Aimee and Lauren's Split Year Split Stay Part Two- Disney August 2016- Day 10

[xAimeex]

Hi guys sorry again for the delay as always! I won't make excuses I'm just going to get on with posting! Today started with a slightly later start but ended up being a really busy fun day! I hope you enjoy reading!


Day 10- Tuesday 23rd August 2016- Magic Kingdom, Be our Guest lunch and Epcot.

We had planned a slightly later start today as we'd had a few busy evenings followed by early starts so it was nice to take things a little slower today!


Lauren and I were still awake at 7:30 (it gets very bright quite early in the living area of the one bed villas, especially if they’re East facing) but it was nice not to have to start getting ready as soon as we were up.


Mum and Dad were awake not long after at 8.


I haven't made a note about breakfast but I'm going to bet on leftovers from the fridge and in my case probably a decent handful of mini daim bars to feed my sweet tooth!


After a fairly chilled morning slowly getting ready we eventually left at 9:50.

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Dad was beautifully colour co-ordinated again today so he was honoured with an outfit photo by the door on the way out hehe. No idea where he bought his clothes from though hehe

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I had gone for an Alice in Wonderland themed outfit today! My dress was from Emp and my ears were made by Modern Mouse Boutique on Etsy

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Close up of my dress and ears

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Lauren chose a cute Rapunzel themed outfit! Her top was from Happily Ever Tees and her ears were made by Be Ear Guest


Unfortunately it looked like we'd just missed a Magic Kingdom bus as the next one wasn't due until 10:12.


The bus stop was fairly busy considering it was quite late in the morning.

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Time for a bus stop selfie while we waited hehe


While we were waiting 3 Disney Springs/Typhoon Lagoon buses came, 2 for Epcot, 3 for Hollywood Studios and 2 for Animal Kingdom!


We were beginning to think a MK bus was never coming but eventually it did turn up around 10:15 so not much later than the times board (we found these often unreliable).


We arrived at Magic Kingdom at 10:35.


Bag check was surprisingly busy for this late in the morning but for once we chose the right line which moved fast so it only took a couple of minutes!


We were already well into the time for our first fastpass so we headed up to Pirates of the Caribbean to use it!

We walked through the Emporium rather than up Main Street today as it was an absolute scorcher of a day already!

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I love this view of the castle!

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As we approached the fastpass tapstiles the CM stopped me and said (in an awesome pirate accent) "Keep your eyes open lass, these be dangerous waters for redheads"


Hehe I love little moments like that! He was referring to the part of the ride where they're auctioning off the woman and they say 'we wants the redhead'.


It was recently announced though that this part of the ride would be replaced as it's no longer deemed appropriate for a family ride and I do see where they're coming from absolutely. Having ridden it as a child though I can't say I even realised what that scene was representing.


I'd imagine things like that did happen back in those days too but again I can see why that part of history is perhaps not appropriate for a Disney ride.


Either way I'll miss the scene when it goes but I'm sure Disney will replace it with something good!


The standby line was 25 minutes and we walked on in the fastpass line!


We actually got quite splashed this time! Not from the drop but during the part where you pass the pirate ships and the canons ‘fire’ in to the water!


When we finished here Lauren and I wanted to go and see Alice and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland as their meet was due to open soon!


Mum and Dad decided they didn't fancy this which is fair enough so they decided as we were in Adventureland they'd take the opportunity to stop for a citrus swirl and an iced coffee to share from Sunshine Tree Terrace. They used 2 snack credits but it would have cost $11.53. No photo sorry!


On the way over to Fantasyland we passed the Sleepy Hollow food window.


I'd been determined to get a funnel cake this after never quite getting round to trying one before! Shocking for a sugar addict like me hehe.


It was quiet there at this time so I decided to stop off quickly to get one!


I ordered a plain powdered sugar one as these count as a snack credit.


This was a great use of a credit as it came to $6.92 after tax!

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Snack dreams!


I munched on it on the walk over to the Teacup ride which is where Alice and the Mad Hatter meet. Unfortunately the Hatter no longer meets with Alice anymore which is a shame as this was one of our favourite character meets!
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They weren't out yet when we arrived and the line to meet them had already built up a little so we grabbed a spot to wait. Thankfully it was a shady spot as this is an outdoor meet and greet!


