Fairytales can come true. You gotta make them happen. It all depends on you. Day 8

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Day 8 – Hollywood Studios, Sci-Fi Dine-in tea, Star Wars fireworks

Hi guys, sorry this has taken a couple of weeks again. As usual it wasn't the writing that took ages, it was the photos. Without further ado, for your enjoyment...Day 8!

We were back to the early starts on Sunday; the alarm went off at 06:30. We were going to Hollywood Studios for the Early Magic Hours so we got up, much refreshed by our somewhat gentler day on Saturday, and dressed appropriately.

We all had at least hints of Star Wars in our outfits today – I was wearing my completely awesome Cantina Band t-shirt and a BB8 bow that Bex got me for Christmas, Jeannie was wearing an Artoo bow and matching necklace, and Bex had a Death Star bow. We’ve all absolutely adored Star Wars since we were kids in the nineties, and our love for it has only grown over the years.

We were down at the bus stop by 07:05 and hoping for better luck with the buses than we’d had the previous day. We were lucky and a bus turned up very quickly. We hopped on it and then formed a daring plan to run and get drinks from Hospitality House while the bus was stopped there. For the first time, we were actually hoping to see a couple of ECVs waiting at the stop!

We were in luck, an ECV was waiting, and as the bus pulled into the stop we sprang into action. Jeannie grabbed my and her resort mugs (or as she insists on calling them, ‘cuppies’ – very dignified) and made a run for the coffee machines. Bex followed, a little more slowly, with her own cuppy. I hovered in sight of the bus stop, ready to shout to them both if it looked like the bus was about to leave.

The plan was a total success and Bex and Jeannie arrived back in plenty of time with the drinks. We then boarded the bus again and set off for Hollywood Studios.

We got to Hollywood Studios by 07:35 (not bad) and soon went through the barriers. It was Mothering Sunday in the US on this day (14th May) and there was a guy handing out flowers to each of the mums as they came through the barrier.


Aww Disney!

There was then the usual wait on the main street for rope drop.

[/url


The Star Wars t-shirts and other outfits were out in full force (geddit? I’m so sorry ), and we took the opportunity to get a few pictures of our own.





The wait for rope drop wasn’t too long and we spent the time planning where we’d go first. It was a choice between Tower of Terror and the Aerosmith ride and, since Tower of Terror is a better ride we decided to prioritise that, even though we did have a fastpass for it later on. Everyone else in the crowd seemed to have also been deciding between these two rides as well, as they all walked in the same direction. The crowd then split off into the two different ride queues.

Tower of Terror was a walk-on, so we didn’t have any time to get nervous. Becky absolutely loves this ride, but always forgets this fact and is absolutely terrified before she goes on it. Jeannie, I think, finds it the most scary out of the three of us, and so spent most of the time queuing telling Becky (who was going, ‘Oh I’m not sure I’ll like it. Ooh it’s really scary when it drops when you’re not expecting it!’) to shut up or she wouldn’t ride with us. I just love it, as you can possibly tell from my face in the ride photo.



For what’s really just a simple drop ride, this ride is so creative and witty. I also love that in the Orlando one, the drop sequence is always different, so you never know what to expect. I actually really like the dropping feeling (after like the second or third drop) and that feeling of weightlessness always makes me totally giddy, in a good way.

We all bounced off the ride, high as kites, and agreed that it’s definitely a Level 5 (‘This ride scares because it cares’, for those at the back who haven’t been paying attention ) but not to be missed!

We thought about doing the Rock and Roller Coaster after we’d finished, but the wait time already said 30 minutes! We’d only been in the park for about quarter of an hour! So we abandoned that thought and headed to the Pixar section instead.



We’d only managed the Toy Story Midway Mania ride once on our previous visit, because it was fairly new and was always mobbed because it was so good. Since then, however, they’d opened up the second queue and the wait times were a lot more manageable. We waited perhaps 15 minutes, but the queue is so fantastic that it hardly seems like a wait at all. I love being shrunk down to the size of a toy and all the nods to classic games and toys all over the place.

