**Smiley Kylie Goes Solo Nov 2017- Day 5- 4 Parks in 1 day challenge**

[xxSmileyKyliexx]

>>> INDEX HERE


Sunday 5th November

I’ve wrote in my notes that I had a weird dream, no idea what it was or why I felt the need to document such a useless piece of information but now you all know too Today was one of the day’s I’d been looking forward to the most! It was time for the 4 parks in one day challenge. Boy it was going to be a long day! I woke at around 6am, got myself ready for the day ensuring to co-ordinate my new Minnie ears. I didn’t even attempt to straighten my hair as it wouldn’t stay straight, I don’t like wearing my hair up with Minnie ears either, so today would be a frizzy big hair day.

I was excited to see what today had in store. Me and my cousin had attempted this 4 park challenge in 2014 and we epically failed! We only got to the first park and left as it was absolutely freezing. It was the year when Orlando got that cold spell in November 2014 I think, we just spent the day in bed instead! This morning it looked a bit foggy and was quite cool so I was hoping the sun would come out later! I left to meet Stacey as planned in the lobby at 7:30am. We got in line for the bus to Hollywood Studios and it arrived at 7:55am. Today was extra magic hours in Hollywood Studios which is why we chose there first. Our mission for the day was to use 4 different modes of transport, have a snack in each park, do 1 attraction in each and then meet a character in each one too. Better to have a plan in place rather than us wandering around aimlessly not knowing what to do and having an unproductive day. We arrived at Hollywood Studios to a load of marathon runners! Some of them looked like they were having the best time whilst others looked like they were about to keel over and die. That would have been me. You should see me responding to incidents at work, I run along holding onto my keys, alarm, pager, boobs etc by the time I’ve got there I’m struggling to breathe We stopped to watch them and clapped them along, it was a great atmosphere, people shouting supportive words of encouragement, whooping out loud, waving etc. Hats off to them because I could not do it!

We picked up some ‘I’m celebrating’ badges and had the cast member write ‘4 Parks, 1 day’ on them. We waited for Julie-Anne whilst watching more marathon runners. She arrived at 8:10am and we gave her a badge. Today would be just me, Stacey and JA at the parks. We’d be meeting Vicki later on this evening at Epcot where we had a dinner reservation at Teppan Edo together. As I’ve stated before, Vicki’s idea of fun is to not traipse around the parks all day with the crowds, I think she did some shopping today instead, which she loves, ALOT. We headed to toy story mania, our chosen attraction for Hollywood Studios. The park felt quite busy but I think it was where parts had been cordoned off for the marathon and the crowds were trying to get through smaller spaces.

When we got to toy story it was listed as a 15 minute wait time! I have never seen it this short, result!

We walked through the line, which was nice as I usually only fp this ride and miss the usual line. I noticed that the talking mr potato head had gone? I’m sure he used to be there at the end telling jokes and keeping people in the queue entertained. Me and Stace were the most competitive hoping we’d beat each other. I get this competitive side from my family, it’s a nightmare at Christmas when we play games together, usually ends up in tears or disagreements! Stacey and JA sat together and I the other side which again felt weird not having anyone next to me as it didn’t feel like I was competing against anyone! But in my head I’m thinking I must beat Stacey I must beat Stacey haha! The ride was fun as always and I always jump and scream out like a girl pants when the air is blown into your face. I won, woohooo Stacey came 2nd and JA 3rd. Was good fun! My fast wrist action paid off.

So with our ride done it was time to find some characters to meet.We headed to Commissary Lane to see Mickey and Minnie starring in red carpet dreams.

I think we queued for about 20 minutes which wasn’t too bad. We got chatting to a friendly cast member. He was asking us which order we were planning on doing the parks in and said that him and his friends did a scavenger hunt recently which was really fun, he wished us luck and then directed us in to meet Mickey and Minnie. I know that Stacey felt so awkward at first because she went in for a hug and the photographer started snapping away before me and JA had got there and Stace was just stood there posing but her eyes were saying ‘cmon guys get here I really love these photos, even though my ass looks humongous in that Mickey one! I love that you get to see them separately in different rooms too, it felt really personalised and special.