They came out after 5 minutes and the line took about 15 minutes in total.


I happily ate my funnel cake! It was amazing, like basically my ideal snack! I'm currently attempting the 5:2 diet and writing about funnel cake on a fast day is near on torturous hehe.


It's quite messy to eat so I broke small bits off rather than lifting it to my face! It's also huge so I only ate about half of it but luckily I'd asked for it in a takeaway box so I could save the rest for later.


Lauren had a bit too and even she liked it! Although couldn't eat a whole one to herself!


It was soon our turn to meet Alice and the Hatter!


They were fab! They spoke to us for ages, in fact I think this was probably our longest character meet!


I was wearing my Alice in Wonderland dress and Alice said that she liked my party dress and was very excited when she realised there were lots of mini Alice's on it.


When she saw the funnel cake in the box she asked if it was a crumble cake. Lauren said it was and we'd brought it for a tea party which Alice thought was a lovely idea.


The Hatter was a bit mad as you'd expect! He told us he had a secret and we all had to lean in close to hear it. He then told us he'd seen an elephant climbing a tree.


Alice decided she wanted to look at the cake again but she spotted 2 leaves on the floor so picked those up instead and the Hatter said she had to throw them over her head and make a wish. They were so in character as they really did act mad haha.


We asked Alice how many impossible things she'd believed in today. She said one, was the elephant climbing the tree and two, was the giant crane. She then pointed over to the crane over the castle and got excited about all the new babies it would be delivering, we said it was a funny looking bird!


The 3rd thing was in her words "that green sea cucumber Peter Pan".


We said we'd met him over in Neverland but now we were in Wonderland. The Hatter suggested that we all have a tea party with the sea cucumber Peter Pan but said not to invite Tinkerbell in case she got pixie dust everywhere!


Talking of the Hatter at some point during the conversation he wrapped his arms around Lauren and hugged her for pretty much the rest of the meet! We made jokes for the rest of the trip about him being her BFF hehe.

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It really was a brilliant meet! They were hilariously in character.


Another bonus is that it's such good lighting in that area that the photos came out nicely! The photographer was great too and got lots of interaction pictures!


We were so glad we decided to do this meet and greet!


We were due to meet Mum and Dad next for lunch at Be our Guest next!


We'd arranged to meet in the Beauty and the Beast gift shop so we headed over that way.


They were already there, they'd really enjoyed their citrus swirl but Mum was even more excited when she saw my funnel cake hehe I said she could have some for dessert after lunch!


They'd been to see Philharmagic and had a little browse of the shops in Fantasyland as Mum hadn't bought much yet this trip.


We were a little early for lunch so we spent some time in the shop browsing.


We decided to head over at 11:55 to check in as our ADR was booked for 12. We'd pre-ordered our food so we're sent down the left side of the bridge (this really can save a lot of time during busy periods!)

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We were sent to a cash register to confirm our order. The CM here was so lovely! She loved our Magic Band bows and thought they were a really cute idea!


She asked if we'd eaten here before and when we said we had she asked if we were returning for the great food or the amazing cast members! We said both!


She asked where we were from and we had a little chat about the summer weather hehe. We said a good British summer is if you look out the window and can say "oh look it's not raining!"


We kept our food order the same so we headed on in to find a table.


We'd decided to sit in the ballroom again today as it's Mum's favourite room!

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We got a more central table today. They're all quite close together here compared to the tables down by the enchanted snowy windows though.

I’d swapped my Alice ears for a Belle inspired hair bow!

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We waited around 10 minutes for our food to be brought over on the trolley.


Mum, Dad and Lauren had all switched their dessert for soup.


They'd all picked the French onion today.

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It was a really good sized portion but none of them were too crazy about it. They said it was a little tasteless and Lauren really regretted not ordering the leek and potato soup she'd had here the other day as that was delicious.


Dad had ordered the same entree as last time he ate here, the tuna Niçoise salad. He enjoyed this and was happy to be eating something a little lighter.

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Mum also had the same as she'd ordered before, the vegetable quiche. Again she enjoyed this for similar reasons to Dad, it's a smaller lighter option.

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Lauren went for the beef baguette today. She enjoyed it but decided that she preferred the turkey baguette she'd had the other day.

