Week Sixteen

BEST WEEK EVER! My family came to visit. <3 They flew in on Tuesday night (23rd) and left today (30th). We stayed at Saratoga Springs which is HUGE and pretty, but their rooms are small. The cheapest rooms (ours) was just a queen size bed and a double size pullout, but it worked fine for us. We were right next to the bus stop which was nice and convenient. The 23rd we went to the Grand Floridian to look at the gingerbread house display, then went and ate dinner at the Contemporary at the Wave. IT WAS SO GOOD. I got steak which was like the best steak ever. The 24th we went to Animal Kingdom, this was fun because my family had never been to DAK before. Not the most conventional Christmas Eve but so fun :) We had fast passes for Festival of the Lion King, Everest, and Dinosaur, We went to Kilimanjaro Safari first, and pretty much walked on. We also got to see the animals, which I hadn't done yet. I'm talking the "zoo" component of animal exhibits. The gorillas were actually the greatest. Here's the greatest photo ever:

And here's my sister and I in front of the tree!

After DAK we went to Downtown Disney and saw Into the Woods! So long but so good! The song "Agony". Everything about it. YouTube it ASAP.

On Christmas day I had to work, but not until 2pm so we spent the morning in Hollywood Studios. We got fast passes for Rockin' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours. We got to eat lunch at my restaurant and my awesome coworkers gave us free cupcakes <3 I ended up getting an ER so I got off at 4:45 instead of 8! PRAISE THE LORD. So I got to spend the evening with my family :) We walked right into the Brown Derby for dinner, and my family loved it. They got the infamous cobb salad and said it was fantastic. I got a different salad that was SUPER good, and we all split dessert. You get to pick three desserts for a mini dessert trio platter, so my sister and I tried the grapefruit cake, blueberry cobbler, and some chocolate orange ball. My parents got the same but toffee pudding stuff instead of the blueberry cobbler. My favorite was the grapefruit cake, my sister the cobbler (this was essentially hot blueberries but still good haha), and my parents liked the toffee pudding. Then we walked Streets of America and admired the lights :) Here's some snapshotssssss.

The 26th we did Magic Kingdom! It had been hitting park capacity in the morning, so we got there at 8:30am. We had fast passes for Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Haunted Mansion, Monster Inc. Laugh Floor, Jungle Cruise, and It's a Small World. We also did standby for Pirates of the Caribbean, Mickey's Philharmagic, and the carousel. So we got a lot done. :) and get this....we WALKED INTO BE OUR GUEST THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS. I've been trying to get reservations all semester!!! It's pure magic. Go. We got to eat in the West Wing, which is the smallest room and hardest to get so I was kind of ecstatic. It thunders and lightenings like a classy Rainforest Cafe. The Beast wanders through from time to time which was awesome. And the main ballroom (biggest room I think) has a super cool window that shows it snowing outside <3 The third room was the lamest and I think it was the library. My family all got the pork, and I got the salmon, and it was all incredible. We got the grey stuff for dessert which is indeed delicious. It was the highlight of the entire trip for me. And there was a special meet and greet room post dinner where we got to meet him! Unfortunately dinner fell the same time as Wishes, but we got to see Wishes two days later.

The 27th we did EPCOT and had fast passes for Soarin', Spaceship Earth, and the Seas with Nemo and Friends. My sister and I waited in the "70 minute wait" for Test Track, but it was maybe 50? We had lunch at Biergarten, the German restaurant, and it was really good. It's a buffet, and if you go, you HAVE TO GET the cheese and beer soup. It's to die for. The only awkward thing is you sit with another family unless your family is big (tables of 8). We did this with the Candlelight Processional package, so for $50 we got a full meal and guaranteed seating for the Candlelight Processional which was beautiful. It's the story of Jesus as told by some famous person, with traditional Christmas songs. We had Blair Underwood who we didn't know, but early December Neil Patrick Harris, Whoopie Goldberg, Jodi Benson, and Jonathon Groff all did it and everyone knows them hahah. We attempted to watch IllumiNations but it was too crowded to see anything.

(Insert EPCOT photo here;))

The 28th we did MK again round two. I had work this day as well, but only had to work 1-4 because I got another ER. Another reason I love my location, ER's are so easy. So I met my family at MK after work by taking the guest bus that runs from Studios to MK. We got fast passes for Peter Pan, Space Mountain, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ( YES IT IS POSSIBLE). We also got to watch Holiday Wishes which was fabulous as always. We decided to make this a shorter day because we were all very tired, but we made good use of our time :)

Our last full day (the 29th) was spent at Universal Studios. We did the park hopper, they bought tickets and I paid the $75 to upgrade to a preferred pass (no block out dates and free parking). We got there before the park opened, ran straight to the Gringotts ride, and it was a 120 minute wait. Yes. Already. 8am. But we waited in it, and my family loved it. We also did the Mummy ride, the big red rollercoaster (Rip Ride Rock It or something strange), the Dragon Challenge, and the soaking wet Bilge Rat Barge ride. Ride times were just so ridiculous we couldn't do more. We of course got butterbeer, but the crowds were miserable. I don't think Universal has a capacity where they cut people off? Every ride was like 100+ minutes and the staff was so unhelpful with directions and stuff. Disney does crowds so much better. We had to get a ticket to get INTO Hogsmeade because it was so full. Crazy. Well we did Margaritaville for dinner at Universal CityWalk (much less crowded!) and went back to the hotel. I left the hotel since I had to work the next morning, and said goodbye to my family at Downtown Disney. Not incredibly sad since I'll see them in a week ;)

Today I was scheduled to work 1-8 but got yet another ER! This one was because it rained though haha. So I worked like 1-6:15. On the way to work it was raining, and I didnt had a hood on my jacket so I was just plowing through it when I realized I was dry and someone was walking with me. It was one of the stormtroopers from the Star Wars show! SO SWEET. He walked me all the way to my work location and it totally made my day <3 Then to make it better, one of our guests today looked exactly like Santa Claus. This little girl goes up to him and asks him if he was at Disney World for his post Christmas vacation. He was such a good sport. As she walks away she goes "bye Santa, I love you!". I died. SO PRECIOUS. Well I only have two shifts left and it's so depressing. SO SAD :( Starting to pack and it's insane. Well I need to go get my laundry...by the time I write my next post, I'll probably be home. WHAT.