Later on when we were checking out our photos, we saw that another families were on ours. We laughed so much. I needn’t explain, but I’ll never complain about how I look ever again #sorryaboutit

It was gone 9am at this point and we all needed some breakfast! We headed into sweet spells where we all chose a very healthy selection, me and Stace having gigantic Mickey cookies, I had a coke with mine too and Julie-Anne the carrot cake sandwich thing. There was so much choice in here and I kept debating in my head of what to have. I’m glad I went for the cookie, it was nom.

We sat here for a while just chilling, chatting and people watching. We would make sure to do this in each park as we didn’t want to rush around and burn ourselves out, today would be done at a relaxing leisurely pace. Before leaving, we made sure to get some photo pass pictures taken. We wanted to get one in each park for evidence of our challenge and the memories of course. JA was insistent on going in the middle so she could squidge us close so she felt thinner, not that there is anything wrong with how she looks anyway, she is beautiful and me and Stace loved her colourful Mickey top. She’d forgotten her Mickey ears today! Oops!

1 out of 4

It was so nice to have photos with others in rather than just me on my own.

We left Hollywood Studios around 10am and headed towards the friendship boats. It was looking a little overcast now and we were hoping that it wouldn’t rain!

The plan now was to get the boat across to the beach club resort and then grab a bus from there to Animal Kingdom. This boat journey was so relaxing, I enjoyed just sitting and watching the world go by, this is something I don’t do often when in disney and that was proved when I got up to get off at the swan and dolphin resort The others found this funny, I would have actually got off and then been like now where?! We went past the boardwalk which is another place I never go, I’ve maybe done it once in all my visits! Which is a shame as it’s a beautiful area and I’ve always been intrigued by the boardwalk bakery and nightlife.

Soon we were arriving at the beach club, I confirmed it was ok with the others before I stood up ha! It took around 25 mins to get here and when walking in, that oh so familiar smell hit my nostrils! I LOVE the smell in beach clubs lobby area. Memories of me and Carley coming here to Cape May Café for breakfast and walking through here many times to and from Epcot full of alcohol to get our Uber came flooding back, it’s funny what a single smell can trigger! I really want to buy the candles from Maple & Whisky to see if they really smell the same but I’ve just not got round to it.

We walked through and outside to the bus stop where our luck was in and a bus for Animal Kingdom was waiting. On we hopped and we were joined by this little fella. I’m not really a dog person but Stacey loved him (I don’t actually know if it was a him), she spoke to the owners saying how he (or she) reminded her of her dog Tink. The dog was as good as gold, just sat chilling minding his or hers own business not making a sound, they had him or her well trained. I will never understand why people, take their dogs to Disney World though.

It took about 20 minutes to arrive at Animal Kingdom it was now 10:50am, the sun was breaking through them grey clouds and it was beginning to feel hot and sticky.

We had our photo pass picture taken, it was nice to see no crowds in front of the tree like yesterday!

2 out of 4

We had booked a fastpass for Expedition Everest so headed in that direction. Well so me and JA thought anyway, for some reason we were both heading towards dinosaur which Stace found funny and had wondered why we were going there.

We arrived at Everest and the standby line was 50 mins so we were glad to have a fp. I sat with Julie-Anne on this one, it was so much fun, the backwards bit always makes my belly go funny literally like I’m about to release a bowel motion. Luckily I contained it.

JA’s face cracks me up in this pic.

So with our park photo and ride done it was time for a snack. I mentioned about the jungle juice slushy drink which I’d read about and was desperate to try. I think this was on the others’ list too and it was so hot now we really fancied an ice cold drink. We headed to the Mahindi cart which is where I thought sold it but when we got there it was no where to be seen! After a quick google check we discovered that it was no longer sold at Animal Kingdom! I was actually gutted! Finally had the opportunity to try it and it was gone. Brilliant None of us were hungry so our snack needed to be a drink of some kind. We came across the shaved ice in harambe market so settled for this.

I went for the mango-passionfruit shaved ice which I used a snack credit for. The ladies managed to find a table with some stools for us to sit at which was nice.