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I had my old favourite the croque Monsieur! I love this, I know it's just a posh ham and cheese toastie but it's yummy! I'd had the slow roasted pork dish the other day and I liked both entrees equally! I can't decide which one to order next time!

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I was the only person with dessert so Mum and Dad shared some of my leftover funnel cake. Mum also found a new snack love!


I had my all-time favourite dessert here, the lemon cream puff! I think this gets massively overlooked as it's gluten free but I just love it! It was so much nicer than the chocolate orange eclair I'd had the other day! I do think it's shrunk in size a bit since we first ate here though!

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Overall it was a good meal, it was a shame about the soup for the others, I think if they'd had the leek and potato soup they'd all have been happier.

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This is another counter service restaurant where we'll really miss the dessert being included in a CS credit especially Lauren who is not a massive dessert fan. The option to swap it for a soup was great for her and I don't think she'd want to use a snack credit for one.


I however might consider using one for the lemon cream puff or paying out of pocket.


Today we used 4 counter service credits but it would have cost $98! I love the dining plan!


As we finished eating we had a quick check on MDE to see what our plans were for the afternoon when we realised we'd made a mistake!


We'd booked fastpasses to end just before we had lunch so it would all work out time wise. Dad and Lauren had Space Mountain booked and Mum and I had Mine Train! Not fastpasses you want to miss! The time we'd spent browsing in the Belle gift shop was when we should have gone to use them.


We'd missed them by half an hour now and the cut off point is 15 minutes after they end. We were gutted and annoyed at ourselves for not checking the plan better. It's hard to keep track of everything sometime.


I suggested we go over and try and explain the situation. Lauren didn't want to as she thought they'd say no but Mum and I really didn't want to waste a sought after Mine Train fastpass.


We headed over as quickly as we could and explained our mistake. The CM on the fastpass entrance was lovely and said it happens a lot and changed the Mickey head from blue to green when we scanned our magic bands. We thanked her a lot before heading in.


We waited a couple of minutes in the fastpass line. This is Mum's favourite rollercoaster as its just thrilling enough for her!

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Dad and Lauren decided not to chance it with their fastpass so went on the TTA instead which ended up being a bit of a disaster as they got stuck for absolutely ages but I'll get back to that.


After Mum and I finished Mine Train we headed over to Fantasyland to find some toilets as I wanted to change my outfit now. We had a fastpass to meet Rapunzel later and I had a character t-shirt and Rapunzel inspired Minnie ears that I wanted to wear.

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My top was from Hot Topic and my ears were made by Banana Pies on Etsy


Once I was changed we headed in to Castle Couture to have a browse while we waited. We got a message from Lauren not long after to say they'd broken down on the TTA and didn't know when they'd be moving again.

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Make it pink! Make it blue!


As we didn't know how long they'd be we headed over to Sir Mickey's shop for a browse there too.

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The giant in Sir Mickey’s!

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I absolutely love these Alice in Wonderland teacups!


Some of the Citizens of Fantasyland were hanging around outside! They were so funny!
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We got another message from Lauren to say they couldn't restart the ride and were having to get everyone off the ride manually which was going to take a while.


This was a bit frustrating as we'd been hanging around the shops for nearly half an hour by this point which felt a little like wasted time so we decided to go and see Philharmagic while we waited for them to be rescued but when we got over there the line was out of the door which is a rare occurrence for this attraction so we decided to give it a miss as we weren't sure we’d even make it in to the next showing and we didn't know how long Dad and Lauren would be.

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The wait for Philhamagic!


We looked in the gift shop next door instead and saw the Citizens of Fantasyland again!


They were trying to figure out how many instruments Donald Duck had on his display hehe.

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He was disappointed this t-shirt didn’t fit hehe


Continued below…

[xAimeex]

…Continued


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I love that even the gift shops in Disney have the most amazing attention to detail!


In the end it was over 45 minutes until Dad and Lauren came back. I was a bit fed up by this point as Mum and I had waited around all that time for them and it was a super hot August afternoon but we couldn't have stayed in the gift shops forever. We probably should have just gone and sat in Pinocchio's with a drink or decided to do Philharmagic earlier but we had no idea they'd be that long.


