After my exciting encounter with Captain Hook, I made my way back to the hotel to meet up with Mom so we could go to EPCOT. (Or maybe I met her at EPCOT? It’s been over a month since we went. And really, does it matter all that much?) Our goal was to see the World Showcase (as well as one can in the dark when it closes at 9) and to see the fireworks show.   First thing we saw were the sidewalks.

They built in fiber optic lights in different designs which flash on in patterns.  Little kids also liked them.

 

We got to the World Showcase and first went into the Mexico exhibit. It was designed to look like a Mexican marketplace, as you can clearly see.

Although we did not purchase anything, we did have a fun game of Big Hat, Little Hat.

   

 

Then, we went on the boat tour of Mexico.  Cool pyramids! And some of it reminded me of It’s a Small World.

 

Outside, it was getting dark, but these birds were white and easy to see. And they were fake, so all the better to be photographed between, my dear!

 

Our next country was Norway. It has the only other ride in World Showcase (Mexico’s boats being the other).  It’s actually a pretty neat tour–a log boat in water, you look for trolls, high seas adventure.  When it was over, you exit into (surprise, surprise) a gift shop!  We had fun in this one, too.

Trouble with Trolls? Not one bit!

 

I had a Viking warrior to protect me!

 

And if her fierceness didn’t drive them away, I could always just sing. That would send anyone running for the hills!

 

As I mentioned earlier, EPCOT (and thus World Showcase) closed at 9. We decided to head to Downtown Disney, a big shopping area and night-life area.  Mom had me pose with Tweedledum and Tweedledee. She says she makes everyone pose this way.

 

I don’t remember much about Downtown Disney. We went into a store. I was cold and tired and worn out and hungry. The last thing I ate was the hamburger and fries from the last entry. So, Mom recommended we split a sandwich from The Earl of Sandwich.  It was the best tuna melt I ever had in my life. Tuna melt and salt and vinegar chips and tea…I was so very happy.       

 

 

 

After that bit of joy, we headed back to our room and slept. Ahhh.  Then we woke up for more exciting adventures!

 

What? Another entry? Yes, indeed loyal readers, I have returned to continue the Disney adventure. But I must say, after seventy-two weeks of rain, I feel gloomy. So let’s see if these Disney pictures will spark memories of sunshine and happy days!

Our third day was spent at MGM Studios. I’d never been there, for, just like Animal Kingdom, it did not exist 25 years ago.  It’s a movie-themed park, mostly famous for The Tower of Terror (did that twice) and The Rocking Roller Coaster. (And also other stuff, but it was a nice segue!)  Mom had never gone on the Rocking Roller Coaster since it was an upside-down ride. But, I talked her into it. Before we got in line, we considered taking pictures in front of the ride where the big guitar is. “Wait,” I said, “Let’s wait until AFTER the ride, and then we can get your reaction to what you thought of it!”

She LOVED it! (and so did I)

Next we went to the 3D Toy Story ride. I’m not sure of the exact name, but it was lots of fun! You and your seat mate both don 3D glasses and have guns. The ride takes you to various 3D shooting galleries, and you blast away.  Both of us were fairly pathetic shots, but Mom beat me both times we went on the ride.

 

I don’t really remember a lot of rides at MGM. Maybe there aren’t that many? But we had a good time taking pictures outside of the Toy Story area. We had more fun than…

Well, you get the idea!

Mom really, really wanted a Slinky Dog. I noted that MGM Studios probably has the largest percentage of Slinky Dog sales of anywhere in the world.

 

Choose me! Choose me! We only lacked The Claw.

 

One show I was eager to see was Beauty and the Beast. It was a half hour version of the show. Now, last time I saw it was onstage at State High, and Nathan was Gaston. And guess what? Even with this not-nearly-as-handsome Gaston and people I didn’t know, it STILL made me cry!

 

We made late lunch reservations, so for a while, we just walked around MGM. They have it designed in parts to resemble a movie set with false-front buildings and streets painted in perspective and all. We are posing in front of a flat-panel background. Pretty neat, eh?

   

This wasn’t painted. It was real… or was it?

 

 

I thought it would be fun to go see the Narnia thing. Wasn’t sure what it was–a ride? A show? Turns out it was about a 15 minute preview of Prince Caspian. Sorry. Already saw the movie. Not interested in seeing it in clips.  The best part of it was the set. It was designed to look like the broken stone table. And after the movie clip was finished, they turned on the fog machine. Most people left the room, but I stayed for some cool pictures.

 

What was cool about the lion below was that although it looks like it was carved into the stone (or at least permanently there), it was just a trick of photography. During the show, the image changed into other figures which also looked carved into the rock, or there was no image at all.

 

It seemed like a gazillion, bazillion years before we got to have lunch. I was a crabby pants. But finally we got to go to the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theater. It was darkish and all the tables looked like cars (no roof) which all faced a big movie screen in the front which was showing clips of old cartoons and previews of black and white, very B, horror flicks. Evil Catwomen from Mars, Killer Robots from the Moon… epic!

 

But what I most wanted was food and drink!

