As early entry is scheduled at the ungodly hour of 7 am (why??!!) we were up by 6am to get ready. The plan was to hit early entry at Hogsmead, them do breakfast at Croissant Moon Bakery before hitting other rides with EP.
Yeah...this day did not turn out at all how we planned. We originally thought to spend the day at Islands of Adventure, then, because it shut down early (7 pm I think?) we were going to Lyft or Uber over to Epcot for dinner. At 6 am, we trudged out of our room, sleep deprived like zombies. The thing about Hogsmead is that we have it here in LA, so other than the Dragon Challenge coaster, it was all the same. The same I tell you!
So, yeah, we weren't too excited. We were the only people not bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7 am on a Friday morning, and we slowly wobbled out way back to Hogsmead, dutifully did Forbidden Journey (we've been on it about 29 times at this point) and then did both sides of Dragon Challenge, which is admittedly fun. But maybe not at 7:20 am. Once it hit 8 am and the general public was admitted, we walked over to Croissant Moon at Port of Entry and ate delicious, delicious food. Raymond and I had done Starbucks for breakfast after early entry the last time we were at Universal, but after we found Croissant Moon, we both agreed that it was so much better (food wise) than Starbucks. We still went to Starbucks for coffee, but the baked goods and sandwiches are Croissant Moon are the same price as the crappy sandwiches Starbucks sells, but so much more delicious.
We eat deliciousness, then I look at JK, who looks the way I feel, and I propose that we go back to our room and nap because being this tired, I just don't think either of us would be able to really enjoy the day. Plan in mind, we go back to our room (taking the boat of course) and proceed to nap until about 11. The best is all the people streaming excitedly into the park as the two of us are trudging out. Like we'd had such a hard morning.
As befits the theme of this trip, we ended up napping with Blackish playing in the background. We woke up feeling SO MUCH BETTER. We head back over to IoA to finish out the rest of the big rides - and while waiting for Posieden's Fury, we decided once we hit all the big rides, we wanted to go back to Epcot since we wanted to spend more time in the World Showcase and we wanted to check out the Flower and Garden Festival food booths more thoroughly.
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| we're excited about Epcot already |
Poseidon's Fury = meh. It was fine. But we hit the Hulk Coaster (so awesome!), Spiderman (also fun, and we gotta do that since we don't have that here) and King Kong (it's ALMOST the same as our tram ride here, except for some exposition). Of all the things we waited forever for it was King Kong. Now, the ride building and queue were amazing, and there's that funky half life size Kong at the end - but the people who didn't have express pass were saying that they waited over an hour for this...and that's just sad. Because it's NOT worth waiting that long for. But I guess because I've been on it so many times in our tram ride here I'm all meh about a wait for this.
Goals accomplished, we ran back to our room, Disneyfied ourselves, and called a Lyft to the Beach Club so we could enter through the IG.
Being at the Beach Club made us so nostalgic...you know, because we've been away for all of 2 days by then. Even though the room wasn't luxurious, and it was the smallest bathroom of our trip, there was something so homey and comfortable there that it was our favorite of the three resorts we stayed at. Even more so than the Waldorf, which smelled of rich people.
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| we finally made it onto the beach of the Beach Club |
Because we are big dorks, we tried to do selfies around the world. You know, the magical world of Disney. And to pretend we are world travelers.
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| we go to France |
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| something expensive and tasty |
Then we go to my favorite pavilion: because it's freaking gorgeous!
We cooled off for a little bit inside their little museum thing. It has a/c and some benches!
Then we went to the Japanese Pavilion, which made Johanna sad, even though she grudgingly purchased the best packable Hello Kitty tote ever, which she loves, but hates to admit to.
Then Italy (or more specifically, Venice) where we ate a delicious cannoli.
And Germany, to honor her mom who spent a chunk of her youth there. Also, we bought ornaments there.
We wander through all the different pavilions and try to figure out where we want to have our last dinner in Orlando before going home (sob!). We snag fastpasses for Soarin', so we head over to Future World for one last hurrah on a ride that's "a lifelike illusion filled with majesty and sensory delight" (Blackish anyone? Only my favorite line ever) and I come up with a revolutionary idea: (okay, it's not that revolutionary, I just wanted to feel special) why not take the express transport that we paid for and go to Magic Kingdom for dinner??? Also, MDE shows that a reservation for Crystal Palace is available - and who doesn't want to dine with Pooh Bear??? Once we're off Soarin', we book it over the other side of Future World to catch the express transport and happily ride over to Magic Kingdom. We grab FP's for Haunted Mansion after dinner, and eagerly head to Crystal Palace to eat like the gluttons we are.
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| hello Crystal Palace! |
It's at the location where Jolly Holiday Bakery would be in Disneyland, but Crystal Palace is so big! I know it gets kind of mixed reviews, but I liked it - they had southern food with collard greens and chicken - and they had bread and dessert - what's not to like? Also, the people who worked there were super cool and nice - and after a 15 minute wait, we got a pretty good window seat where we could see the castle...which meant that we could see Wishes! 🙌
The characters roamed around meeting people, and we told that handler it's okay if they don't come and hang with us, because we just wanted to eat and the little kids were the ones looking forward to meeting the characters. When the fireworks started, Eeyore came and said hello anyway.
Then I made a new friend - Tigger decided to watch the fireworks with me.
After dinner we went and grabbed seats to watch Once Upon A Time. Still awesome!
We do the Haunted Mansion, and on our last night, we wander around the park to take it in for the last time (not forever, just this trip) and snap some photos.
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| the back! |
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| and the front of the castle |
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| view of Main Street from the castle |
We head out reluctantly, even though we're kinda tired. As usual, we avoid the Lake of Evil and walk over to The Contemporary to grab a Lyft.
The ride back to Royal Pacific was uneventful...except when we got into Universal...ALL THE ROADS AROUND OUR HOTEL WERE CLOSED. The driver looped around and around and just couldn't get in, so he finally just dropped us off at Sapphire Falls. Meh. Sapphire Falls is a huge ass convention hotel - we wandered and wandered and wandered and in oh...15 to 20 minutes? we finally stumble our way to Royal Pacific. So we took the long and convoluted and expensive way home. But we made it!
We (with Blackish on, of course) packed up our bags - with all our dirty laundry and unbreakables in our packable totes we were going to check - and all of our preciouses (cups. Lots of cups. And perfumes) in our carry on suitcases to be protected from the vigors of airline travel.
The next day, we go home :(
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