Day 6 - 2014 Disney World Trip

Christopher in his Star Wars t-shirt of the day

Yep - Christopher surprised me with a special shirt of my own.

Hard to believe how long this vacation was because it seemed to fly right by us while we were there! Day 6 brought us to Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekend! I am so glad that I consulted with family, friends and some other blogs because I am not sure I would have been prepared for what Star Wars Weekend was going to be like!

Waiting for the parade!

We walked to the park (huge perk for staying at Boardwalk Villas) and arrived around 9 am. The Stormtroopers were standing guard just past the entrance. It was pretty cool. As we were walking down the main boulevard, we noticed a lot of people were already staking out their spots for the parade. At 9:15 am, we found a nice shady spot and staked out until parade time. 

The parade is about to start. All three lovely children and their light sabers are also captured in this picture.

Hey Mickey!

We ended up sitting next to a really nice family and talked to them about Disney, living in the Northeast and the festival. This definitely made the time pass quickly until...this really annoying family sat on top of us. This family had three of the brattiest children I have ever witnessed. I could re-tell the story of how the next 45 minutes went but you would think I was making it up. The kids crying, kicking us, fighting around us. The little girl even pushed her brother into me and knocked me over! No apologies from the parents. They instead rewarded their horrible behavior with dessert and presents. And by presents I mean light sabers that we then were whacked with. It was truly disgusting. 

The parade was amazing!!! Worth waiting for 2 hours in the heat for and the bratty children. The parade had so many characters in it, it was hard to keep track of who we saw. The celebrity motorcade was really cool. One of the celebrities was Wicket the Ewok. 

Christopher's special name tag

After the parade we headed over to Darth Mall - the Star Wars weekend merchandise store. I couldn't believe there was a line to get into the store! Crazy! There was a lot of cool stuff. CHristopher probably could have spent all day in there and it would have cost us a fortune. Instead, we walked out with some custom name badges and Star Wars legos. 

How sad is it that the Ewok is almost my height! 

We rode a couple rides, including Star Tours and also waited in line for some of the Star Wars Weekend character meet and greets. We met Darth Vader Goofy, Stormtrooper Donald, Chewbacca and an Ewok. It was so cool and the meet and greets were awesome. I have no idea how they can be dressed in these heavy costumes and be out in the heat. I was in a tank top and shorts and was sweating like crazy. No idea how Chewy does it! Christopher rode Tower of Terror and I chickened out. So instead I waited in the shade and then we had ice cream for lunch :)

Before dinner we relaxed a bit and had special Star Wars Weekend drinks while we waited for our reservation time at Mama Melrose's. The cute drinks had little light sabers in them. Mama Melrose's was pretty good, but the service was slow probably because of the volume of tables they were serving with it being Star Wars Weekend. I would definitely go back! 

After dinner we had our fast pass for Toy Story Midway Mania - our favorite ride at the park and then headed back to the resort. It was so nice to be able to just walk back and not have to take a bus. We will definitely be staying at the Boardwalk again! We relaxed at the resort for a bit to try and save up some energy to go to the 24-hour event at the Magic Kingdom. 

We left for MK around 10:30 and arrived to the park at 11 pm. It was CRAZY packed but quite good for people watching. Guests were encouraged to come in costume and some of the costumes were ridiculous and surprisingly slutty for Disney World. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was open but the line to get in was so long...like over two hours! We ended up walking around and taking it all in. We ended the night by watching the Main Street Electrical parade. They had a special float for Memorial Day too. It was a huge American flag and a bald eagle.  We also saw a special 24-hour event parade that included a lot of the Disney Villains. It was cool. 

Day 5 of our 2014 Disney Trip

Sorry for the long break between posts - this month has just gotten away from me!

Our fifth day down at Disney we spent at Magic Kingdom! It was a really, really hot day...like 90+++ degrees. Our Buffalo bodies are not familiar with this kind of sun.

During the day we rode Pirates of the Caribbean (it never gets old!), WEDway Peoplemover, Hall of Presidents, Space Mountain, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and Buzz Lightyear Ranger Spin. It was great to ride some of the classics again. It was also our first time doing the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor - OMG what a hoot! It is now on our must do for trips going forward!

We ate lunch at Tortuga Tavern. This was our first visit here and we really enjoyed it. The portions are HUGE. At first I was a little leary about only ordering one burrito, but they were very large. I would say if we had kids, two kids could probably share one burrito and be completely full.

Also on this trip we had a late afternoon snack at Pinocchio's Village Haus. This restaurant was closed for renovation last time we here down at Disney. They serve a bunch of different flatbreads. We tried the BBQ chicken flatbread and it was delicious.

