food was delicious, and the atmosphere... it was perfect. Beast made an appearance, as seen above in our romantic photo. Yeah, I was in heaven. This is why I love Disney World.

Monday was the last WDW park, Hollywood Studios. We enjoyed movie rides a plenty, fun shows (my fav was the sing a long of Frozen! Cute kids sings, what could be more adorable?), and more heat... that last one wasn't so fabulous. Regardless, it was a fun cap to the Disney majority of our trip.

And last, but certainly not least, Tuesday was our final vacation day and we spent it at HOGWARTS. Yay! Though I am never happy to leave the Happiest Place on Earth, Hogwarts sure does the trick. We went to Universal, got our tickets to both parks. We had been to the Hogsmeade original side in Islands of Adventure the Summer it opened, but the new side in Universal Studios, Diagon Alley, opened this July... we knew we had to go to both! Anddddddd the Hogwarts Express takes you between the parks, so duh it was decided. And yes, I bought a wand, because Hogwarts. The wand buying experience is actually really cute - I won't spoil much, but go into Olivander's and get the whole experience... I dare you not to buy a wand. Universal outdid themselves with Diagon Alley, let me tell you. It is AMAZING. The detail is amazing, the design superb, the rides fantastic. We absolutely loved the Forbidden Journey ride in Hogsmeade last time we visited, and the new Escape from Gringotts in Diagon Alley did not disappoint. Wow, just wow is all I can say. We ate at the Leaky Cauldron, too, which was delicious. Everything was just so well thought out, they learned a lot between Hogsmeade and Diagon. Again, GO!!!! And buy a wand, I mean where else can you wave a wand as an adult and it be acceptable? Nowhere. Actually, I am going to try to change that... I need a new use for my wand ;)

Here are a few more of my favorite shots from our vacation:

Thanks for letting me reminisce!

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