It Was Worth The Shots! Trip Video Updated 1/1

Later Fishes

It officially hit 8 and that meant PARTY TIME! And first thing we did was head over to meet buzz. Last year I mistakingly met Buzz without Kiss and he never let me live it down. So it was the first thing I suggested this year.

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After our time with Buzz we headed back to the wave pool where we spent most of the night because honestly thats the best part of Typhoon. Things I knew going in Erin and Kiss are obsessed with swimming out all they way, Any time I went with brittany to typhoon we did not do this. I’m surprised with how much she ended up liking it. The wave itself is calmer and you don’t feel like you are going to kill yourself.

On that note, as we made our way to where we can touch the bottom too relax for a bit, another wave was making its way towards us. Once that wave crashes its everyones for themselves and next thing I know someone is attaching themselves onto my back while I get pushed to shallow grounds. And when I came up I saw that it was Brittany, in which her response was “I thought it was you…it would have been very awkward if it wasn’t you”

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After rounds and rounds of crashing into waves we decided to take a break and check out the specialty drinks for this party. We headed over to one of the many pop up bars and it was a party over there. They had one poor CM working by himself while the line was 10-15 people deep.

We waited patiently for our drinks and we were all here for our glow cubes.

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Right on the side of the bar they had a line set up for AP holders for a special meet special greet. And since there wasn’t a line what so ever Brittany Erin and I decided to jump in line to meet scary but not as scary as she use too be boo beep.

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Then we headed to the other side of the park to get food at leaning palms because thats where the nuggs were. While everyone was eating Ma ended up finding us and wanted a group picture before everyone left. So while everyone finished eating, Brittany asked Ma if she would have brought her down picasso pizza because earlier in the trip Brittany asked me if she would and we both agreed she probably wouldn’t. Turns out I forgot my mother would literally do anything for my friends and told Brittany she would have….if it was me asking I would have gotten a no.

We managed to get a group photo for Ma’s request.

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We headed back to our stuff and enjoyed the dance party for a hot second. Brittany had planned to leave around 10 because she had work in the morning but before she went we decided to hit up the family raft and crush n gusher one last time.

After that Brittany headed out and we jumped into the lazy river to find ourselves some fun rafts. Last year all I wanted was a parrot but could never find an empty one….this year Erin came to the rescue and found one for me.

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After a nice ride around in the lazy river we decided to call it a night. So we headed back to our chairs and dried off. And we ended our night at the glow party

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Overall I love the H2O glow parties. Its a nice change from the parks, but the big factor is if you enjoy swimming, if you don’t then its not really for you. And the best part is that its Toy Story themed and I’m obsessed.

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Alish took us back to WL but before we headed there we had to make a stop at Fort. Ma brought things down for Alish that she needed to grab and Danielle left to help Ma with the other two and their scooters earlier so we had to pick her up.

Entering Fort was just a big welcome home! This is my family’s resort. Gma brought her family here and then Ma brought us here when we were younger…until kiss came along and our family was too big and we had to then stay off property.

Erin was excited to actually see an inside of a cabin. I talk about this place so much yet we had yet to stay here. As soon as we walked through the door I told her not to love the big open space because that was only a luxury of the handicap cabin they got.

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Hey Nemo less than two months and we would be back staying at fort and I was so excited for our halloween staycation.

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We stayed and partied in the party cabin before we called it a night and headed back to the lodge around 11:30. We had another fun filled day tomorrow because it was officially HALLOWEEN TIME in Disney!!!!
 
The dim sum just looks too cute that I feel like I need one of each!
2 weeks in Japan, that sounds like a dream. So out of all of the Asia Parks which one was your favorite?
So, my experience was a bit different than most other people I’ve read about. My favorite was actually Shanghai! Just so many WOW moments! And I had low expectations but it all worked out great! I also really liked Hong Kong-I mean Mystic Manor was worth the trip alone! And the low crowds made it so I walked onto literally every single ride!

Tokyo-I liked the parks themselves and the entertainment was top-notch. But I couldn’t really enjoy myself due to such high crowds when I was there. I did 7 park days-2 for Halloween, then Kyoto/Tokyo for a week, and back for 5-days Christmas. Of those 7 days, I had 3 days that were so crowded they restricted admission, which I didn’t expect. (Also 1 rainy day which wasn’t crowded but meant entertainment cancelled; 3 days were good though.)

So my rankings are: DL-DLP-SHDL-AK-DCA-HKDL-MK-Epcot-WDS-DHS (WDS Beats DHS due to better shows and, for me, rides). I don’t feel comfortable ranking TDL and TDS until I have another proper visit without insane-o crowds!
 
So, my experience was a bit different than most other people I’ve read about. My favorite was actually Shanghai! Just so many WOW moments! And I had low expectations but it all worked out great! I also really liked Hong Kong-I mean Mystic Manor was worth the trip alone! And the low crowds made it so I walked onto literally every single ride!

Tokyo-I liked the parks themselves and the entertainment was top-notch. But I couldn’t really enjoy myself due to such high crowds when I was there. I did 7 park days-2 for Halloween, then Kyoto/Tokyo for a week, and back for 5-days Christmas. Of those 7 days, I had 3 days that were so crowded they restricted admission, which I didn’t expect. (Also 1 rainy day which wasn’t crowded but meant entertainment cancelled; 3 days were good though.)