This night was our BIG dinner of the trip. So many friends recommended dinner at 'Ohana so we had to try it out. As I mentioned earlier I LOVE the Poly. It is so beautiful and the hotel's theming is beautiful, so I was excited to be back for dinner here.

Holy smokes that is a lot of food. When our friends recommended 'Ohana for dinner, they talked about all of the meat skewers and how delicious the food is. What they left out was the skewers were only part of the all you can eat meal!

First course - their signature welcome bread. It is a soft bread that is filled with pineapple - so good! Next are the Honey Coriander Chicken Wings - delicious! Then the server brought out our salad - it is a mixed green salad with a mango dressing. Then we were brought vegetarian lettuce wraps. Then we were brought pork fried dumplings (OMG these were amazing and we ordered seconds). Are you full yet? You can't be because next are the skewers - there are three to try! Pork Loin, sirloin steak and shrimp. All were fabulous. Oh and I forgot the sides: you get BOTH asian style egg noodles and stir fried vegetables. And if dinner was not enough (it is all you can eat...you can request more of anything!) there is also dessert. The dessert served is a bread pudding with ice cream and caramel sauce. I did not think I would like it but it was amazing!

We will definitely be going back again! This would be a great place for families because all of the food is served family style and kids will definitely get a kick out of that.

After dinner, we waddled over to the boat launch to get back to the Magic Kingdom. We ended up making it in perfect time to see the Wishes Fireworks show. It was the perfect end to another great day at Disney.

Oh and how could I forget...after Wishes we booked it to our resort bus stop and...a bus was there and we did not have to wait! SCORE!

Day 4 of our 2014 Trip to Disney - Epcot

Walking over to Epcot

Day 4 of our fantastic trip sent us back to Epcot - our favorite park. We had no formal dining reservations for this day, so we were excited to pick and nibble and explore some of the quick service options.

In the morning, we headed to the Future World to get some attractions and rides in before making our way around the world. And as the day would turn out - a pretty epic day of drinking.

We ended up catching quite a few rides. We did Mission SPACE again, Ellen's Energy Adventure, Living with the Land, Soarin', and Journey into Imagination with Figment. On that ride, I lost my sunglasses! So Christopher was amazing and bought we another pair.

Mac & Cheese Topped Burger. Delicious!

We had lunch at the Electric Umbrella. They served a mac and cheese topped burger with bacon. Heart attack in a sandwich but absolutely delicious! And served as a good lining for the day of drinking we ended up having.

As if the mac & Cheese burger was not enough - tried the Nudel Gratin.

Got to have some German beer.

If Christopher gets a beer, I gots to have some riesling.

After lunch we made our way to the World Showcase. Our first stop was Germany so Christopher could grab a a couple of beers. While Christopher was waiting in line, I grabbed the Nudel Gratin because I clearly did not get enough mac and cheese at lunch. I also enjoyed a riesling while Christopher sipped his second beer. We then walked around a bit and took some pictures. We then got to France which meant - Grey Goose Grand Marnier martini time! Mmm - just as delicious as I remembered.

My favorite martini :)

After enjoying a pair of martinis, we then headed back to the resort to rest and relax for a bit. We sat out by the quiet pool, which was super warm, like spa warm so not refreshing. We headed over to the main pool where the pool bar is. I joined Christopher there and had a couple of mojitos and he enjoyed some beers.

Enjoying Spice Road Table and each other :)

We then were getting hungry for dinner so we decided to head back over to Epcot. I had wanted to try Spice Road Table in Morocco, so Christopher obliged. I couldn't believe the place was EMPTY at dinner time. It is a new restaurant and it is located right along the World Showcase Lagoon. We ordered a pitcher of sangria and the Tingis Platter. The platter came with a lamb slider, spicy sausage and a harissa chicken roll. We then ordered the calamari with a spicy sauce which was delicious too.

Sangria is starting to talk

Beautiful view from our table.

We ended up buying another harissa chicken roll AND a pitcher of sangria - oye! The sangria was a sparkling champagne sangria. To top the night off we had their chocolate pyramid, which came out perfectly when Illuminations started. We literally sat at our table and had a perfect view of Illuminations. It was a perfect night. Still surprised that barely anyone came into the restaurant while we were dining there.

Basically empty restaurant - crazy!

Definitely on our second pitcher

Chocolate Pyramid!

After Illuminations, we headed back to our room. Needless to say we were a little drunk. Somehow Christopher ended up picking up all of our packages we had sent to the resort, and broke our magic band reader for our room.

It was a fun day. Not sure how Magic Kingdom is going to top that tomorrow.

Our least favorite street performer. It is bad when we do not find them amusing when we are drunk lol.