WDW Day 2 - The Magic Kingdom!

 On Friday we had to leave the room at 6:55 to get to the MK for the 8am rope drop. A few weeks ago they extended the park hours in the morning (not EMH, just early opening...) and I knew that the pre-7am room departure was not going to go over too well with my crew but they took it pretty well and everyone rallied. It helped when I explained that I will actually hemorrhage and bleed out if I miss the morning show at the MK....

Then we counted it down and in we went! The crowds were very light - I think few people realized that the park was open at 8 - and they didn't corral us in the central hub at all, just let us right in! The best part of any WDW trip for me is that very first walk down Mainstreet. The music, the smells from the bakery and candy store, the castmembers all waving and greeting you like THIS will be the best day ever, it's just awesome.

 We paused for the obligatory castle shot. We scored another perfect weather day!

 Some day when I am old and retired I will get an AP and just sit in the central hub all day with popcorn, listen to the music and people watch!

 We decided to head to Splash, and there was NO ONE heading our way. Walked right onto the boat! Kellee and Ivana had the front seat and got pretty wet. As a matter of fact, Kellee got soaked on every water ride we went on!

 WooHoo!!

 When we came off the ride Micky and Minnie were right there with no one around them. We had to get a group shot but first I went in for the real thing from my Main Mouse....

 They're so little!

 After that it was right onto Big Thunder Mountain Railroad...the wildest ride in the wilderness!

 Ivana declared this to be her favorite ride so far so we did it twice. This was the only repeater on our entire trip!

 After that we did the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, and then 3 out of 4 of my buddies declared that they were ready for Space Mountain. Earlier they had said "no way" to this but the magic got to them my friends. Having done 2 out of 3 there was no way they were leaving the MK without finishing the Mountain Trifecta. Of course after having done the Rock and Roller coaster at the Studios they thought Space was pretty mellow and fun!

 Next we headed back to fantasyland to ride Small World and see Mickey's Philharmagic. The crowds were still pretty light but the MK was definitely starting to fill. We grabbed a dole-whip before the line got long. AWESOME!

 Then we did the Jungle Cruise and Pirates. At this point it was 11:40 and the MK was PACKED! It was time for us to leave and head to Kona for our lunchtime ADR. We did 10 top attractions before 11:30 am. Being there for park opening is soooo key!

 For lunch I got this tropical chicken with mango rice. I was seriously one of the best things I ate on the whole trip. I wrote it a love sonnet as I ate....

 The Poly was one of the transportation hotels for the Princess events so we only had to go down to the entrance to catch a bus to the Expo. We arrived in grand style and were welcomed by a red-carpet and dashing foot-men. A girl could get used to this!

 The Expo was unexpectedly fun! I thought we were just going to pick up our race packets, but there was so much fabulous energy and great vendors and products that we stayed for over an hour. We went at the perfect time too. The early crowds had just left and the mid afternoon crowds hadn't arrived yet. Just after lunch on the first day is definitely a good time to go.

 I went over to the RunDisney table to register for the Disneyland half and Jeff Galloway was there. What a surprise! He is the main trainer and coach for RunDisney and Ivana especially has followed his training plans and declares herself to be a "Galloway Runner". I raced off to find her and dragged her back to the booth. She was so surprised and very excited to meet Jeff and his wife. They were so friendly and down to earth and genuinely interested in us and our story. What beautiful people!

 We bought waaay too much stuff at the Expo (all for the excellent and very healthy cause of running though right???) and then it was about 3:30. The girls wanted to head back to the resort to relax but there was no way I was going back to rest on my MK day! So the girls schlepped all my purchases for me and took them back to Kidani and I headed back to the MK for a Touring Plans meet-up at the Hall of Presidents. I got to meet a whole bunch of people that I have communicated with on-line at touringplans.com. It was great to finally see the Hall of Presidents because each time I go to the MK the people I am with don't want to see it, and GREAT to hang out with some fellow Dis-Freaks!

 We met-up at the Liberty-tree which has 13 lanterns for the 13 original colonies and the flags of those colonies all around the Liberty Bell:

 Inside I even got to meet Presidential Mickey! He was lookin' sharp....

 After that I grabbed chowder at the Columbia Harbor House and did some shopping. Then I headed over to Tomorrowland for another attraction I always seem to miss, The Carousel of Progress. After that I just wandered around and took some twilight pictures in the park. Love this time of day in the MK!

 The Castle in the fading light:

 I told the Girls I would meet them at the Partners Statue at 6:45. What I forgot about was that the Mainstreet Electrical Parade was at 7 so the area around the Hub and all of Mainstreet was MOBBED! My crew ran into bus delays as well so they barely made it down Mainstreet before they closed it off and shut off the lights for the parade. Whew!

I was so glad they made it because I had a surprise Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party booked for us at 7PM. We made it there just as it was starting.

I hate waiting for Fireworks so anytime you can score a reserved spot plus amazing desserts that's a no-brainer right?