The ride itself is completely fantastic too; it’s a Level 4 (This ride is totally awesome, dude!) but not for thrills, just for overall awesomeness. My only gripe with it is that I get so caught up in the games that I forget to appreciate the brilliance of the graphics and all the witty Toy Story references. My concentration paid off on this occasion, however, since I won with 111,000 points! Yey!

After this we headed over for our first go on Star Tours!




The queue was really short, as it often seems to be for Star Tours and we were soon on. On this occasion we visited Hoth where they seemed to having some trouble with those pesky rebels and received a holographic message from Admiral Ackbar about some sort of spy that had hidden out on our ship! The cheek.

The ride was so good (Level 4, without question) that we decided to immediately run round to do it again. As we were walking out of the shop a CM congratulated me on my t-shirt and said that the Modal Nodes were a great band. I agreed that they were the best band in the Outer Rim!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/YknEJG][/url

The queue for this ride makes me squee!

On our second ride we ended up in Tatooine and took part in a pod race. The pod race is one of the only cool things about the Phantom Menace, so this was pretty awesome. The message about the rebel spy came from BB8. I kept hoping if we went on the ride enough times, one of us would get to be the rebel spy, but Becky said that they always picked the person in a particular seat in the third row.

It was getting on for breakfast time by this point, and we’d already done loads, so we decided to head for Starbucks. We stopped on the way to get a picture on the speeder bike, knowing that the queues for it would get long later in the day.


I was holding on tight to make it look like the bike was going really fast, but Jeannie ruined it by being ‘cool’.

We took our picture quickly because there were quite a few kids wanting to play on the bike and then headed off to Starbucks. The baked goodies in Starbucks looked really delicious.


Baby Groot cupcakes! What a time to be alive!


In fact, everything looked so nice, and we’d already done so much to-ing and fro-ing, that Becky and I decided to treat ourselves to a cinnamon roll. Jeannie stuck with her usual smoothie, but Bex and I shared the cinnamon roll in addition to our iced latte and smoothie. We used up four snack credits.

After breakfast, we joined the crowds lining the main street to watch the March of the First Order. They started the march at about 10:00. This isn’t really a show, and not quite a parade either, but it is totally awesome.




Basically, Captain Phasma marches all the stormtroopers up to the stage where they stand and look menacing for a bit. Then they do some formation marching and formation standing around while she barks at them. I’m pretty sure it is Gwendoline Christie’s voice, though they sadly probably have to have a man in the Phasma costume.


Had to stop myself from shouting ‘I love you Phasma!’ She is so cool.


Bex got right to the front of crowd and got this fantastic picture!



Phasma is too cool. It’s almost enough to make you want to join the First Order.

Our fastpass for Tower of Terror had now opened up. We went over to join the queue, which, even with the fastpass, was longer than when the park had first opened. We probably waited for about 15 minutes.




I told Becky and Jeannie to show ‘terror’, but Bex seems have gone with ‘mild surprise’ instead.

This ride photo isn’t very good because a woman’s hand is totally covering Jeannie’s face. On the other hand, Becky’s face is classic.


I remembered to get a picture of Bellhop Stitch when we came out of the ride. I’d seen him lots of times before, but kept forgetting to take a photo.

Needless to say, Tower of Terror was fantastic. I could quite easily get addicted to the feeling of floating up out of my seat!

It was now about 10:30 and we knew we wanted to catch the Beauty and the Beast show at 11:00 so we headed over there. We stopped on the way to get a quick photopass.




It was nice to get to the Beauty and the Beast theatre and be out of the heat for a bit. It’s not the coolest in there, because it’s open air, but we were right underneath one of the big ceiling fans, which definitely helped.

The Beauty and the Beast show was super fun as always. The woman playing Belle had a lovely voice and the guy playing Gaston was giving it big licks (though he was choosing his own key pretty much at random ).





