"Hakuna Matata, It Means No Worries" Trip Report Part 1

It's been a week since I've been back from another amazing trip at Walt Disney World. Last week, I shared what my thoughts on what my stay at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort. Today, we begin what the rest of my trip was like. This is for my trip September 18-24, 2016. Part 1 will be the beginning of my trip.

Sunday, September 18 - Epcot

The day began bright and early arriving at our local airport just after 6 for our 8 a.m. flight to Orlando (MCO). Getting an early flight to Disney is the best because not only do you get to Disney early but the airport isn't busy with those early flights. This means getting through security was pretty easy and without stress. We boarded our flight around 7:30 and we were on our way and up in the air shortly after 8. Flight was just over 2 hours and we were downstairs waiting for the Magical Express to our resort before 11:00.

We had to wait a bit for our Magical Express as my father needed a lift for his wheelchair. Boarding the Magical Express is always the best when you get there, however we all know what its called when you're leaving the World. We arrived at our resort around noon and by the time we got there our room was ready.

After arriving at Caribbean Beach, we picked up my dad's motorized wheelchair that we rented for the week and we then waited for the internal bus to get to our room. As I stated in my resort review we were on the opposite end of the resort in Trinidad South. We checked out our room and after a long morning and part of the afternoon it was time to finally head to Epcot. After a short 10 minute drive on the Bus we arrived and vacation in the happiest place on Earth could begin.

We arrived at Epcot and it was already around 1:30 and we were starving. I didn't have a FastPass until after 3 for Soarin' so we had some time to head over to start tasting foods from the Food & Wine Festival. Now as you know last November when for my short trip I raved about the food I got to try at Epcot's International Food & Wine Festival. One of the amazing dishes last year returned in the loaded Mac & Cheese at the Farm Fresh marketplace. New to this year's festival at the booth was the Chicken & Dumplings with Mushrooms & Spinach, both were excellent. Also returning this year at the Hawaii marketplace was the Kalua Pork Slider. Now I am a pretty picky eater so I got it with just the pork and not pineapple chutney or the spicy mayonnaise. Once again it was absolutely delicious.

Loaded Mac & Cheese and the Chicken & Dumplings from Farm Fresh

Kalua Pork Slider from Hawaii

Now here is where the photos stop from day 1 because oops failed to take my camera out of its bag until we got back to the resort. 

After eating the slider, we started heading over to The Land pavilion to try out Soarin'. First, though my dad wanted to try the Empanada from Patagonia. He loved it, but overall I thought it was just ok. Making it over to the Land is where one minor problem began. My Dad's wheelchair was showing it was low on power. Now as I have previously stated in my other trip reports, my dad needs the wheelchair due to him being paralyzed on his right side, so unfortunately while his wheelchair was charging he was stuck. So my mother and I regrettably went onto Soarin' without him. 

Spoiler Alert:

Soarin' Around the World is simply amazing and is just as good if not better then the first. However, there is one complaint, some of the scenes including the Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal scenes are CGI'd in. Overall, though smells are amazing there and its the same music from Soarin'. Of course it was great to see Patrick as well, I'm not sure how I would feel about it if he wasn't back in the pre-show. Overall, very well done and I can't wait to go back to ride it again. 

After we rode Soarin' my dad's chair was said to be charged (more on that later) so we headed back over to Spaceship Earth for our next FastPass. It was time to thank the Phoenicians as they say. It was then time to head over to Italy for our reservation at Via Napoli. Via Napoli in my opinion is the best pizza on property at Disney World. Now we had free dining but since two of our reservations later in the week were using two credits, we decided we would pay for Dinner tonight ourselves.

They had a special pizza that had authentic Italian Bufalo mozzarella and their signature tomato sauce. We got the large which was a whopping $42 for 8 slices and a personal pepperoni pizza. The pizza although expensive was very good. I really can't complain because I've never had a bad meal at Via Napoli. 

After dinner this is when the day turned as we were heading into the America Pavilion my father's chair was getting low on power again. We headed into Chase Lounge to get some charge so we could make it back to the front of the park to get back to the resort. My mother then called Buena Vista Scooter Rental where we rented from to see if we could get another chair. After we got it charged we did in fact make it back to the resort and thankfully my mother was able to get another chair to be delivered the next morning. 