I know they obviously had no idea they'd break down but I did get a bit frustrated that they hadn't just gone to Space Mountain and asked really nicely if they could still use their fastpass given it was a genuine mistake. Although I guess knowing Sod's law Space Mountain would probably have broken down too hehe. Obviously it was hugely frustrating for them too and very hot but I think they quite enjoyed the novelty of having to walk back off the TTA plus they were given a fastpass each that could be used for anything apart from the parade viewing area.


Dad and I both got in a grump with each other after that and he wasn't exactly thrilled that our next fastpass was a character meet so he decided to leave the park and go back to OKW. Mum felt obliged to go with him despite us telling her to stay so we said goodbye and they headed off.


Lauren and I were right at the end of our fastpass to meet Rapunzel and Tiana now so we had to head straight inside.


Luckily it was a really cute meet again!


Rapunzel loved our ears and asked if Pascal had made them for us. We said he hadn't but we had seen him earlier playing hide and seek over near her tower hehe she told us it’s his favourite game!

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We met Tiana next and she asked if we'd kissed many frogs and despite the urge to reply how long have you got?! We said we hadn't as they were gross and slimy hehe she explained that they actually secrete mucus!

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As we left who should we bump in to but our Mummy! She had decided that we were right and just because Dad was heading back for a rest didn't mean she had to go to when she really wanted to stay with us and watch Festival of Fantasy later as she'd never seen it before!


We were so happy and decided we'd have a proper girly afternoon doing things we knew wouldn't be up Dad's street!


We remembered that there was a limited time meet and greet with Belle in her yellow ball gown over in Liberty Square for those that had memory maker!


The next opening was at 2 and it was around 1:45 now but we knew they would only keep the line open to a certain amount of people per meet and greet session before closing it so we headed straight over.


It was in the building next door to the Hall of Presidents. The line was outside as they didn't open the door to the building until the meet and greet opened at 2.


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As you can imagine standing outside in the August Florida heat at that time with no shade wasn't an enjoyable experience so we each took it in turns to have a couple of minutes in the Christmas shop opposite while the other 2 waited. This was a good plan as it meant we all got a little burst of air con every few minutes!

While I was in there I took some photos of the cute shoe ornaments! I love that they do these for some of the rarer characters too these days!

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Pocahontas!

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Meg from Hercules which is one of my favourite Disney films!

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Dory and Mary Poppins

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The Blue Fairy from Pinocchio

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Beware if you sit on this sleigh for a photo opportunity in the mid-day heat with bare legs! I found that out the hard way a few trips ago!


At 2 they opened the door and luckily we were far enough ahead in the line that when everyone moved forward we made it inside too!


We waited around 10 minutes and spent the time chatting to a lovely CM about our ears, she was saying that she loves looking out for all the custom ones!


I remembered I had my Belle bow in my bag from lunch and I decided to give it to Mum to put in her hair so she didn't feel left out as Belle is her favourite princess!

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It was soon our turn! She was a lovely Belle, she was very excited that Mum's bow matched her dress!


She asked us if we'd eaten in the castle and we said we'd just been for lunch there and it was very beautiful!


We had our photos taken and then headed out. We were all so happy as it was a lovely meet and we were really glad Mum had come back and managed to meet her favourite Princess!

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After we finished we headed over to the toilets near Casey's on Main St as it was time for another outfit change hehe.


As we headed over we saw Mary Poppins heading out towards her meet and greet!

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Lauren and I had purchased some really cute custom ears for Festival of Fantasy!


If you've seen it before you'll remember the girls at the end in the circus tent skirts with the blue wigs! AKA the cha cha bingo girls!

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When we'd been browsing Etsy for ears we'd spotted some ears themed around them and decided it would be really cute to get matching ones!


Even better Jasmine who made them (her shop is called second star mercantile on etsy) realised that she would be on a solo Disney trip at the same time as us and asked if she could join us to watch the parade wearing her own Cha Cha Bingo girl ears!


We said of course especially as she was on a solo trip!


Lauren had also ordered a cute Festival of Fantasy top which she changed in to and I had a lovely Magic Kingdom top that I'd bought on the extremely rainy last night of our 2015 trip the year before!


Once we were changed we headed down on to Main St to find a good spot!