So my rankings are: DL-DLP-SHDL-AK-DCA-HKDL-MK-Epcot-WDS-DHS (WDS Beats DHS due to better shows and, for me, rides). I don’t feel comfortable ranking TDL and TDS until I have another proper visit without insane-o crowds!

I fell in love with seas, sorry you to deal with all those crowds. I can agree with WDS beating DHS because while its super small it offers way more at this point in time.

Typhoon Lagoon glow nights looks like a lot of fun!
I love them. Would highly recommend!
 


Hooray For Hollywood

The alarm went off at 7:30 and I was not ready to get out of bed. So instead I laid in bed and listened to Taylor swifts new song Lover, which is now not at all new. That started the day out right, so with that we grabbed some breakfast and headed out around 8:30. Danielle was down for the count this morning and decided to stay back and sleep for the day.

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When we headed to the bus stop we just missed the bus. So we caught the next one and made it to the park about 9ish. We didn’t have mania FP at all so we decided to try and get that done this morning. Once we made it into the park I checked the times and it was only a 10 minute wait. After the 2 minute walk to TSL it had become a 75 min wait and I was not ok with that.

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We turned right out of the land and headed over to the new incredible area.
And surprisingly it was dead, no soul around. How unlike anywhere in Disney too be

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We decided that we would come back before we left the park. Erin wanted to try the nom nom cookie that everyone seemed to be raving about.

At this time we had no plans, we had FP for RnR and ToT so we didn’t need to head over there quite yet. Welcome to a park that needs more than a few attractions. We walked around aimlessly and opted for star tours.

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Star Tours didn’t disappoint, it was a complete walk on and we got a whole new experience. EWOKS! I loved it. I might not know much of star wars, but I do know that Ewoks are cute.
The only sad thing was I was once again not the rebel spy.

After our time in a galaxy far far away we headed back to the other side of the park and too RnR. Then on our way over as we were passing Hollywood and vine we found a cute/ well themed bench.

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We had your casual ride on RnR

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Until the very end when we came to a quick stop and sat there for what seemed like forever. It would have been a cooler story if we had to be evacuated, or if we were actually inside more on the track and had to be evacuated. But none of that happened and after maybe 5 minutes we were at the unload area.

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Right after we got off of RnR Kiss and I ditched Erin and headed over to ToT. Erin did her usual and walked around the shops while we entered the twilight zone.

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And if you are one who doesn’t do well with elevators I would not recommend waiting for your party on this bench. Yes its nice to look at, but its not comfy and you’ll melt in the sun.

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We headed off to sunset boulevard and found Erin not at all thrilled that most of the shops were closed for refurb.
We had one last FP to use for the day and headed back over to TSL. On the way over we stopped yet again at the incredible little nook so Erin could get the famous, most talked about, jack jack cookie. While she was waiting in line a CM came up to talk to her and she became part of the show. Love that.

Review on the cookie: Too over hyped, but honestly what Disney treat isn’t?
But if you do plan to get it prepare for a thick cookie that is in need of a big glass of cold milk to go with it.

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Drive In Dine In

Since Erin had a snack in hand I thought it would be fitting if I went in search of a snack…we may have had lunch reservations in a short while but yolo. I headed over to the lunchbox because I like to be disappointed in the tarts. Let me rephrase that, I LOVE the raspberry tart but that one always gets the boot when they have a special seasonal one. Last christmas was an apple one that was TRASH. And this summer they had the blueberry lemon, didn’t sound awful but I was gladly ready to be the judge of that.

When I went to order I was beyond grateful when the CM told me they got the raspberry one back. I could not be more happy. My only fear was that my year judgment was wrong and that maybe it wasn’t as good as I remembered it too be. But nope it was still great and I highly recommend.

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I did my best not to scarf it all down and save some for later. Plus we also had to go get in line for slinky.

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It was so much better today then the previous day when we got stuck in the rain.

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Once we got off we went in search for Forky. Jokes on us they took Forky out. But honestly it was for the best since it is technically Andy’s backyard and Forky is Bonnie’s toy, so in the long run he had no need being in Andy’s backyard.

So instead here is a picture of me and the famous pixar ball

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And a domino bench because its a 10 out of 10 for theming

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We didn’t have much time after our quick little trip to TSL so we headed over to our lunch for the day. SciFi Diner. This was my pick of the trip because I like the theming and fried pickles.

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We had a nice early lunch, so having to wait for a table wasn’t that bad. We were going to the first MNSSHP tonight so we wanted an early lunch so we could make it back to the room to get ready at a reasonable time.

Our party was called and we were taken to our car and it was already -100 degrees inside. I always feel like they have this place like an ice box.
In no time we were ordering and enjoying the obnoxious “scary” movie clips. Erin wasn’t impressed by them just being clips and wished it was an actually movie. I could agree but knew that would never work.

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Now early I said I loved the fried pickles, my plan was to get, but did I get them? No. Instead I decided to go with your classic chicken fingers with a side of fries because basic. And with that being said there really is nothing all that excited about this restaurant, but I knew that going into it. Let’s be real the atmosphere brings the crowds.

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After our nice little lunch we headed out of studios and back to WL.
But first photo pass photo

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We waited for the bus for quite some time and once we got back to the resort we (shockingly) lounged around the room around 2ish before we all started to get moving. And by that I mean go grab some snacks from the lounge.
 
Halloween In August!