We got to our room where I logged on to my computer and called into the MouseLife podcast to record live from my room on how the first day went. After we headed over to Old Port Royale for our mugs. My mother and I made it back to the room just in time as the rain came down just as we got back. It was time to turn in and get some rest for our first full day in the parks. 

Day 2 - Hollywood Studios:

As I said we were getting a new chair this morning so after breakfast we returned the chair to the Custom House. While we were returning the chair, my mom got a call from Buena Vista that they would deliver the chair right to our room. So that would be the end of that story you would think however I'll leave you on a cliffhanger that the story isn't just over yet and you'll find out the end of this one in part 2. 

So after that bit of delay it was time to head over to Hollywood Studios. Let me just tell you how excited as I would finally be seeing all the new Star Wars stuff at the park including Launch Bay which I hadn't seen on my last trip. 

First up after arriving at the Studios, we headed towards Toy Story Mania and the Pixar Place for our first FastPass. However, we still had some time before it so we headed into One Man's Dream first. I would love if they kept One Man's Dream because it is such a great place dedicated to Walt but I fear it will be gone for Toy Story Land. After we headed over to Toy Story Mania where I did just ok with a score of 98.800. Although, that is pretty good for me as I'm not as good on Toy Story Mania as I am on Space Ranger Spin at the Magic Kingdom.

Before lunch we headed over to the Great Movie Ride. Another classic attraction that I ride every time I go. For lunch we headed over to The Commissary for some lunch, I had the Angus Bacon and Cheese Burger with fries and the Darth Vader chocolate peanut butter cupcake. Last time we were here I had the steak but I didn't want anything big due to us eating at the Brown Derby for dinner. 

After lunch, it was time to head over to Launch Bay where I fell in love and didn't want to leave. I am a huge Star Wars fan, so this place is like a dream to me. Over there I of course met Chewbacca and Kylo Ren which were both amazing meet & greets. Here are some photos of Launch Bay and of my meet & greets.

Why yes Chewie, we are home!

Kylo doesn't scare me.

After my experience at Launch Bay it was time to head over to Tower of Terror and our next FastPass. This was a special experience as this 4 year old boy in front of us was getting to ride it for the first time ever with his grandfather. He was so awesome because he loved it and wasn't scared at all. Tower of Terror is one of my favorite rides in Hollywood Studios so thumbs up to this kid, I hope it becomes of his favorites too.

We had a while before our next FastPass at Star Tours so we headed over to the Muppets area. While I didn't go onto Muppets this time (sad face) I did get to meet Olaf and capture some photos of the area that will soon become Star Wars Land/Toy Story Land and some photos of the soon to opened Pizza Rizzo. 

It was then time to ride Star Tours and I was finally able to see the Episode VII scene which was quite amazing. Ever since they updated this to Star Tours: The Adventure Continues I've never had the same scene. I had thought that my day of Star Wars wasn't over as we were heading over the Brown Derby for dinner but the sky was darkening. I was hoping that it would pass while were at dinner. 

This was our first time at the Brown Derby, all these times visiting we never went. It was worth it this time as dinner was so good. I had the charred filet of beef, my father had the roasted rack of lamb, and my mother had the pan seared black grouper. Everything was amazing. While we were in dinner it started pouring buckets however.

By the time we got out of dinner of course it was still raining. It was still almost 2 hours away from the fireworks so there was hope. We waited inside until there was no hope and it was decided that we come back the next night for Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular. The rain just didn't let up and we decided to head back to the resort. I'm not sure what time the rain stopped but it was lighter once we got back to the resort but picked up again shortly after. 

This ends the first two days of my trip, next week for part 2 you will hear about our first day at the Magic Kingdom and my trip to Animal Kingdom for the amazing nighttime experiences in the park. 

"Don't Know Where I'm Going, Only Know Where I've Been." Trip Report Part 3

If you just finished up part 2 here is part 3 and the final part of my trip report. It may be two weeks since I returned from Walt Disney World, but I still can remember everything as if I just left yesterday. Anyway's here you'll see our last trip to Epcot and our day that seemed it wouldn't end, Star Wars Weekends review, and our last day in Disney.

Thursday:

I'm just going to start off by saying there will be no pictures from this day. It was a long day and I couldn't even begin to imagine this happening again ever. We began the day by returning to Epcot one last time. We made our way to our first fastpass in the Imagination pavilion where the first unimaginable thing happened.

