Daily Glad: March 2014

Finally, a blog all about my trip! It took a while to type this just because I never sat around to type everything at one time. I typed little by little. Surprised I remembered so many details. But anyways, here it is! Read on...

Orlando, FL was my trip plane trip with David.

We left Burbank airport at about 9am. Our first stop was Denver, Co. From the plane I could see the mountains covered in snow. When we arrived at the airport the pilot said it was 1° outside. We went though the walkway and it was freezing. Brrr. I can almost feel of right now. Haha. We didn't wait long before getting on out plane to Orlando, FL.

Denver, Colorado

The plane had a shamu design on it. It was interesting. But finally we go on and started on our way to Orlando. We arrived around 7pm. 3pm Los Angeles time. It was so nice and warm that I had to take my 2nd sweater off because of it. We waited for our Mickey express bus to our hotel resort. French Quarter Resort. It was about a 45 minute ride from the airport to our hotel but when we finally arrived we checked in, got our magic bands and went to our room.

These Mickey magic bands were awesome. They opened our hotel room, we could use it to charge to our hotel room for food, merchandise and use it for the extra Mickey hours to go ride rides after hours or early in the morning. Weee.

We wanted to go eat, so we went and explored Downtown Disney. It was about 5 minutes or so from out hotel resort. We explored Downtown Disney and even found an AMC 24 there. Haha. We went to eat at a place called Raglan Road. Irish type place if I remember correct. It was such a lively place with music and people dancing to the music. After our exploration we went back to the hotel and made plans for the week. What parks to hit up and what days.

Our schedules was as follows:

Sunday 12/08/13 - Mickey's Hollywood Studios

Monday 12/09/13 - Magic Kingdom and Epcot (dinner planned only)

Tuesday 12/10/13 - Epcot

Wednesday 12/11/13 - Animal Kingdom

Thursday 12/12/13 - Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure

Friday 12/13/13 - Magic Kingdom and Epcot

Saturday 12/14/13 - Epcot and Magic Kingdom

Busy schedule :-D

Sunday 12/08/13 - Mickey's Hollywood Studios

I thought I left California... but I was wrong! This park was all Hollywood! Haha. Palm trees, walk of fame, Chinese Theatre... it was all there, HOLLYWOOD. Haha I went throughout the whole day and didn't even notice the palm trees... can you imagine? It's so normal to me, that I didn't even see it until night time.

For lunch we went to eat at Pizza Planet. We shared a pizza and waited for a bigger dinner later on. At night we went towards an area at the park where millions on light lit up the buildings. It was so amazing. The lights would turn on/off, change colors and go with the holiday music. It was so amazing and I've never seen anything like it. This was the highlight of the park. Holiday lights and music! It was so packed and people were in awe.

Holiday lights and music!

We went on Tower of Terror, Star Tours (3D) Aerosmith Ride... and this ride we went thru-out Los Angeles to try to get to the concert... pretty funny. I never thought I go down the 405 at high speeds! We stayed 2 extra after the park closed. It was really fun and we didn't have to wait too long to get on rides :-) There were some other rides and shows but they were pretty boring... so that stays like that. But two that I will mention are Beauty and the Beast and Fantasmic. :-)

Overall this park was an experience, but so far it was eh. It was fun at least being there and exploring.

Monday 12/09/13 - Magic Kingdom and Epcot (dinner planned only)

Yay! Magic Kingdom! We actually woke up a little late. Probably around 10am. After a long trip I think we would have anyways. Okay, so I noticed a HUGE difference. The castle... was humongous! WOW. I never thought it was so huge... and so much prettier than disneyland's Castle. I was so amazed... every time I had a chance to look at the castle, I kept looking at all the details. BEAUTIFUL. After that we went on Pirates of the Caribbean. A lot of differences but still fun. We went on many rides, one was people mover (basically just takes you around Tomorrowland and shows you whats out there) Haunted mansion, we went on the Train that goes around the park... and I can't remember what else. We also went to Monsters Laugh Out Loud. David became part of the show and the monsters made jokes of what he said. It was really funny... and they reason why he even got picked was because of his shirt. He had a picture of a lime and a coconut. He got some many compliments and the Monsters on the show even sang the song. Haha.

The Castle... so beautiful and huge!

For dinner we headed over to Epcot. It was about 5-10 min time frame to get there. I think, maybe more? But when we got there I was blown away. I can see the Epcot ball... the huge thing... I've only seen in picture and Disney programing. I never thought I'd see it, but there I was. We went on a ride before heading to our restaurant. We got on spaceship earth. It was long and educational. :-P We had dinner at Le Ceciller Steakhouse. A Canadian restaurant. It was expensive and we had to get reservation for it the day before.We got lucky.... because apparently it' hard to get a reservation to this place and we managed to get it the night before. Wooo us. The portion size of my meal was perfect. Not to much but just enough. Small portion size is the best! I had a martini flight followed by some delicious chicken.

