As you may have noticed, I was pretty scarce last week. I did pop in to comment back every night (I tried to at least), but I didn’t have much time for roaming around the blogosphere. This was because I was at Disney World in Florida and disconnected from the internet!
I woke up early and got on the road around 8:30am. The drive was about 9 hours and was relatively painless. There was some pretty heavy rain (check out that line in the sky!), but it was over quickly. I listened to Crown of Midnight on the way!! I really enjoyed the second book in the Throne of Glass series more than the first, but I’ll be posting a full review of that soon.
The Disney World sign came into view around 5pm, so I didn’t make bad time at all! I pulled into the parking lot at Saratoga Springs Resort at 5:15, checked in, and got to my room. Once I got there I was so hungry I took the boat straight to Disney Springs (previously Downtown Disney) and grabbed some dinner at Earl of Sandwich. At that point I was spent though, and headed back to my room to turn in early.
I woke up at 9am, ate my oatmeal in the room, and got on the bus to Animal Kingdom with one thing in mind – Harambe Market, the new food and shopping area in “Africa.” Dinosaur was my first stop! I love this ride! It’s a dark ride with lots of twists, turns, and some jump scares. Next I got in the single rider line for Expedition Everest, a really awesome roller coaster inside of “Everest” and got on after about a 10 minute wait in the blazing sun. Finally, I went over to Harambe Market where I got the beef kabob flatbread with broccoli and tomato salad with the African milk tart for dessert! The main dish and side were fantastic, but the dessert wasn’t for me.
As soon as I finished lunch I saw the clouds rolling in and basically RAN to the exit and got on the bus just before the massive downpour began. I hung out in my room to wait out the rain and then jumped on another bus for Magic Kingdom and was there by 3pm!
The first stop once I was inside Magic Kingdom was using my first FastPass+ at the Haunted Mansion! I noticed some upgrades from the last refurbishment and the ride looked great overall! Of course, I’ll always love it no matter what. Next was Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid. I noticed that the Under the Sea scene has had a HUGE makeover and looks absolutely amazing. There was an annoying woman taking flash photos the whole time though… I did some window shopping until my next FastPass+ at Peter Pan’s Flight. This is one of my favorites! I love the neon characters and the flyover!
Dinner was at Columbia Harbor House where I had the (best ever) chicken pot pie and read Everything, Everything while overlooking Fantasyland. Then it was time for Splash Mountain! Unfortunately for everyone else and fortunately for me, the ride broke down just as we were getting ready to go over the second small drop. Eventually the Cast Members rescued us and led us backstage where we were able to see the building the floats are stored for the parades! So cool!! We were also given extra paper FastPasses for any ride except a few of the newer ones. I used mine for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh!
As I was preparing to leave I found out that a friend of mine, Mary, had just moved to the area and was staying on property for a few days. We agreed to meet at Disney Springs where we had Ghirardelli Ice Cream and did more window shopping. I made it back to my room around 10:30 and relaxed with some Roku before bed.