To be honest this shaved ice wasn’t the greatest. It didn’t taste of much, I could only taste a hint of mango-passionfruit and it took me an absolute age to finish. We did laugh about having to lick it out and I’m sure I showed off some tongue action Instead we did the more civilised thing and used spoons. I was baking and needed to apply some of my ‘miracle tan’ lotion, however there was nowhere for me to do the ‘brush and door’ technique so Stacey was my next port of call. Luckily she had some femfresh wipes to wipe off her sticky hands afterwards (that wasn’t intended to sound rude honestly!) We spent half an hour enjoying the shade and our cup of flavourless ice. Then we headed away to find a character to meet. We stopped briefly to watch these guys dance and sing, check out mateys face, that little Snow White must have been terrified!

We made a group decision to meet Russell from UP so headed to the wilderness explorers club house. I love the film UP so much, me and Stanly recently watched it and I balled my eyes out as usual. Whilst in the queue we saw a cast member feeding the animals by the tree of life. JA said she thought they were lemurs from what she could see and I misheard her thinking she’d said beavers, they found this funny. I literally have no knowledge about animals and couldn’t tell you the difference between a lemur and beaver We didn’t queue long and were soon meeting Russell. I asked him where Dug was and he said he was out catching squirrels (well he didn’t say, he mimed) it wasn’t a bad meet and greet but I much prefer when Dug is there too. We had a great meet and greet with them both in 2013.

2013

I had managed to secure myself a flight of passage fastpass for 12:20pm today but didn’t really want to split from the others and take ages so I cancelled it, some lucky person would have been well happy! With our mission complete for Animal Kingdom we headed out at 12:30pm. On the way out me and Stace found it highly amusing that Julie-Anne was collared by one of them researcher people so made sure to capture the moment

We waited about 20 mins for a bus to come, I took a feet photo because why not? Ha! So jealous of Stacey’s tan!

We witnessed another lazy fat woman turn up at the last minute and get on before us and then were soon on our way. The plan next was to get the bus to the Polynesian Resort and then the water taxi over to Magic Kingdom. My feet were beginning to feel it a little now and my hair was looking gorgeous.

I took my shoes off and rested them on the cold bus pole which felt lovely’s! We arrived at the Polynesian around 13:20, I love this resort it’s designed so beautifully.

We headed out to the beach for a little rest and relaxation time. It was heaven just chilling out and enjoying the peace for a while. We took photos, sat on the bench swing and just sat looking over the lake talking about our day and how we’d love to be able to afford to stay at the Polynesian Villas. We hadn’t specifically planned to spend time on this beach but I’m so glad we did as it’s one of them things you don’t really think to do or include in itineraries. That’s the joy of Disney, there’s always loads to do and a variety of hidden spots to just relax at.

We used Stacey’s bag to create some ears for JA in that shadow pic

We stayed here for 20 minutes or so and then headed over to get the water taxi. It felt strange as the last time I was stood here was with my ex on our last day in 2015. So many memories everywhere in Disney World, even when you want to forget them, you can’t! The boat soon came and we were on our way to my Favourite park Magic Kingdom, yay! Feeling the breeze on the boat was lush and seeing the castle in the distance always gives me butterflies.

I’ve wrote in my notes ‘random guy joked about boat sinking’ which I can’t remember what it was. But I think I misinterpreted the joke as him saying I was fat or something and I remember swearing in conversation with the ladies and having to be sshh’d by Stace because of young kids around, sometimes I forget where I am, oops! When we got off we could feel spits of rain which quickly stopped. We headed through bag check and into the park.

We arrived in time for the 2pm parade and found a spot behind a bin near the entrance. It was the perfect spot but my god I was sweating like a P.I.G. stood there in the blazing sunshine which had suddenly appeared. The others sat down on the curb whilst I leant on the bin, hygienic.

Disney isn’t always smiles

The parade eventually got to us at about 14:25, I felt so sorry for the cast members and characters they must be tired and boiling by the time they get near the end. We had the perfect view though and lots of waves from the characters.

Parade selfie

I was mega excited when daisy came by and pointed to my ears and blew me a kiss. Little magical moments like this stay with me forever. Sounds so silly I know. In 2013 I watched the parade on my birthday and the fairy godmother blew me a kiss and mouthed ‘happy birthday’ to me and I swear I could have cried, I even well up now thinking about it. Another trip during the electrical parade, Pete from Pete’s Dragon shouted happy birthday to me and asked how old I was, then he counted all the way up to my age, I could still hear him in the distance after he’d gone past counting, memories like these are the best moments.

