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Day 8: 11-9-08

Last day. Time to go home. Happy and sad. This was an awesome week. I am so happy that Jon planned this. We really lucked out on the Blue Angels show. The news this morning said people waited 2 hours in a car line up only to be turned away. Today's show has already sold out so we wouldn't get in anyway.

I'm excited to go home to share all the pictures and gifts/items we purchased. Jon was so wonderful this entire week. Since my feet were hurting he would ask me through out the day 1-10 where were they at. Depending on my answer we would slow down or stop and rest. When we got back to the hotel he would rub my feet if they were really bad.

I am so lucky.

Day 7: 11-8-08

Another early start-8am out the door. On our way to Kennedy Space Ctr. Paid for admission and tickets to the Air Show with the Blue Angels. We didn't have a lot of time to view exhibits at the center. Buses started loading at 10:30 and the show didn't start until 12:30. It was a good thing we went early-one guy said there were around 10,000 people expected. It was a big open field surrounded by water. I forgot to put on sunscreen so Jon acted as my shade when there were no clouds. We got about 3/4 through the air show and my camera battery died again! Just 2 acts before the Blue Angels. Jon ended up taking them with his phone. It took them 2 hours to ship everyone to the air show site. You should have seen the fleet of buses to take everyone back. We got back to the center and went on Shuttle Launch Experience. When we got off, buses were still unloading.

We stopped at Walmart to develop the pictures. They had an adapter so Jon could print his phone pictures too. I went through them at the hotel sorting by date things were done.

Did the last load of laundry. All clean clothes when we get home. Called the parents. Margaret is picking us up and everyone is meeting at our house to open gifts. Everything is pretty much packed. Hotel said we could leave any food and someone would take it. Jon is very sad. He didn't want to leave the parks. It was so much fun, it's hard for me to go back too. I miss everyone too though.

Day 6: 11-7-08

Another early day. Off to Animal Kingdom. Jon made a bee-line to Expedition Everest to get the FP. The wait was only 10 min, so we got a FP and went on the ride. While waiting for FP time we went to the Jungle Trek and watched Flights of Wonder. Took Everest again-this time smooching for the camera.

Then we went to DinoLand. Our timing was great. We just made it to Finding Nemo: The Musical. Not what I thought it was going to be. This was a full theatrical show and it was free (or included in cost of admission). There was singing, dancing, acting, even fireworks. The "costumes" and scenery were beautiful and most were people dressed up as seaweed or holding a puppet fish. Jon didn't care for it as much as I did-he described it as disappointing. For being a free musical, I though it was very good. While in DinoLand we also went on Dinosaur. There should be an order that you go on rides. Once you've been on as many rides as we have you judge all others-and they don't measure up. The are still good rides, but you know there are better. This would be the case for some later rides.

We headed to Africa to get the FP for the Safari. Decided to eat at Tusker House. The guide said it was an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant. We thought this meant it was like Fogo. It was more like OCB. Good timing there too. When we were done it was time for the Safari. I would suggest going on this more than once. Each time sit on a different side of the truck. This was an awesome ride and you get great photos. The photo of the white rhino on the left is without zoom. It was right next to the truck. We had to be very quiet so it wouldn't charge the truck. The two baby elephants were wrestling close to the trail the truck was on. Pangani Trail was right next to where we exited so we went on that next. We skipped a lot of Animal Kingdom, but told each other that it's just something to look forward to next time.

We took the tram back to the car to drop off our photos. It waited for Jon to get back on, luckily we were only 2 cars in from the tram. We took a bus to Disney Hollywood Studios (MGM). We raced across the park to the Extreme Stunt Show. Jon really wanted to see this. I wanted to go on the new Toy Story ride. We went the wrong way and ended up on the Star Wars ride-again a ride that seemed like it was an original. Disappointing. Finally made it to the Toy Story ride-80 min wait and no FP. They said they run out of FP for this by 11:30am. We were there at 6 or so. That means there were no FP for most of the day. Decided to go on Journey Into Narnia. This was just a 15 min preview for the movie-nothing else. No ride, no sitting for a presentation. Disappointed again-we headed back to the hotel. Drew a bath, drank some complimentary wine and fed each other grapes. Watched D3 (Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins).

