I had planned on writing about this trip as it happened, but unfortunately our hotel in Orlando did not have free wifi, so it was impossible to post for about three days. But I'm getting ahead of myself! I must start from the beginning!
Last Tuesday, my parents drove me to Newnan, GA so that I could meet up with Jennie to go to her house in Marietta. I exchanged goodbyes with my mom and dad, put all my stuff in Jennie's car, and we drove up through Atlanta traffic and construction to the grocery store for last minute things for our drive down to Orlando the next day. We basically spent the rest of the day watching youtube and turned in as early as we could. I read a good three chapters of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, leaving only one chapter left of the book, before trying to sleep. I didn't get a lot that night, maybe just 4 or 5, but I was up at 8am Wednesday morning nonetheless. We headed out of Atlanta at about 9:10ish and drove almost non-stop down to Orlando. We essentially went through my entire Wizard Rock playlist, listening to all of my Draco and the Malfoys, Ministry of Magic, Moaning Myrtles, Parselmouths and Remus Lupins, with some Whomping Willows sprinkled in here and there.
As we entered Orlando we saw a couple Wizarding World of Harry Potter billboards and I freaked out some. We got to our hotel, the Sheraton Safari (very close to Downtown Disney) at about 5 or so, and met up with Amy and Caitlin. We decided that we'd try to pick up our registration that day, so at 6ish we headed over to the Universal side of town to the Royal Pacific Hotel resort, left Jennie's car in the care of the valet, and headed over to Infinitus registration.
Amy and Caitlin and I had already registered and such, so it was not a big deal for us, and we picked up our nametags and goodybags no sweat. Jennie still had to register, and Kelly had asked us to try to register her if at all possible, but we were unable to since she wasn't present for it. They told Jennie to come back the next morning to register for one-day registration, and we all left the Royal Pacific and stopped at a Moe's for dinner. We headed back to out hotel and got in the pool until Kelly showed up. We didn't have a second parking pass for Kelly's car, so we had to take Kelly's stuff up to our room and drop off her car at her apartment. We all got back into the Jacuzzi, and then headed upstairs to our rooms to get in some hours of sleep before the festivities began the next day.
I would like to say that I got a restful night's sleep that night, but my nerves and excitement for the weekend ahead prevented me from falling asleep for a good long while, and sharing a bed with Kelly only brought back my fears that I would wake her up if I moved at all, causing me to be highly uncomfortable (I realize that those fears are completely irrational, but nonetheless they plague me whenever I share a bed with someone else). I probably got about an hour and a half of sleep before our alarm went off to begin our day.
We had decided the night before that we'd try to get Kelly and Jennie registered that morning for Infinitus, but Jennie hadn't been feeling well all night, so we decided we'd try the next day, and she'd stay in bed a little while longer and catch up with us in Epcot before we left for Hollywood Studios. So Kelly, Amy and Caitlin and I all headed over to Epcot in Jennie's car.
My first sighting of the ball was really something. I'd never been to Epcot before, and it was really very impressive. There's not a ton in the park to do, but we went on the ride Soarin', which was incredible. They strap you into a large car, swing you up so that your feet are dangling and all you can see in front of you is a large IMAX screen, and they take you through all the different landscapes of California, even pumping out the smell of oranges as they sweep you over orange tree fields. The ride ends with the fireworks show in Magic Kingdom in Disneyland, and it was truly a wonderful ride.
From there, we went through the Spaceship Earth ride, which was cool, and went through the history of language and stuff. It was annoying waiting in line, though, because there were so many Brazilian tour groups that clogged up the lines for pretty much everything the entire weekend. I have no idea why there were so many tour groups, but Kelly told us that it was normal. Weird.
Jennie took the shuttle to Epcot and met up with us at this point. From there we went on Soarin' again, using our fast passes, so that Jennie could go on it, and then went to Test track and headed over to the Worlds section of the park. It was super cool to walk through the twelve different lands. My favorite by far was Japan (of course xD) and I was surprised to see that there were shirts of like, Once Piece and Bleach and they had a ton of merchandise from all those animes, and I wasn't expecting it. There was a ton of cool architecture from all the various countries in the World section, but I was kind of in dire need of a break, which came in the form of the water taxi that we took to Hollywood Studios.
