W Girls Do Disney 2017 Trip Report: Part 5

We spent the early morning and afternoon hours at Animal Kingdom before heading to the airport. I do believe in squeezing every bit of enjoyment out of a Disney trip, even if that means getting home on a fairly late flight.  

I feel like I should report that these are stock images  from Memory Maker. I did not take these, if you can't tell. HA. But one of the first things we did, which I had never done, was see the Festival of the Lion King. What a fabulous show that was!  I loved the audience involvement, it was colorful, and I loved the dancers & acrobats. 

A ride on Kilimanjaro safaris is a must do on any trip to Animal Kingdom. I love it because you never know what you will see. We loved the group of rhinos huddled together, we said it was like, "us three friends." But the highlight (and unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it), was the new baby elephant, Stella!! She was so adorable. 

We rode Expedition Everest and Dinosaur! We also had an on going joke, that when the T-rex popped out, Anna didn't even spill the drink that she had in her lap! I had hoped to meet Baloo and King Louie this trip, since I had a Jungle Book shirt on, but the times didn't work out, so we hung out with Pocahontas instead!

Our tradition upon leaving Disney is to have one, nice goodbye meal. Our restaurant of choice was Yak & Yeti, and it was sooo delicious, especially the Cream Cheese Wontons. Cream Cheese Wontons are kind of special to us, as there was a Chinese restaurant we used to frequent often during our college years, where we would order plates and plates of cream cheese wontons! 

After lunch, we headed back to the resort and on to the airport. Unfortunately, there was flight delay after flight delay due to horrid storms, but we luckily made it out just in time. It was a long airport night for sure. We wore our ears through out the flights home, which elicited bemused smiles from the other passengers. I think wearing the ears home on flights is a new tradition.

This is a wrap on Disney World 2017, I am going back in less than a month for a quick Christmas trip with Adam. I'm also going to be posting some of my digi scrapbook pages I made from this trip. So yeah it's Disney overload all the time on the blog, but I can't help it I love it so!

Love,

B

 
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W Girls Do Disney 2017 Trip Report: Part 4

 

Day 4 was Hollywood Studio day. But before heading to the park, we had breakfast at O'hanas at the Polynesian. Stitch is at the top of my list of favorite Disney characters, and even though I've been to Disney so many times, I have yet to meet him, so I was pumped.

Stitch did not disappoint. He danced with us and he "licked" us, and when he discovered Anna lived in Tupelo (the birth place of Elvis), he was ecstatic!  And at O'hanas instead of the Mickey waffles, they have Stitch waffles! The whole morning was perfection. Meeting Stitch is probably my most favorite character meet so far! 

Many people are down on Hollywood Studios lately. And I totally understand why. They have shut down so much to make way for the new (Star wars land & Toy Story land), but I always enjoy my time here, and I am able to spend a full day here easily. Many times it feels like a much needed slow down day, after so much go, go, go. 

One of the new things I noticed about HS park this trip that I loved, is all the Star wars touches they have added. Several times during the day the Storm Troopers marched around the park, and I loved that! 

Our trip was a few weeks before the release of the live action Beauty & the Beast film. We were so excited to have the opportunity to see Belle's yellow dress & the rose prop from the movie. We also got to watch the first 15 minutes of the movie, we were so excited! 

We had some really great, new character meet n' greets this trip. Olaf was really cute but he was very tough to hug, and he did not feel very "marshmellowy." I loved his summer oasis though.

But Chewbacca was the star. He was hilarious! He "coughed" up a furball, and he gave it to Jana. We were all rollin. And Chewie was very huggable. 

After a day of shows and a few rides, we finished off with dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby. I had never eaten there before, and I loved the classic decor and delicious food.  

The next day was actually Mardi Gras, and we spent it at Universal. I will be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Universal. It doesn't hold the same magic and appeal for me as Disney does. I do not feel compelled to keep going back again. Outside of Harry Potter world it is just kind of "meh" to me. But Anna had not been to Universal before, so we were all game to go.

We all bought some special beads, and we had some character fun before we headed to Harry Potter World. We met a minion and Beetle juice. Beetle juice was funny and "gross" of course. He pretended to lick us. And I got some coffee, and I wanted to take a "cute picture" with it. 

In Harry Potter World, we enjoyed Butter beer and lunch at three broomsticks. Anna was picked to participate in the Olivander's ceremony, and she designed her own wand. And I rode dueling dragons and Gringott's bank ride for the first time ever. 