The correct way to get ready for a halloween party is first, get ready way to early because you're just too exciting. Second, grab some snacks because the sugar cookies from club level are the best, mostly because they aren’t fully baked and are soft and doughy. Third, play hallowishes and cry because its no longer a thing.

Going into this halloween party we knew it was going to be hot so we had to pick practical costumes. We also knew that we were coming back in October for another party and right away we had extravagant costumes planned for that, so we were in need of simple costumes.

With that being said I knew I wanted to be moana, but everyone is moana so its not all that original. So I decided to spice it up and do voyager Moana from the very end of the movie, but basically because I wanted to wear the flower crown.
Erin opted for Esmerelda and someone pulled it together less than a week before we left.

While we got ready, Alish and Kiss headed to Alish’s home to get amazon packages. Alish somehow managed to talk Kiss into buying a fitbit and had it shipped to her house so he could get it sooner. (and surprise I joined in the sibling fad…but mostly to get ready for that wine and dine 10k)

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We are those people who like to get to the party at 4. So a little after 3:30ish we all hopped into Alish’s car and headed over to the contemp. While we aren’t suppose to do it, we park in the CM parking lot and walk over to the kingdom. Today got us worried because they had a CM standing at the ID scanner…but when she pulled up he was just showing all the media people invited to the party where to park.

So we got prime parking and headed over to the kingdom. Alish planned to hang out with us in the park before the party started since she would have to head off to work.

First things first, we lucked out with the weather. It was an overcast day with a nice breeze and I was not complaining at all.

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Our first stop was first aid for Danielle to get more medicine. Then it was a fun walk around MK to get our photos in our costumes. Adventure land was first and we found 2 spots that could be Moana themed.

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And shockingly it turned into Sam not being able to take a nice photo.
Is this how you way find?
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Since we were in adventure land we decided to knock out Erin’s favorite and head to pirates. As we were walking through the line we saw a lonely Jack just hanging out and I was not expecting him to just be hanging out in the line. My need to come back to see the other pirates during the party overlay seemed to slim after our little special meet special greet

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After Pirates we headed over to Fantasyland in search of finding a spot for Erin to take some pictures. The best spot we could find that wasn’t crowded was the castle wall.

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And we also were able to snag a kuzco pic for Kiss with the castle wall.

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After pictures we decided to head over to Philharmagic because it was there and had no wait. On our way in Kiss got stopped by a group of girls and was asked to take a picture because they loved his costume.

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Then it was time for some good old Disney music and that amazing smell during Be our guest (the main reason I come to this show)
After the show we headed over to tomorrowland because Danielle wanted to get a snack and cosmic rays and our family was making there was over to the kingdom from fort.

We had a whole array of Disney characters in our group.
Ma and Pa were buzz and Jessie and you best believe I made Gma be grandma Tala because she is my sting ray and I will always love moana for the grandma/granddaughter relationship.

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With that being said I knew I wanted to be moana, but everyone is moana so its not all that original. So I decided to spice it up and do voyager Moana from the very end of the movie, but basically because I wanted to wear the flower crown.
Erin opted for Esmerelda and someone pulled it together less than a week before we left.
Very cute! all of you and Kiss really pulls off Kuzco!
 
CANDY CANDY CANDY....BOO TO YOU!

While we were waiting for Danielle to get her fries Brittany texted me saying she was at the park and ready to party. She wasn’t all that thrilled when I told her we were at her favorite place. And by just saying that she knew Cosmic Rays because she absolutely hates it there, not because of the food just because of sunny eclipse.

She showed up shortly after and told me she thought we were doing simple costumes and how mine is far from that. Casual. Brittany was pua, because it went with my theming but really she was him last year for the party so she didn’t have to worry about making another costume.

Danielle got her fries and we headed over to the people mover to wait for the parents and Gma. So while we waited we decided to hop on and take a ride around the kingdom. At this point they decided to head over to Cosmic Rays for dinner and the joy on Brittany’s face was no where too be seen.

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We had a good amount of time to eat before the party started, because we do not want to waste precious party time for that.
We found Grandma Tala before we got in the forever long line too order. Alish split from the group and headed off to work

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Everyone had the same idea when it came to food so we waited in what seemed like forever. When we got in line Amelia managed to find us in the crowd. I was surprised to not see a Dole whip because honestly that would have been a more unique costume.

Once I finally got my kids meal in hand we headed outside to eat so we could be as far away from sonny as we could for brittany’s sake and because we needed to hear the Ghost Host announce that it was party time.

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Dinner was an interesting time. Brittany for some reason was unaware that Hallowishes was dead. Although she was the one who had to jinx it when wishes ended and she said so no more hallowises. This then led to Kiss debunking the wishes girl story. She was in fact not a make a wish kid like we were told but just your average kids bop kid. Brittany and I were hurt by this news but we weren’t surprised remember who the tale came from.

The ghost host did his thing and we were off to Space Mountain for that halloween overlay. AKA we just wanted to ride it in the dark

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While we waited in line Brittany was telling everyone about her days at Space. So I asked her if I should put on Taylor Swift’s 1989 album to relive the good old DCP days. Because literally anytime I listen too it, it takes me back to Patterson and working at DTD.

Space Mountain in the dark is a 10 out of 10. They have the music pumping at top notch and while it seems super loud from the loading area it really isn’t that loud once getting into the ride itself. The photo is the worst part, be prepared too be blinded.

