A private Halloween party and a birthday that was extra magical

Dad and I in Italy at Epcot

I haven’t blogged in a few days. Day 5 we went to Epcot. I really did not not take too many photos and I have taken soooo many over all the trips and there really isn’t anything new there.

Elisabeth got peeved at how long the bus was taking and how many annoying people were gonna be on our bus, so she decided that from that moment on she was gonna drive to the parks. It really is not bad and parking is free for hotel guests. So it worked for us and was actually better at Epcot.

We were done about mid day, dad didn’t care to see much of the Future World exhibits. We left early and came back to the hotel and chilled out.

Day 6, we took dad over to Animal Kingdom. It is not our favorite park and unless you really want to see the animals there is only 2 rides and a few shows to see. Otherwise, you are done quickly too. We rode Dinosaur, walk on wait… We let dad go see Finding Nemo stage show, while I convince Elisabeth to ride Expedition Everest. Yeah, not a good idea. She got sick to her tummy and was miserable the rest of the day.

After Nemo, I took dad on Expedition Everest… then a stroll around the park. Once he felt he saw everything, we headed back to the hotel where we napped in the afternoon. We had to prepare ourselves for our “private” Halloween Party that took place at the Magic Kingdom after closing. So from about 9:45pm to 12am, we were at a closed park where we got to meet one of the imagineers for the Haunted Mansion, some characters, went trick or treating, rode Haunted Mansion ride, and got a signed poster from a Disney artist.

Elisabeth, Voodoo guy from Princess and the Frog, and me at Halloween party

When we got to the party I was 39, when I left I was 40. What an awesome way to start my birthday off right. The next morning, Day 7, we changed hotels. We left Animal Kingdom Lodge, and checked into the Bay Lake Tower. Way more upscale, I think. I love this hotel. It is so damn beautiful. I could totally live here.

Our living area in our hotel room at Bay Lake Tower

After checking in and getting our room, it was off to The Grand Floridian Hotel where we were gonna have dinner with the cast of Cinderella. Prince Charming, Cinderella, Lady Tremaine, Anastasia and Drucella were all there. They were a hoot and a half. We were more excited about the step sisters than we were Cinderella. Dad got to waltz with Lady Tremaine. Elisabeth and I tried to hit on Drucella. We did get her in the middle of a hot girl on girl sandwich.

Drucella in the middle of a Jenny Elisabeth sandwich

After dinner, we went to the bar at the top of the Bay Lake Tower, had a cocktail and watched the Halloween fireworks from our hotel. It was awesome and beautiful. It was a great birthday for me. Now, tomorrow is Magic Kingdom’s 40th birthday… There are supposed to be lots of surprises. I’m gonna be there and am looking forward to it. Elisabeth and I just made our pact to come back in ten years at this time so we can celebrate 50!!!  Wooooo.

Sept 2011 Walt Disney World Vacation AKL/BTL – Day 4

Today, we went to Hollywood Studios for rope drop. The reason you go to rope drop at this park over others is for Toy Story Mania. The madness of the Mania, is MASSIVE!!! Everyone rushes over to Toy Story Mania to get a pass so they can come back and ride it later in the day. By noon, all those passes are gone. Which means, the longer you wait to get your pass the later it will be that you have to come back. If we were one of those later people, we wouldn’t be able to ride TSM without waiting in line until after 7pm. That is a seven hour wait. Elisabeth got our passes while, Dad and I went to meet some characters.

Meeting Donald and Daisy

After Elisabeth got back with our passes, we had breakfast and walked around the park. This is where Elisabeth gets frustrated… See, Elisabeth really hates this park so the more she has to stay here, the more grumpy she gets. For her, she would rather get on Toy Story, then Tower of Terror then leave. Me, I like this park. I don’t know why; I just do. Dad, being a gay man and all, loves the shows and parades. Elisabeth hates all that stuff. BLAH. Makes me like a tug o war. I wanna let me dad do all the things he wants to do cos he may never come back here, but I don’t want my girl to be upset or bored out of her mind. I don’t know how to compromise without my dad feeling like he is making our trip crappy, cos his insecurities are running high these days.

