May Madness: Christine's Trip to Orlando Part 1

I had so much fun visiting Emily this past weekend!

February 20, Friday

I'm so grateful I get to be here with Emily and Dad. Michael drove me to the airport this morning. The flight was fine and pretty uneventful. Dad picked me up at the airport and we came to the Residence Inn and got checked in. At the hotel, they gave me a room on the first floor which is nice. I'm right next door to Dad. He's only staying for one night.

Then we went over to Bonefish Grill to meet Emily and Brandon. We had a nice meal together. I had the butterfish and it was delicious.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Emily at Bonefish Grill

February 21, Saturday

I've had a wonderful day at Epcot and Magic Kingdom! At Epcot, we got in the big crowd that was trying to rope drop Guardians of the Galaxy. I'm so glad we did that because that's the only way we could ride it today. Last night at dinner, Emily had the idea that instead of starting our day at Magic Kingdom, we should start our day at Epcot so that worked out perfectly because then we got a little extra sleep since Epcot opens an hour later and we were able to rope drop Guardians of the Galaxy. We were able to get a lightning lane for Tron but they were sold out for Guardians of the Galaxy so that worked out well. We waited in the line for about 80 minutes, I think.

Emily asked us all what song we thought we would get and then whoever got their song was the winner and she was the winner. I wanted September, Dad wanted One Way or Another, and Brandon wanted Conga. Emily wanted Everybody Wants to Rule the World and that's the one we got.

We stopped into Club Cool. Emily thought she might get me to try Beverly cola but I knew better. We thought this sign with 67 was funny so we took a picture for Jonny but he was unimpressed.

After that, we headed over to The Land. We passed by this cool Aladdin lamp on the way.

It looked like the lines for both Soarin' and Living with the Land were only 10 minutes but it turns out Soarin' was 45 minutes and Living with the Land was 30 minutes so we chose Living with the Land. I really love Soarin' but with the schedule we had today we chose Living with the Land because I don't get to ride that one very often and we have Soarin' at Disneyland. Plus we were going to eat lunch in the World Showcase and then go to Magic Kingdom.

So, we rode Living with the Land and that was fun and then we ordered food at the Yorkshire fish and chips place. Dad really wanted to try that but the fish and chips were a little disappointing. The fish was really greasy and had a ton of batter, more batter than fish, but I liked it.

After we were done eating, we started walking around the World Showcase. I really wanted to go to Germany and get the pretzel bread pudding and go to the caramel shop to get a caramel butter bar so that's what we did. Emily was able to use her discount at the caramel shop. She can use it for souvenir shops but not for meals.

I also wanted to go to Norway and get the school bread. There's two different places where you can get the school bread and neither one of them had mobile order and they both had long lines outside in the hot sun so we gave up on that idea. We walked into a gift shop for a few minutes, then we looked at our watches and realized it was almost 1 PM and and our lightning lane for Pirates was going to end, even with the grace period, at 1:45 PM. So we booked it out of there. Dad really wanted to move his car from Epcot to Magic Kingdom since he is driving home tonight, so he did that and the rest of us took the monorail from Epcot to the Transportation and Ticketing Center. By the time we got there, Dad was almost there so we waited for him once we got off the first monorail and then we all rode the monorail together into Magic Kingdom.

I thought it would be fun to take the train but it turns out it only goes between Main Street and Fantasyland right now so that was a bummer. While we were on the monorail, Emily changed our lightning lane for Pirates because we were afraid we were going to miss it and we would've. I think it was 1:45 PM by the time we walked into Magic Kingdom so we would've been too late. Anyway, our next lightning lane was for Haunted Mansion so we went straight to that. But, of course, we had to stop for a photo op with the castle in the background.

The standby line was super long so we were so glad we had a lightning lane. Brandon told us while we were on the Monorail that he'd never been on Haunted Mansion before and Emily and I were pretty shocked about that. He says he never goes to Magic Kingdom. A lot of the stuff we did with him today was a first, like Monsters Inc. and we never did it but he's never been on Jungle Cruise either. Anyway, we had fun on Haunted Mansion. Next we headed over to Peter Pan for our lightning lane. It wasn't time for our next lightning lane yet so we went to Mickey's Philharmagic and watched that. Then we decided to get a snack at Gaston's but when we were passing the carousel Dad suggested we ride it and Emily seemed to like that idea so we did. That was another first for Brandon.

Then we went to Gaston's Tavern and got a cinnamon roll, a grey stuff cupcake, and a crème brûlée croissant. Emily ate almost the entire cinnamon roll herself. I didn't even ask for a bite because she was so happy eating it. I ate a little bit of the crème brûlée croissant and shared the rest.

When we were done there, we rode it's a small world with our lightning lane.

After that, we walked over to Pirates and rode that with our lightning lane. We all needed a break and there were plenty of tables outside the ride so we sat there and relaxed for a while and chatted. After we had our rest, we headed over to Tomorrowland. First, we stopped at the spring roll cart and everybody got some spring rolls. Dad and Brandon each had one of each and Emily and I had one of each and she ate the pizza one and I ate the cheeseburger one. Everybody agreed that the cheeseburger one was better.

Then we headed over to Tomorrowland to get on the People Mover. I wanted to ride it before the sun went down and we were surprised that the line was so long. But it wasn't too bad and the line kept moving and we enjoyed our ride. It stopped about three different times and a couple of times we were in a tunnel so when we stopped they turned the lights on for us so that was nice.

After that, Dad said he couldn't stay any longer and he needed to go home. He still had to walk all the way to his truck and drive two hours home so we totally understood. We gave him hugs and he gave Emily his card so we could use his Tron lightning lane and he headed out. Emily, Brandon, and I all went to Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. I really love that show. It was so funny. I love how they get the audience involved.

After that, we headed over to the Lunching Pad. It was my suggestion because I wanted to try the sticky bubble bread, which was pretty good, and we all got some water. We had our little break and then Emily went to ride Space Mountain.

We headed over to Tron to use our lightning lanes at 8:55 PM. Since Dad wasn't going to use his, we decided that I should use it but I felt bad having them wait for me but they insisted so I rode it a second time. Fun fact, the second time I rode it, I was in the exact same spot as the first time.

When I was done, I went to find them by the Tron sign and the line was all the way past the Tron sign almost to the store which was crazy. They told me everybody rushed over there after the fireworks. So after that, we headed out.

Another photo op on Main Street