We happened upon only the coolest cast member ever as we waited for the water taxi to arrive. His name is Mike and he has been working at Disney World for 12 years, and he was by far the coolest dude ever. We actually got a picture with him as we came to our stop.
As we entered Hollywood Studios, we could see the giant statue of Sorcerer Mickey's hat from Fantasia, and I got really excited. This was one of the two parks at Disney World that I got to visit when I was 11, so this was something I recognized. We hurriedly jumped in line for the Rockin' Roller Coaster, which Amy had never been on, which was really exciting. It was just as awesome as it was the last time I was there (which was when the park was still called MGM Studios xD). We got super lucky waiting in line for that one, too, because it started to downpour right as soon as we entered the covered overhang. Amy and I were the only ones without ponchos or umbrellas from our group, but it ended up not mattering that much since we dodged most of the rain. When we got off the ride, the rain had stopped.
From there, Kelly and Jennie and I went to the Beauty and the Beast show, while Amy and Caitlin went to get in line for the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Unfortunately for me, the line for Fantasmic started forming right after the show was over, and I was nervous that if I got in line for Tower of Terror that I wouldn't get out in time to go in for the first showing of Fantasmic, since the wait for the Tower was still about 60 minutes. I decided that I'd skip the ride to be sure that I got in to Fantasmic, but I was kind of sad, since that was one of the rides I was looking forward to going on again. But ultimately, I'm glad that I waited for Fantasmic, because the show was freaking awesome. I finally got the full Hollywood Studios experience!
We left the park right after Fantasmic was over, and headed back to the Epcot parking lot where we'd parked. We were all pretty exhausted (which, looking back, was not at the same level of exhaustion as I was about to experience later that weekend, but we'll get there), so we went straight to bed.
The next morning we woke up at the same time as the morning before, and headed straight over to the Royal Pacific so that Kelly and Jennie could register for Infinitus. This time, they were successful, and we dropped off their registration materials at our hotel before heading over to Animal Kingdom.
Can I just say that this park is awesome? Animal Kingdom was the other park that I'd never been to, and it really was just full of awesome. The first thing we did was catch the first showing of the Lion King show, which was incredible. The singers were all very good, and the animatronics for Simba and Pumbaa, as well as the Timon, were really cool. They had all the favorite songs, starting off and ending with the Circle of Life, and had some pretty cool dancers for Can You Feel the Love Tonight. I was very impressed.
We got to meet Pocahontas and Turk from Tarzan, too. Which was pretty baller.
Amy and Caitlin had had the awesome idea of getting us fast passes for the Safari as we were waiting for the Lion King show to start, so we were able to go straight to the safari after the show was over. I got to see a lot of elephants, so I was extremely happy =]
From there we got fast passes for the Expedition Everest ride, and went over to Dino-land. We got on the Dinosaur ride, which was actually a lot scarier than Amy and I had anticipated, and our picture on the ride was pretty hysterical. It was really fun though, and we probably would have gone on it again if we'd had time.
We then went to the Finding Nemo show, which was really cute, and just made me want to watch Finding Nemo again. Dory was the best, of course =]
Then we went on the Everest ride. Amy sat next to this really cool British woman who told us that this was her third time on the ride that day, and couldn't recommend it enough to us. That got me really pumped for the ride. It had this really crazy part where we went backwards and it was completely pitch black, and then we stopped as the tracks changed course, and then hurtled us back outside into this scary drop. It was a pretty baller ride.
Before we left the park, Amy, Caitlin, Jennie and I went shopping a bit in the cute shops at the entrance to Animal Kingdom. I got a Mulan and Pluto pin. SO CUTE!. But Kelly had to leave us because she unfortunately was unable to find someone to take her shift in Magic Kingdom for that night. We were fully expecting her to get off at 3:15am, so we left Jennie's car with her, and had planned to take the shuttle back to the hotel when we were done at Magic Kingdom. So with this all figured out, she left for her shift and we headed over to Magic Kingdom via the monorail.
It was great to go back to Magic Kingdom and see Cinderella's castle again. 7 years was far too long to wait to go back to Disney, but it was amazing to feel like everything was new to me since it had been so long.