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After the ride we met back up with Gma and Pa and figured out our game plan for the night

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First up get all the candy from tomorrowland. We ran around to fill up our bags before we left the land for the night. With getting a good amount of candy to start off our night we decided to try and see the first showing of Hocus Pocus.

Main Street was mobbed, from people waiting for the parade already, so we did our best to make it to the castle. We managed to snag a good spot and stood next to a bunch of managers. First night/ first show of the halloween season and they were ready to see how it goes.

The adults decided to not try and get stuck in the crowd of the show, so they headed off too frontier land too get a spot for the parade, because it was basically the whole reason they came tonight.

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We were all here for the hocus pocus show, but more importantly the finale.
As soon as the bows started we peaced out as fast as we could so we didn’t get stuck in the stand still once the show finally ended. We managed to create a train and dodge through the crowd to get to the liberty square bridge.

We found our parents sitting right outside of liberty tree saving spots for us and we waited for Boo to You. After the headless horseman passed, just like that the rain came out of no where.

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Luckily it didn’t stay long, but it did delay it just a bit.
If you know the Boo to You soundtrack you might know that it starts with thunder and then they introduce the parade, that thunder got Brittany and I good. We thought it was real and got worried that the parade was a bust. But it wasn’t and we got to watch Jasmine shine.

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I was glad too see Peter Wendy and the lost boys back to being movers and not stuck on the pirate ship. The haunted mansion section will forever be the best. I was waiting FOREVER to see Constance because Alish would talk non stop about her and how cool she was.
The new pixar additions were ok, the buzz girls had cute costumes.
I was sad too see the ugly step sisters were cute from the second best part of the parade.
Boo to You was 10 out of 10, forever great!
Once it ended we made a mad dash too main street to get ready for the fireworks. Would they be good, would they be bad, would it be worth losing Hallowishes?!
 
RIP HALLOWISHES

The parade was only going to Main Street by the time we made it too the hub area. So while we waited for the parade to pass we decided to dunk into Casey’s and get ourselves some water. The amount of people in line for food was obnoxious. But there we stood waiting for free water. And as we waited we watched as the parade came to a stand still, we love when a float breaks down on night one.

We managed to get our waters after a million years later and headed off into a packed main street. We had a little bit before the fireworks and we decided to stand in front of Casey’s where they leave a walkaway open to cross. This was normally a prime spot for hallowishes to see the 360 fireworks. Turns out not so much for this one.

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Personally the fireworks were ok…it seemed to be a hit or miss.
Some people loved it, others like myself were indifferent.

Now I get it, Hallowishes was just a firework show they needed to keep up to date with all their projections on castles and lasers lights. And this is when you need to decide what you are there too see, fireworks or projections. Or maybe you are tall where you can see both from wherever you stand. That just is not my case.

Secondly, the Jack puppet AMAZING! We however didn’t even know he was on the stage from where we were standing because we just couldn’t see him.

Then there is the soundtrack. I’m a “I would die” for Hallowishes type of person. The soundtrack was a bop, the ghost host was the perfect fit. I could sing along to the whole show and just love life. This show had a lot more instrumental music. And since when was Once Upon a Dream a halloween song?!
Half the time, I looked over and Brittany was unimpressed and complaining enough for the both of us. Personally for us it didn’t hold our attention, we couldn’t see most of the projections on the castle to follow the story along because we are use to a firework show, so standing further back is ok because with fireworks you just need to look up.

With that the firework aspect of it was great….minus the scream along being cut and no 360 fireworks.

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After the show we came to the conclusion that we would have more party time to enjoy in October because we did not need to see this again.

As the crowds tried to go every which way we fought our way over to Adventureland to head over to those treat trails. While we followed the others going to that land, we found a sad Photopass CM just hanging out. She had a party frame to take a picture with so we decided to stop, cause why not?

And later on we realized why there was a line for this picture….because we were unsure what the picture idea was here. What was the main focus?

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We headed to the Jungle Cruise and ended up going down this treat trail twice because they were handing out a lot! Then we headed over to splash for more candy, followed by country bears. We seemed to get our bags topped off and happy with the amount of candy we got.

Around this time we decided to find a spot for the parade, because Disney a least kept one good thing for this party. It got closer and closer to the parade start and nothing was happening. It was delayed and we never like that because we had plans to go on Splash before the park closed.

The parade finally started, Jasmine found us right away. And a grave digger spotted me, and I forgot I knew someone working the grave yard shift. So thanks for that uncomfortable stare into my soul.

As soon as the last banner walked passed we booked it over to splash. We made it into the line before they closed it. And it seemed like everyone wanted one last ride on splash before they called it a night because there was a commotion downstream and it was backed up like crazy.

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Then just like that the party had come to an end. Brittany and Erin were walking zombies at this point of the night. They stopped for nothing and no one. The practically booked it out of the park as fast as they could. Not even a picture in front of the castle. It was like we were cinderella and when it struck midnight we run out as fast as we can.
 
If you know the Boo to You soundtrack you might know that it starts with thunder and then they introduce the parade, that thunder got Brittany and I good. We thought it was real and got worried that the parade was a bust. But it wasn’t and we got to watch Jasmine shine.
That just makes me laugh to think about! And I'd totally be the same way!
 
A Bust of a Morning

Today an alarm went off, and it was blaring. None of us were ready for that nor did we wake up after it. We all pretending like we didn't hear it and waited for my alarm to go off before we got up and moving.