We found a fab spot on the curb in front of the Emporium, around where it changes from the Hall of Champions shop to the kids section, just opposite Main Street Bakery. There is a canopy over this entrance although it didn't provide any shade for us at this time of day sadly but it was nice to be able to feel the occasional burst of air con from the shop!

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We spotted Ub Iwerks’ window!


It was only 2:20 so we knew it would be a long 40 minute wait in this heat but if you want the curb side seats you do have to get there early.


We decided cold drinks would help so Lauren went to Starbucks to get a large strawberries and cream frappe! She used a snack credit but it would have cost $6.17 OOP.

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We sent Mum in to the Emporium for a bit to look as we were worried about her sitting out in the heat for too long. I spread out our backpacks to keep the space. I also had to get my poncho out as it was absolutely scorching on the floor and I couldn't bear to sit on it without something in between.


As I was sitting there alone listening to the beautiful music that plays on Main St and thinking this is the life, a girl strolled past wearing the same ears as Lauren and I. In my day dreamy state I sat there thinking how funny that someone else should be wearing the exact same custom ears as us when it suddenly hit me that this must be Jasmine!


I called her over and she came over to sit down. We instantly got chatting as if we'd known each other for years! I'd not spoken to her before as Lauren had ordered the ears through her Etsy account so it was lovely to get to chat!


Lauren came back after a few minutes with her drink and it was my turn to head over to the Plaza Ice cream Parlour to grab a coke float for Mum and I to share as these are our favourite!

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I love the theming and décor! If I could work anywhere in Disney I’d want it to be here!


I waited around 5 minutes which wasn't too bad as it's often very busy in here. I used a snack credit but it would have cost $5.32.

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By the time I got back Mum had returned too so we made quick work of drinking the coke float!


We all chatted lots with Jasmine so the time passed very quickly! It was lovely to instantly hit it off with someone, we definitely felt as though we’d made a new Disney friend!


We noticed one of the photopass photographers had a special Festival of Fantasy sign that people were holding in his pictures so Lauren, Jasmine and I decided it would be rude not to go have our photo taken with it seeing as we had matching Festival of Fantasy ears on!

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After he'd taken this photo for us he asked if we wanted to try a new magic photo they were testing. We of course said yes and he explained that when the photo came up Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty would be in the photo too!


It was one of those video photopass pictures where you're in a still photo but they overlay a video of a character walking through etc etc.


Prince Phillip was sure enough in our photo brandishing his sword (careful I'll do the jokes ). The bit I liked about the video is that it featured a short clip of the music from Festival of Fantasy! Not sure if this video will play or not!


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After this we sat back down with Mum again to keep our spaces as it was filling up fast on Main St now.


As we were waiting the Dapper Dan’s came along and stopped right in front of us to sing so we were even happier we'd stopped in this spot as we love them!


They made us laugh as before they started they said- "Waiting for the parade? We're it...budget cuts!" Hehe.

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We happily sat listening to them sing and even more so when they started to sing Mr Sandman and one of the Dan's bent down and took Mum's hand and sang to her! It was such a lovely moment! He made us laugh again when he went to stand up and pretended that Mum wouldn’t let go of his hand hehe. Lauren managed to get a video of it which is somewhere on our Instagram but I don’t think I’m allowed to share the name with you.

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Shortly before the parade the Main Street Marching band came along too! Another act we absolutely love but rarely seem to have time to stop and watch so this was a nice bonus!

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Its little things like this that make me love Main St even more! It's more than just a walkthrough of shops and food outlets that lead to the castle it's an attraction in itself! I just adore it and could spend all day sitting there taking in the atmosphere! Although not on a hot August afternoon as I'll get back to later hehe.


Festival of Fantasy finally started at 3:15, I always forget that it doesn't arrive down on Main St until later as it starts up near Frontierland!


We just adore this parade and I'm so happy that on our next trip it’ll be on at 2pm rather than 3 as it makes it much easier for us half day park people to stay for it!


Although I guess the CM's will have a decent reply when they are asked "what time does the 3 o clock parade start?" (Apparently this happens!) as they can now reply 2pm hehe.


It's just the most magical parade! We adore the music and the floats are just beautiful! I of course got a bit snap happy so sorry for the photo overload!

