After dropping Brita off we went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner at....get ready for it....VICTORIA AND ALBERTS. If you don't know what that is, it's the AAA five-diamond restaurant in the Grand Floridian. Fancy enough that it has a dress code. Basically one of the best seven course meals you'll ever have. I'll have to make a post just on the restaurant, but here are a few photos! We chose to add wine pairings, and it was the BEST meal I've ever had in my entire life. ALSO we got "free" valet parking and roses so we were feeling REAL fancy.
November 14th (Tuesday): My parents and I started our day off (I think?) in Animal Kingdom. We had FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, and Na'vi River Journey. We also rode Primeval Whirl, watched Finding Nemo: The Musical, and watched Festival of the Lion King.
After DAK we had reservations for Sanaa (Animal Kingdom Lodge), where we got the Indian bread service, chicken, and desserts. SO filling but really fun food. Plus I got to use my 40% discount coupon! Tuesday night was late night Extra Magic Hours for Epcot, so we went to Epcot after dinner and rode Soarin' and Frozen Ever After.
November 15th (Wednesday): We started the morning off at Hollywood Studios, where we had FP's for Rockin' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, and Star Tours. When we were in line for Tower, it had some technical difficulties causing us to wait roughly 35 minutes instead of 10-15, but they gave us a free FP, so we also got to do Toy Story Midway Mania with a FP. So we did all four rides that Studios has right now. We also watched the Little Mermaid show, checked out the Launch Bay theater, and saw the Frozen Sing-A-Long (always a good one). After Studios we went to MK and rode Pirates of the Caribbean and it's a small world (why is this ride title always lowercase?), and tried to ride Haunted Mansion, but it went down. We also did Mickey's Philharmagic, the very first guests in line after the attraction came back from a downtime. After that we got some yummy Sleepy Hollow waffles for dinner, and got a nice bridge spot for the fireworks! The first night we watched them, on Saturday, we were squished together and people blocked our view, so even though this view wasn't technically as good, it was much more enjoyable. We also stuck around for Once Upon A Time, which is really nice because no one stays for that show so the crowds are minimal.
November 16th (Thursday): This was our chill day since we had such a busy park schedule. In the morning I took my mom to Cast Connections, the cast only discount store, where we found a few GREAT finds. Then when we got back to the hotel and met up with my dad, we walked around the lake, checking out the other hotels (Yacht & Beach Club borders both the Swan & Dolphin Resort and the Boardwalk), and also got to check out our hotel pool. It was a great pool with two waterslides, two hot tubs, a mini lazy river, some waterfalls, and lots of different pool areas. After the pool we went to Disney Springs and got a salted caramel sundae from Ghiradelli, then went and saw Thor: Ragnorak, which was really funny. Then off to the Polynesian for an 'Ohana dinner! Dinner was good as always but CRAZY busy. We took the monorail to Magic Kingdom then transferred there to a bus back to our hotel and an early-ish night in.
November 17th (Friday): We spent most of the day in Magic Kingdom, doing the rides we didn't get to cover before (including SPLASH MOUNTAIN up from refurbishment!!). So we rode Peter Pan's Flight, Space Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Splash Mountain (twice), Big Thunder Mountain, the Barnstormer, Mine Train, the PeopleMover, and did Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor where my dad was chosen to be Mike. Go dad! On our way out we got to run into my good friend Michaelene, killing it at Main Street PAC, and we also got to watch the Flag Retreat. A great sendoff to our day in MK.
We went to Epcot after that, and we shopped around the worlds a little bit, spending more time in the showcases than we had before. After Epcot we got cleaned up for dinner and ate at Yachtsman Steakhouse in our resort, obviously getting steak for dinner (REALLY GOOD filet mignon). The ambiance/atmosphere was really beautiful, and clearly ship-inspired which is totally my family's vibes. So we really enjoyed dinner, along with some drinks, and a couple desserts. Then a short walk back to the hotel!
November 18th (Saturday): We got breakfast at the Boardwalk Bakery, which was a great find, then walked a little around the lake again, stopping in a few places. The Christmas stuff went up, so we got to see the Yacht Club Christmas tree and train set, as well as the Beach Club Christmas tree and gingerbread carousel! Fun to see our resort totally transform without our noticing. We packed up our stuff, then I said goodbye to my parents and made my way home to get ready for work. I worked from 4:15pm - 12:45am and had a pretty good shift! It was hard going back to work after such a wonderful week off, but I kind of need to afford my rent, so off to work I go! I was Mine Train like always, and the day was uneventful, except the very end where I had this IRATE guest who wanted free FastPasses because our queue fans made him cold. Interesting, right?
November 19th (Sunday): I was at the mine again from 4:15pm - 12:45am, and I basically worked the same bits of rotation the entire shift. So I kept pulling the same positions after breaks, which then rotate to a different position (but a position that always comes after the first, so basically I worked four positions for my entire shift). We had this nasty guest situation though, where my grouper was measuring a girl who was too short to ride, but the family was PISSED and said she passed it out front and had ridden the ride twice already (she did, they had pictures). So that SUCKS for the family, but for safety reasons we can't let her ride, the height requirement is there for a reason. So my grouper is telling them this but they're livid (rightfully so) and want a manager, so I get to stand with them while we call my coordinator and they were awful. Well my coord comes by and talks to them and measures the kid and they're like "so she can ride right? She already rode it" and my coord is like "uh she's not even close". Hahaha. Of course he said it nicer than that and was really apologetic, taking them out front to re-measure and everything, but this family was NOT having it. They were saying our height sticks are different measurements, which is not true because we have to measure them both every morning. Well anyway, they made my grouper cry, but she was only doing her job. That's pretty much it! I closed merge, so I got to see the last guests in line and close out the queue, then head home!
I had the most wonderful week with my family and I was SO SAD to see them go, but I'm really glad I got to have the quality time with them that I did :) Love you guys, see you in January!! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!
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