The downside was the Beast who, deprived of a proper sound effect, is reduced to making his own rrawrr roarrrr noises. He sounds like a guy wearing a big animal suit and making rrawrr roarrrr noises, which is unfortunate.




The other downside was that the seating isn’t tiered quite steeply enough for you to be able to see over the heads of people in front, if they’re of a certain height. My view was very blocked, so I could only see half the stage at once. All the pics you see here are Becky’s.

Even with all that though, the show was still great. Beauty and the Beast is one of those Disneys from the Renaissance era in the nineties and, like the Lion King, is as close to perfect as a kids’ movie can be, and they really celebrate the music and joyfulness of the movie in this show.

Refreshed and rested we headed out to do a few more things before lunch. Our fastpass for Star Tours was now open, so we went back over there to use that.



While we were doing up our seatbelts I said again that I wished one of us could be the rebel spy, and Bex said that none of us was sitting in the hot seat. I resolved to test out her theory, and noted who was sitting in that seat.

This time we went to Kashyyk and then underwater to Otoh Gungha – I am making up spellings here – before Ackbar popped up to tell us about the spy. And low and behold, Jeannie was the rebel spy! I always knew she had shifty eyes. So, there you have it, it doesn’t matter where you sit, you too could be a spy.

The queue was too long to go round again (I totally would’ve) so we went to find a spot for the Galaxy Far Far Away show – it was turning into quite a Star Warsy day.

The Galaxy Far Far Away show was totally awesome (a lot of things were awesome today ). There wasn’t really much of a story to it, it was more just a celebration of lots of Star Wars characters.




It started with the goodies, such as Artoo and Threepio and Chewie. The guy who was playing Chewie was having a lot of fun out there, especially since it was mega hot by this point and he must have been dying in that suit. He kept waving his crossbow around excitedly.





As is often the case, especially with Star Wars, the villains were even cooler than the good guys. Kylo Ren, Vader and Darth Maul were all very in character and had fun stalking up and down the stage looking intimidating. Darth Maul was especially awesome, chucking his double-bladed lightsaber around and posing.





BB8 came out at the end and was soooo cute! He hung around for a bit after the show had ended so that people could take pictures. He seems to appreciate his public.

Our next fastpass had opened up, this time for Toy Story Midway Mania. It was enormous fun and I won again! I got 133,000 points and was the best in the vehicle as well.


Flushed with success.

Jeannie thought I must be cheating, or that there was some trick I hadn’t told her about (like with the Men in Black ride) but it was pure skill. Maybe I’m getting better at the shooty thing.

It was horribly hot when we emerged from the Toy Story ride. We all needed a drink and to plan our next move, so we went to the café opposite the Chinese Theatre and sat under a parasol to plot and plan. Bex went to get a coke for herself and a couple of waters for me and Jeannie.

We decided to head to Epcot for lunch as we wanted to check out the food stalls at the Flower and Garden Festival (we had heard great things), but should we go home afterwards? Or should we hang around in Epcot until the evening? We couldn’t come to a final decision, so we decided to leave it until after lunch and see how we felt.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Part 2

We finished up our drinks, refilled for the road – the free availability of iced water in Disney World is a very fine tradition – and then headed out of the park to catch the boat to Epcot. I had never been on this boat before, although Jeannie and Becky had on our 2015 visit. I was probably foot-sulking on that occasion . Anyway, I was quite excited to take the boat, as a gentle boat ride seemed just the thing on this absolutely baking hot day. Of course, this being Disney, it was incredibly crowded and not that restful, but it did the job.



We went by way of Swan and Dolphin (that place looks so weird), Yacht and Beach (glamour!) and the Boardwalk (class!) to finally end up at Epcot. We left at 13:00 and got to Epcot by about half past.



We had watched Dis Unplugged videos about the Flower and Garden Festival with great interest, knowing we were actually going to be there. Of course, the flowers were very pretty, but what we’d been most interested in was the food . The big recommendations from the Dis team had been the food stalls in Morocco, Canada, USA and Germany. We couldn’t sample all of these, so we decided to go to Morocco as it was closest.