After dinner we headed back to the Magic Kingdom and watched fireworks. We also went to see the Hall of President and some bear show that was fun to see. We also went to see a show called Mickeys's Philharmonic. Basically it was a big Donald ordeal to figure and fix Mickey's show. Mickey was barely in it. :-P But that ends day two.

Tuesday 12/10/13 - Epcot

A whole day dedicated to Epcot! YAY! So the main thing about Epcot is... FOOD. There is so much food! We explored all of the World Showcase starting with Canada. Oh Canada! We stopped by a store and Dave decided he needed a hat! Which he did because he didn't have sunglasses. That whole week it was nothing but sunshine a warmness. He bought a nice blue and red hat with a Moose that said O Canada. :-) Next on our visit was United Kingdom. This is where we would see Alice and Mary Poppins doing signings. There was a little small food place that had the best fish and chips I've ever tasted. We ate there at some point in our trip.... but Omg... so good! We explored some stores and in one of there it had ton of Doctor Who merchandise. :-)

Next country was France. This is where Princess Belle would be signing. :-) But there was an awesome food place called Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie. I got a frozen iced cappuccino and and apple and cheese sandwich. Dave got a chocolate Croissant. We explored around and it definitely look like France. They even had the Eiffel Tower in the scenery. We then moved on to Morocco. We went into some stores and looked around at all the pretty merchandise. At one point I was coming out of the store and I had lost David but the I notices Jasmine and Aladdin coming out and walk right by me. David at that time was looking for me and called me over and told me to come inside this place. Inside was to meet Jasmine and Aladdin but I told him I already saw them walk by me. Hehe.

After that we moved onto Japan. OMG. One of my favorite places at the Showcase. It was so pretty to explore this area. All Japanesey like. The store at this location had so much anime and Hello kitty. Lots of Japanese Kimonos, tea sets and food. I ended up buying a little Japanese red cat. This is also where I ended up getting Japanese shaved ice at the Kabuki Cafe. Twice. Not on the same day but throughout our stay. We moved onto the next country, basically America. But here is was called The American Adventure. I found it weird that we have America here. But to think about it, it's correct. People come from all over the world just to visit Disney World and they probably don't know what America is about. So it makes sense with display it in the World Showcase.

Italy

Next stop, Italy. Very Italian... lol. We did see a mime putting on a show which was cool. We looked inside the stores and just to see check it out. There was a nice water fountain with a statue of Poseidon. Nothing else that I can especially remember. Just more stuff. But onto our next country, Germany. This is where we found a restaurant based on Oktoberfest. Lots of nice architecture here. They also had lots of beer steins. Some of the pretty ones had dragons on them and heavy! Lots of German candy too to be see and Oooh, we found the best chocolate covered cherries with alcohol. We got a few of them and tried other different kinds. I also ended up buying a bag of Haribo gummies. :-) GUMMIES.

Continuing on, China. Ooh we saw Mulan here. :-) We went inside one of the building and explored artwork from Tomb Warriors exhibit. We went exploring inside the stores and this is where you find your typical Chinese merchandise toys, silk robes, tea sets, etc. Our next stop was Norway, home of FROZEN inspiration! The merchandise was mostly cold weather stuff. The boots were awesome... I almost wanted to get a pair... but it makes no sense if I'm not in the snow. Hehe. There was a ride at this location called Maelstrom (a water ride) which we rode on at some point during the day. We did explore a building and some art design stuff from Frozen. Also, Disney Queen Elsa and Princess Anna resided at this location, which was awesome. Onto Mexico. Pretty pyramid site and inside it there were many little Mexican stores. Just so you know, in every location that I talk about, people native to that country work there. It was definitely a unique experience to have had. We also saw the restaurant we were going to eat at later. It's was called La Hacienda de San Angel. :-)

Inspiration for Frozen

There was a lot of walking. If I knew how much it would be awesome. But we walked pretty fast so it was some type of exercise for our vacation. But anyways, we finally went to our restaurant, where we had to also make a reservation for it, otherwise you can't go in. Reservations only for the good places to eat. La Hacienda de San Angel had awesome food. We got some cream atolle dish with was delish. I got some some fish dish. It came with rice and beans which I gobbled up. We also got some drinks, Dave got a Horchata alcoholic drink which was okay. But I can't even remember what I got... sowwy. Haha. It might have been a coffee thing, but I'm not sure.