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Continued below…

[xAimeex]

…Continued


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If the Neverland thing doesn’t work out Peter Pan luckily has all the moves to star in Saturday Night Fever!

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The arguments between Peter and Hook had reached a new low

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Hook wasn’t happy about it!

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But Tink found it pretty funny!

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Merida checked that she’d remembered deodorant that morning!

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Continued below…

[xAimeex]

…Continued

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It was the same Alice and Mad Hatter that we'd met earlier in the day. The Hatter recognised us and came over! He was very excited that we were wearing new hats now hehe!

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We said goodbye to Jasmine when it finished as she was heading off into the park while we were heading back for a rest now. We worked out we were all in MK again tomorrow night so said we'd keep an eye out for each other then!


Mum, Lauren and I followed the parade down Main St and headed out of the park. We were all boiling but luckily we didn't have too long to wait for a bus and we were on our way back at 3:40.

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We made it back to the Villa at 4:05. Dad had had a really nice afternoon chilling in the room! He'd had a sleep and been over to fill up his mug at the pool before relaxing and watching some tv on his tablet so this really suited him! He wouldn't have appreciated meeting Belle and watching the parade hehe.


Mum and I noticed that we were both a little sore in the derrière area. Apologies now for what quite frankly is probably too much information to be sharing with you all but Mum and I both had bright red patches on our bum cheeks where the hot ground had scolded them even through my poncho and shorts and underwear!


Again I did debate over whether to share this with you but I really feel like it's a public service announcement hehe if you're watching Festival of Fantasy and the ground feels burning hot it probably is! I'd definitely advice taking something to sit on. Don't say I didn't warn you hehe.


Obviously I don't have any pictures to share with you as that really would be going too far haha. Luckily they weren't blistered or anything just very red! It looked like I'd been sunbathing in a tacky thong bikini and forgotten to put sun cream on!


Lauren was quite bewildered when Mum and I came out of the bathrooms telling her to check her bum cheeks hehe.


She had no idea what we were going on about as hers were fine! We must have more delicate skin than she does hehe.


We were all in fits of giggles about it and decided it was probably best not to message Jasmine and ask if she'd also burnt her bum cheeks on the ground seeing as we'd only just met her hehe.


Mum and I put some e45 cream on ourselves to relieve it a bit before going down to rest for a while.


It rained quite heavily between 4:30 and 5:30 after almost a week with none! We were all rejoicing as if we were in the middle of a drought as we'd been desperate for it to rain properly for days to take the edge off the humidity a little! We hoped we'd have a much more bearable evening at Epcot now!

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Rain finally!


Mum and Lauren slept from 4:30-6 while Dad and I stayed awake on our phones/tablet.


Once everyone was up we all got ready for an evening at Epcot!

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Lauren’s top is from the parks

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My top was from Red Bubble


We left the room at 7 but had unfortunately just missed a bus. Thankfully though it was so much cooler out now thanks to the rain so it wasn't too bad waiting!

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Not an Epcot bus but I love the captions on the buses these days! This one is for Magic Kingdom


It still felt a little stormy in the distance so we hoped it stayed away as we were planning to watch Illumimations tonight and stay for Extra Magic Hours!


Another Epcot bus arrived at 7:10 and we were on our way!


As we reached the Millers Road stop a mum and daughter came running along and just made it on to the bus. They then had the bus driver wait a few minutes for the Dad and 2 other teenage daughters to arrive who weren't even in sight yet. I felt like explaining that it wasn't a personal bus service just for their family. The rest of the party came sauntering along as if they had all the time in the world.


With this holdup we didn't arrive at Epcot until 7:30. Luckily we were only eating a counter service dinner tonight so we weren't in too much of a rush.


Once we were in the park we stopped for some family photos in front of Spaceship Earth as we didn't have any yet this trip!

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While we were in the middle of having our photos taken the same family from the bus came over to interrupt and ask Dad to take their photo!


I mean honestly! Goodness knows what they thought we were doing standing there posing!


We explained that yes he would after we were finished having our own family photos taken.


After Dad had acted as photographer for them (which we don't mind doing at all let me say, we often offer to take photos for people trying to get selfies, but this family we're just very self-absorbed) we headed to Electric Umbrella for dinner at 7:40.