After the parade we headed straight into the town square theatre to meet Tinkerbell. At first I was like uh oh it’s a 40 min wait but Stacey assured me that she had met her before straight after the parade and that it wouldn’t be that long a wait. She was right it took like 10 mins! Good shout Stace! It was so cool in here from the air con, so welcoming after standing all that time in the sun! In the queue there was the cutest little girl in her Tink outfit, she loved seeing Tink and sat on the floor playing with her and Tink did her hair which was so adorable, the parents must have been so chuffed I can imagine the photos were fab! We had a good interaction, Stacey chatted to her like they’d been bessie’s for years I always feel awkward with talking characters and make up any old crap to talk about. Also why do the photographers think taking a close up of your face looks good, look at the state of me! I love our group pic though

We headed up to the train station to get the train round to fantasyland, this and the parade were our chosen attractions for Magic Kingdom as it was so busy and we were not queuing for long periods! Being up here again reminded me of watching wishes on our last night with my ex and me crying on his shoulder and I thought of the time when me and carley sat up her scoffing cakes waiting for the parade to start.

The queue was long for the train. We could all feel our feet hurting now and we were longing to sit down. The journey round was lovely, I always love just having a nosey whilst on this. The last few trips it was being refurbished so I wasn’t able to go on.

We got off at fantasyland and had a mooch around discussing on what snack to have. Me and Stacey both had the Cheshire Cat tails on our list so headed to the Cheshire Cat café for one of these.

It reminded me of the chocolate twists that Costa do which I love so I was happy with this snack. I was feeling peckish now too so wolfed it down within seconds. Julie-Anne was planning to have the corn dog bites at casey’s corner for her snack but when we got there they weren’t on the menu which was annoying! Magic Kingdom was so busy today, the Christmas taping was on so we had to listen to the fake Christmas cheers again and dodge all the crowds. With our achey feet and sweaty cracks this was not an enjoyable experience.

We stopped on main street to get our photopass picture. We aren’t sure wether the photographer thought JA was an older sister, aunty or our mama but he got me and Stacey to kiss her on each cheek which made for a fab photo, I love it!

3 out of 4

Everything was done for this park apart from Julie-Anne’s snack so we headed into the Main Street Confectionary Shop where JA picked up a belle cupcake. My battery was gradually dying even though I’d used a battery pack, the iPhone battery is awful. I headed into the curtain call collectibles shop to purchase a fuel rod from the kiosk in there, this was $30 which I didn’t mind as it included different adapters, was rechargeable and I could swap it over once the power had ran out. I went back outside to find that the others had secured us some rocking chairs outside the theatre. This was such a good idea. JA sat and ate her cupcake and we all just sat watching the crowds come and go. It’s such a good place to sit and reflect on your day and really take in everything.

We sat here for a while and then left to get the monorail to Epcot at around 16:20. 3 parks down 1 to go! I love getting the monorail from magic kingdom to Epcot, it takes a little while so it’s a good chance to sit and rest your feet with the air con on and watch out of the window. The last time I’d done this was the day me and Carley were going home, I remembered looking at her, she was looking at the castle disappearing in the distance like she was about to cry bless her.

She looks so sad

We arrived at Epcot at 17:00. We headed straight to the loo as were all desperate. This was such a mission for me with my playsuit! Damn those big gaps in the toilet doors, I was pretty much sat naked on the toilet! And then to make it worse I’d broke the zip and couldn’t do it back up. Holy crap I thought to myself! I had visions of me having to do Epcot with my bare back and butt out. But luckily for me and other people’s vision I managed to fix it! The others must have been wondering why I was taking so long! We headed off to meet joy and sadness which turnt out to be one of the best meet and greets of the holiday. Sadness took a liking to Stacey’s bag and decided to claim it and wear it it was really funny and she had us all laughing. Afterwards the cast member was asking where it was from. Good old primarni! Me and Julie-Anne had actually bought the same bag but I’d forgotten to pack mine and the zip on JA’s had broke, oops.

We decided that our ride for Epcot would be the finding nemo ride as it was only a 5 minute wait. It was a nice ride as always, I love that you can see real sea life towards the end. So clever how it’s done.