Ursula from Little Mermaid

Well, we let him go see the Little Mermaid show, which was crappy. Then we took him to some areas we like… The Animation studios and a walking exhibit called One Man’s Dream. At the Animation studios gift shop, I found some Haunted Mansion stuff for my Haunted Mansion room… plus, I had the artist hand draw Mickey TRON for my TRON wall. Awesome… I will take pics of that when I get it today.

The One Man’s Dream exhibit is cool. The first part is a Walt’s childhood and the creation of Disney. The second half is a lot of collectibles, models for the parks, etc… They just updated this exhibit, so there were some new things in there. Looks like people donated stuff, etc… Here is an example of the stuff you can find.

Some of the first merchandise from the 30s of Mickey Mouse

We hit Toy Story Mania, got on the Tower of Terror ride and the Great Movie Ride. We let Dad watch the Pixar parade, while we sat off in the back on a bench. After the parade, we hit some shops, killed some time to let the buses die down. Usually, right after a parade there is a made dash to the buses for an afternoon break.

It was about 4ish when we left the park and our reservations for dinner was at 7pm at Port Orleans Hotel. We took a bus over to that hotel and walked around and killed time before dinner. This hotel has two sides to you, the French Quarter and the Riverside. I prefer the French Quarter side, but dinner was at Riverside. The French Quarter has a Mardi Gras theme to it, and there are statues of alligators with musical instruments all around.

Some gators playing some tunes

We had dinner at Boatwrights, where we had cajun food. Being from Texas and having that Louisiana influence so close, we are a fan of it. There food was excellent. I had Chicken Jambalaya which I split with Elisabeth. Dad had the Pork Chop. It was very very delicious. UGH, there was a gaggle of old dykes that were sat right next to us. The butchest of the gaggle was checking either Elisabeth or me out, I couldn’t tell. I know we are hot, but don’t stare so much. LOL

After dinner, we took a boat ride to downtown disney, where we then got on a bus to go back to our hotel. Elisabeth ended her day in a jaccuzzi tub, I just chillaxed and did not write my blog until this morning. I had a headache that I needed to get rid of.

Today… it’s EPCOT day… So, we will talk to you laterz

September 2011 Walt Disney World Trip AKL/BLT – Day 3

Today was a rest up from a full day yesterday and prepare for 3 days of non-stop parks… Are we ready?

We slept in until 9am. Oh I love vacation… Went to Wolfgang Pucks for breakfast pizza, which is a pizza with egg, bacon, cheese, tomatos and ranch dressing. It is nummy. We walked around downtown Disney from one side to the other, just looking at all the shops, pin trading, vinylmation trading and shopping. For any one who know me, I got one of the 3 pigs from PIGS IN SPACE. Two to go…

Elisabeth, Buzz and My Dad

There are a few photo ops with some fun character statues. I rarely get Elisabeth to pose with anyone of them, she usually is the photographer, but I got her to pose with Buzz Lightyear, but I think he got a little to friendly with her. At the Lego store, they built a few new Disney characters out of legos. I think it would be fun to have a whole zoo of Disney characters in my backyard made of legos.

Buzz and Woody made of legos

After downtown Disney, we went back to the hotel and decided to take a swim. As soon as we got into the pool, it started to rain. Dammit. Since we were already wet, we let the rain fall down and we stayed in the pool discussing dinner plans since dad was buying. We decided to check reservations and see whatever ever was available. There was a reservation at Boma, which is African influenced buffet. We had eaten there before, but since my food tastes have changed from four years ago, I gave it another shot.

The food was either much better or my tastes have changed. I really enjoyed the food. We all actually did. It was very delicious. After dinner, we picked up our packages from the night before. I knew I bought them, but at the same time forgot they would be coming today… Have a look at my new toys for the TRON mantle.

My TRON vinylmations

There are a total of 8 of these. I found these 2, plus 2 others. BUT… the other two I did not want. There are 3 more from this set that I want. I am on the hunt. Have not found them yet… but I will!!!

So now… It is off to soak my feet and head to bed. Tomorrow’s Hollywood Studios day will come really early.

September 2011 Walt Disney World Trip AKL/BLT – Day 2

Today was a very VERY full day. I don’t think I have spent as much time in a park all in one day without taking a break. And I give it to my dad for being a trooper and making it 12-13hrs all in one shot. For us, I would say the dropping of weight and the exercise we have been doing has helped keep us moving. I honestly could have stayed they whole time. I still had another 2.5hrs in me.

