Showing posts with label Walt Disney world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walt Disney world. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Funny farm in Orlando- Day 2- Part 1

VisitOrlando.com/September

On Sunday, Dave and I had the pleasure of enjoying 4 theme parks in one day!! Wow! We hustled and bustled and packed in 11 rides! Well, I did. For some reason Dave's shoulder always seemed to start hurting when we were about to ride a "scary" ride. Luckily, his 11 yr old daughter is much tougher than him and I had someone to ride with before Nate showed up. 


We started our day at Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom... Before it opened!! Oh my gosh! Do you understand how awesome it was to walk through a closed Walt Disney World. I felt like this little girl all over again... 


That's 1990 something me excited to be at Walt Disney World. I was kind of like that times a jillion, on Sunday. 

We headed straight for the brand new Seven Dwarf Mine Train, in the New Fantasy Land. While here last year, Dave and I were peaking behind the fence to see what they were building. It was neat to come back a year later to enjoy the experience. 

The cue has a few neat features to enjoy while waiting in a long line, including a game for the kids to play with. It's almost like playing on an iPad, but a very large one. You play with jewels in the water in it, very fun for the kids. 

A little further down the line, are seven barrels of jewels that you can spin. Can you guess why seven? ;) 


When you spin the barrels fast, one of the seven dwarfs will pop up on the ceiling. 

After playing with everything, we experienced the new Seven Dwarf Mine Train Ride. It has a new technology that allows the carts to sway back and forth. It was a fun, fast and smooth ride. Even the most timid rider will end up loving it and wanting to ride again. At least that's what Dave's 10 year old daughter said. 

Another new ride that is part of the new Fantasy Land is the Journey Under the Sea ride with The Little Mermaid. What a treat I happened to be wearing my Ariel shirt, because she's pretty much the best. 


This ride puts you in a seashell as you travel under the sea to hear the story of the little mermaid. They literally broke down this whole movie into about a 2 minute ride. You hear many of your favorite songs from the movie, including "Under the Sea", "Kiss the Girl," and Ariel's "ahhh ahhh ahhh...." As she's losing and retrieving her voice. I can't spell it, but if you know the movie, you get it. 



By now, Walt Disneyworld Magic Kingdom had opened and the lines started to form. This is why coming during September is ideal, NO LINES! Fewer crowds and save yourself money. You can't beat that, plus throw in the cooler temperatures too. 

After the Magic Kingdom, we boarded the bus to go to the Animal Kingdom. We went into the back entrance right to the Expedition Everest attraction. This is for the thrill seekers!! The ride is a thrill roller coaster, with some surprises. *Spoiler Alert* you go backwards and in the dark quite a bit- this scared me! My ride partner, Josie- age 11- closed her eyes the whole time, but still said the ride was awesome. 

After we survived Expedition Everest, we headed to Kilamanjaro Safari. On this ride, our group loaded into the vehicles and drove around the trek to see wildlife of Africa. Still trying to decide if the rhinos or elephants were my favorite to see? Or was it the hippos? Very neat experience. 


After seeing the wildlife, we stopped in for lunch. During our lunch, many of the characters were around to take pictures with all the guests. They dance with us, had a party and made lunch very fun. We ate from a buffet of different choices. It was a way to sample a little bit of everything. It was tasty and you could have as much or little as you'd like. 



After lunch, we headed to our bus to say goodbye to our tour guide Heath. Our next trek was off to Universal Orlando. I'll get to that in Part 2. All the news about the new Diagon Alley coming up in Part2 :) 

PS. Here's a dwarf statistic for you. Did you know only one in seven dwarfs is Happy? Haha

Here's a preview 

Keep tuned in to Kstar Country for your chance to win a free trip to Orlando! Visit kstarcountry.com for full details and a chance to enter. 









Monday, July 28, 2014

Funny Farm in Orlando- Day 1


VisitOrlando.com/September

It's no secret, Orlando is one of my favorite places in the World! Yes, I've been several times, but you truly need to go many times just to see it all. Visit Otlando tells me 67 days to see to all! We all know about the main themes parks, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World, but there is truly so much more. That's where Visit Orlando comes in handy! 

Our first day started with very early flights out of Houston... With a very loud baby and a rambunctious toddler sharing a seat in front of us. Luckily we all had our own personal tvs on the united flight and I caught a few episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Goldbergs."

As soon as we arrived to the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, we all hit up the Harvest Bistro to eat! Dave of course had a steak, I went for the chicken BLT with a cup of fruit. 


After lunch, we headed to the rooms to change and get ready for the Ducktona 500 race at the pool. 

The pool here at the Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek is awesome! Lazy river, slide, zero entry, HUGE, free towel use, bar service... What more do you need! You could spend a whole day relaxing here! 


Here's Dave cheering on his duck to win... Which was actually more close to being the last duck. 


Mine's in there somewhere, go number 14!!!! 


After a day at the pool, myself and Dave's family got all spiffy to head down to Eddie V's for a tasty dinner! We were greeted with glasses of wine and ate from a wonderful buffet of salmon, steak, shrimp, oysters and more. They even had a cheese cake with Oreo crust.... Calories don't count on vacation! 

Not only was the Food great, but the view was awesome too! We had dinner outside with a beautiful lake view. Here's Dave's family enjoying the night...


No pictures of me, so how about a Saturday hotel selfie? Haha


It was a wonderful day and we had a beautiful sunset to end the day on the ride back to the hotel 


The next day, we traveled to 4 different parks!!! Walt Disney World, Walt Disney Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. I'll get to those in two parts tomorrow :) here's a preview... 


Fire.. Diagon Alley... Oh yeah...