Afterwards we spent some time looking at the dolphins and sharks. We found a hidden Mickey in with the sharks which was cool.

We headed out and made sure to get our final photo pass picture of the day. The photographer told us to do something sassy, mate my hair is bordering on Afro-Caribbean, I have sweat in places I never thought I had, my feet feel like I’ve been walking on hot coals, the stench coming off me is enough to kill someone, my legs are chafing and you want me to ‘do something sassy’ really?! This is the conversation I had in my head. The picture was so sassy that I didn’t even save it! We managed these instead. JA looks so so happy to be nearing the end here! She was struggling so bad with her legs bless her and with the menopause I don’t even know how she coped! She was like a bloody superwoman, she must have been struggling way more than me and Stacey!

4 out of 4!

We were dying of thirst so went into club cool for free drinks. This place stinks so bad, does anyone else notice this? It smells like sewers and I should know as I pretty much live next door to the sewage place in Southampton, lovely. We joined everyone else in trying all the different flavours apart from the Beverly because nobody needs that in their life. My favourite is the Pineapple Fanta from Greece.

We thought that we could use a snack credit in Starbucks to get a drink for our Epcot snack as we’d be eating soon so didn’t want to eat a snack now. However the queue was ridiculous and coming out of the door so we gave it a miss. We decided to enter the world showcase and take a slow walk round to Japan. We stopped off at the refreshment port to grab a cronut for later on, this was on my snack list so I was glad to have picked one up. Epcot was pretty busy for a Sunday night, but it was coming to the end of the food and wine festival so we figured this was why. We found a bench next to Japan and swiftly parked our bums down. Ohhh it felt so good to sit down. We were all so tired, I took my shoes off and gave my poor feet a rub and tried to sort my hair out. Julie-Anne’s legs and feet were so swollen and we all just sat there in silence for ages on our phones. We could feel ourselves getting bitten so left to meet Vicki. She arrived at 18:55 looking lovely and smelling so fresh! I felt like a right dirty minger. We all headed up the stairs (which almost killed me) to Teppan Edo.

Luckily we managed to combine our reservations. Stacey was unable to edit the original reservation for those 3 to add me on so I’d kept looking and managed to get 1 for myself. We explained it to the cast member when checking in and she said it wouldn’t be a problem us all sitting together. Thank god for that I thought! We were soon shown to our table and I was so grateful to sit down properly in the air con. I was so excited for this dinner! I never really explore or venture away from my normal American diet of burgers and pizza so this would be something new for me. I’d never been here before but I’d read so many good reviews and see videos etc so I knew what was in store.

For a drink I was tempted to go for a cocktail but really just fancied an ice cold coke which is what I had and Stacey too. JA and Vicki had cocktails.

I loved the atmosphere in here, and the layout was good, I didn’t feel like I was sat on top of other tables, I love to have space in a restaurant and not feel like I’m being watched. I remember eating in Via Napoli one year and I was squished right in between two other parties which I hated and asked to move. We had another group at our table with us who seemed pleasant and I think they were celebrating an anniversary or something.

The menu was bought to us at some point and our server Miyu explained about all the different options we could choose from. I chose to have the Ueno which was the chicken and shrimp combination.

We had like a smoked salad starter bought to us which was so tasty, not like your usual bland salad, this one had a lovely smoky dressing, it was gone within seconds.

Our chef was called Ayako. She was so entertaining and kept us involved throughout our dining experience. She was drawing Mickey’s head with the oil and made a Mickey head with the spoon and butter which was cool. She was dabbing sometimes too ha!

Her chopping skills were immense, I’d have lobbed a few of my fingers off! She did the classic onion volcano thing and was making ‘Choo choo’ train noises when the steam was coming out making us all laugh. We watched as she chopped, tossed and cooked all our ingredients together, it was such a great experience being able to see your dinner being freshly prepared and cooked in front of you. Soon she was filling our plates with our chosen combination and we were digging in.