 My sister and I got on Figment where they say watch your sunglasses there will be wind in segments. I decided to take my sunglasses off even though the other day I had worn them on the ride. I must have put them on my hat and forgot because they blew off my hat at some point in the ride and I lost them. We alerted cast members and they said unfortunately they couldn't retrieved anything until 7 that night when they did their final walkthrough of the ride. So to put in plain and simple I was miserable thinking I lost my favorite Oakley sunglasses. There is a happy ending however but more on this later. 

After our unhappy ride with Figment, my sister and I headed over to Nemo to meet my mother and father for our next fastpass. We enjoyed our ride with Nemo and friends and had some time before our last fastpass at Test Track. Looking for something to do we dropped off my medication at First Aid and then decided to go on Mission: Space. It had been a few years since we rode this attraction of course we decided on the light version. Then the next unimaginable thing happened my sister got light-headed towards the end of the ride. We left the ride and she sat down with my father in the shade and drank water while we went to ride Test Track.

Test Track of course was amazing, the updated version by Chevrolet is even better than its previous version. Being able to create your own car is awesome and I thoroughly enjoy going on Test Track. After Test Track we headed off to lunch at the Electric Umbrella. I of course had the same thing I had on Tuesday, the French Dip Burger again. With no fastpasses left it was time to enjoy one final walk through the countries before dinner at Via Napoli in Italy. 

As we walked through the countries we took one last visit to America and The American Adventure. I can't say how great this show is, it makes you really proud to be an American. We had a snack in Germany of curry and paprika kettle-cooked chips. I discovered the Werther's shop in Germany (yes I never knew it existed). We decided to return later to take some snacks back to our room. After walking through the rest of the countries we decided to visit Mexico and see The Grand Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros. It was time for dinner at Via Napoli. We all had pizza because I'm just saying very well could be the best pizza in Disney World.

After another delicious dinner, my sister and I ran over to the Imagination pavilion to see if they could find my sunglasses. We arrived right at 7:00, we alerted the cast member in front they said they would be doing their final walkthrough shortly and they would be looking for them. It seemed like we waited forever and after praying all day that they would be found a cast member came out with my sunglasses. I couldn't thank them enough, a big THANK YOU to the cast members who found my sunglasses in the Figment attraction. 

We made our way over to the Germany pavilion to pick out our snacks from the Karamell-Kuche, it smelled so heavenly. We decided on a caramel drizzled chocolate covered rice krispie treat (it was huge), chocolate caramel covered marshmallow stick, two bags of the popcorn, and a dark chocolate sea salt bar. We made our way out of the park and back to the hotel hoping to swim. The swimming was out of the question however my dad while taking a shower, the shower backed up and flooded part of the main room. If you want to hear more about what happened at the hotel read my review of our stay here. Everything was fixed and that ended the nightmare of the day.

Friday:

The day I had been waiting for all week had finally arrived. We were going to Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends weekend 3. We all woke up early that day and arrived at the park just after 9:00. This is pretty good for us considering we couldn't get to the park before 10 any other day. 

The Chinese Theater was behind the stage but it still was nice to see it without the Sorcerer's Hat in front of it. We had some time before our fastpass at Tower of Terror so I decided to check out the show on the stage with the stormtroopers and the carbon-frozen Han Solo. Those stormtroopers are hilarious. 

On my way over to Tower of Terror I finally found the Tomorrowland pin, I had been looking all week for it. It was time to go on Tower of Terror and take a visit into the Twilight Zone. My sister can't go on this because of back problems but my mother and I go on this attraction every time we visit. It's my niece's favorite attraction. There is nothing like getting tossed up and down and not knowing what's going to happen each time you go on the attraction. Note: Rock N' Roller Coaster was down for emergency maintenance all week. While every other guest was waiting for the parade, we decided to head over to Darth's Mall to get some of the merchandise.

Before that though we stopped to see about the Frozen show if you didn't have a fastpass and stopped to see Lightning McQueen and Mater. This visit was exclusively for my youngest nephew who is obsessed with Cars. We finally headed over to Darth's Mall which is located in the old Backlot Tour area. It was a great area for it and themed amazingly. 

