Disney Day 6

Day 6, Monday, July 21
We slept in again this morning and headed over to Hollywood Studios to finish up the stuff that we hadn’t done there. We went straight to get a fast pass for Rockin’ Rollercoaster because we loved it so much the other day. We got one and then went over to do the Muppet’s 3D movie and the Backlot Studio Tour. Then we went to see if we might possibly get Fast Passes for the Toy Story Mania ride again. No such luck with that, but we did discover that they have a single rider line as well. So, we hopped in that line (the regular wait was 80 minutes) and were through the ride in less than a ½ hour. Next was time for dinner at Mama Melrose’s Italian Restaurant. This was by far the best food we had in our entire stay! And, we got to eat while there was a terrible thunderstorm, so we avoided all of the rain. We went from dinner to the Beauty and the Beast show and then on to use our Fast Passes at Rockin’ Rollercoaster. It was just as fun as the first time! After our ride, we watched Fantasmic! again and then headed back to pack and get to bed! It really was a fabulous trip!

Disney Day 5

Day 5, Sunday, July 20th Water Park Day!!! We spent the morning and early afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon. This is a great water park. They have a new ride called the Crush ‘N Gusher. It is a 2 person tube ride that works like a rollercoaster. You go down these great drops and then the water shoots you back up a hill and so on. They have three different tracks and we rode all three. It was a blast! We hung out in the lazy river, swam in the wave pool, and went on some other slides.


After Typhoon Lagoon, we went back to the resort and ate some lunch. We cancelled our dinner reservations because we were eating such a late lunch and made reservations for tomorrow night. We decided to go back over to Animal Kingdom to ride Everest one more time, even if we had to wait in line. Well, we scored and found that they had a “single rider” line. When you get in that line, you virtually walk on to the ride. So, we rode Expedition Everest another 4 times in about 45 minutes! It is such a great coaster. Then, while I was paying in the gift shop, MJ decided to go and find us a frozen lemonade because it was so blasted hot! We got to be part of the “Year of a Million Dreams” with a “Magical Moment” that provided us with our frozen drinks FREE of charge. So, our stop at Animal Kingdom was certainly a great one! We headed over to Epcot to see Illuminations, but once we got there, we were just so tired and our feet were killing us, so we decided to go back to the resort and go swimming – a great way to end the day.

Disney Day 4

Day 4, Saturday, July 19th
We declared today a “take it easy” day. We were so tired from a crazy three days, so we went shopping at Downtown Disney in the afternoon after we had lunch at Planet Hollywood. We had

a nice lunch complete with a cocktail and we were ready to do some shopping!

We got some great scrapbooking stuff and had lots of fun putting together a box of parts for a Mr. Potato Head at Once Upon a Toy. They have these huge bins of Mr. Potato Head parts including some exclusive Disney parts and you can fill a box with them. Here are some of our “Tater Head” concoctions.

After shopping, we went for Dinner at the Fort Wilderness Resort – they do a dinner show called the Hoop Dee Do Revue and it is lots of fun. Lots of corny singing and dancing and a wonderful dinner of chicken, ribs, mashed potatoes, beans, and strawberry shortcake for dessert . All you can drink beer is included as well! It was lots of fun and a really silly show. We got to see the Magic Kingdom Fireworks show again while we were waiting for the bus, so that was a bonus! Pictures from the Hoop Dee Do - - -

Disney Day 3

Day 3 Friday, July 18th

Happy Birthday, OLIVIA!! Today was spent in the Magic Kingdom for Olivia’s 5th birthday. We actually slept in this morning and then went to our 11:15 brunch at Chef Mickey’s – again another Character Breakfast – here are the pictures!

















































































When we got to the Magic Kingdom, we rode the railroad over to Tomorrowland and got our Fast Passes for Space Mountain. We then did everything in Tomorrowland – The Carousel of Progress, Stitch’s Great Escape, Astro Orbiter, Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor, and got another Fast Pass for Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. Then we went to meet Laura, Sue, and Olivia for the Jungle Cruise. After that it was on to Fantasyland to do all of the “Classic” rides – It’s a Small World, The Many Adventures of Pooh, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Mickey’s Philharmagic. Mickey’s Philharmagic is a new 3D attraction that is just wonderful. They play all of the great Disney songs with 3D images in a screen that wraps around the entire front of the theater.



































































Next, came Olivia’s Birthday dinner at the Crystal Palace which was a Pooh and Friends Character Buffet. They brought out a cupcake and card signed by all of the characters for Olivia and we had Mickey confetti sprinkled on our table. It was a great meal and we were done just in time for the Wishes Fireworks show. I wonder how much they spend on Fireworks in one day at Disney?! We had a few minutes before Spectromagic nighttime electrical parade, so we used our Fast Pass on Peter Pan’s flight and went on the Haunted Mansion ride. The Spectromagic parade was great! After the parade we went and did Splash Mountain – that was so much fun – it did not exist the last time I was at Disney. The best part was when you have climbed up the mountain and you can see over the whole park – there was a full moon that night and it was just beautiful – then came the 5 story plummet to the bottom!! We finished off our evening with Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride and Snow White’s Scary Adventures. Another FULL, FUN day!

Disney Day 2

Day 2 Thursday, July 17th
After another short night (4 ½ hours of sleep) we got up and headed over to Animal Kingdom for our reservations at the Tusker House for Donald’s Safari Breakfast. This was a great breakfast buffet with great atmosphere, great wait staff, and Disney Characters – of course, we have pictures!

