Friday - May 3rd

So after our fun filled day at Epcot, we went back to the resort and crashed pretty hard and fast. We had been up since 4:30 AM and went to bed the night before at like 10 and hardly slept.

We woke up Friday morning and were off to the Poly for breakfast at Kona. We had our usual order of Tonga Toast and it did not disappoint again. So freaking good! After we left there it was on to the monorail and off to fun in the Magic Kingdom. It was already sprinkling and we were armed with our ponchos from the day before. So we decided to go right towards Futureland and hit up Monsters Inc Laugh Floor first. There was no wait so why not. We were secretly hoping Ian would get picked to be "That Guy" like papa faas did but no such luck. It was changed up from the time we saw it and it was pretty funny.

After that, I had a score to redeem so we went on Buzz's ride and I was hoping to take out the evil zerg and beat Ian's score but no such luck. Oh well there is always next time. After that we were going to take a ride through space on Space Mountain but the standby time was at 80 minutes and there was no way we were waiting that long to get whipped around. So we were off to ride through a haunted mansion. This was literally a walk on and once again quite enjoyable. When we got off this the rain had cleared and it was hotter than you know what and so humid. So refreshments were in order. We got some water and made our way to wait in line for Big Thunder Mtn. Ian had never been on it and I loved it as a kid. The wait was around 40 mins so we said what the heck we had to kill time anyway before our dinner reservation at "Be our Guest". It actually ended up being closer to 30 minutes by the time we boarded so not too terrible. As we were making our way down the exit ramp, due to it being slick I tweaked my ankle but was ok and could walk it off. However that is just a sign of things to come. So from here we decided to go check on the wait time for Splash Mountain as I was ready to get a little wet as I was hot. But it was up to an hour wait. I guess everyone had that idea. Fast pass times were going to be for when our dinner was so no such luck. =( There is always next time!

So from here we decided to go see wait times for Mickey's Philharmagic show. It's something we had never done and figured it would be fun. We loved it. The 3d effects were awesome and some great music from the films. Plus it was nice and cool in that theater. After that we saw Pooh's adventure was only like 20 mins and it's something we haven't done before so why not. We actually liked it. Little kids would love it. Peter Pan had like a 40 min wait and while I was tempted it would be close to our dinner time. So we made our way around Fantasyland to Ariel's new ride. The wait was only 30 mins and it was right by the beasts's castle so figured why not. I loved this ride. It had great scenes from the movie and the animatronics were awesome. We ended up getting through the line and ride in only 20 mins. So we went to wait by the check in area for our dinner time and watched the performers interact with the kids. That always puts a smile on my face.

Plus the storm clouds were moving in so we wanted to be close in case it started pouring as we could wait under the roof of the check in area. Ian got us checked in and we were taken in pretty much right away.

We can not say enough good things about this dining experience. The castle is beautiful and we ate in the main ballroom. They even replicated the floor that Belle and the beast dance on in the movie. The details were amazing. The food was freaking outstanding. It was better than Le Cellier in our opinion and only one table service credit where Le Cellier is 2. We will definitely eat here again.

Here are some pictures from that meal.

The rose napkin on our dinner plate:





The balcony looking down on the floor where we sat:



Beautiful chandeliers



Ian's yummy French Onion soup



Yummy lemonade with a wildberry foam



Ian's porkchop with gratin mac and cheese



My yummy steak



Ian's triple choc cupcake



My yummy lemon meringue cupcake



and then towards the end the Beast walks through the dining room to thank his guests for dining

Pictures from the trip

Sorry it's been a while since I have been back to update. Life has been crazy due to the issues that happened during the race. I guess I should back up and start with day one though.

Our flight was delayed thanks to a heavy rainstorm in Orlando itself. Our pilot arranged for a back up airport just in case we couldn't land in Orlando. So that required more fuel for us. We took off about an hour later. However that allowed the storms to get better so by the time we landed it wasn't horrible and we made it safe and sound.

We caught the magical express and managed to get a front seat which is very coveted for the picture when you go under the welcome sign. I have a few of these already so I didn't bother to take another one. Our resort, which was All Star Resorts was the first one to get dropped off at. I had completed the online check in so we walked right up to the counter and got our room. We managed to get one of the requests which was the "near transportation" and quiet. It was a quick 3 min walk to the front to catch a bus, or grab a bite to eat. While the all star sports was nice it was very overrun with cheerleaders. They were in town for a cheer competition that started on Sat and went through Sun.

Anyways, we get to our room and unpacked as we only did carry on luggage since it was a shorter trip. After unpacking we made our way to the main building to go catch a bus to Epcot. It was dreary out and we knew there was a good chance for rain. We were on a mission to find some poncho's just in case. However most of the front stores we didn't see any right away so decided instead of shopping we wanted to go on a ride so Spaceship earth it was. It's in the huge golf ball and it's so iconic and a must do for us everytime.

After our trip through time we made our way over to Ellen's Energy show/ride. We had never tried it and we wanted to try some new things this trip. Plus test track was down due to the rain and lightning. Soarin had like an hour wait and ellen's only had a 5 minute one. Hmm. Which would you choose.

So after coming out of that we were making our way to the world showcase and were just barely in Mexico and it poured down hard. I told Ian we needed to find poncho's because I didn't want to be soaked all day and we had dinner reservations for Le Cellier in Canada at 6:30. So we came upon a shop in Mexico and we heard angels singing and shine a light on the poncho's. Yay! So after putting those on we found a quick snack of pretzels and made our way around to Norway as we had to go on Maelstrom. I love the troll country. Plus it's indoor ride and wanted to get out of the downpour. We really had a good time and the rain cooled things down and it was little to no humidity which surprised me. We toured our way around looking at the beautiful flower topiary's they had out for the Flower and Garden Festival. You will see some pictures below from this.

Not the finish we were expecting!

Here is a snippet of video from the race day itself. I will be back with more of the story later.