Inside the shopping area we entered the limited edition store first where I picked up the logo pin and the trilogy scenes pins from episodes four, five, and six. They are amazing and I am so glad I got them. At the time by the way you could walk into both store. We then headed over to Watto's Grotto where I picked up the Star Wars Weekend t-shirt and we all picked up some of the Star Wars cars for my nephew. They didn't have some of them so he is short a few for the complete set. It was a successful trip to Darth's Mall. 

My family and I headed over to the Muppets, it's a must do at Hollywood Studios if your a fan of the Muppets. After we got out of the show it was time to head over for our lunch reservation at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. This restaurant is hilarious, remember no elbows on the table and definitely no spitballs. I got in trouble with our waiter because my mother thought it would be funny to roll up her straw and place it in front of me. Anyway's for lunch I had Aunt Liz's Golden Fried Chicken. It was quite good. Another place that I wasn't going to have dessert but once again my arm was twisted and I couldn't resist, the Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake was calling me. It was so moist and rich I couldn't even finish it all, it was amazing though. 

After lunch, my mother and I went over to Star Tours for our fastpass. I couldn't be at Hollywood Studios and not go on this attraction, especially during Star Wars Weekends.  The ride takes you on a different tour every time and its just amazing since they updated it. We met up with father and sister afterwards and made our way over to the Frozen show. Now I know Frozen has gone overboard at the parks but the show was really well done in my opinion. Here are some pictures that I took from the show. 

After the show it was time to head over to Toy Story Midway Mania for our final fastpass of our trip. This is another must do at Hollywood Studios as it brings all your favorite Toy Story characters together in competitive multi-game attraction. I didn't do as well as I do on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin but it is still a fun ride.  Before the ride here were some Star Wars characters roaming through the park.

Anyway's after Toy Story Mania we headed over to One Man's Dream. This is one of my favorite shows in Walt Disney World. From all the pictures and dioramas before the show to the show and story of Walt Disney itself. It is just amazing and reminds that "it was all started by a mouse." The show lasts 20 minutes and after that it was time for dinner. We headed over to ABC Commissary to try something new out. That something new was the steak dinner that was a nice size 11 oz. New York strip steak served with broccoli and fries. Surprising for a quick serve dinner it wasn't half bad. For dessert I had the Darth Vader chocolate peanut butter cupcake, it was delicious.

Dinner was over and all we had left to do was The Great Movie Ride and then it was sadly time to say goodbye to the parks. The Great Movie Ride had just re-opened as it is now presented by TCM. Both the pre-shows, the queue, and the ending were re-done. The queue now has picture frames of movies that will change every few seconds to a different movie. There are new movie props in the lobby as well. The pre-show is a continuous show that runs almost 45 minutes long so you will never see the whole thing. The most shocking is now the hosts of the ride itself do not talk as much as the voice over by TCM host Robert Osborne. It was done over nicely and it was better. I believe though that some of the attraction itself could be re-done maybe add some more modern movies to the attraction. 

It was time to leave Hollywood Studios and head back to our hotel. We arrived back at the Art of Animation and decided to go swimming for a little bit. After swimming the realization was hitting us that we were going home the next day, so it was time to begin packing to go home.

Saturday:

It was going home day and it was depressing that we were having to come back to Pennsylvania. We woke up and had a small breakfast. We finished up packing in our room and went over to airline check-in to drop off our luggage.  After we walked around the resort and took some photos of around this beautiful place. I was really sad that we had to leave, it really was a great week. Here are some photos I took around the resort.

After leaving the room at 11, due to checkout we headed over to Animation Hall because we still had 3 hours before we were to be picked up by the Magical Express. In that time we visited the arcade for awhile before we had lunch. It was around 11:45 when we had lunch for the final time at Landscape of Flavors. I had a delicious chicken burger with bacon, pickles, mushrooms, and american cheese. Lunch was over and finally all our meal and snack credits were used up. We now only had about an hour and half before we were due to be picked up. We decided to look at our photopass photos to pass the time and it was worth it. A little after two the Magical Express came to pick us up and take us to the Orlando International Airport. 

Goodbye, Art of Animation and Walt Disney World = (

Once we got through the airport of course we had to take the tram over to the terminal and get through security. We got through security pretty quickly and went over to McDonald's to have a quick bite to eat before our plane left at 5.  We then headed over to our gate and shortly thereafter boarded the plane to come home. Thus, ending our wonderful trip to Walt Disney World and back to Pennsylvania. Overall it was a great trip, very relaxing and I can't wait to get back to my favorite place on Earth.