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We hadn't eaten here for years and years but had decided to give it another go this trip as the menu sounded alright and we didn't have many other burger type quick service meals planned in.


It was pretty quiet in there at this time so Mum and Dad went to get a table and the condiments while Lauren and I ordered the food.

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Mum ad Lauren went for the French dip burger, Dad had a bacon cheeseburger while I decided to try something a little different and picked the sausage and pepper sandwich.

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Dad’s burger

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French dip burger

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Sausage and pepper sandwich

Desserts were 3 strawberry cheesecakes for Mum, Dad and I and a chocolate cupcake for Lauren.

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We also had 4 large fountain drinks. We used 4 counter service credits but it would have cost $83.18 OOP.


The CM who served us was really friendly and asked how our day had been!


They were quite slow to get the food out so I’m not sure you'd want to come here when it was crazy busy. The CM getting our food was an older lady who literally slammed the tray down in front of us and didn't say a word. Not sure what we'd done to upset her! Maybe she was just having a bad day!


You fill up the drinks yourself here so after taking the food to the table we went to sort the drinks. We filled up 2 to share for now and saved the other 2 to fill up on the way out to take to Illuminations with us.


Mum and Dad had managed to get us a nice table in the window overlooking the Fountain of Nations!

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Our view

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There were a lot of dirty tables nearby which again considering it was so quiet in there wasn’t great.


The food was really good though! The others all loved their burgers although Mum's was way too much for her and she didn't make much of a dent. The burgers were all served with fries and apple slices.


My sausage sandwich was yummy but very spicy. As it has pepper in it I expected it to be but I hoped it would be milder than it was. Still tasty though!


Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for the strawberry cheesecake! It just tasted really artificial and was very thick and stodgy. None of us particularly liked it.


Lauren's cupcake was more successful!


It was a mixed bag of a meal but overall the entrees were good and it had a nice atmosphere.


We left at 8:10 and filled up the last 2 drink cups.


We headed up to World Showcase next to grab a place at our favourite Illuminations viewing spot on the bridge between the France and U.K.

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It was very breezy out after the storm which made for a much cooler wait than we'd had for some of the other evening shows this trip!


The bridge was still quite quiet at this time so we grabbed a nice central spot.


At 8:30 the half hour to go announcement was made and the beacons were lit!


I love the atmosphere and the music they play while waiting for Illuminations!


At around 8:45 the Star Wars fireworks started over at Hollywood Studios.


We turned and had a great view of the higher fireworks going off behind the Eiffel Tower statue in the France Pavilion!

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Continued below…

[xAimeex]

…Continued


At 9 Illuminations started! Nothing gives me shivers like the opening prologue to this and the part where the beacons are blown out!


It was amazing as always and always brings tears to my eyes. I hope they leave this well alone now that Wishes is gone!

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I love how bright the lasers are since they updated them!

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It was evening extra magic hours tonight and as Lauren and I had absolutely loved our evening spent exploring World Showcase and snacking around the world during Epcot's evening hours the year before we decided to do the same tonight!

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Our first stop seeing as we were already in France was Les Halles Boulangerie and Pattiserie!

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More Cogsworth’s!


Lauren loves the chocolate mousse they serve here so she picked that while Mum, Dad and I picked 2 eclairs to share, one white chocolate and one milk chocolate.

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Sorry for the blurry photo, this is the chocolate filling for the milk chocolate éclair

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We used 3 snack credits but it would have cost $13.85 OOP.


We were served by another lovely CM here who asked where we were from and how long we were visiting.


We grabbed a table and sat with our snacks. Unfortunately the seating area isn't far from the rest rooms and there wasn't the most pleasant smell so we ate our snacks quickly and headed off!


We all enjoyed our food! The mousse was as good as Lauren remembered! We preferred the white chocolate eclair which is filled with vanilla cream to the milk chocolate one as that is filled with chocolate cream which was a little sickly but that's purely personal choice.

We skipped Morocco as there’s not much in the way of snacks there but we did take a couple of photos.

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Our next stop was the Japan Pavilion to visit one of our favourite stores in Disney World, Mitsukoshi!

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I like to buy a paper fan in here each trip with my name written on it in Japanese.


They only had a couple of designs to choose from today which was a shame but I went for the one with flowers as it matched the colours scheme of my others so looks nicer in the display I have of them!