We went to the Magic Kingdom… There are so may rides and so much to do there. As for rides, Dad and I took on Space Mountain. I was worried about him fitting, but he made it in. Getting out was a little hard for him, but we got him. Wow… I was surprised how well I fit now. Tons of room. All of us went on Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Cruise and Buzz Lightyear. Buzz’s ride is a laser shooting range, where you are in a car and you are shooting your gun at these targets while your car is moving. I scored my highest game ever 327,400 points. I think Elisabeth was in the 200,000′s. I always seem to kick her ass in the game while she will win in Toy Story Mania. Dad got about 90,000 points.  As for shows, we saw Philharmagic, Carousel Of Progress and Tiki Room.

Dad and I with Mary Poppins

One of the first characters we met today was Mary Poppins. I had met her before, but the line was not horribly long, so Dad and Mary chatted it up for a while. We also got to meet The Fairy Godmother.

All of us meeting The Fairy Godmother.

I really enjoyed the new queue at The Haunted Mansion, not like I will do it  each time. The interactive queue isn’t all that, but I love the busts they added. They are great addition to the ghosts. Here is a full shot of all of them. I did take individual ones of each close up.

the busts of dearly departed at Haunted Mansion

We watched two parades and The Dreams Come True show. I think it was so fun to watch my dad watch the shows cos he got so excited and his face lit up so much. I am glad I am making him happy and showing him a good time. The parades we saw were the Main Street Electrical Parade and the Pump Up The Party where they bring people in to the streets and you can dance and party with the characters. Mr Incredible and I were jamming together… it was totally fun.

Dancing in the streets with Mr Incredible

Overall, it was a really fun time today… I know I enjoyed myself, watching foreigners trying to grab 3D things during a 3D movie, the Chinese girls copying the dance steps to one of the stage shows, and making a cast member so happy by giving her Haunted Mansion pins. She was cute enough for me to want to make her happy in other ways, but it’s Disney soooo… LOL.

Tomorrow, it is a resting day. Fun by the pool after some shopping at Downtown Disney.

September 2011 Walt Disney World Trip AKL/BLT – Day 1 (We arrive)

Day one and as always I am blogging our trip. We stayed over in Slidell, LA and woke up about 5am to get back on the road to make it to Disney that afternoon… a very log car ride that I was gonna read on but I didn’t want to really. I think our vacation truly started when when it was lunch time and we stopped at a local roadside diner. I don’t know where we were at but I called it Bugville, FL because is bug to person ratio was so high. The food was not really good. Guy, you can skip this one for your Triple D show.

We arrived at Walt Disneyworld around 4-4:30pm and checked into our first hotel, Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is a very beautiful hotel. Our room is a one bedroom that sleeps 5 people. Elisabeth and I are in the bedroom, my dad has the living room to himself. There is a queen size fold out sofa bed, plus a chair bed too.

After checking in, we waiting a bit for our luggage to come up got changed and then headed to Downtown Disney for dinner. Elisabeth and I have a ritual of Wolfgang Puck Express is our first meal. It is awesome food. I love it. Elisabeth and I split a Cesaer salad and sausage meatball bell pepper pizza. Very delicious. We split the pizza with my dad and he got a cobb salad to go with it.

After dinner, we headed to the Goofy Candy store to get one one sugar splurge for the trip. A pretzel rod dripped in white chocolate, covered in coconut, then drizzled in milk chocolate. YUMMY!!! Elisabeth’s was the same except instead of coconut, she covered hers in butterfinger crumbs.

Then for a little shopping. We went to the Art of Disney store, where you can get collectibles, artwork, etc… We got another frameable picture for our Haunted Mansion room… YES, we have a Haunted Mansion room. We also went to the Christmas store and picked up our yearly Christmas ornament (one for the 40th celebration).

We might have stayed longer but the huge black clouds were hovering over us and the thunder and lightening was threatening us with a down pour. Since I know my dad’s gay self with melt in the rain, we took him back to the hotel for the night. It is 11pm Eastern time… Elisabeth is just about asleep cos, the night before she got no sleep due to the fact that we were in a standard hotel room with a man who snores worse than a St Bernard. Thank god he is in the living room now.