So at the end we saw some fireworks display. They were amazing. The ending especially was beyond anything I've ever seen. I literally felt the explosions going thought out my body. Fantastic. Throughout our stay we probably saw them about 3 times. Definitely worth it. We also stayed two extra hours after the park closed. We rode MISSION: Space. And wow, this ride was amazing. It's basically a stimulation of a space launch and one of the most amazing feelings on a ride. We went on the Orange Team for an Intense ride. There was a green team but it was a mild one... so not for us. We wanted more!

Wednesday 12/11/13 - Animal Kingdom

We had to wake up really early for the Animal Kingdom. The park opened at 9am. But we had an extra Disney magic hour so we could go in at 8am instead. So we woke up at about 6:50ish. We got ready and ran to our bus stop at about 7:20am. Well Dave ran to the bus stop (Complimentary for Disney Resort Guest) and I walked fast behind. There was a bus arriving at the bus stop and it turned out it was for the Animal Kingdom. We got lucky and left at exactly the time we should have. We got to the park at about maybe 7:45am. We actually got inside the park before 8am. We walked all the way in and right into Kilimanjaro Safari to see the animals. One of the highlights in the morning was seeing the lions. We saw a lioness playing with a huge stick... haha big purr purr. :-) All the animals were cool and we even had one trying to hit the van... thing.

After that we walked towards the Asia part of the park. That's were we found Expedition Everest! It was a ride that we went on twice. Both wait times were less than 5 minutes. Good thing we rode on it early in the morning because by the time we can back to the area around noon, people were stuck on it. Hehe.

Here's a pic... you can see a worker up there.

It was a nice big park. I especially loved the Tigers :-D Aaah they were so amazing. I could have watched them all day. But this being an animal park, it closed at 6pm. Soo, when we left we went to Downtown Disney for dinner. We ate at Rainforest Cafe. This is the third Rainforest Cafe I've been too. The first was in Las Vegas when I was 12, then Downtown Disney in Anaheim, and now in Florida! :-) Woo. There was actually a wait for more than an hour to eat at Rainforest cafe but we went and looked at the bar area and there were two open seat. We snatched them right away. Beats going with a big party, when it's just two. :-) Oooh that reminds me, I had the best mango mojito... ahhh. I can still remember it. Yum. I also got a souvenir glass with my drink that said Orlando on it :-) We even got to see the thunder and rainforest noises during their little event thing. If you've been to a Rainforest Cafe... you should know what I mean.

After dinner we wondered around and ended up at Paradiso 37 and had another drink. I also ended up with a souvenir cup from this place. With flashy lights and all. Shortly after we went back for out hotel and to relax for the next fun filled day ahead of us.

Thursday 12/12/13 - Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure

We had to reserved a car to take us up to Universal. It's not close to Disney... and to take a bus... it would take and hour or two. Not ideal for morning travel. So a guy came to pick us up. We went outside towards the main entrance of our hotel and to our surprise someone was holding out Dave's name on a little board. Haha. That was so cool :-) I felt famous... not really, but it was awesome to see my boys name up. It was about a 20-30 min ride to get to Universal. We got dropped off right by Citywalk Florida. Oooh. And there was an AMC there too :-P We decided to go into Islands of Adventure first. That's where we rode the Hulk ride twice since there were no lines. Next we went on Doctor Doom. I didn't wan to go on it, but Dave convinced me. Haha. After that it was Spiderman 3D ride which was awesome. :-) It was similar to Transformers the Ride. We walked through some cartoon part of the part then straight to Jurassic Park. OMG, there weren't billions of stairs here. What a surprise... :-P We decided to have breakfast at a place where the world of Harry Potter was. I'm not a fan of Harry Potter... but I was so amazed with the architecture of this place. I took a lot of pictures just because it was cool. We walked around for a bit and we also rode on the rides at this Harry Potter placey thingy. We ate at "Three Broomsticks." They even went all out with this place. It was amazing. The people were really nice especially an old lady letting us know what we should check out. :-) I wish I had written her name down, I would have put a good word on her. Before we left Dave wanted to get Butter Beer. When I tried it... I fell in love. It was sooooo good! I knew we would be back later... and get more! After that we walked towards the exit and off to Universal Studios FLORIDA!

We went into Universal and walked into the Blues Brothers strolling down in their car. I had my GoPro on so I got them waving at me. Haha. Shortly after, we got on a ride called "Hollywood Rip Ride Rock It," where I got to choose what song to ride with. I ended up choosing "Evanescence - Bring me to Life." It was so awesome. The song when with all the turns and loops on the ride. Sad to see the ride end. Haha. We walked around went inside the Twister show thing, went on some other monster type show thing, got on The Men in Black ride. Mostly shooting aliens as the ride turns and turns you around. Pretty fun ride and I got a higher score from killing aliens than Dave did. Hehe. We walked and explored around Krustyland and went inside Moe's bar. After that we went towards a Beetlejuice show. We both sat at the very front. It appeared that no one wanted to be there. It was big gaps and not enough people. There was singing and dancing but no one seemed to care about the performers. Lol. Oh well. After the show we went towards The Mummy ride. I have to say the ride in Universal Florida was better than the one at Hollywood. Hehe. :-) Shortly after we left the park but not with out seeing The Macy's Parade at Universal Florida. We saw a few floats then headed off to Islands of Adventure. We went straight to the Harry Potter land... world, uh PLACE! It was starting to get cold... the first day and night were it has been cold. But we still got Butterbeer and it was so worth it. We explored and too more pics of this Harry Potter place at night. But eventually we left and had dinner at Margaritaville in Orlando.