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I took it to the cash register to pay and have my name written on it! It cost $5.27 with tax and the personalisation is free!

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I love all the completely random things they sell in here.

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We headed through to the food section of Mitsukoshi to pick up some snacks for another day!


We love the packets of milk chocolate hello panda they sell here but they only had giant boxes today, Luckily we've discovered they're readily available here now! You can pick up a packet from Asda for around 90p I think which is a lot less than Disney charge! They remind us of the biscuit snack cartoonies we used to eat as kids!

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I picked up a few other bits as my boyfriend has always talked about wanting to visit Japan so I thought some Japanese candy would make a nice souvenir!


I picked up a few bits for him and some apple hi-chew for myself as they sounded yummy!

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In total I spent $17.41 including tax.

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I’ve never noticed his before in all our visits to World Showcase!

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We kind of skipped past the American Adventure and Italy apart from to take a couple of photos as there were no snacks we fancied in either.


Although the cookies and cream funnel cake from the former did sound incredible! It was on the pricey side though and would have totally filled us up!


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Instead we headed straight on to Germany to visit caramel heaven aka Karemell-Kuche!

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This is one of our favourite places to use snack credits!


I absolutely love the caramel apples they sell here and Lauren gets a bag of the caramel covered popcorn every trip! These are both great uses for snack credits as the large bag of popcorn counts as a credit and they're both quite expensive for snacks!

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We picked up these and also 2 chocolate caramel strawberries and a caramel drizzled cookie! All the yummies!

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Mum and Dad wanted to pick up some packets of Werther's caramels too! These weren't the most expensive use of a snack credit but a great one to bring home as you get lots in a pack.

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Good snack haul

We used 7 snack credits in total but it would have cost $40.71 OOP.


We sat on one of the picnic benches between Germany and the outpost area to share the strawberries and cookie between us! It was all absolutely delicious!


We saved the rest to take away with us.

Continued below…

[xAimeex]

…Continued

By the time we left here it was nearly 10:30 and we wanted to try and get in another ride on Soarin' on the way out so we slowly strolled through the rest of the countries.

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I'd been really keen to get a Cronut to end my snacking around the world so I headed back towards the Canada entrance of World Showcase to the Refreshment Port while the others carried on back to Future World.


When I got there though the line was really long so I decided to save it for another day and headed back to meet the others.

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I caught up with them over near the Land Pavilion at 10:40.


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Last time Lauren and I had waited until this time and Soarin' was only a 15 minute wait and actually took less than 10.


Tonight however it was still listed as a 30 minute wait. We knew that sometimes Disney overestimate the wait times at the end of the night but we also figured that with Soarin' around the World still being relatively new it probably would be longer than last year.

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Mum and Dad were both tired and decided that was too long for them so they decided to head out to catch the bus back to OKW.


Lauren and I decided we would wait it out as we were keen to ride it again.


We were queuing back to the interactive screens and it did take 25 minutes in the end but it was worth it as it really is one of our favourite rides!

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Interactive screens


We were in the middle section today but in row 3 so we did have feet dangling above us but still had a nice central view!


We eventually left The Land at 11:20 and slowly strolled towards the exit getting a few photos along the way. Epcot is just such a beautiful park at night (they all are having said that!)

I love the light up pavements! I hope that whatever changes they decide to make to Epcot they don’t take these away!

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We left the park at 11:30 and were on the bus back to OKW at 11:40


We got back to the villa just before midnight and pretty much collapsed in to bed after changing and washing. It had been another busy but fantastic day!


Thanks for reading x

[helenlovesdestr]

Wow you cram so much into a day! Love your outfits and all the thought abs planning you put into them. Fab post x

[sheluk]

Lovely day Aimee I think you got lots done! Can't believe you burnt your bum watching the parade! Must have been crazy hot.

Some fab meets today & your evening around Epcot sounds so relaxing & fun. With lots of yummy snacks too xx

[Dissie]

What a jam packed day. My favourite are the Green Tea Kit Kats from Japan though they are quite expensive. Managed to find them on Amazon a bit cheaper though not by much.

[Neep]

Woah! what a packed day - loved all the snack info!
Away to search out some ears and TShirts!