My crew was of course blown away by the sheer decadence of it all and kept declaring "ONLY in America...." It was more dessert than I have ever seen at one time that's for sure!

 The Tomorrowland Terrace is the PERFECT spot for Wishes. Our view was amazing and we didn't have to fight for a spot!

The dessert party made me wish that I had more than one stomach to devote to the cause! I think Kellee and Ivana agreed with me!

 As a bonus we got to see the Main Street Electrical Parade from a distance while we chilled out with coffee and dessert. Then they announced that "The Magic, the Memories and You" was cancelled due to technical difficulties. OH NO! I was sooo looking forward to seeing this new show where they have digitally mapped the castle and covered it in amazing effects.

 But there is nothing like "Wishes" to cheer you up. It's so much more that fireworks. The way it's all choreographed with the music and dialogue is just.... well, MAGICAL. That's all! Tinkerbell actually flew right over our heads where we were sitting.

 Wishes....

 After the show ended they announced that "The Magic, the Memories and You" was fixed and would show in 15 minutes! My gang was pooped, but they totally rallied and agreed to hang out and watch it with me. It was Amazing! They put pictures taken in the park that day and project them all over the castle with about a million jaw-dropping effects. Seriously, click on the link above and watch the video. My favorite parts were when they turned the Castle black and white and then colored it in with pastels and then when they made the tower take off like a rocket ship. I didn't even take photos because If I had you would think the pictures were photo-shopped. It was so worth waiting for that when it was over I actually agreed to leave the park with my buddies and go to bed instead of rockin the MK for 2 more hours like I had originally planned. See, I'm really so very moderate.....

WDW Day 1 - The Hollywood Studios!

 When we got up this morning we had some large Ankole cattle right outside our window.

When we arrived it was pitch dark outside so we hadn't really been able to see anything on the savannah. It was great pulling back the curtains in the morning and getting to take it all in.

 Then we headed to the Studios. What a gorgeous day!

We headed out the door Thursday morning at 7:55 to get to the Studios in time for rope drop. There were 2 problems with this. Last time I was at WDW I stayed at Jambo and leaving at 7:55 for a 9 am park opening worked just fine. This time though we were at Kidani which means once the bus picks you up, it then has to go to Jambo ect, so that takes like 10 extra minutes. Plus it was a 9.4 out of 10 on the crowd calendar! I don't usually go to WDW on peak days and usually being at the rope drop means I am physically touching the rope, so I was shocked when we got through the turnstiles and the crowd between us and the rope looked like this:

Waiting for "go" time!

 Yikes!! So we had to do some crowd dodging power walking to get to Toy Story Mania and I actually had to stand in a 10 minute Fast Pass line (Oh the shame of it...) to snag the FP's before we rode it. This it turns out was an unnecessary step, but more on that later....

 TSMM is one of my favorite rides in all of Disney. Of course it's everyone else's fav ride too so it builds the longest lines in all of WDW and the Fast Passes (FP from here on out) are usually gone by 11:30 or so. It's so much fun it should be illegal!

 Here's me in the zone chucking rings or darts or something. I could go on this ride all day and I usually do!

Next up was the Tower of Terror. Now some of our party was a bit worried about this ride, but I told them that they HAD to go through the lobby, the library and up to the elevator just to take in the incredible theming of the whole thing and then they could bail out the side door if they still wanted to be total wusses.

Of course everyone succumbed to peer pressure and got on the elevator which was my sinister plan to begin with... bwahaha!! Check out Karen hanging onto the side bar for dear life....

 After that Rock and Roller Coaster had a 50 minute wait so we nabbed FP's and then Ivana and I went to the Animation Academy while the others did some shopping. This is the one of the coolest things at the Studios. You go into a big classroom with drawing desks and pencils and a Disney animator shows you how to draw a character step by step. We got Donald and it was so fun! What an amazing (and free!) souvenir!

 We watched Beauty and the Beast live on stage and then headed to the coaster. I LOOOOVE this ride, especially the beginning. I got everyone on it (bwahaha again!) and told them that you didn't go upside down or anything. This was an honest statement at the time because I couldn't remember any inversions from 2 years ago. After the 3rd upside down corkscrew I was like "they're going to kill me...." so it was a huge relief when it came to a stop and I heard Karen go "That was BRILLIANT!!!" from the next row up. Whew!

 After that we headed to the Hollywood Brown Derby for our 1:25 ADR (advanced dining reservation). It was nice to take a break and eat a sit down meal in the middle of the day. And it's a good thing I was sitting down because this was the point in the trip where I made a horrible, devastating revelation: I was not at WDW with fellow fan-girls. No ladies and gents, my 4 companions in adventure are normal, moderate individuals who >gasp< see no reason to re-ride something once they have ridden it once. Now please understand that I had 5 FP's for Toy Story, The Coaster, and the TOT so I was like "It's ON after lunch, right you guys??... right?" I mean we wouldn't have had to even wait in line. They looked at me like I had lost my mind. I was unable to get past the reality of my situation for the rest of the trip BTW. I kinda figured that first day was a fluke and I continued to gather "ride 'em again" FP's for the rest of the trip with the same result. NO ONE has EVER left WDW with more FP's that I did on this trip people. No one.