I think we were making very quick decisions, spurred on by a need to get out of the heat, but we certainly didn’t regret our decisions. I ordered a lamb sausage in a bun and Jeannie and Bex ordered falafels.




The food was really yummy. The sausage was simple, but meaty and delicious and the falafels were crunchy with a lovely salad and dressing. They were, however, very small. This was to be expected because they were only a snack credit each, but I would say if you’re planning a main meal at Flower and Garden, you will probably need more than one of these little taster dishes.

We were still hungry after the sausage and falafel so we decided to walk on and see if anything from any of the other stalls took our fancy. We were still holding back a bit in terms of spending snack credits (spoiler alert, we should not have held back), but Becky calculated that we could have a pudding or something without breaking the credit bank too much.




We walked past this amazing stall selling Disney Precious Moments dollies. I’ve always thought these dolls were hideous, but for some reason seeing them all grouped together like this was rather fascinating. I especially loved the villain dolls – why are Disney villains always so well-dressed?




We passed by the Snow White topiaries near Germany, and noticed that quite a few people were lining up to meet Snow White herself, although she wasn't out yet. We spotted the menu for the Germany food stall and decided to grab something from there.





Jeannie fancied something sweet, so got the strudel with blueberry compote, while Bex and I went for potato pancake.




Again, they were small, but were actually quite filling. The potato pancake in particular was quite starchy and came with lots of cubes of speck and a nice sour cream. By the time we’d finished these, we were no longer hungry.

We also noticed that people were looking at us quite intently and eventually realised that this was because we were standing in exactly the spot where Snow White would soon be greeting her adoring fans. Time to move on!

We were also very hot by this point, and just felt too gross to stay out all afternoon. Bex was beginning to get a headache and feel a bit weird too, despite constantly drinking water. We walked out of the World Showcase, passing by some lovely topiaries on the way.







We then walked to the Epcot exit, hugging the shade as we went. The park was absolutely rammed. As we were leaving, we heard the main theme from the Rescuers Down Under which made us unreasonably happy – that movie is so underrated!





We caught a bus just before 15:00 and headed back to Old Key West for some much needed out-of-the-sun time. When we got back to the room Jeannie told me that we’d done 16,000 steps already – and boy did it feel like it.

Jeannie and Becky went down to the quiet pool for a quick dip, but I decided I needed to stay in the AC. I showered, messed about on my phone for a bit and briefly closed my eyes, though I didn’t sleep, and when Becky and Jeannie returned I felt refreshed and ready to go. Bex on the other hand did not look so good. The heat had made her feel very ill and when she got in from swimming she put her head down on her pillow and closed her eyes. She then seemed to be having difficulty even talking or lifting her head, let alone getting ready to go out.

We had a fastpass booked for the Great Movie Ride (we’d booked it earlier on our way out of Hollywood Studios), but we decided to miss that one and give Bex a bit of time to get better. We waited for a bit, but our ADR at the Sci-Fi Dine-in Theatre was fast approaching. Eventually, Bex said she wasn't going to be able to come out with us straight away. She said we should go and find out if we could change the reservation. If not, she’d join us when she could and we’d have to find somewhere else to eat.

Jeannie and I quickly finished getting ready to go out and left Becky to sleep. The wait for the bus was ridiculously long again, Jeannie and I were not best pleased as we were already late for our ADR and were minus one of our party. :angry: We must have left Old Key West at about 17:30.

A family got on the bus at Hospitality House, composed of a teenage boy and girl and a mum and dad. They were some of the stupidest people we saw the whole time we were in Florida and made me really quite angry. There was plenty of space to sit, so why the boy was standing I’ve no idea, but he seemed to require the attention of the whole bus. He proceeded to do pull ups on the handrail and then to climb on it. He was soon joined by his sister who started climbing up the pole to hang off the handrail like a monkey. The bus was in motion the whole time, in fact it was speeding down the dual carriageway, probably at about 50 miles an hour.