The first thing I needed to accomplish this morning was to print off my AP email for the star wars galaxy edge preview. Before we even get into that process lets talk about how blessed I was to get a reservation. Somehow I managed to have the right time for my break at work that day and follow the right person on instagram who posted the link to sign up before the email even came out. The only struggle was that I couldn't get Erin on it no matter how many times I tried, so she managed to get another slot on Monday. I was able to link both Kiss and Danielle. And from what I heard a lot of people didn’t have access to the link until they received the email and at that point it was basically booked up.

So with the slot snagged for the first day, I received an email that needed to be printed out, 3 days prior. So this morning I headed down too the lounge concierge too see if they could print it out for me. This became more of a process than I thought it would be. After forwarding my email to two different CMs emails at the lounge they were able to find it in there junk folder and got it printed out.

With the email in hand, I had my breakfast of champions this morning before heading out for the day

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ITS OUR FIRST DAY IN GALAXYS EDGE NEMO!

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But first lets go to Animal Kingdom

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Danielle was still under the weather and decided not to join us. So we headed out by 8:30.
It was our last day at Animal Kingdom of this trip and that made me sad. Honestly I love this park so much, Past Sam would call me crazy.

First stop of the morning….Dinosaur.
We had a FP and were ready to catch us yet another dinosaur to bring back with us.
But jokes on us because it was down. We got that “Use your FP at another location” so we decided to use it at Everest. However we did sit outside for a bit just to make sure it was one of those quick breakdowns.

Well the CMs told everyone it was looking like it was going to open any time soon. So we decided to call it quits here. But before we headed off to Everest Kiss actually wanted a photo. Shocking!

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Upon making it to Everest we found out that it was also down. Just our luck.

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The CMs said it would take a few hours to get it up and running. So basically this morning was a bust and we should have chose a different park to go too. This is what I get for dragging them to DAK literally everyday.

We wasted a good hour and a half and decided to get some garlic knots because why not eat?!
On our walk over to Pizzafari we got on the topic of our trip in October and thats when I realized I never made Fps. Our 60 days hit while we were on this vacation and it just slipped my mind. Who was i?! I don’t even know. What I do know is that I sat right outside of Pizzafari and did my best to make an itinerary and get FPs. But just like this morning everything wasn’t going as planned. Brittany’s AP expired before the trip so while she was going to renew it the app didn’t know that and Alish being a CM was blocked out of Studios because of Star wars. So I managed to be able to use Alish guest FP so we could switch them later on too Brittanys and we would just not go to Studios.

After a bit of a heart attack we managed to get it worked out and headed into Pizzafari before they even opened. At 11 they opened and we were the first ones in line. And it was garlic knots for everyone.

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After a nice morning snack we headed over to Pandora. We had one last FP which hopefully would not be down. But before we could get on Flight we decided to grabbed one photo pass photo.

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Flight was not down and we were finally getting on our first attraction of the day.
Today we were lucky and we got placed all the way up on the top level. And like always our flight was great.

We got off at 12:03, Kiss and I created our own pandora 5k and booked it out of the park leaving Erin behind. We ran for the Studios bus and managed to catch that at 12:15. Our reservation for Star wars was at 1 and we didn’t know how the lines/crowds would be since it was the first day of the AP previews. At this point Danielle was already on her way to Studios and told us she would get in line for us once she got there.

But the excitement I had to see a new land at a park! And I don’t even know anything about Star Wars. So this should be fun.
 
Cute In Batuu

We made it too the park and to the entrance to Galaxy’s Edge before 1. Now upon arrival kiss had purchased hot sauce from AK and since that was his only bag he threw it in mine and skipped bag check. The CM then asked why I carry hot sauce around…love that.

I didn’t know what to expect for the preview. What I thought was that there would be a line of people trying to enter at once and that was not actually a thing. We found Danielle and we headed towards the line of CMs standing in front of the hedges hiding the new land. There they checked our printed out itinerary and gestured us behind the foliage where another line of CMs awaited us.

That CM scanned the printed out email and looked at everyones AP and ID and with a “enjoy” we were off to explore the new land.

Heads up, this girl knows nothing about star wars…or at least the new ones. Danielle watched the old ones growing up so up to jar jar binks and queen amidala is the “newest” characters I know and they seem un relevant in this day and age.

Back to the land,

The entrance is honestly a big long walk way where there is absolutely nothing.

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We ended up walking the wrong way because none of us grabbed a map and decided to wing it. So we took the long way to the entrance of the attraction. Getting on Smugglers run was the only thing on my list of things too do…and to possibly try the blue milk.

The clouds were getting darker by the minute so we jumped in line for a 40 min wait. And we made it inside just in time before the rain started.

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while standing in line Rey was out and about meeting guests

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Waiting in line with crazy star wars fans surrounding you can be a bit tough for some. But for me I just started throwing out characters I hope to see Ewoks, princess leia, darth mual, chewy, yoda, jabba the hutt, jar jar binks (which apparently no one likes, so we threw that one out more throughout our time here)

The queue line for this ride is long…however you are forever moving along.

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We finally got to the viewing room. The animatronic in this room was not working and covered up so instead we got to watch a tv screen. Not as cool and I was honestly lost throughout the whole thing. Probably because I was waiting for the animatronic that never showed.

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After the pre show we made it to the long hallway where at the end of that we were broken up into groups of 6. There was a party of one in front of us and luckily for me she was a die hard fan. The CM gave everyone there job and we were off to explore while we waited for our boarding group to be called.

