Walt Disney World 2012—65 Hour adventure
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 8th:
6:00pm Pacific Time: Leave for Penny’s house so Thomas can
get to bed at a decent time for school the next day.
7:30ish pm Pacific Time: After some last minute packing, leave Penny’s house for the
airport and some dinner.
8:45ish pm Pacific Time: Dinner at Andale’s Mexican Restaurant in Terminal 2 at
SFO. Penny and I shared garlic
shrimp nachos and a presidente burrito.
They were AMAZING!!!
9:30pm Pacific Time: We started watching some movies on the
iPad to pass the time. Started off
with some Pixar shorts before moving on to Breaking Dawn part 1.
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9th:
12:00am Pacific Time: We finally get to board the
plane. We finish out movie, don
our sleeping masks and then go to sleep. (Take off at 12:45am)
5:45ish Central Time (3:45am pacific/6:45am eastern): Arrive
at Dallas Fort Worth after appx 2.5 hours of sleep. We decide to eat at
Friday’s for Spinach Dip and Potato Skins. When you haven’t slept there are no real meal definitions. What’s breakfast???? After we eat, we watch the sunrise as
we change terminals to get our connecting flight.
7:30ish Central Time: We board out second flight, don our
face masks and fall asleep for about another 2 hours.
11:15am Eastern Time:
We finally land in Orlando.
We grab our bags from the overhead compartment, grab some Starbucks and
make our way to Disney’s Magical Express, where the line is LONG.
2:00pm Eastern Time (I think): We arrive at our hotel and
check in. We get our room so we
take our stuff there. The resort
is beautiful. After a quick
bathroom break, we grab what we need for the next few hours and head to the
Health and Fitness Expo.
2:30pm Eastern Time: We arrive at the Expo where we get my
running stuff, Penny’s Party Ticket and try to catch a shuttle to the Hollywood
Studios. We were sent to Yacht
Club to catch a shuttle to the park.
3:15pm Eastern Time:
After waiting awhile for a shuttle, Penny finds a sign that says we need
to take a boat. D’oh. Time to find the boat ramp and get on a
boat.
4:00pm Eastern Time: FINALLY arrive at the Hollywood Studios
Park. We head over to the 50’s
Primetime Café for out 2:55pm reservation, almost 1.5 hours late at that
point. I tell the hostess our
story and she has pity on us and gets us a table within 5-10 minutes. We share the most amazing fried cheese
which is like an herbed goat cheese round that has been fried and served with
raspberry sauce, crostinis and fresh fruit. The onion rings are served “falling” out of a mini fry
basket with horseradish sauce. We
also share the grilled chicken cesar salad that way we had room for dad’s
sundae. Everything was delicious.
5:30pm Eastern Time: We realize that all the rides have an
hour or so wait so we just wander around the park towards the Streets of
America. We do a little shopping,
make a pit stop and then wait for the start of the Osbourne Family Spectacle of
Dancing Lights.
6:15pm Eastern Time:
The ceremony finally starts as it is opening night of the Dancing Lights. Once that is over they begin and they
are so beautiful. It takes us a
good 30-40 minutes to soak it in and make our way down the street and get all
the pictures we want.
7:00ish pm Eastern Time: Wait for our shuttle back to the resort so we can change and
stop by the store to get some allergy medication. And they were showing Cinderella in the outdoor theater. What a sign!
7:40ish pm Eastern Time: Changed and waiting for our shuttle
to the Magic Kingdom Park.
8:00pm Eastern Time: We arrive at the Magic Kingdom Park for
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
Main street is blocked by the crowds for the Holiday Parade. We make the most of it and watch it.
8:45pm Eastern Time: We take pictures in front of the
Castle.
9:15pm Eastern Time:
We get in line for our FREE hot chocolate and cookies. The Snickerdoodles were SO tasty.
9:30pm Eastern Time:
We squeeze into a corner of Main Street for the special fireworks show.
9:50-11:30pm Eastern Time: We race around the park and ride
a few rides. First up is Pirates
of the Caribbean, then Thunder Mountain-twice, try to beat the parade over by
Haunted Mansion. Before we ride
that we grab another hot chocolate and some apple slices. We walk through the graveyard before we
ride and enjoy spotting the differences between this ride and the one in
Disneyland. From there we make our
way towards fantasyland where I run like crazy person when I see Cinderella and
her family. After I get my picture
we decide to finish the night with a ride on Space Mountain.
11:30pm-12:15am Eastern Time: We take a few more shots of
the Castle lit up, do some shopping down Main Street and enjoy the snow. The park closes at midnight and we head
to our shuttle stop arriving at our hotel around 12:15am.
