Heyyyy!! Remember Me?
Hi guys!
Long time, no DIS. I know, I'm a horrible, horrible DIS friend and I wouldn't blame anyone for not even taking the time to read this since I've been so bad at reading and keeping up with everyone's TR's. Here's what happened...nothing.
I went to Disney in September for 11 days, I came back, and I was even more behind than before, so I gave up. I tried to get caught up and I just couldn't, it is SO impossible to get caught up and stay current with the DIS when you are as far behind as I am. And I miss reading TR's!
So I'm going to try to get back in slowly, instead of jumping in and making myself crazy, trying to get caught up all at once. One TR at a time, one TR at a time.
Anyway! I know I said I'd do a TR for my September trip right? I bet you're all dying to know where that is, right? Well, it's not happening, and here's why. 1. You know my new camera I was SOOOO excited about? Well it kind of sucked. I mean, sometimes it took the most beautiful pictures for a point and shoot, and then other times, it was awful. 2. This wasn't the best trip, and I'd say for, I don't know, 50% of the time, either one of us was in a bad mood, and halfway through the trip, I gave up taking notes.
Why?
IT RAINED THE WHOLE FREAKING TIME!
I'm not taking about a little afternoon shower, throw on your poncho and suck it up kind of rain, I'm talking about, once it started, it did NOT let up. It POURED. We got so drenched almost every single night, it got really old, really fast. I never thought I'd let rain ruin a trip, but wow, this was a test. And when it wasn't raining, when you woke up in the morning and saw a beautiful blue sky and sun shining down on you, there was about 1000% humidity in the air. So it might as well have been raining, because you were drenched with sweat as soon as you stepped out of your room.
Oh yeah, and those low September crowds? They don't exist anymore. Maybe early September, but certainly not mid September anymore, with Food and Wine starting so early!
BUT I don't want you to think from all of this, we had a horrible time, we didn't, it was a fun trip! Just not my favorite. I knew it would be hot and humid and I was prepared for that, but the rain? It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. If it was a day or two, I could have been ok with it, but it was the whole trip. But between the rain drops, there were a lot of fun things, a lot of great experiences, so I thought, since I'm not doing a TR, why not just share some of the highlights with you here?
September 2014 Trip Highlights!
1. We spent our first night in Port Orleans French Quarter and it was AWESOME! This was the first time we have stayed here, and it will not be the last, it was amazing! I wish we had more time there, the room was beautiful, and the grounds, from what I saw of them, were gorgeous. We lucked out with a king bed AND a corner room with a view of the water, it was perfect!
2. We ate at Raglan Road the first night we were there and it was awesome! I'm sorry that picture is so dark, but that's the famous bread pudding that I've heard so much about, and it's seriously almost as good as 'Ohana's, if not better!
3. We stayed in the Caribbean Beach Resort for a few nights, and it was lovely. Not my favorite resort, but it was really pretty and calm, and I'd definitely stay there again, although it wouldn't be my first choice. It's just SO BIG. I mean, I've heard people say that, but you don't realize how big it is until you're there! But our room was beautiful, we got a newly remodeled room in the Jamaica section, which was my request, so I was happy with it! I'm glad we tried something new!
4. The Food and Wine Festival, pretty much our main reason for going when we did! It was fantastic, as usual! My new favorite thing is the pork slider from the Hawaii booth, OMG I must have had it like, 3 or 4 times, it was absolutely delicious! And of course, the ravioli from Italy, the Godiva chocolate coffee from Belgium. Brandon drank all the beer he could find, he discovered beer flights on this trip (took him long enough!) and got about a million of those, so he was pretty happy about that!
5. Beautiful Epcot Sunsets! No explanation needed!
6. OH MY GOD, FESTIVAL OF FANTASY!!!! I know, this is old news to everyone, but it was my first time seeing it, and it was absolutely PERFECT! I really lucked out with seeing this parade too, because I only had it fit into our schedule this one day, and luckily, it didn't rain until much later in the day. I parked myself on a curb on Main Street at about 1:30 and sat there the whole time, so I would have a front row view, and the Castle would be in the background. This parade is SO wonderful, the music, the colors, the floats, everything about it is amazing! I never watch the afternoon parades in Disney, but from now on, I have to see this one!
7. The Halloween Party, specifically Boo to You and HalloWishes. If I ever go back for Halloween season, it will be for these 2 things, they are so wonderful!
8. Staying at Kidani Village, and eating at Sanaa! OMG, Sanaa! It might be my new favorite restaurant in all of Disney, it is SO good! We had Naan for an appetizer, OMG, we were pretty much fighting over it, it was that good. And I had slow cooked butter chicken and beef short ribs...wow. I had no idea I would love it so much, I am SO glad we finally tried it! I will definitely be eating there again! And Kidani was beautiful, Brandon loved it, as I predicted, our room was perfect, and we really loved the pool!
The 2 worst things about this trip, were obviously the rain
(That's the night of our first Halloween party. Yeah. Waited in line for 2 hours to get tickets to a different party, because the rain was relentless!)
And...
Saying goodbye to Maelstrom!
Luckily, we knew far in advance that it would be closing, so I had about a thousand FP's for it, and if the line wasn't long, we would ride it, so we went on it many, many times on this trip. But knowing it would be gone a few days after we left was heartbreaking. I'm really, really going to miss this ride.
So that was a really condensed version of our trip! I highly doubt we will go back in September, but who knows? Free dining is always nice, and I do love the Food and Wine Festival, but I think from now on, I'll stick to November and catch the end of it!
I hope you enjoyed my highlights, and if you did, guess what? There's more!
For those of you who don't know, I was in Disney a couple of weeks ago for Christmas! We spent 3 days there, the 20th-22nd, and then on the 23rd we drove up to South Carolina to spend the rest of the week with Brandon's parents, who moved there a few months ago. So I'm going to do another post with highlights from that trip right now, stay tuned!!!