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Like every one and their mothers I wanted a picture with the table. Follow the crowd, cause thats what you do when something is knew. Danielle kept saying its the chess game from the movie….like I was suppose to know what that means.

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Now my favorite things to say while in the new land was “cute in batuu” and “capri suns”

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You don’t really have much time in this waiting room before your group is called. So you need to be quick if you want a picture at the table. We were called and taken off to our own falcon and if i’m being honest its all a blur.

Its basically your star tours 2.0. I was the shooter and didn’t realize your got points taken away if you get kept on shooting. You live and you learn. Our pilots, the die hard fan and Danielle were struggling, and the die hard fan kept yelling so way to ruin our experience.

The thing about the shooter is that the guy will talk to you on a screen on the side of you but you are trying to watch the main screen in front of you, so its all just really a lot at once for your first ride. Once going on it a few times I would assume it would become more easy.

And a heads up, at least for us, the CMs try to get you in and out as fast as they can. Danielle just wanted a picture inside the small cockpit but they rushed us to start and wanted us to all exit fast so they could keep the line going.

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So before we left left we got some pictures in the hallway right outside of the ride

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If I remember correctly we had to walk down a flight of stairs. And this is only because there were 2 CMs standing directing us where to go and they said something in their fake star wars lingo, probably Bright Suns travelers and in return I casually said “Capri Suns” as I headed down the stairs. Just like that they were thrown off their game as they weren’t expecting me to say that or anything at all. I could hear a laugh and then looked back as they asked my siblings if I was feeling ok. Just feeling cute in batuu bro.
 
Capri Suns Kylo!

The exit of smugglers run is a little confusing. It’s like a never ending hallway with peoples exits merging with you.

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And this is what I look like every time I see baby yoda

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When we finally found our way out the sky cleared up and the sun was out and ready too play.

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After smugglers we decided to jump in the photo pass line.

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And with that we went on the hunt for some blue milk. I was nervous, you had those RAVING about it (which I never trust that) and those who said don’t waste the money. So we had a 50 50 shot

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The milk line was hopping, and when we got in line they told us they were out of the normal blue milk, they only had the one with rum. So blue milk with rum it was.

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Our original plan was just too share one but we some how each decided to buy one each.
Then with the famous blue milk in hand we had to have a photo shoot.

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Review: When every one said it was gross…apparently I like gross things.
I was super surprised by how much I liked this. It had a milkshake / slushy consistency
It is nothing like milk, because I don’t like milk, and its fruity and delicious. So Blue milk you get a 10 out of 10 from me.

Danielle at this point decided she wanted to try the quick service. So we decided to head over there and check it out. While we wondered around batuu we ran into Kylo and while everyone parted the sea for him to walk through, there was Sam running in front of him shouting capri suns while I drink my blue milk. Part of me wishes I was joking but this is what my awkward self does when I know nothing of star wars.

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We found the food and both Danielle and Kiss decided to try it out. I told myself we would be going to Hoop soon so I did not need to waste my money on chicken and mac and cheese when thats what I would be eating later.

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The food line went fast…finding a seat on the other hand was not so easy. We ended up having to eat outside and while that seemed like an awful idea it honestly wasn’t that bad.

Kiss ended up going with the Smoked Kaadu Ribs. I tried a bite and these were great.

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Danielle got the kids meal chicken with mac and cheese.

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After there late lunch we decided to call it a day at Galaxy’s edge. And while we headed out of the land we decided to walk through the marketplace so see what all the hype was.

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Overall the land itself was cool cause it was new. I don’t know star wars nor would I try too so me rating the land is just so so. I don’t need to join the crowds.
However if you are a star wars lover or not, you can always make your time in Batuu more fun with some Capri Suns and just being cute in Batuu.
 
Let's Raise the Roof Inside the Hoop Dee Doo

When we got back to the room I decided to take a nap, was it the best choice? Absolutely not because at 5 I tried to wake up and I didn’t want to do anything. But tomorrow we move out of the room so I needed to pack up. While I worked on doing that I took a break and headed down too get some food because it was shepherds pie and I didn’t care that I was going to an all you care to eat in a few hours because that shepherds pie was bomb.

We had reservations for the last showing of hoop so we headed off to the boat dock a little after 7. On the way over to Fort it was our first time not seeing river country…RIP. Erin was so sad about this and was not ready for the view. While I’m sad to see it go I’m pretty excited to see the new resort, even if we don’t need anymore.

Upon arriving to the best resort on property we headed into the store where I forced myself too wait and buy a hoodie. Then we met up with the rents and Gma who were waiting in front of Hoop.

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Alish checked us in with her CM discount and we waited to be called in for dinner.
Tonight they didn’t take the usual photo pass photo of your group before the show. This was not ok because Erin out of all people said how the family needed a new photo for over the mantle. She does not seem to be a fan of the photo in our living room from my pre DCP hoop with people who aren’t part of the family anymore.

With every talk of Hoop this trip she kept saying how she was taking a new picture for us.

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It was finally time to go in and I was ready to eat. Little did I know the seating arrangement would be more complicated then it should have been.
But the corn bread was out and I was ready to eat my weight in it

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Brittany texted me saying she was on the way, and like typical Brittany she was running late and almost came walking in with the show. Her and Joe made it just in time before that happened and with that it was time for us to start chugging down the “feet” water.