We left early afternoon from Universal. Jana and I went for a swim and a dip in the hot tub back at the resort. We had dinner at the food court, and we all got king cake and beignets to celebrate the holiday. We spent the evening packing, as we were headed out the next day after a morning at Animal Kingdom.

Love,

B 

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W Girls Do Disney 2017 Trip Report: Part 3

Our 2nd park day was to my favorite park, Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is always the epitome of Disney magic for me. I will say our day got off to a rocky start though, it is kind of a long story. But we were basically verbally attacked by a family for "line jumping" when getting on the bus to the parks, which we definitely didn't do. And it was definitely #petty (as we joked through out the day, any one else see that Jimmy Fallon skit)?

But can was talk about how cute we were in our matching outfits and ears? We had decided we would dress alike on MK day, and I found some cute matching shirts and ears off of etsy. We got so many compliments throughout the day.

The highlights of this day were riding Peter Pan first (per tradition), dinner at Be Our Guest Restaurant, and all the rides that were basically walk-ons after half the park left after the  firework show. So many of the rides just feel different at night, especially Splash Mountain & Big Thunder Mountain. And believe it or not, no ride scares me more than Splash Mountain, it's that big drop! Gets my heart racing every time.

I ate at Pinocchio's Villiage Haus for the first time, which wasn't bad, and we of course loved our dole whips.

I however did lose my phone when it fell through the cracks of the seat on the Peter Pan ride, but through the magic of Disney, they were able to mail it back to me a week later (which explains the decrease in the amount of pictures taken the rest of the trip). All of the pics going forward, I got from memory maker or from my friend's phone.

When I realized I would not have my phone for the rest of the week (and I didn't know if I would ever get it back at that point), I decided to not make a big deal of it. I could have been really upset, but I decided not to let it ruin my day or damper my friends' fun.

But I will say not having my phone allowed me to be more present, and I only missed it when my friends were checking their phones at dinner, and I had nothing to occupy me.

We closed down Magic Kingdom that night, just the way I like to roll in Disney.

Love,
B

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Vegas Solo Yolo Trip: Part 2

During my 21st birthday trip to Vegas, somehow I didn't make it down to Vegas sign. And I know it's touristy and cheesy, but I just had to go.  It was really fun to see something you see in pictures and movies all the time. And in true tourist form, I wore my Britney Spears t-shirt, I had pre-bought before the concert.

After seeing the sign, I walked down to the beautiful Venetian hotel to visit Carlo's bakery. I used to watch the show Cake Boss all the time, and their pastries just looked so good! I was happy to find out they had a location in Vegas. I got two of their specialties, the cannolis and the lobster tail. Both desserts were amazing. But the cannolis rocked my socks off!

I really wanted to pamper myself this trip. So I booked myself a day bed at the pool. The adults only pool, which made me super happy, no noisy kids. I adore kids, but I don't like to be surrounded by them on vacation.  And boy oh boy, did I love hanging at the pool. I was there a total of four hours, and the waitress just kept bringing me frozen drinks. It was over 101 degrees, so I took frequent dips in the pool. And I loved swimming, surrounded  by high rises!

When I was done at the pool, I took the most glorious nap, before heading down to the mall in the hotel, where I had booked a blow out with drybar. I've always wanted to go to one of these. I loved the yellow decorative touches, and all their products smell so good. I even ended taking some products home with me. They brought me cocktails, while chick flicks played on the Tvs, as they did my hair. I loved my blow out, nice and straight with some wavy touches, and the style lasted so long. I felt pretty.

I was so excited when the concert rolled around. They had costumes on display from some of Britney's most iconic music videos. I also got a Pina Coloda in a souvenir cup which I ended up keeping, and I turned it into a vase for faux flowers in the craft room. 

The show was amazing, and I had excellent seats. I danced throughout the whole concert. She was just pure fun and it was electric. I was so glad I went, and it just made the whole trip. I would even go again, if someone would fly me out here. 

Below is a video from the concert:

I also scrap-booked this whole trip using the Project Life app on the plane, and I even had the print order submitted an hour after I arrived home. I mod podged memorabilia from the trip at the beginning and end of the album. Here is a little video flip through of the album:

The trip was everything I hoped it would be and a perfect weekend getaway. I'm looking forward to more solo trips in my future.

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