Enjoying some Butterbeer inside "Three Broomsticks."

Afterwards we headed down to the bus stop by walking. It was windy but as we walked to the bus stop we warmed up. As soon as we got to the stop the bus arrived a few minutes later. We actually had to take two busses. The second one would take us Downtown Disney and that's where we would catch the complimentary bus to take us to out hotel room. While waiting for our second bus, I had to keep pacing back an forth just to keep warm. I started running back and forth and I almost fell because of some grass. I just laughed it off and keep running for warmth. Our bus came and we went to Downtown Disney and finally our room for a nice needed night break.

Friday 12/13/13 - Magic Kingdom and Epcot

I think the first thing we did was some shopping. I wanted to buy stuff for my family, so I bought a few items and had it held for me at the front of the park for pick up. We were in the front of the Magic Kingdom and noticed there was some Mickey show and thought we should go and see it. We waited in line and thought, why is it taking so long but finally we moved and they directed a group of 5-6 people into another room. This is where I thought... "I don't think is a show." We went through the door and saw Mickey greeting and taking pictures. We waited in line to meet Mickey. I was annoyed. Lol. I don't like to meet any Disney characters... so if I was going to meet Mickey, David had to too. We had an employee take my camera and take pictures of our meeting with interactive Mickey. In the end he did perform a card trick for us, so we did kinda see a show. Haha. After that we wanted to walk up to the Swiss Family Robinson tree house and explore but before we did we got some dole whip at Aloha Isle. So yummy. :-)

Meeting Mickey. Card trick. You can tell I'm eh about this.

We also went to watch the birds at the Tiki room. Chirp chirp. We started walking towards fantasyland and saw It's a Small World actually opened. We went on the tiny little ride. The first time we saw it, it was closed. We walked around the park and got on the railroad that took us all around. We spent some time at the Magic Kingdom, but then it was time for Epcot! We had dinner reservation at the French restaurant at the World Showcase, Chefs de France. The most I remember from this place was the fake friendly guy. He was trying too hard to be friendly but it was all fake friendly. At some point in the night I got Japanese shaved ice. It was so delicious with the milk topping. But I also discovered a little free holiday stamp passport book. We walked all around the world showcase and I managed to get all the stamps in under two hours. :-) haha. Dave was actually surprised that we managed to do it all in one night. We watched the fireworks again and of course they were amazing. I got some little bite churros to enjoy the show.

Saturday 12/14/13 - Epcot and Magic Kingdom - Final Day!

First stop was Epcot today. I wanted to check out the holiday talk about Hanukkah. It was about 10-15 minutes long and I took some pictures/video as well. We walked around the World Showcase and came by Japan again. I had to get some Japanese shaved ice again, so I did. YUM! We spent most of the day exploring parts of the park that we have missed or thought eh. We spent dinner time at Epcot and went to Via Napoli for pizza. We went into the restaurant for our reservation and sat next to a big window opening. A few minutes after that, it started to rain. Thunderstorms! We saw people running for cover all over in the area while we were comfortably sitting and waiting for our food. It was so beautiful to see the rain and the weather still warm while we ate our dinner. We watched fireworks that night... they were just so fantastic. We headed over to the Magic Kingdom afterwards by monorail. We spent the final hours exploring parks of Fantasyland we hadn't seen. We ended up in an area dedicated to Beauty and the Beast. We could see beasts castle, Belle's little town and tavern. It was quite cute. During the last hour at the Magic Kingdom we decided to get dessert at Sleepy Hollow. Sadly David hurt his foot on our way there. He was only walking and bam, pain. We had no idea what could have happened but it sucked.

Rain view from Via Napoli

This trip was awesome and my favorite part was Epcot. I love all the diversity in each the location at the World Showcase. I guess that's why I love Los Angeles, my home. :-) It's nice to see new places and see what they are all about. But I'll always be happy to come home back to Los Angeles, CA because it's the place where home to me is normal. There is so much more I can tell you about my trip, but it would be much longer that this blog. So if you want anymore, it will be in person!

Here's a link that will take you to my pictures from the trip.

Disney World Trip Pictures December 2013

-Glad