 

    

 

After I was fed, I was much less crabby and was able to enjoy myself again.  We decided to take the back lot tour. I’m not sure of the official name, but you get on a bus/tram thing and ride through the MGM back lot where they show you props of things they used in Disney movies.  They also had a scene where a truck would catch on fire and there would be a waterfall thing and a bridge would shake. It was neat.

 

We had a lot of fun in the gift shop. Awards? For us? Oh, yes! What would YOU give us Oscars for?

 

 

 

After the excitement of posing with little, gold men, Mom decided to head back to the hotel for a nap. I stayed to finish out seeing things at MGM.  First thing I did was the Indiana Jones show.

 

Then, I went to a show on Disney animation. There were only six people watching the presentation, which was just crazy! After I stayed to ask a question about animation: Is it done all by computer now or is some done by hand? (answer: Both. Case in point, the two movies which are coming out this summer. Cars 2 was 100% computer animated. Winnie the Pooh movie was done by hand.)  I walked out to the display area to see what they had, and…and… THERE WERE CAPTAIN HOOK AND MR. SMEE!!! Now, if you had asked me who the only Disney character I wanted to see was, I would have said, “Captain Hook.”  And I got to see the Disney princesses the night before, so I figured, “Oh, well. You got to see something.” But there they were! In a random exhibit in MGM Studios!  I got in line all by myself and explained myself to the grandma and child in front of me. (Yes, I’m 41, but, IT’S CAPTAIN HOOK!)  Captain Hook “kissed” my hand and posed nicely. 

And then, there was Mickey Mouse, too!  I also got to witness Captain Hook going off-duty come over to Mickey Mouse and both of them did some sort of complex hand gesture, hip-shaking dance thing which probably meant, “I am getting off in 10 minutes. I cannot wait to escape this suit and elderly fans. Let’s go get a beer.”

 

But wait…there’s more! The night had yet to happen!

 

 

 

 It was night time on our second day. After a refreshing recharge (and change of clothes) in our room, we headed back out. At night, they shine different colors of lights on the castle so that sometimes it is purple, sometimes pink, sometimes other colors.

 

         

 

What drew us from our cozy hotel lair? We had dinner reservations at Mom’s favorite Disney restaurant, Ohana!

 

Ohana, as you probably could guess from the fact we are wearing leis, is a Polynesian place. It was one of the most interesting restaurants I’ve gone to. There is no menu. Your only options are “Yes, thank you,” “More, please,” or “No, thanks.”  First, they brought us some bread (no butter) which tasted slightly of pineapple. We ordered our drinks (sodas), and they brought us salad–just greens tossed in a dressing. It was simple and tasty. (Good thing, too, as we also had neither salt nor pepper.)  After the salad, they brought out pork dumplings with a sweet and sour sauce and chicken wings/little legs.

They were awfully good. The next course arrived. This appeared to be ramen noodles with broccoli and green beans. Once again, very tasty.

 

And then, the main course–insane amounts of meat! They cooked the meat on skewers and brought them around. There were four choices: pork, chicken, beef, and shrimp. And they were perfectly seasoned!

 I was pretty sure I didn’t care about the shrimp, and I ate one and confirmed my suspicions. I tried the other three, and I thought that chicken would be my favorite, until I had the beef. Then I had the pork. And I had more pork. And a little more…

But I had to save room for dessert. It may sound “iffy,” but OH MY!  It was pineapple bread pudding topped with bananas, caramel sauce, and ice cream. YUM!!

 

 

Now, what would a Polynesian restaurant be without music? We had a floor show where a Hawaiian woman would come out with her ukelele and play and sing and do fun stuff with the kids, like having kids push coconuts around the restaurant with brooms or learn how to hula. And we got leis. Leis for days…

 

  

 

After our supper, we decided to take advantage of The Magic Kingdom’s midnight closing time. We stood at the monorail gate and chatted, and all of a sudden, we heard a CLUNK. There is nothing louder than the sound of a child’s head hitting concrete at 10:30 at night. A little girl had been sitting/messing around on the gate and fell off backwards. OUCH! I hope that she was okay. 

When we got off the monorail, Mom was delighted to see that we had stumbled upon the Parade of the Seven Seas. She said that it had been years and years since she last saw it. The “parade” is a line of animated lights in the lagoon in between EPCOT and Magic Kingdom. The lights make it look like they are moving, and I think they might also be on moving platforms. Not sure about that. It was neat to see!

  

 

Into the park we headed. Main Street, USA, the first thing you see when you walk in the park, is so pretty at night. Mom showed me a building that she said used to be a store but now was something else. We went to investigate and were not sure what it was. There was a worker there, so we asked. She said that there was a movie on one side, but on the other, you could go in and meet the princesses. And tonight, the Frog Princess, Belle, and Cinderella were there. And there was no line. MEET THE PRINCESSES? NO LINE???? I was so excited!

