Disney World - Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot

Friday October 24Magic Kingdom was our first stop on Friday, which was our last day at the parks. Our goals were to buy souvenirs and to get some pictures that we felt like we missed during the week, and to take advantage of the Photo Pass people standing around. Unfortunately, Disney charges a ridiculous amount of money for the pictures taken with the Photo Pass people, so although I could view them online for a month I didn't want to pay $80 for a disc of them! We'll just have to deal with our amateur photography :) So this post will have a bunch of pictures.

The Mickey was made of small pumpkins

We stopped by Tom Sawyer's Island, I have never been on it before. It was pretty fun, except for these bratty kids that were there! These three boys who were probably around 9 had zero respect, swore, and were everywhere we went on the Island! Oh well, Joe and I still managed to explore and enjoy ourselves.

View of the Haunted Mansion from the Island

Front door of the Haunted Mansion

Joe really wanted to see the PhilharMagic which turned out to be totally awesome. I think it's one of those shows that you just pass by because it's not a ride, and so it must not be exciting, but it was really neat, I'm glad we took the time for it.
We also walked through Cinderella's Castle, they have these beautiful mosaics:

Here we are in front of the castle waiting for a little midday parade to pass

the parade crowd

This is the awesome outfit the ticket helpers get to wear for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party

From Magic Kingdom we went back to Hollywood Studios. We rode Tower of Terror a few more times, because it's totally awesome!
Then we went back to Epcot (it must subconsciously be our favorite park) to get a few Christmas ornaments and get back on the monorail to Magic Kingdom. By the time we were done shopping it was almost time for IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth (the fireworks show). We almost didn't stay but then realized that although we were exhausted we should take advantage of seeing as much as we could. I'm so glad we stayed, the show was totally awesome! As with every Disney show there is something weird and political/environmental, but they also pull out all the stops. The fireballs and fireworks that they used were totally amazing. You could literally feel the heat from the fireballs, it was crazy.

And that was it! I think the best thing about Disney World is that before I even left the resorts I was planning my next trip back. We'll be going back soon enough and I'm already excited about it.

As a side note, Joe really wanted to buy some fireworks on our way back to Georgia, we found this great place; I'm not sure why there are cars on the roof of a fireworks store.

we spent way too much money on fireworks, but it was fun

Disney World - Epcot, Magic Kingdom, & Hollywood Studios

Thursday October 23

In the morning we went to Epcot. This time around we wanted to get a picture in every “country” which made it a lot of fun, even though we were going through things pretty quickly. I always wish we spent more time looking around in each country area.

Alyssa had a passport thing that you could get signed by people in every country. That was fun because they would write in their native language and put in a cute stamp. If I had kids I would totally do that. We of course went on some of the silly rides they have in a two of the countries. We went on the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros in Mexico, and the Maelstrom in Norway (a surreal Viking boat voyage that leaves me confused at the end).

Mexico

Norway

China

Germany

Italy

The American Adventure

Joe taking Aaron and Alyssa's picture in Japan

Japan

Morocco
(you might ask "why Morocco?", answer: Morocco was the first country to seek diplomatic relations with the Government of the United States in 1777)

France

United Kingdom

Canada

In Future World, at the front of Epcot, we went on Spaceship Earth (in the geodesic sphere). They have changed the story around since the last time we were there, reimagined really. It's now about seeing yourself in the future. As you are riding into the beginning of the ride the screen in your car comes on and you answer a few things about what you would like to do in the future, if you would want to live in the city or country, would you want your future to be career oriented or leisure oriented, etc, they also take your picture and then boom! It's future you! It was actually a lot of fun. The ride itself is also awesome, love animatronics and listening to Dame Lady Dench. Spaceship Earth is always a winner.

After Epcot it was onto Magic Kingdom to give Aaron some more time with his favorite park. Alyssa and I rode the Tea Cups without Aaron and Joe because they are wusses, plus we wanted to spin a lot and Aaron doesn't do well with spinning. While I was spinning around and laughing with Alyssa, she said that she thought I would make a fun mom, that's totally awesome, especially coming from a 12 year old. Go me! I guess being willing to go on the Tea Cups was enough to make me fun. Unfortunately Alyssa wasn't loving the Magic Kingdom so we left and went over to Hollywood Studios to finish out the day. We waiting in line forever to get on the Toy Story ride again, good thing that's tons of fun. When we got out the park was emptying out to watch Fantasmic, so we ran over to Star Tours and caught the last right of the day on that. Got to love old cheesy rides.

Cinderella's castle from the monorail

Haunted Mahjong

Capturing Joe filming and the Fantasmic hat

From Hollywood Studios we took the boat back to Epcot, since that was wear we parked. We were able to walk through Epcot while it was closing down, by now it was after 9 PM and it had been raining. We thought we would take advantage of the empty park and see what the countries were like when no one was around, but then it started to rain harder. We made a mad dash through the park and out to the car.

geodesic sphere at night