It was only when he was about to do a somersault over the handrail (I kid you not, a somersault!) and the bus came to a sudden stop at a light, that the boy seemed to think better of the whole enterprise. He certainly was not at any point told to cut it out by his parents, who sat serenely, either egging him on or playing with their phones.

He also wasn't told to sit the eff down by the bus driver either, which is quite surprising, as on other occasions we saw Disney bus drivers roundly telling people off for much less dangerous behaviour. Perhaps she was new, or didn’t think it was her place to tell off someone else’s kids (it certainly wasn’t my place, though I did try to let the parents know just how dumb I thought about the whole thing was with my face), but safety is supposed to be the number one priority at Disney, and it would have been her who was in the s*** if that boy and girl had been hurt.

OK rant over. But, honestly!

As soon as we got to Hollywood Studios, Jeannie and ran-walked to the Sci-Fi Dine-In. We were in time for the reservation and explained our situation to the check-in lady. She was very sympathetic but suggested that we let our table go now and then get in the queue whenever Becky was able to join us. We didn’t really know when that would be, but we didn’t really have a choice at that point. The lady told us it wouldn’t be a problem; we’d get a table. We rang Bex, who said she was leaving Old Key West and that we should wait for her.

We’d done quite a lot of waiting that afternoon and Jeannie is not the most patient of people! We both grumbled a bit, but sat on a wall opposite the restaurant to wait. The pill was sweetened a little bit when the check-in lady brought us over two cups of popcorn to eat while we waited. She’d been handing them out to people at the door to the restaurant and saved the last two for us. The other cups had disappeared in seconds – it was like a flock of gannets! Free food! Something free in Disney! Quick, everyone!

Jeannie and I sat outside the restaurant and whiled away the time eating our popcorn and people-watching while we waited for Becky. We started counting all the couples’ t-shirts that we could see (His Minnie – Her Mickey, His Ariel – Her Eric, I love you – I know, etc.) and it was a surprisingly high number, though our favourite themed t-shirt was worn by a mum walking serenely through the park with her children all around her feet – it was a a Scar t-shirt which said ‘I’m surrounded by idiots’. Beautiful.

Eventually Becky arrived, looking a whole lot better. We went in to let them know that we needed a table and one became available almost straight away, yey!

The atmosphere inside the restaurant is totally unique. You go back in time to 1957 and sit in parked cars to eat your tea. At the front of the restaurant is a huge screen which displays hilarious 1950s-style adverts for products and terrible-looking B-movies.



You’re also under a black ceiling and there are no lights, apart from car headlights, so it feels like you’re outdoors at a drive-in. This makes it quite difficult to see your food, but it’s worth it. It’s also difficult to take photos, as the flash sort of ruins the ambience, but we tried…





Jeannie and I sat in the front row and Becky sat in the back – obviously you can’t sit facing each other because you’re in a car! When the host brought us over he asked, ‘OK, who’s driving?’

I said, ‘I guess that’s me’, because I’m the only one who can drive, and he told me to go sit in the driver’s seat, which felt weird as I’ve never actually driven on the ‘wrong’ side.

Our waiter was totally lovely, one of the best we had the whole time we were there. He was really funny and didn’t break character for a second. He also explained what we could get with the dining plan really carefully, which was very considerate because we’d been wondering what the deal was with possibly getting a milkshake instead of a dessert, since we’d heard the milkshakes were amazing. Before we’d even asked him, he explained that we could totally do this if we wanted to and could order the milkshake at any point during the meal.

We ordered our food (with normal drinks rather than milkshakes, we’d have them for pudding) and then passed the time by watching what was going on on the screen and chatting. As I said before, the atmosphere is really fantastic in there and there was loads to talk about. Becky had totally recovered from her heatstroke by this point and we were all in great moods. Jeannie and I teased Bex by pretending that we were on a date and she was the third wheel. This feeling was intensified by the fact that she sometimes couldn’t hear what we were saying in the front seat and kept having to lean over and go, ‘What? What are you guys talking about?’