Day 5: 11-6-08

Woke up ready to go again. I feel like a little kid. Watching the local news while waiting for Jon to get up. Forecast comes on and they said a cold front was coming next week. All the temps said 80, one day said 77. That is NOT a cold front.

Arrived at Magic Kingdom by 9am. Parked in Dopey. In all the days we have parked at Disney we haven't lost the car yet. Took the monorail to Magic Kingdom. First top was Space Mtn. Very fun-very dark. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin was more of a kiddie ride, but shooting things and getting points was fun. Tomorrowland Transit Authority took us around the whole Tomorrowland area. Then we hit up Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. Hilarious! It was an interactive cartoon comedy show. Stitch's Great Escape was okay. More of a sensory ride using scents and spraying water. Fantasyland had the Philharmagic. Using 3D glasses the movie and characters seemed like they were right in front of me. I thought I was going to wack the lady in front of me when I grabbed for one of the things that fly by. We wandered through the other lands to Liberty Square for Haunted Mansion. Not a whole lot to say about that one either. Onto Frontierland, got our FP for Big Thunder Mtn. There was an hour wait for that so I went on Splash Mtn by myself. Jon did n't want to get wet. It had a 40 min wait. As I am in line for who knows how long, they annouce they are having technical difficulties and don't know how long the wait will be. Many people got out of line. I didn't want to get out because I didn't know how close I was. Finally got on-chose the back. Came out with a few sprinkles. By the time I got off the ride, Jon and I were able to go right on Big Thunder. Splash Mtn not worth and hour wait in line. Big Thunder was fun and only a 5 min wait.
We took the train that goes around the whole Kingdom back to main street. Then boarded the monorail twice to Epcot.

First stop was Mexico. We had beef empenada, quesadilla with chirrizo and margaritas. China had a Chicken Sha Sha. Germany had sausage, saurkraut on a pretzel roll. That was my favorite. I was feeling really dizzy when we got to Japan. I don't know if it was a combo of heat, alcohol and no liquids to hydrate. We stopped at our fave restaurant, Yakitori House. Jon had his Japanese curry and I had the California rolls. I was feeling better. We headed to The Seas. Cute show/ride with Nemo. It is hilarious how every ride ends and dumps you into that ride's gift shop. Jon's fave ride at Epcot is Spaceship Earth. We went on again and emailed our image to ourselves and Mike at work. We headed back to Magic Kingdom using the monorail. Jon knew a little secret that you can ride in the very front with the conductor. On our way to Epcot here was a kid that threw a tantrum and the parents wouldn't do anything. The ride back was sooo much better. I got some cool pictures.

There was a castle performance called Dream Along with Mickey. Also able to get some good pics using 10x zoom. About 40 min before the parade was going to start we got a curb side spot. Three floats into the parade the battery on my camera died. You'll just have to believe me or go see it yourself. The fireworks were so beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes. Took almost an hour to get out because we stopped to get hats instead of going straight out.

Day 4: 11-5-08

This was our lazy day. Woke up at 7:30-watched the news-OBAMA IS PRESIDENT! Switched to Food Network. This made me hungry so I made a nice breakfast at 10:30 of eggs, cheese and bologna...yes, bologna. Took a nap till 2:30. Watched more food network. Took a shower and got ready for my surprise show-BLUE MAN GROUP!
I thought this was going to be like the Excel show. Besides a few acts it was completely different. It was so awesome! It was a very small room-only about 20 rows and 3 small sections. We were in the 8th row right in the center. Very personal and the chairs were wide enough where I didn't feel pinched. Plenty of leg room too. Jon wouldn't let me take pictures so all you get is before and after. They had a lot of audience participation.
Before the show we had dinner at the world's largest Hard Rock Cafe. After the show we went to Downtown Disney and had a chocolate covered strawberry each and shared a chocolate covered rice crispy bar. Most of the stores were closed so we walked from one end to the other.