 Lunch was "beautiful" though as the Aussies would say. I had this Tuna tartar app and a stirling porkchop. Yum!!!

 Flower and Garden festival starts this week so there were beautiful displays and topiaries all around the world. Made us feel like it really was spring!

 Next we headed off to Target to do some American shopping. Pretzels! Fruit Snacks! Ridiculously cheap T-shirts! Tampons in size larg-ee! We were in heaven!

 Got back to the room and had an ostrich and a giraffe right outside.

 Hello there gorgeous!

 After that it was time to head back to the Studios for Fantasmic. Now my little group was very, very tired.... but sometimes being a good Disney commando tour guide means having to say: "So the choice is you can come with me to Fantasmic or I can throw you over my shoulder in a Fireman's carry and TAKE you to Fantasmic. What'll it be?" They all very kindly decided to go to Fantasmic with me under their own power which I was very grateful for as I was a bit tired too.

 It was even better than I remembered. The combo of  live action with the animated bits on the water screens is soo clever. Here you can kind of see Malificent behind the magic mirror.

 And of course it all ends happily with the boat cruise. I had wet-eye...

 We were pooped! And so hoping that we would be out the minute our heads hit the pillow which didn't quite happen thanks to Jet-lag. It did give us some good middle of the night bonding time with the savannah animals though.....

Who flies all the way from Korea to Orlando for just 5 days?? WE DO!!!!

The story really begins when we first decided to do the Disney Princess Half Marathon back in Sept. 

If you missed it, here is PART 1

PART 2

And our TEAM INTERVIEW

So the big day FINALLY came for all of us. After getting up early and bundling the kids off to Kari's I went out to wait on the curb for the van that would take us to the airport. I was the last one to get picked-up so after it came we were off!!

 

We got to the airport in plenty of time and then all 4 of my buddies got pulled aside and grilled by security. "Where are you going? Who arranged this trip for you? Why are you going to Walt Disney World?" I was SO BUMMED that I didn't get interrogated. Can you imagine them asking me that? I'd be all "Dude, because it is Freakin' AWESOME there!!! Did you really just ask me that?" Apparently my girls let me down though and no one even pretended that such questions are actually insane and offensive. Why are you going to Walt Disney World indeed! The real question is why are YOU staying here in Korea!?! I took a pic of Karen getting questioned. Notice you can't see the security person. I have mad skills with stealth photography in airports my friends.....

 

They MUST have answered all the questions to the satisfaction of the Koreans (after all, a half marathon sounds suitably adult and serious....) and they let us off. We headed to Tokyo!

 

I think the team shirts made us look bona-fide. That's probably why they bought our story.

 After that we got on our LOOOOONG flight to Detroit:

 Notice the lack of any entertainment or TV systems on a trans-pacific flight lasting 12 hours. We definitely got the chaucy plane. I think it was built by the Wright Brothers and pre-dates digital media. Actually I think they talk about our plane in the Carousel of Progress in the 1940's section. It was OLD. If you're flying Delta to Asia....be warned!!

 We got our bags and Zoe even found me some Rold Gold Pretzels!! Munching away we headed for the Magical Express bus that takes you to the World.

 And then we had to wait like 20 minutes for the bus to fill.... AGONY!!! Why am I always the first one on the Magical Express???

 Pretty soon we were underway and then we saw it! How much do I loooove driving under that archway!?!

 

We were so tired but we didn't know it yet. I was AMPED!! So we checked in at Kidani. It was so beautiful... looked just like an African lodge. First thing I noticed was the hole in the roof and the trees going through:

 Then you look across to the main entrance and it's all lit up by lanterns in little windows on the outside walls. It's so brilliant and welcoming and just doesn't come across in pictures:

Here's a better shot of the lanterns up close:

 And the Lobby:

 We checked in and headed down to our 1 bedroom villa (that I forgot to take pictures of... oh well!)
It was great! We had a living room that slept 3 and a king bed in the bedroom for the other 2, a full kitchen and 2 bathrooms. Just what 5 ladies need!

I left the girls there to get settled and then raced off to catch the bus to Animal Kingdom Park. I had to go to guest services to get my Annual Pass and then get a Tables in Wonderland card. It gives you 20% off on all your dining so I wanted to get it before we ate at:

 When I got there the crew already had apps on the table and drinks all around. Love them!

The restaurant was gorgeous and the food was SO GOOD!!

I got this fish dish with shrimp and scallops and it was AMAZING! Almost as good as the margarita...

I was so excited to finally be there I wanted to enjoy each and every minute and I did, but I was also so excited to be off to the Studios in the morning!!