The food, when it arrived, was a bit disappointing but very edible.

I ordered the pork ribs with coleslaw and beans. The ribs were very nicely cooked, but I wasn't really a fan of the sauce, as it was a bit too sweet. The beans were the main reason I’d ordered the dish, I love beans, but again, they were very sweet. I finished the ribs, but couldn’t finish the rest.



Bex ordered the Southern burger, which, like her D-Luxe burger a few nights before, came with fried green tomato – she’d developed quite a taste for them. She said it was really nice, but not as good as the D-luxe burger one.



Jeannie decided to try something new, and had the Reuben sandwich (not sure who Reuben is or why he has a sandwich named after him), which was a toasty with lots of different types of ham in, and cheese. She couldn’t finish it as it was bit too meaty for her tastes.



We all chose to have milkshakes instead of dessert, and ordered a chocolate, a vanilla and an oreo. I know I ordered the vanilla, but I’m not sure what way round the other two were.

I went to the bathroom while we were waiting for the milkshakes and the bill to arrive and had quite a funny experience. I had to walk through most of the drive-in to get to the bathroom, and seeing the restaurant that way you did very strongly feel that you were in 1957, so I was rather delighted when, as I reached the door of the bathroom, it was opened by a little girl, who gave me a very serious look and said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s 2017 in there.’ I couldn’t think of anything to say except, ‘Thanks’.

When I returned to the car, the milkshakes had arrived and the bill had been paid. We took the milkshakes to go and wandered over to the Chinese Theatre to wait for the Star Wars fireworks. The milkshakes were really good, but hard work – they were so thick. I stopped about two-thirds of the way down, as I was beginning to feel a bit ill. Bex and Jeannie eventually did finish theirs, but only after a very long time, and they did feel a bit gross afterwards.

When we arrived at the Chinese Theatre we saw that the crowd was already gathering for the fireworks, even though they weren’t due to start for about 45 minutes. We were able to find a spot on the front row, and sat down to work on our milkshakes. We got talking to some nice Brits for a while and of course discussed our holidays and how they were going so far. They recommended Jiko to us and we recommended Tiffins to them. They were lovely people and we stayed chatting to them until the fireworks began.

At some point a CM came down the line saying that we didn’t all have to sit as far back as we were sitting – we should go forward as we’d have a better view. Everyone looked around sheepishly for a minute after he’d gone and then sprang into action. We ended up with a spot right in front of the stage and in the middle – basically, we couldn’t have had a better view.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Part 3

I was perhaps more excited for this evening show than for any of the others – I’d heard such amazing things about it here on the Dibb and on The Dis, plus I absolutely adore Star Wars. I may have mentioned this once or twice already . When the music started we jumped to our feet and got out our cameras. We then proceeded to take a billion photos, so sorry if I overload you a bit here.




The show was a mixture of music, fireworks and clips from all the films so far, including Rogue One. It featured all of the most striking moments from the films, both visually and emotionally, accompanied, of course, by that second-to-none soundtrack.









The show combined projections and fireworks perfectly and was the best example of that type of show that we’d so far seen. We saw a Star Wars fireworks show on our 2015 visit, which just combined fireworks with the music, and that was enough to make tears come to my eyes – this was something else entirely.





And from the sounds of things, I wasn't the only one who was overwhelmed by how awesome the show was. Although we were on the front row, a group of kids had squeezed through to stand in front of us – which of course was fine, they were only small – and were now whooping and punching the air, which was what I felt like doing. One of them kept shouting, ‘I’m on the dark side, crush the rebel spies!’ while another one was going, ‘Yeeeeeeeah! Vadeeeeeeeeer!’

Kids are the best.




When the show was over we waved goodbye to our British friends, who were being swept away by the crowd, and walked back to the bus stop talking about how much the show had made us want to watch the movies all over again.

