the happiest place on earth

{Tuesday, May 14th- Disney World}

When we were shopping around for different cruises, as soon as we saw that there was a cruise that left out of Galveston that went to Disney World we were sold!! Matt and I have both been to Disney World, but I have heard that you experience it in different ways at different ages.  We both thought it would be fun to go as adults without kids before we take our own kids someday.  This cruise was our chance to do that.  

We had one day with a park hopper pass to squeeze in as much Disney as we could.  We docked in Port Canaveral so we had about an hour bus ride into Orlando before we even got to Disney World.  We got off the ship and loaded our bus around 6:45am.   

Our first stop was Hollywood Studios.  It is the smallest of the parks so we felt like we could hit all the high points quickly and then move on.  We arrived at the park around 8am before it opened at 9am.  They let us in the park around 8:40 though.

Our morning got off to a rough start because apparently we didn't completely understand the Fast Passes.  I went to go get in line for Rockin' Roller Coaster and Matt went to get our Fast Passes for Toy Story.  We didn't know that you had to have both of our cards to get the Fast Passes so I ended up having to meet Matt in the middle of the park to get my card.  Once we both got back in line at Rockin' Roller Coaster they announced that they were having technical difficulties and didn't know if or when they would even open.  We were so frustrated and didn't really know what to do.  

I decided to go ahead and wait in line while Matt walked next door to Tower of Terror.  I had no interest in riding it.  It is one of the things I remember doing as a kid so I didn't need a fresh memory of it!  Dropping multiple stories in an "elevator" isn't really my thing!!

Rockin' Roller Coaster ended up opening up while Matt was finishing Tower of Terror so we got both of those rides knocked out pretty quick with 10 minute wait times.  There was one drop on Rockin' Roller Coaster that I didn't care for but other than that it was really fun.  However, I definitely don't love roller coasters like I did as a kid!!

Other things we did at Hollywood Studies......

Star Tours

This was a really neat 3D simulator ride.  I know absolutely nothing about Star Wars but I still enjoyed it.    We barely had to wait for this ride.  Maybe 10 minutes. 

The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow

We had to wait about 15 minutes for this show. It was a little theatrical show in a cave.  We all just stood in a room and watched it.  It was literally the dumbest fifteen minutes of my life.  If I could have squeezed my way out to walk out, I would have.

Toy Story Midway Mania!

We got a Fast Pass for this ride.  Our fast pass was at 10:10, so we did all the other things at Hollywood and then did this last before we moved on to another park.  The Fast Passes are a genius way for you to be able to do other things while "waiting in line" for another ride.  This was definitely my favorite thing at Hollywood Studies, but also one of my favorite things at all of the parks.  Basically it is a giant 3D video game where you shoot targets.  Each target has a point value, and you are trying to get as many points as you can.  You compete with the person you are sitting with.  Just in case you were wondering.......I beat Matt.

If we had longer I would have loved to see The Little Mermaid Show or the Beauty and the Beast Show, but we had to move on.  We hit the high points of Hollywood Studios in about an hour and a half.  It wasn't crowded at all!!  We left Hollywood Studios around 10:30.  

Our second stop was Animal Kingdom.  We really weren't planning on going here but when we finished Hollywood Studios so quick we decided to squeeze it in.  I was excited to go here because neither Matt or I had ever been as it wasn't even open the last time we went.  It was so pretty.  I loved how you really felt like you were walking through Asia and Africa.  The plant life was absolutely beautiful and I loved seeing all of the animals.  Animal Kingdom is soooooo big, especially compared to Hollywood Studios.  I don't even think we walked through it all because we were in such a hurry.

After we took the obligatory picture with the big tree we headed straight to the Kilimanjaro Safari to get a Fast Pass.  Our wait time was about an hour so we walked all the way across the park to Expedition Everest.  The wait time for the roller coaster was about 25 minutes.

I actually really enjoyed this roller coaster!!

On our way to the safari, we saw this crazy cool lady on stilts covered in greenery. She would get in these crazy positions and then hold them.  It was amazing to watch!

We grabbed a quick bite to eat (and actually ate while we walked) then got in line for our Safari.  

We had great seats for the safari because we were in the back of our vehicle.  We could look out the side and the back.  We saw so many neat animals.  I think the only animal we missed was a lion.  He was hiding. 

We left Animal Kingdom around 1:00pm and headed to our final destination, Epcot.  

We decided to skip Magic Kingdom because we felt like so many of the things there are really geared for little kids.  We know we will be back someday with Pearson and we'll do all that stuff with him! I was a little sad that we went to Disney World and we didn't even get a picture with Cinderella's Castle.  Oh well, next time!!

The Flower & Garden Festival was still going on so we got to see all the amazing topiaries in full bloom.  They were truly amazing!! I didn't even get pictures of all of them. 

I didn't really get many pictures of us at Epcot but here are the things we did.........

Spaceship Earth

This is the "ride" that is inside the big ball at Epcot.  It's a very slow moving "roller coaster" where you can see yourself in the future.  It's nothing special but there was no wait at all and it was air conditioned!!

Ellen's Energy Adventure

Oh my word, this was sooooooooooo dumb.  It was basically a 45 minute movie where you moved from screen to screen in a big moving car.  It was a dumb story line and VERY dated.  I actually took a little nap during the movie since it was so boring.  There was no wait time for this as well. 

The Seas with Nemo & Friends

There was no wait time for this as well.  It was a cute little kiddie ride, but quite boring for adults.  They had some neat stuff to look at/do after the ride, but we didn't do any of it.  

Soarin'

One of our other favorite things at Disney.  This was a simulator ride  where we felt like we were hang gliding over all different places.  Some of the places even had smells so it felt so real.  I loved this "ride".

Living with the Land

This was a boat ride through a really neat greenhouse and fish farm.  It's sounds boring, but it was quite interesting to see how they grow alot of plants especially the tomato trees!!

Mission: SPACE

This was a simulator ride where we felt like we were astronauts blasting off into space.   We did the "mild version" because I'm a weinie. I thought it was still really neat so I'm glad we did the "mild version".

Test Track

We got a fast pass to this ride, but there was still about a 15 minute wait to ride.  Part of the wait was creating your car that you would be testing.   I really enjoyed this ride.  The fast test drive was definitely the best part!

After riding most things in the Future World, we headed to the World Showcase.  I remember not being impressed with this as a kid and I definitely felt that way again as an adult.  There really wasn't much to do but walk around and look at things.  It was starting to get hot and our feet were definitely starting to hurt after all of our fast walking around the parks.  

We walked through all of the countries and rode both of the boat rides through Mexico and Norway.  They were both really dumb and boring.  We actually waited the longest we waited for any ride for the Norway voyage and it was probably one of the least favorite things we did.  I definitely could have done with out both of the boat rides.  We stopped in Mexico and ate some overpriced nachos that we could have gotten at any ballpark and then ate a crepe in France that didn't even come close to comparing to our favorite crepe place here.  Overall, I was really disappointed with the World Showcase part of Epcot.  I really wish we would have just skipped it and headed to Magic Kingdom for the rest of our evening.  We had planned on staying at the park until closing time to see the firework/light show but we had done everything we wanted to do at the park and we didn't want to sit around for an hour and a half waiting for it to start.  We decided to call it a day and hopped on the 8:15 bus back to our ship.  We made it back on the ship around 9:30 and we were greeted by none other that Captain Mickey!!!

We ate a super late dinner at the Topsider Buffet and then soaked our tired feet and bodies in the hot tub while watching Cars!!

We had such a fun day at Disney!!!