For the next little while, life was really calm. The next big adventure came in October, when three of my friends and I went to Walt Disney World. We had literally spent months planning the trip - emailing, messaging, and meeting about it more than we probably had any right to. Brandi and I in particular had to have spent hours pouring over food blogs... We may or may not have been more focused on food than anything else.
The first day of our trip, we drove down starting early in the morning. We got there a little later than we'd hoped, but the staff at WDW were good enough to help move our dinner reservation back. So, we were able to get dressed for the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party before going to dinner. Kit was dressed as her favorite character from the new My Little Pony, Brandi was a female 1950s Captain America, Amanda was Daenerys, and I went as Han Solo (I even made a Chewbacca backpack for the occasion).
I really enjoyed the Not-So-Scary party, mainly because it was really neat to see how it was decorated.
Over the subsequent days, we did our best to explore the different parks. We had a really excellent half-day in Animal Kingdom. While we were there, we ate at Tusker House buffet, which was absolutely delicious. And while we were there, I got to run into an infamous figure in our family...
Dad, when he was little, had a rather interesting run in with Goofy. When they met, Goofy took Dad's hat off and spat in it. So, the running joke has always been that Dad and Goofy have a strained relationship. After this picture of me was taken, I sent my dad a message that Goofy clearly loved me more. Dad was not impressed. While we were in Animal Kingdom, we also went on my favorite ride: Expedition Everest. Normally, I'm not hute on rollercoasters, but this one was an absolute blast.
Even Brandi had fun on Expedition Everest, which is saying something... she hated pretty much every other rollercoaster we went on. We also spent time in Hollywood Studios. My favorite part of that park was without a doubt the Star Wars section, because, well, Star Wars.
We also managed to take a picture on the main street with the Sorcerer's Hat in the background. As of this week, the Sorcerer's Hat is no longer in Hollywood Studios, so this picture is one of the last of its kind.
That night, we got up to quite a bit of mischief in Epcot. Since we were there during the Food and Wine festival, the place was absolutely packed with people trying to taste all of the offerings. I got a bit overwhelmed by the heat; even though it was October it was still in the high seventies. Dinner that night was really excellent, though, as we ate at Via Napoli. I, unthinkingly, happened to mention that we did have a vegetarian in our party. This little mistake actually lead to one of the funnier moments in our trip. While we were reading the menu, a well-dressed man in a suit suddenly swooped in at Amanda's elbow and asked if she was the vegetarian. He then proceeded to tell her all about the menu - what she could eat, what she couldn't. He repeatedly checked in on us throughout the night, including swooping in once the dessert menus came out. We started to refer to him as the Falcon because of his tendency to appear at the most unexpected moments. I seriously wish we had gotten a picture of him because he was just that amazingly fun. I even managed to forget my Chewbacca backpack at the restuarant, which was a serious problem since the park was closing in only fifteen minutes. Kit and I ran halfway around the World Showcase and managed to arrive at Via Napoli before they closed. There, standing behind the desk, was the Falcon, who beamed at us when we arrived. I told him I had forgotten my bag, and he immediately produced it - looking for all the world as if his night had been made by being able to help me out. He really was excellent, and we were able to make it back to the exit right as the fireworks finished. But, boy, we were beat.
Another night in Epcot, we had dinner at Askershus and like seven different princesses. It was certainly an experience... The food was really good, and our server was so much fun. We asked her all kinds of questions about the menu, which lead to her telling us about her mother's cooking back in Norway. I really like that in the World Showcase you can meet people from those countries; it made the experience feel more like an adventure. My one disappointment about Epcot was that I could not, for the life of me, catch Mulan. Talk about a hard princess to catch! Maybe next time I hit WDW, I will specifically chase her down the way I have vowed to see Grand Geyser in Yellowstone.
Our last full day was spent enjoying the Magic Kingdom. I'm pretty sure that there is no way I've seen even half of the Magic Kingdom, it's just that big. But, one of my other favorite experiences took place in this particular park. Now, I know that being as old as I am, I should probably not have gotten this excited about meeting a character, but...I may or may not have spent half an hour waiting to meet Gaston. And it was worth it. So much. Not only was he gorgeous (with green eyes), but he was also extremely funny. At one point, he even flexed and told me to imagine that we were married. The look that resulted...
Even though my feet felt like they were going to fall off at the end of every day and I overheated a lot more than I should've, I really enjoyed my time at Walt Disney World and would gladly go again. I think, though, one day I just need to take like two weeks in order to really be able to explore it to my heart's content.
... There is probably going to be a part three to this series, just so I can cover my family coming for Christmas. We'll see if I manage to write it before summer happens. xD