Me: Except Phantom Menace,
Jeannie (outraged): Of course Phantom Menace!
Me: OK, except Attack of the Clones.
Jeannie: Yeah. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

There was a bus waiting at the stop when we got out of the park, so we ran for it and just managed to squeeze on, though we did get tutted at by a total douchebag. Becky tutted right back at him – it was magnificent.

Then it was home and bed. We did about 20,000 steps in total, which was decent, but we hadn’t done a lot of walking in the afternoon, so it was mostly from the morning.

And that’s it for Day 8 – it’s taken me a very long time to write this day what with one thing and another, so sorry about that. I’ll try to get Day 9 done a bit more quickly – I’m forgetting everything!

Love from
Rosie

[HelenJNT]

I'm so glad you're back. Been looking forward to this!

Great day, I felt exhausted just reading it. 20k steps is no mean feet (ho ho).

Funny about the Scar tshirt as I have been wavering over buying that very one. I think I shall now!

I'm still too scared to ride ToT. But maybe this year... maybe...

Glad everyone perked up by the end of the day. Those fireworks are too good to miss.

[collybird]

Such a busy day! I think I might have needed a rest like Bex did too.

[Goldia]

Wow what an epic day. I don't need you to explain what a 5 is though as I already have it written in my notebook !

I love tower of terror too. But I have a tendency to try an 'save' anyone sitting near me...my family can't help reminding me about our first ever ride on ToT as on the first drop I clenched my hand down over my DD and also over the girl sitting next to me, as I HAD to hold them into their seats, except the poor girl on my left wasn't with us, she was with her own family... I apologised profusely to her and her dad after the ride and tried to explain it was an automatic reaction. My kids found it hilarious and fortunately the other family found it pretty funny too, they did say the drops are perfectly safe and of course logically I know this, but I couldn't help myself. Now I'm not allowed to sit next to strangers and I have to make sure I'm already holding onto the handles at the sides so that I don't embarrass them all again.

I'm glad you enjoyed the star wars fireworks we loved them too.

Also the food and topiary at Epcot looked fab.

No need to worry about getting the next installment up soon, it'll be a lovely surprise when it appears.

[Palm trees]

I love all the star wars hair accessories, you rocked that theme!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by HelenJNT

I'm so glad you're back. Been looking forward to this!

Great day, I felt exhausted just reading it. 20k steps is no mean feet (ho ho).

See more...

Pun-derful!

Originally Posted by HelenJNT

Funny about the Scar tshirt as I have been wavering over buying that very one. I think I shall now!

See more...

Hee, thinking of buying it for my mum actually.

As always thanks for reading, and especially for commenting.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by collybird

Such a busy day! I think I might have needed a rest like Bex did too.

See more...

Yeah it was a fun one. Bex usually has boundless energy, but I think the heat was too much on this particular day.

Hope you're having a fantastic hol!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Wow what an epic day. I don't need you to explain what a 5 is though as I already have it written in my notebook !

See more...

Ha ha awesome!

Originally Posted by Goldia

I love tower of terror too. But I have a tendency to try an 'save' anyone sitting near me...my family can't help reminding me about our first ever ride on ToT as on the first drop I clenched my hand down over my DD and also over the girl sitting next to me, as I HAD to hold them into their seats, except the poor girl on my left wasn't with us, she was with her own family... I apologised profusely to her and her dad after the ride and tried to explain it was an automatic reaction. My kids found it hilarious and fortunately the other family found it pretty funny too, they did say the drops are perfectly safe and of course logically I know this, but I couldn't help myself. Now I'm not allowed to sit next to strangers and I have to make sure I'm already holding onto the handles at the sides so that I don't embarrass them all again.

See more...

This made me lol!

Becky used to walk Jeannie and me to school when she was 10 years old and I think I was at university before I could persuade her I didn't need to hold her hand to cross the road any more. It's a very kind reflex, but definitely a hilarious one!

Are you away on your holiday right now? If so, I hope you're having an amazing time.