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10th:
1:10am Eastern Time: Finally get some shut-eye.
6:30am Eastern Time: first alarm goes off
6:40am Eastern Time: 2nd alarm goes off, decide
against breakfast and get more sleep
7:20am Eastern Time: Get up and begin to get ready.
8:00am Eastern Time: Head to shuttle stop with a quick stop
in the sundries store and take a quick minute to enjoy the resort view.
8:45am Eastern Time: Arrive at the Animal Kingdom resort, go
through security and enter park.
9:00am-11am Eastern Time: The park officially opens and we
follow a cast member over to Expedition Everest. AMAZING ride!!!!
We went from that to getting a fastpass, and then over to the Safari
Ride. After a fabulous safari
ride, we did the two different animal treks back to Expedition Everest for the
second time!!
11:00am Eastern Time:
Time for an amazing lunch at Yak & Yeti. We started with potstickers, seared ahi, and spicy chicken
wings. As we were finishing those
up, our entrée of steak and shrimp was delivered followed by a dessert of cream
cheese wontons and pineapple skewers.
Again, everything was amazingly delicious.
12:30pm-3:30ish pm Eastern Time: We check in for our Safari
Trek. What an amazing tour and I
recommend to anyone travelling to Walt Disney World. It is so much fun.
We get outfitted with our vests, water bottles and have everything
attached so it doesn’t fall into any animal pens. We trek through a jungle of sorts, go over rope bridges, and
“hang” over hippo and crocodile enclosures. After that you take a private safari truck out to the savannah. Part way through the trip, you
stop at a “hut” for a nice lunch and extra time to overlook the savannah. Here they served a sampling of
delicious African inspired dishes.
There was: curried chicken salad, fruit salad, prosciutto, pocket bread,
poached shrimp, salmon and cream cheese similar to lox, and a sun-dried tomato
hummus and the best was POG to drink!
4:00pm-5:00pm Eastern Time: We finish our trip to the animal
kingdom with a walk around the tree of life and a viewing of “It’s Tough to be
a Bug” and some shopping.
5:30-6:30pm Eastern Time: Arrive at Epcot for a quick tour of the food booths and try
to catch Big Bad Voo Doo Daddy.
7:00pm Eastern Time:
Arrive back at the hotel to get ready for the race and pack for the trip
home.
7:30pm Eastern Time: Go and wait for the shuttle to the
start of the race.
8:30ish pm Eastern Time: Penny is in Epcot checking things
out while I wait for the race to start.
9:30pm Eastern Time: They finally begin to move us into our
corrals. It is much more organized
than in Anaheim.
10:00pm Eastern Time: The guns go off for corral a, the race
has officially begun.
10:15pm Eastern Time: The guns go off for my corral d, I am
off. The first few miles are on
the roads of the Disney resort. We
go through Animal Kingdom first, then the roads again, then through Hollywood
Studios, the parking lot and then back in to see the lights over The Streets of
America. Out we go, down the
boardwalk in through a bit of Epcot to the finish line.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11th:
1:03am Eastern Time:
I finish!!!! Once I get my
two medals, I text Penny to order me one of everything from the Mexico food
booth. This entails a shrimp taco,
a steak taco, and a caramel de leche flan. I was so hungry I inhaled it once I got to that area of the
park. We didn’t have much time
before we needed to get back to the hotel so we finish the night with a few
spanikopita from the Greece booth.
We definitely didn’t eat everything we planned but it was SO busy and we
had to get going.
2:45am Eastern Time: We get back to our hotel and I hop in
the shower, we finish packing and head to the lobby of our hotel. The “hotel” we stayed out was the
Carribean Resort. It is different
Villas situated around a lake. So in
short, the lobby is a good ½ mile from our room and we have to walk and dodge
sprinklers that are spraying as much of the sidewalk as it is the grass.
3:45am Eastern Time: Our 3:25 shuttle still hasn’t
arrived. We find out this is due
to an accident that has closed the entrance to our resort. We should be able to get the 3:55am
shuttle; which we do.
5:30am Eastern Time: We make it through check in and look
for some food. I opt for a protein
shake to replenish my body. It was
tasty, chocolate, banana, peanut butter and protein mix. Penny got cereal from
a different spot. The options were
pretty limited.
6:00am Eastern Time: We board our flight, put on the eye
masks, and fall asleep before the flight even takes off. I manage to sleep only about 2.5
hours while Penny gets close to 4.
9:45am Pacific Time: We land in San Francisco.
10:40am Pacific Time: We drop Penny off at her house.
11:00am Pacific Time: I am home. 65 hours later.