Oh my lord. That first taste of noodles was absolutely delicious! Whatever sauce she had cooked them In was lovely, the chicken was so tender and easy to swallow (usually I’m so fussy with chicken and find it hard to swallow!), the shrimp was by far the best I’ve ever had, it came with two different sauces one called yum yum sauce and the other was a ginger sauce. It was gorgeous! Me and Stacey were incapable of using chopsticks so scoffed ours down with forks. All you could hear was us mmm’n and omg’n at how nice the food was and soon it was gone. I could have eaten so much more of it! Next up was desserts, none of them took my fancy so I chose not to have one. The others had one as it was included with their dining plan. I paid $42 plus tip for mine and it was worth every cent! We heard a screaming baby towards the end which we weren’t too bothered by as we were leaving. I’m not sure this is somewhere I’d take a baby if I’m honest, it would ruin the experience! It was 20:30 by the time we got out so we found somewhere to sit whilst waiting for the illuminations fireworks. Vicki went to get her and JA an alcoholic beverage of some sort and we took a selfie of the 4 of us.

Typical that as soon as the fireworks started some woman came and stood right in front of us, I soon told her to move it which she did. I remember the first time I watched illuminations, I loved them and they made me so emotional. Nowadays though I don’t feel the same, I don’t get that wow factor like I used to. Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy them just they aren’t my favourite.

After the fireworks we had 2 choices, to battle through the crowds back to the entrance and queue for a bus or walk to the beach club resort for an Uber. Yep you guessed it, there was no way our feet would allow us to walk back to the buses so we made our way through the international gateway to the beach club resort. Me and Carley did this a few times on previous trips it makes life a lot easier. Me and Stacey said goodbye to JA and Vicki and got into our Uber. His name was Darius, he locked the doors and did not speak to us the whole time. Me and Stace gave each other that look, I thought we would be flying back to the UK in our coffins, something did not sit right at all with Darius, he drove straight past Pop’s main entrance as well and dropped us at the other end of the car park which we thought was weird

We got out of that car so quick and swiftly walked away thanking god that we were alive. The journey cost $6.95 which I didn’t mind paying for as my Uber was finally working, the issue was that my Revolut card wasn’t working so I just changed it to the Caxton. I definitely do not recommend the Revolut card! We arrived back at 21:40, said our goodbyes and limped our achey bodies back to our rooms. I was so shattered that I didn’t even get in the shower! I’d been longing for one all day but all I wanted to do in this moment was sleep. God knows how I managed to write out my notes from the day! I did fancy a cuppa tea so went to the food court where I was surprised to find twinings tea bags! I stole a few to keep in my room too. It still didn’t taste like tea from home but it did the job. I sat in bed with my tea eating my cronut which was delicious but messy!

I tidied up the room watched some sex and the city and soon was fast asleep Wow what a day, I’m still so impressed that we managed to complete it, it was tiring but so much fun!

Modes of transport: Bus, friendship boat, water taxi, monorail.
Snacks: Mickey cookie, shaved ice, Cheshire Cat tail, Cronut.
Attractions: Toy story mania, Expedition Everest, Railroad train, festival of fantasy parade, Nemo, Illuminations
Characters: Mickey & Minnie, Russell, Tinkerbell, Joy & Sadness

Challenge complete!

[anniebee65]

Wow! What a memorable day 😍. You have inspired me to try the same with my family. I love how you’ve all formed a Dibb sisterhood. Very cool.

[stace&tink]

Finally! Ive been waiting for this to finish mine haha. Knew you'd have more details.

This was such a fun day...even if it did almost do us in.
I cant believe youre telling the dibb about my femfresh. Our fantasmic night will now be a funny read hahahaaaa. Xx

[yellowrose78]

What a fab day! No wonder you were knackered

[mick]

A fantastic long busy day


Joan

[Guest]

What a lovely day - bet you slept well that night! xx

[Beaker's Fluff]

I love your style of writing. You make me chuckle...
What a fab day.

[loldis]

Considering you failed your first attempt, I think you made this one look easy. Even time for a stop on the Poly beach, well done all three of you!

I have this pencilled in for my last full day, going to steal the park number pic idea.

[Goldia]

Fab 4 parks in 1 day. I'm planning on doing this in the summer. You did really well! I've got some great ideas!

[Floridafour]

Loved this a great read.

I just suggested we try 4 parks in 1 day to my hubby but he does not seem to be on board with the idea. Well done to you X