I am left to blog about our day a post a few photos of our day. This trips blog will be a bit different than I have done before cos I usually on put one or two photos from the day, but this time… I am posting a few more in a gallery below the post. Click on the pictures you wanna see. Have fun looking at our day… and I will talk to ya all tomorrow. NIGHT!

Red Onion Grill – Not so great of food

We have arrived

Dad has to call John as soon as he gets here

Our bedroom at the Animal Kingdom Lodge

Living room at Animal Kingdom Lodge

Living Room at Animal Kingdom Lodge

Kitchen in our room at Animal Kingdom Lodge

This is totally our shower in our hotel room

Dad and Elisabeth waiting for the first bus

My infamous self pic with dad

Elisabeth is in line ordering the food at Wolfgang Puck… I am saving a seat.

Dad can’t stay off the phone… Hello John, AGAIN!

Had to take dad to the Xmas store since he is Mr. Christmas

Dad and I at Goofy’s Candy Store… We made pretzel rods

Who don’t love a funny mirror…

Final countdown has begun… 4 days left

So… this is the week when we begin our countdown to Disneyworld. We leave Friday night after work and are driving… so I technically won’t see Disneyworld until Saturday afternoon. It was so much cheaper to drive especially three people.

I guess the closer it gets, the more excited I get… sad part is the the closer it gets to vacation time, the closer I am to turning 40!

Today, we just won passes to this secret event at WDW were we get to go to a Trick or Meet-Up at the Magic Kingdom on the 29th. So as we are leaving the park that night, I will hit the big 40! Nice way to turn 40.

I’m kinda glad my dad is gonna be there to watch his baby hit middle age. LOL. Oh well… Need to find a costume for this event. I might be a punk rocker since I will have purple hair. Any other ideas?

One Week to Go…

Here we are…one week until we head out to Disney World, for what will probably be the last time for at least a couple of years. It is time to explore some more of the real world and have some more experiences.

We have planned to take it very easy this trip. Only 5 park days and the rest just exploring the hotels and hitting the pool multiple times. Jenny and I have planned on going to the gym as well almost every day since we are in the mode of doing it and we don’t want to have to start over when we get home.

Our food plans are going to be very simple – a protein shake in the morning before we leave the room, a protein bar or a piece of fruit here and there for snacks, and whatever we feel like sharing for lunch and dinner. It isn’t that we want to go cheap, it is that we want to feel better and not be bogged down by so much crappy heavy food. We have pretty much started sharing entrees and things like that anyway, so it won’t be a stretch or a pain to do this.

I can say I am ready to go now. I am in desperate need of this vacation and I just want to relax by the pool with a drink by my side and my ipad in my lap. Not too much to ask for. Relaxation is the name of the game and we are going to have it…in abundance.

Less than a month… what are my feelings?

So, I have not posted in so long on this blog that I kinda think people may think that I have been anti-Disney. Well, not true.

This trip has been not on my mind as much as in the past probably for a lot of reasons. Mainly, its because I just have not been feeling the love. I don’t know if it is because we have another trip with people going. Last two trips we have brought people and now, this trip. So, three is just too many times without Disney alone time. It also could be that 3 people cost more than two and I am stressing out about money on this trip. Still am, but not as much as before with us modifying park passes, dining plans, etc…

I know that once we get to Disneyworld, my feelings will change. I am gonna bring my laptop so I can blog and flickr our pictures, I have decided that. I need to blog this trip. I really do. I need to find my happy place again and maybe blogging it will make me find it. This is my dad’s first trip to Disneyworld and I know he is gonna love it. We are gonna take it easy… chill and relax.

Gonna try some new things… but mainly, relaxing and having a good time with my papa!

A New Trip Abounds

I decided not too long ago that I really didn’t want to wait to go to Disney World for another whole year. Since we decided to do a cruise for Jenny’s birthday next year, that meant that we wouldn’t be going back for at least another 18 months or so. The thought of that really didn’t make me happy. We also are going to be moving into a bigger place next year in August as well, so we needed some savings to do that as well. This meant I had to figure out how to plan and schedule another vacation some time in the spring.

Since Jenny works in the floral industry and their peak times are Thanksgiving through Mother’s Day, it really made planning a this trip difficult. All of her holidays are spaced out every 3 or so weeks and he boss goes on a trip after Valentine’s day every year as well. I knew I didn’t want to go during spring break again (that trip was madness), so that left a little window open in January or after Mother’s day.  So why not January again, I thought to myself.  It is kind of perfect other than it is cold. The wheels in my head kept spinning and thoughts kept creeping in as to what we could do.