The very first thing was did was get in line for Splash Mountain. It was suuuuuuch a long line. I think we were in that line for an hour and a half, but it was ultimately worth it. The drop was so much steeper than I had anticipated, since it was such an old ride, but that made it awesome, so I had no complaints. Plus, we got wet on it, which was very much welcome after the blazing heat of the day.
We then went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which Amy had also never been on (crime!!) and we all loved it, as it was freaking cool. We had to practically pull Amy out of the gift shop at the end, and I myself was having difficulty leaving, as I was being drawn in by the Pirate Mickey pins... *self restraint*
As we were waiting for Splash Mountain, Caitlin had ducked out of line to get us fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain, which turned out to be a great move, and we went straight there. Big Thunder Mountain wasn't as epic as Splash Mountain, but it was cute, and it was certainly an interesting roller coaster. Amy and I had fun in the back of our car just screaming with our hands up =]
From there we got dinner and this really cute place called Pecos Bill's that Caitlin had never seen before. She and her family goes to Disney world every other year, so it was cool for her to discover something new in Frontierland with us. I got a really good pulled pork sandwich there.
We then went to the Haunted Mansion ride, which was a lot creepier than I was expecting during the wait, but the ride itself wasn't really very scary at all. More than anything, Amy and I found ourselves intrigued by how they made everything work. It was a really cool ride from a technical point of view, and I had fun trying to figure out how they'd made the ride work. Plus, the wait wasn't too bad since it's a continuous ride, which was a plus.
When we got out of the Haunted Mansion ride, we looked at the sky and there was a HUGE rainbow in the sky, and all the colors were clearly visible. It was especially cool when we noticed it was arching right over Cinderella's castle. We all tried to get pictures, and none of them turned out too well, but I think this was the best it got on my camera.
From there we went on the hunt for a churro. I'd been craving one all weekend and I was determined to get one. We had a bit of trouble tracking down a stand anywhere that was still open that sold them, but after running into Kelly at her stand in Tomorrowland, she told us of a stand in Frontierland that was still open. We booked it over there and Amy had her first churro and I was finally sated for my churro fix =]
We decided to kill some time in Adventureland as the first Electric Parade went through, so we went on the Aladdin's Carpet ride (which is basically the Dumbo ride but with carpets xD), and then went on the Pirates ride again since the wait was 5 minutes =P
We dodged through the people waiting for the fireworks after the first parade was over on our way back to Tomorrowland to get on Space Mountain. When we got there, we were very sorry to find out that the ride was "closed" due to "technical difficulties" and that they didn't know what was wrong or when it would be open again. We were like, we don't have anything better to do, so we just decided to wait in the very small line that was determined to get on the ride, and sat down on the pavement very close to the front of the line. When the fireworks started, Amy and Caitlin held our places in line as Jennie and I went to get some video of the fireworks, since I'd never seen the fireworks show in Magic Kingdom. I got some footage of the Pirates of the Caribbean part of the show for Anna.
10:50pm rolled around and we had decided that if it got that late, we'd leave our places in line and go see the second parade, so we left and got a place relatively deserted on the Tomorrowland side of the circle, and as soon as the Eagle float passed, we booked it back to Space Mountain. It was 11:30 by the time we got there, and the ride was luckily running again, but the park technically closes at 12am for people who aren't staying at resorts and don't have Extra Magic Hours, but we figured that since there was no way to tell who had EMH and who didn't, we were safe.
We got in line, played the awesome games in line, and then found out that Kelly had found a girl to take her extra hours and got off of her shift at 12:30 instead of 3:15! We told her to wait for us in the Guest pick up section of the Magic Kingdom parking lot and that we'd get there as soon as we were off the ride. The wait was technically supposed to be 90 minutes, but it was more like 45-50, so we got off the ride at maybe 12:20, hopped on the monorail and met up with Kelly. We were all so proud that we'd conquered all four mountains in one day, but were utterly exhausted and headed back to the hotel. We collapsed on our beds, and were lucky enough to be able to sleep in an hour more than the previous two mornings, so I got about 7 hours instead of like, 4.
I think I'll continue with this story in my next post. Days 3 and 4: Infinitus and Wizarding World. Aren't you excited??
HPRT: Today is the Youtube premier of A Very Potter Sequel!! OMGGG! "I'm Harry freaking Potter!"
Current Book: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Current Song: The Wayfarers by Skyway Flyer