Lesson learned, while it may be unlimited it seems be a good wait to get more sangria. So what I do is ask to try both from the start and start chugging from there.

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The show started and while Ive seen it probably way too many times in my lifetime I love it.
My favorite sixbits was working and at one point he was upstairs posing and did I think he would notice me down below taking a picture? No, but after a snap he threw a thumbs up questioning if I got it.

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Then the food came and before I could even ask for the kids mac and cheese the waiter dropped it down in front of me and I looked at Alish because she would be the only other person at the table to ask for it. Bless.

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Welcome to the hoop drinking game. When clara laughs you drink…be prepared its going to be a lot. Also with knowing this don’t start the game when your drink is practically gone and you have to resort to drinking Gma’s beer while you wait for another sangria to arrive.

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During the show Brittany and I got the perfect idea for halloween costumes. While we already had our idea pretty much locked down, we almost changed our minds tonight. Being the hoop characters has always been on my list of MNSSHP costumes ideas and with brittany on board it was the green light to go.

We ended up not going with this idea, but still on my list. Brittany told me I need to wait for a Jim Handy to come in my life to go with my Flora long.

After 5 sangrias down we finished off the night with the best dessert

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With a bunch of laughing, clapping, stomping and too much food we finished our night off with some washboard playing.

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After the show we headed back to WL. We all had to head to the bus stop, Brittany made sure to hug the whole family goodbye while I just said “see ya in two days” Clearly she is a better daughter than me.
And with that everyone went their own ways.

When we got back to the room it wasn’t long before Kiss and Erin were taking shots. And too be fair we were given a half bottle of vodka that day…why? Because apparently we are thought of as alcoholics and the two of them were proving that assumption true.

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I fell for the peer pressure and joined in for one round of shots and regretted it right away.
Shortly after Amelia came up to hang out, it was her last night in disney how sad.
We hung out in the lounge for a bit before she asked if we wanted too see her room.

So it was a field to check out the new copper creek villas and they are a 10 out of 10.
We hung out in the main room and chatted. Apparently we were too loud and Mike yelled at us because we were going to wake their neighbor. Sorry I didn’t know you could wake up an ice machine. Before we left Amelia wanted to give the grand tour

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And by the end of the tour I was doing somersaults and being a snug bug in a rug.
This is the point where I apparently was just trying to see how many buttons I could push and get yelled at.

1. being too loud and waking up the ice machine
2. messing up the bed too much while jumping on it

Then the next thing you know it became a hang out in the big comfy bed

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shoutout to our favorite…mother krista!

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If we thought sam was done being sam, we are sadly mistaken.
While Mike tried to get the new pictures of the Reflections resort up I randomly asked if he found the Space mountain pictures we took at the beginning of the trip. Apparently that was a no and after that I wasn’t allowed to hold the iPad to look at the reflection pictures.
The pure annoyance on his face though…

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It was getting late and my body was too heavy to move, I was attacked by NASTY FEET because no one was moving out of the bed. Feet in the face is not a cute move and we should all be lucky that I did not throw up right then and there.

We finally gave in and took pity to the tired mike and decided to let him have his bed back while we moved the party back into the main room. We didn’t stay long after that, but before we left Erin had to scare everyone a little bit with the idea of bringing a plastic leg with her to florida and leaving it somewhere in there room. One of those inside jokes that I sort of wish she went through with.

And with that it was almost 2am so we headed back to our room too call it a night.
 
Goodbye Wilderness Hello Polynesian

It was our last morning waking up at WL and it seemed like those past 9 days flew by. The alarm went off at 8. Danielle was already gone by this time because she bought the cheapest flight home which happened to be the first one in the morning. Us on the other hand decided to stay an extra night for the same price as the flight home, so clearly we made the best decision.

The only problem with this was that it we planned this too late so we couldn’t just stay the extra night at WL but when the opportunity came knocking to stay at the Poly we were not mad. So first things first was getting our boarding passes for our flight home tomorrow morning. Once we got that taken care of we packed up the room.

Emily came up with a case of smart water that she her family didn’t go threw and Amelia came up shortly after to hang out for a bit. We got our last breakfast at Old Faithful and lucky for us it was a ham day.

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Although it was our last meal at the club managed to stock pile a good amount of sugar cookies to take home with me.
We said goodbye to our view

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Hey Nemo its your first stay at the Poly and you are looking like an alcoholic

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Then we took our bags down to bell service to have them transferred over to the Poly.
At this point Emily and Amelia headed off in their separate ways and we were off to the poly.
Goodbye WL we shall miss you

We headed to the boat dock where we took a boat over to the kingdom
And from there we hopped on the monorail to the poly.

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It was still early so our room wasn't ready when we arrived, which were honestly weren’t surprised. However we still jumped in line to get Erin switched off our tragical express because she was staying longer to experience Galaxy’s Edge. After a simple switch we then had too print out her Galaxy Edge email which went a lot smoother than mine.

Todays plan was to enjoy the Polynesian. I don’t ever find myself staying here so if this is the only time I get then I’m making sure to make it a staycation and not waste my stay here by spending all day in the park.

The main thing was to basically spend all day at the volcano pool and get the last bit of sun we could.

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Alish and Brittany both decided they wanted to join in on the pool day because its not every day you have magic band access to the volcano pool….however after years on wanting to swim in this pool it was a little disappointing. The main thing it has going for it is the zero entry because that makes a 10 out of 10 for tanning and staying cool in the florida humidity.