Tune into a few days later and I have a major plan working in my head. Go to WDW for my birthday/anniversary in January and make it a different kind of trip. I have been wanting to do some tours, and eat at some different restaurants than we usually do.

My first hurdle…which resort to stay at this time around. Since we are DVC members, we have a variety of places to choose from with all sorts of different amenities and features. One hotel we have never even stepped foot into is The Wilderness Lodge. I have seen pictures, but not once have we ever ventured over that way (it is a bit out of the way to just “drop” in). I make my request to DVC member services and low and behold, they have a room available.  Hot damn I tell myself. I chose this hotel for a few different reasons. One, it is perfect for winter while it is cold. Two, it is really close to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Three, we made it a rule a long time ago that we would try to stay at every hotel on property at least once.

Wilderness Lodge - Maybe Twin Peaks is in order while we are there?

Next up is what do we do while we are there? Since we both said a long time ago that if we ever lost enough weight to do the Segway tour at Epcot, we would do it. So guess what? We have officially lost enough weight to do the tour. Awesome. They let you into Epcot World Showcase before it opens so you don’t run anyone over, and give you a tour and some alone time to take pictures and stuff. I also have been wanting to try a few more restaurants that we haven’t been to yet either. Even the ones you kind of have to dress up a little for. So my plan is to not eat at a single restaurant that we have eaten at before while we are there. It will make for a very different kind of trip. Last, but certainly not least, we are finally doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour. This is the tour where they take you behind the scenes at the Magic Kingdom and in the Utilidors and everything. Long tour, but I have been wanting to do this one forever.

So that pretty much recaps what we are doing and one other major thing…no one else is allowed to tag along on this trip. We haven’t been to WDW by ourselves in almost 2 years, and while I sometimes like going with other people, I like it when we are by ourselves as well.

Trip Planning Update

Here we are at 73 days left to go before we take the 40th birthday/anniversary trip to Walt Disney World. A lot of things have changed in the last 40 days, so here we go.

The biggest change is that we decided to drive it again instead of fly. With 3 people, the cost is exponentially higher to fly, so I cut about $1000 off of the budget just by driving instead of flying. What this means is a couple of things. One, we will have to leave Friday after work and drive to about Baton Rouge/Slidell, depending on traffic. So cut out about 5-7 hours on Friday night, and that leaves us about 8-9 hours to drive on Saturday. Since I only planned on going to Downtown Disney the first day we got there, no big deal and no rush really. Two, coming back is still up in the air as far as the extra day off of work. I would prefer not to get up at the butt-crack of dawn the day we leave and drive the 14-16 hours like we did last time. It wasn’t horrible, but I would like to be leisurely about it this time around. Also, since I still have my Sunpass from the last trip and since the money never expires on it, I still have that for this trip too.

Since Jenny was diagnosed with diabetes, I have had to modify almost all of our reservations. Now, this is kind of a normal thing with me anyway, but I have had to really look at the menus for the restaurants to see if they have things she will eat along with what she can eat. We have been going to the gym 4-5 days a week and seeing some results from all of that effort so I don’t want to backpedal on our vacation. 9 days of burgers and fried foods will not make either of us happy campers and our stomachs will definitely hate us. I will post the list of new restaurants below.

Overall, we are getting excited about the trip and we are still getting some work issues worked out (pain in the ass if you ask me since we plan these trips a year in advance for a reason). But things are looking up and before you know it…it will be time to leave work and hit the road to Florida.

So here is the new list of restaurants I have decided on.

Wolfgang Puck Express a couple of times actually (I am kind of addicted to the place)

Via Napoli – The pizza is really awesome.

Kouzzina – I love Mediterranean food and have not been yet.

Sanaa – We had such a wonderful meal here when it first opened, I have been itching to go back.

Kona Cafe – We went for dinner last time, and I think Bill will really like it.

And I have decided on a couple of old standbys…the quick service restaurants here and there throughout the parks where we can split a healthy meal or a fattening one…all depends on our mood.

I honestly can’t wait to go and if I ever decide to wait another whole year before we go back again…shoot me.