There they stood in a room, and we walked right in.  I did feel a little stupid “meeting the princesses,” and I even told them so. But it was cool!  The first one was the Frog Princess. Not only did she look like her character, she acted like her. She said I had a nice dress, and we joked about shopping at Target (which she joked and pronounced as “Tar-Jhay” (French))

 

Next up was Belle, and she kept in character super well, talking about the characters in her story and asking if I knew them and if I had tried the “grey stuff,” and if I had a Wardrobe to help me choose my gowns.  I answered back as if she were the real Belle, but I did say, “I know it must be weird for a 41 year old woman to be excited about meeting the Disney princesses, but hey!”

 

The final princess was Cinderella. CINDERELLA!! My favorite of them all! She was just as vapid in person as she is in the movies, perhaps even more so.  We forced Mom to pose with me for this shot. She was not nearly as excited about meeting them as I was.

What did I take away from meeting them? If you ever want to feel really, really ugly, stand next to a Disney princess.  And supervise small, tired children around concrete and gates.

Although it would be easy to say, “Hey, it’s been a month since you went to Disney. Give it up, woman. You aren’t going to get your blogging done,” I am going to keep pressing on to tell the tale of The Grand Adventure! And this entry, I hope not to be as dull as the last time. But, about that last entry, how exciting can a topiary of Rabbit be?

Like I mentioned in the previous entry, we decided to go to EPCOT for our second day. We boarded our bus…

And headed out to the park. We ate breakfast at EPCOT, some sort of turkey sandwich thing with a side of potatoes. It was pretty good. Then we got into the business of going on the rides. Mom’s favorite ride at EPCOT is Soarin’. When she would speak of this ride, I always thought she was saying “Soren,” and I pictured a fantasy dragon/battle ride.  But, it is actually one of those videos where you feel like you are hang-gliding over California. They even make it smell like oranges when you fly over the orange groves! I was a bit nervous that I’d get queasy (as I often do), but it must have been designed for the motion-sick. I only had to shut my eyes once!

Then we headed to…uh…somewhere else… And we saw ducks! Real Disney ducks!

 I am not at all sure of the order of the day, but here are a few things we saw:

The World of Energy!

I remembered this ride used to smell a lot like peat moss. I was sad it did not anymore.  Now it just smells like Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye.

 

The Sea!

      

These guys were in a display outside The Sea. This guy was inside. 

 

I was almost inside him. Hee hee.

 

I sort of forget what we saw in this area except big aquariums and there must have been something we got in little cars and rode around in, but darned if I can remember what it was. Let’s just assume it was fish-related. Here we are sitting outside The Seas. The mosaic tile makes me think of showers which makes me think of water which makes me think of the sea. Wonder if they did that on porpoise?

 

The Mine, Mine, Mine Seagulls are a favorite of mine, mine, mine.  I wish I could have gotten them on a tote bag. Oh, the sales Disney is missing out on…

 

We saw Spaceship Earth and went inside it. It was a nice break for Mom, as being Atlas was a tiring job. 

 

She also got me a Diet Coke and a soft pretzel. Always a good thing to give me fluids, especially in the form of Diet Coke. Keeps me happy!

 

We found a hat stand and had a great time trying on various hats. The guy who worked there even volunteered to take our pictures. He didn’t even care if we bought a hat.

            

The one of Mom in the Mad Hatter hat and the two of us as chipmunks are two of my favorite pictures from the whole trip.

 

We also made a stop in one of Mom’s favorite Disney Stores.

I can’t remember the name of the artist, but he sculpts lovely Disney scenes. Mom said over and over, “I am so glad I never started collecting (insert that guys’ name). I would just never stop!” And look how nice the things are! Can you blame her for wanting all ten zillion of his sculptures?

 

Soon enough, it was time to go back to our room to get ready for our night.

What will the evening bring? Keep reading to find out!

 

The next day we went to EPCOT. Now, when I think of EPCOT, I think of futuristic stuff like this:

 

But it turns out that they had hosted the HGTV Flower Show in February or March. We were all excited to go into the big arena to see things. The outside was lined with “flowers.”

 

And the entry way was pretty neat.

 

But we were a bit disappointed with the inside. There were some flowers, like these cool poinsettias.

 

But for the most part, the arena was empty with abandoned booths. One booth–a gift shop, no surprise–was open. And there we saw the perfect accessory for my mom’s garden!

 

But, what the inside lacked, the rest of the park more than made up for. There were Disney topiaries everywhere!

 

                

 

And in World Showcase (the place where they showcase ten countries and have buildings and shops and displays in the style of that country), they made each country’s flag out of flowers. Do you know which countries these are? (Be glad I didn’t give you France, Italy, or Mexico! Those were a bit trickier with floral colors.)

 

 

                              

 

There was one really cute area (which I think was in EPCOT), a Fairy Flower garden and play area for little kids.  I don’t think this was part of the festival, but it had really neat topiaries of fairies (who were not hairies and were very-ies not scaries). 

 

 

                                 

 

I really enjoyed the dozens of little fairy houses that were hidden and scattered. There was even a fairy hot air balloon!

 

And this entry was fairy dull (ha ha), but it did have a theme and lots of pictures. So maybe that counts for something?