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Alish showed up first and we all just laid by the pool. When Brittany was close we got the text saying our room was ready, so we headed to check that out.
home sweet home

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And I was not ready for the view of the castle we were going to get.

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First of all after staying in a small WL room we were pleasantly shocked with how big and roomy this room was and wish we stayed here for the previous 9 nights.

Brittany arrived to the party and we decided to grab lunch before headed back to the pool. And if you didn’t think we would get the nachos, you clearly don’t know me. Because I live for these nachos. (they taste a lot better than how they look, I swear!)

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After lunch we headed right back out to the pool where we spent probably way too much time in the sun.
By the time we got back to the pool it was time for the pool party so we got some free entertainment while watching the pool side games.
Also during this time Brittany dropped the bomb and told me how her and joe went out ring shopping multiple times and he went back by himself multiple times. And when she came home next she would hopefully be engaged. SPOILER she is! And just yesterday she asked if it would be too extra to go on a disney cruise for her bachelorette….but she knew who she was asking so of course I said I wanted to be that extra.

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For some reason Brittany and I decided to test the hot tub…why in the florida heat? Beats me. But the conclusion that we came too was that it reminded us of Bachelor in Paradise so thats cute.
It wasn’t an awful experience like you would think but when it was a family of siblings swimming pool we didn’t last long. Plus it made the pool chillier.
This whole time Erin just laid out on a chair and how she didn’t die from heatstroke beats me. Then after a good 2.5-3 hours poolside we decided to take a break from the sun and get ready to head to the kingdom for a bit. (It’s my last day in Disney of course I had to go to MK)
 
One Last Romp in the Kingdom

Our plan for the night was to head over to the kingdom just long enough to use our 3 Fps, then we planned to come back to the resort find some dinner and watch the fireworks from the beach. So we quickly headed back to the room too get ready, since we transferred our bags from WL we had to call down to get them.

Then we headed off to MK, but first would Disney notice if I took this pillow home?

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We decided to head to the boat dock and catch a boat over to the other side of the lagoon. After spending all morning in the sun, none of us wanted to be in the sun. Lucky for us they benches in the shade where available.

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As soon as we arrived to MK we headed straight too Guest relations to have them switch over Fps. Alish original had work when we booked them and she didn’t, Joe didn’t want to come to the park after work so it was perfect, with a little switch-a-roo his were giving to Alish.

First up splash, we headed through the emporium and apparently I walked right passed Alish’s friend Raquel. Honestly its bad, but I don’t even notice the people I walk buy when it comes to crowds like that.

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When we got to splash mountain the group in front of us couldn’t decide when to get in the FP line and ended up blocking it for the rest of the guests behind them.
As we made our way through the queue the topic of school came up, which led Brittany and I to agree that college was not the best but without spending all those thousands of dollars we would have never met each other. And as Brittany would say “I wouldn’t be teaching in Florida if it wasn’t for you because I would have never been able to pass our math courses without you”

As we were waiting to be assigned our log the CM asked to see my tattoo and goes “I want a great big beautiful tomorrow” Don’t we all girl, don’t we all.

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Thunder was down….shocker. So that put a bump in our plans. We decided to head over to pirates, it was only a 20 minute wait so we jumped in line. There was a dad with his baby just having the best time of their lives as they waited in line. Queue all the baby comments from Sam that every single person in the group hears too much and at this point just tunes me out.

The funniest thing about this whole pirates experience is when 2 girls jumped into the row behind Kiss right before the gates closed. They were too much in a hurry to wait for their own boat. Then too make it even better they kept talking about how Johnny Depp is constantly at the park to work on the ride and no one ever knows if the animatronics are him or not….lies all lies.

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And like every day on pirates, the boats were backed up so we decided this would be a good time to tell Alish about the kids bop girl, who was not in fact a make a wish kid. We have all been punked.

At this point Thunder was still down and we weren’t really planning on waiting for it to reopen. So instead we headed over to Tomorrowland and planned on using the extra FP for a second ride in space.

Today was a day for Brittany to hide from all the people at Space she knew. We love that! Especially when its when you try to hide from your old trainer when your stuck in a rocket.

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As we jumped in line for our second go at space we got on the topic of when we started coming to Disney for YOLO. Circa 2012, what a time to be alive.

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Then right when we got into the gift shop Brittany used Alish for her cast discount so she could finally get the space jacket. Right when these came out I wanted to get the Jungle cruise one, but decided not to pick it up.

As we were getting ready to leave, we made a quick pit stop at the launching pad. Apparently they brought back the creme cheese pretzel and that’s Brittany’s favorite snack. So we grabbed one for the way out. Then proceeded to say “Thanks for sponsoring this day” Space and pretzel, this girl was living the dream.

And like every time we leave the kingdom for one last time, we had to take an obnoxious amount of pictures in front of the castle.

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We headed out of the park shortly after. As we were walking down Main Street Brittany asked if I wanted to get the jungle cruise jacket. I said I probably don’t really need it and thats when she walked into the emporium. And this my friends is when I gave into peer pressure and bought the jacket.

It was about 7:30 at this point and we finally got out of the park. Goodbye MK see yeah when it is actually acceptable to celebrate halloween. Because apparently August is a bit early for some people.

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Here’s too cute matching windbreakers and Brittany making me feel tan when I feel like I didn’t get enough sun while I was in Florida.

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