I was so excited for our trip. I went with my boyfriend (DB) Jon on December 10th-16th. I had not been to Disney since I was in middle school and he had gone in high school so it had been a long time since we’d been to the happiest place on earth. For months I was reading Josh’s blog as well as allears.net to make plans. My DB thought I was a little insane for doing so much planning and organizing, but in the long run, we were better for it. I really enjoyed being able to sit and chat about what we wanted to ride, see, eat and drink. I wanted to make sure I had all of the information I needed before we left!

Saturday, December 10th: We flew into MCO and landed at MCO at 12:35pm and waited at least 30 minutes for DME. Although we waited awhile, our line for the CBR was not as long as some of the value resorts. We got to the hotel around 2pm and thankfully our room in Aruba was ready. I was happy we were staying there ; it was a close enough walk to Old Port Royale if we needed, but not close enough where we’d hear people by the pool and food court. Our room was on the 1st floor and we had a view of our little courtyard so it was very nice. We freshened up and made our way to the bus for Epcot! I knew we weren’t going to hit any of the major attractions but thankfully we were able to accomplish a lot at Epcot! As soon as we got there and got over the initial shock of OMG WE’RE HERE, we headed to Sunshine Seasons for lunch. I had the tofu noodle bowl and DB had the Mongolian beef. My meal was a little more like soup then I was hoping, but it was definitely delicious. From there we hoped on Living with the Land since it was right there and there was no wait. We didn’t even look at the return times for Soarin, I knew we would fit it in another day. From there we ventured to Innoventions and enjoyed the activities there. My favorite was definitely making ourselves video game characters. From there we went on Captain EO (which we both loved since we’re big Michael Jackson fans) followed by Journey Into Imagination and the Cool Club. We walked through Innoventions West where we fell upon SOAT and had our first of many rides there. After that we went on Spaceship Earth and sent the postcard of our future to our families. It was starting to get late and we had 850pm dinner reservations at Coral Reef so we wandered over to the Sea Pavilion. I loved Turtle Talk with Crush, wandering by the aquarium and The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We were done wandering the Sea Pavilion just in time for dinner. We arrived a few minutes before our reservation and were seated right away. I was happy because we were seated at the table right next to the aquarium and we had a little privacy. I had the lobster ravioli and DB had the catch of the day. His meal was definitely better than mine. For dessert I had the chocolate wave, which was excellent, and the DB had the Baileys and Jack Daniels Mousse. I would honestly go back to Coral Reef just for the Mousse… it was delicious. After dinner we took the bus back to CBR and our luggage was in our room. We called to get our groceries delivered from the Garden Grocer and it took bell services a little longer then we had liked to get to our room. It took a long time for the hot water in our room to turn on (we had called the front desk and they told us to let it keep running, supposedly no one had stayed in our room in awhile). We showered and crashed, it was a long day of traveling for sure.

Sunday, December 11: DB and I woke up at 7am and were out the door around 730am to get to MK for 8am opening. We made it through the turnstiles a few minutes after 8am and walked right to Space Mountain. I had no interest in riding so I waited outside while DB rode. The line was so short he asked if he could ride again, and although my touring plan didn’t have it on the schedule, I thought, why not. While he was riding, I saw Chip and Dale come out and I took my photograph with them. From there we rode (in this order): Winnie the Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan’s Flight, IASW, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain x2, Pirates, Swiss Family Treehouse (waste of time!) and Tiki Room. At that point, it was about noon so we went to Main Street to wander the shops and watch the Move It! Shake It! Parade. It was really great because one of the cast members in the parade was a friend from high school! After that we headed to our 12:40 ADR at Crystal Palace. As soon as we were seated, the characters were headed our way. We got photos with Pooh, Tiger, Eeorye and Piglet within the first 15 minutes of arriving. It was nice we did photographs early because from that point on, we could enjoy the meal. After lunch we wandered down Main Street and took the bus back to CBR. DB and I swam for a little while and then napped. We had a 7pm reservation at San Angel Inn but we left CBR a little early so we could ride SOAT before dinner. The wait was long so we ended up riding Mission: Space instead. DB really wanted to ride Orange, but I said I wanted to try Green first. He loved it, I was not really a fan. I was glad we only did green! After that we ran in the rain to dinner. The restaurant was crowded but the meal made up for it. After dinner we rode Three Caballeros x2 (there was no one else riding and we were trying to find hidden mickeys) and went outside to find a spot for Illuminations. We stood to the left of Mexico and I thought it was an OK spot. I really enjoyed Illuminations but standing for that long was exhausting. We were happy to stand right near MX because didn’t have a really long walk back to the bus. We only waited about 10 minutes for the bus, which was not too bad. I was sad to leave Epcot but I knew we were headed back tomorrow to Drink Around the World!