Hi Everyone!!
Thought I'd update you on my birthday weekend that was absolutely wonderful baring a couple of misfortunes. Allie and Lee came to visit me from Thursday night to Monday afternoon and we had lots of Disney fun. :)
I arrived at the hotel and got all settled in late on Thursday night and waited for Allie and Lee to land. When they did, I got a call from them with some unfortunate news. Apparently Southwest had sent Allie's luggage with Seth Stein to West Palm Beach and she was without her bags. So without her suitcase, they boarded the Magical Express and were soon at Pop Century!! So we hung out in the hotel room for the rest of the night just talking and watching TV. The next day we got up nice and early to...RAIN. =( But we decided to brave the rain at make our way to Hollywood Studios anyway. We had lots of fun riding the rides, taking pictures with Mike and Sulley and of course getting a little wet. Or a lot wet. lol. Liana even got Allie on her first roller coaster. She went on Rockin' Roller coaster twice and LOVED it!! I was very proud of her. :) When we had decided we were done seeing everything in the Studios we made our way back to Pop. Laura then came and picked us up so we could go to Walmart to get Allie some basic essentials since they still hadn't returned her luggage to her. When we got back to Pop, we all ready for dinner. We had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe which was fantastic!! Being on the dining plan, we got to eat lots of wonderful meals for a very inexpensive price compared to what it would be without the dining plan. I had a steak which was delicious especially since I haven't had steak in forever. After dinner and some shop browsing in Downtown Disney we went back to the hotel. At midnight we celebrated my birthday and then went to sleep since we had to be up early for a full day in Magic Kingdom.
So we got up very early to get to Magic Kingdom for our 9:30 breakfast reservations at Crystal Palace. And, to everyones relief, it brought about Allies luggage!! So we got up, got dressed and I opened my presents (from Mom and Dad and Larry and Donna...Thank you!!) and we made our way to the bus. We got to Magic Kingdom and because we were there before the park opened at 9, we got to see the opening show and throw the Mickey confetti to celebrate the opening of the park for the day!! When we got into the park we made our way to Crystal Palace for a delicious breakfast with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore. It was my first character breakfast since I've been here and it was so much fun to get to do it with Allie and Lee. We then spent the day in the park and even met up with Lisa, Conor and Alexa for most of the day. A few highlights were, Allie riding Space Mountain for the first time, seeing Jake the bachelor and his fiance Vienna taking pictures in front of the castle and seeing the 3 o'clock parade for the first time since I've been here. When we were tired of being in Magic Kingdom and needing a nap we went back to the hotel and hung out until it was time to leave for dinner. Tonights dinner was at Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness Lodge. So we took the bus to Magic Kingdom and then the boat to Wilderness Lodge. Dinner was again, delicious and thankfully they didn't make me stand on a chair or ride a hobby horse around the lobby or anything crazy like that because it was my birthday. lol. We got back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep, very tired from a long but wonderful birthday. :)
Sunday brought about a beautiful day just like Saturday and we decided some time at the pool was very much needed. So after sleeping late, we laid at the "Computer Pool" at Pop and worked on our tans. :) Around 1 we got dressed and made our way to EPCOT for the rest of the day. We rode lots of rides including Nemo, Soarin' (which we waited an hour and a half for), Spaceship Earth and Test Track (twice)! We weren't supposed to ride test track twice but the first time we went our TV and speakers didn't work so the guy who we told about it was really nice and let us go right back to the front of the line and ride again. Just a little Disney Magic for ya. :) We even got to see some of the EPCOT flower and garden festival which was really cool. Then, after running to make our reservation we had a fantastic final dinner at the Coral Reef restaurant at the Living Seas Pavilion. It was fantastic. And something really cool was when we were done, the park was closed so we got to feel like VIPs being in the park when it was closed to everyone else. We left EPCOT and made our way to Magic Kingdom via monorail for the extra magic hours. Lee was really tired so she didn't come with us but Allie and I left her once we got off the monorail and to my very excitement, I saw lots of people lining Main Street USA to watch Spectromagic!! I hadn't realized it was a double Spectro at 9 and 11 so Allie and I found a great spot on the start of the parade and watched it. I hadn't see it since I'd been here so I was super excited for it. :) We then rode Dumbo just for Allie (well ok, that's a lie, for me 2) and Buzz Lightyear where Allie promptly kicked my butt and decided it was time to call it a day. We took the bus back to Pop, climbed into bed and went to sleep.
Monday we woke up and since Allie and Lee were leaving at around 1 and I had work later that afternoon we spent the morning taking pictures of the hotel and laying at the pool. Sadly, I said good-bye to them and boarded the cast bus to come back to my apartment. About an hour or so later, they hopped on the magical express bus to go back to New York. It was a very, very fun vacation and a wonderful way to spend my first ever birthday in Disney World. :)