After breakfast, we headed over to the new Expedition Everest ride to get a Fast Pass. Then we went to see “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” – a great 3D show. We went on the Safaris as we still had time before our Expedition Fast Pass. I always love doing that – it took a bit longer than normal as the rhinos decided to hang out in the roadway! Next, it was time for Expedition Everest. What a GREAT rollercoaster!!!! There are lots of surprises, forwards, backwards, in the dark, etc. Definitely well done! Too bad the line was so long, or we would have done it again! After Everest we went on the Kali River Rapids and I was lucky enough to sit in the SOAKER seat – I was literally drenched – we came prepared however, so I changed into dry clothes and all was well! On to the Finding Nemo stage show and the Festival of the Lion King and we were wiped out!!! Back to the hotel for some lunch/dinner and a NAP! Some pictures from Animal Kingdom . . .

After our nap we headed over to Epcot for Extra Magic hours. We walked right on to Spaceship Earth and they have this new feature where you create your future – here is our picture from that –

We headed straight over to Soarin’ after that because there was only a 20 minute wait. That was incredible!!!! You really feel like you are flying and they even have a citrus scent when you fly over the orange trees. They really do think of everything! It was a very cool ride. We did the Finding Nemo ride, Journey into Imagination with Figment, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. We called it a day (a long one!) after that and headed back to the hotel.

Disney Day 1

On to Leg 2 of our vacation . . . We had a wonderful time in Disney and are currently on the plane to Minneapolis after a whirlwind 5 ½ days. There is so much to tell, and of course plenty of pictures to share, so I will do so in a series of posts over the next few days…..

Day 1 Wednesday, July 16th
We woke up nice and early – 4AM to be exact to catch the bus to the airport. Our flight was uneventful and we arrived in Orlando early! We got to bypass luggage pickup as Disney does that for you (and delivers your bags to your hotel)! There was a bus waiting for us and off we went to the POP Century Resort – a very cute resort divided into sections by decades – the 50’s through the 90’s. Here are a few pictures of the resort – we stayed in the 50’s section and our pool was shaped like a bowling pin!

After some lunch, and a nap, we headed to Hollywood Studios. I love that park! We met up with Laura, Sue and Olivia and enjoyed watching the Fantasmic! Show with them. That is one of my favorite evening Disney shows! After we watched the show, we headed out to have some fun as it was Extra Magic Hours (another perk of staying on Disney property – each night one park stays open for 3 hours extra for resort guests.) Sue gave us their Fast Passes for the new Toy Story Mania ride because they weren’t going to use them. This was TONS of fun – it is a 4D ride where you shoot at targets and such. Thankfully we had the Fast Pass, because the line was 90 minutes long. We then went and got Fast Passes for Tower of Terror. While we were waiting for our Fast Passes to be good for that ride, we decided to go and wait in line for Rockin’ Rollercoaster even though it was a 60 minute wait. I went up to the Cast Member and asked him if I would have trouble fitting on the ride and he told me there was a test car I could try. So, I went and tried the test car – fit no problem, and on the way out, the cast member told me we didn’t have to wait and we could go right in the “back door”! We literally walked right on the ride – no 60 minute wait for us!!!! I just love Disney! It was an AWESOME ride – 0 to 60 in 2.4 seconds. We still had time to wait for Tower of Terror, so we did the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show and then we were ready for Tower of Terror. SO MUCH FUN!!!! When you climb the 13 stories, they open the building so that you can see the whole park before you drop. Finally was the Great Movie Ride and we were tired! We headed back to the hotel after that, but not before we both started our Disney Pin Collection.

And We're Off. . .

In a few short hours we'll be off to Disney!!! We have to leave the house at 5 AM to get the 6AM bus to the airport! We'll try to update the blog while we are in Florida, but you have to pay ten bucks a day for internet. Talk to you all soon. . .


DISNEY OR BUST!!!!!!!!!!

Where do I start???

As the title says, where do I start? - There is so much to talk about! We'll start with last Wednesday - we finished Cake Decorating classes. The pictures below show our final cakes. The first one is mine, and the second one is MJ's. We had lots of fun going to the class and we were pretty proud of ourselves when we made these cakes. We'll go back for class 2 in September because we are leaving on vacation and can't do class 2 right now.































Speaking of vacation - we leave in 3 days (really 2 because today is almost over)! We can't wait!!!! I am so excited to go and just have a good time. The dogs are very excited as well because they get to spend 3 weeks at their Nana and Grampa's house. They love to go there and run around on the farm. My poor parents though - they end up with 4 dogs when they are there. We are so fortunate to have them to watch the dogs though! After we do Disney, we are headed to MJ's mom's house in Minnesota, then we are driving to Colorado to visit MJ's brother and his wife. Then back to Minnesota to see MJ's other brother and his wife and kids. It will be lots of fun and it is always great to spend time with family!


Ok, so we were vendors at a craft fair on Saturday. It was a total bust!! We sold 5 cards and 2 card boxes for a grand total of $10 - now, the table fee was $15 and we had to give a donation which equalled another $15, so we actually ended up MINUS $20. We had great "neighbors" though and it was a beautiful day, so we sat in the sun and chit chatted!

Here is a picture of our booth:

Ok, so I have to tell you about some more special people - you see there was this one set up with some really special items. I had to sneak a picture of them to show how really pretty they were (not)! Thank God for a good zoom lens!! So, without further adieu - here they are!

















The best part is that when we looked over we noticed one on the ground and we were able to see the trade secret for how they were made - look closely at the following picture:
















Yep, you guessed right - it was a "recycled" dish soap bottle - wrapped in tinsel garland - made to be an angel! If I had actually made some money at the craft fair, you might have had to hold me back from buying up the whole lot of them!

Today we went shopping and went to my parents for dinner. The dogs spent the afternoon there, so they are nice and tired tonight!!! I'll update again before we leave!

Good night - and sweet dreams - I am going to be dreaming about the missed opportunity for buying those pretty dish soap tinsel wrapped angels!