Downtown Disney - Saturday

Gateway to Downtown Disney

Hot Air Balloon rides

Saturday was one of our down days. We lazed around a bit and had lunch before we headed to Downtown Disney. Lots of shops and restaurants here. And, home of Cirque du Soliel, La Nouba. We were lucky enough to have tickets to it for saturday at 6:30pm. The first of two shows playing that day. I ordered these on line well in advance and I'm glad that I did as it was sold out.

Cirque du Soliel, La Nouba was one of the most exciting shows that I have ever been to. We all were on the edge of our seats watching all the acrobatics and stunts. They really were amazing! And lots of humour too. It was impressive to say the least! A must see for any age.

 We did some shopping of course. Mack bought some cool magic cards at this great magic shop. We walked through lots of other stores too and bought a few more goodies to bring home. Everything that you may want to buy is at Downtown Disney. And there are tonnes of restaurants and bars too. We went to the Legoland temporary tent as they are renovating the building. There were some very neat lego statues around. I do wish that we would have had a bit more time at Downtown Disney to explore as there was so much to see and do. Oh well, next time

With so many places to eat, we had a hard time deciding where to go. In the end, we went to Planet Hollywood for supper. Very cool place! Full of old props from movies across the ages. Lots to see there and the food was very good. We went up to the counter and asked the girl how long the wait would be. 45 minutes people!! Not happening... we were too hungry. Then the girl asked if it was just the 3 of us and we said yes. She then said, 'You guys are VIP's right?' 'Ya, sure we are', we responded. She hands us a little slip of paper and says to go on up. So we do and are let right in, past the line up of people, and to our table. Holy! That was awesome! Here again, Mack was made to feel pretty special. At one point during our dinner, they put his name up on the big screen and announced his never-ending birthday. hahahaha. Excellent!

There was also a great deal of music going on downtown. 

Street musicians  all electric strings

House of Blues was pumping out some enticing tunes.

How many super days can one have in a row? 

Well, we were on day 6 of our trip and haven't been disappointed yet.

Seas Aqua Tour and Epcot - Day 5

Sleeping in a bit this morning felt good after our long day and late night last night. We had another big day planned today so a good sleep was needed.

Today Mackenzie and I were going on the Seas Aqua Tour in Epcot. This is a tour where you go behind the scenes at the aquarium located in The Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion. You get to swim with the sharks, stingrays, fish, sea turtles and creatures of the seas. This is the second largest salt water tank in North America with a 5.7 million gallon tank! Our tour started at 12:30 so we decided to go to the park just before.

We met our group outside the park at the customer service area and our guides came out to meet us and take us back. There were only 6 of us in the group which was a nice number. We got to tour behind the scenes first and learn about how the fish were feed, cared for and the different types. We saw the manatees and dolphins and then, into the change rooms to get on our wetsuits. At the tank we were given a quick lesson on how our supplied-air snorkel units worked, got suited up and into the water. The water was quite cool they warned us. One of the guides asked me if the water was too cold and I said, 'Honey, this feels like a bit of heaven for a woman who's pre-menopausal.' He thought that was pretty great and said that he would tell his wife he has found a solution for her. ha!

All geared up and ready to swim!

This was the most amazing thing to do! We swam in the tank for 30 minutes and had all the creatures mentioned above swimming right underneath us! It was so incredible! We would do this again in a heartbeat! What a feeling! We couldn't take any pictures, but that was fine. I won't forget this experience.

After our exhilarating experience in the tank, we had worked up an appetite. We went out for burgers and fries. yum! Tami was to meet up with us after the tour but it took a bit of time to connect with her so Mack and I went and did a couple rides. As it turns out, Tami was in the park and doing rides already.

The International Flower and Garden Festival was happening at Epcot, which means that there were beautiful flowers and topiaries everywhere. It was so pretty and smelled so good. Here are some of my favourites.

 Epcot - home of Future World and the World Showcase. We did a bit of both today.

Today was also about Mackenzie's birthday dinner. I had made reservations on line at Teppan Edo, the Japanese restaurant where they grill right at your table. Mack loved this place and the food was just as fantastic as the show. He was treated like a King! Given a chef's hat, sang to, and give cake! It was awesome.
Our chef was so funny and really made Mack feel special. More fun could not be had!

Happy Birthday Mack!

Onion Volcano!

I wish I could remember his name, he was great!

Yum! beef, shrimp, chicken, veggies

Before dinner we watched IllumiNations show from the Japanese Pavilion. Great location to see it from by the way.
It was a full day and we managed to see and do a lot. I could write lots more and add more pictures, but I'll save them for the second day that we went to Epcot.

It was a very magical day. :)

Magic Kingdom - April 7th

So, I don't know if you remember me talking about the 'paint brush' on Tom Sawyer's Island, but, today Mack and I decided that we were going to attempt to find one. The two of us headed to Magic Kingdom first thing in the morning, like 8am. Tami decided to stay at the cabin for the morning. We took the boat over and set off for the Island soon to find out that AdventureLand didn't open until 9am. So we went and did a couple rides in TomorrowLand. When AdventureLand opened, we headed straight to the Island. Only to discover that it didn't open until 10am. Yeesh! Could have slept in.

Ok, anyway, we get onto the Island as soon as it opens with a boat load of people, most of whom are trying to find these brushes. They have all read the same website as me obviously. We get off the raft and everyone runs for different places. We headed left and Mack went up to the Mill house with everyone else and I went off to the little landing area by myself. I did a quick survey and as I glanced up at a bucket hanging on a post, I saw a little strip of white sticking out of the top of the bucket. I tried to reach it but because i'm so short, couldn't do it on my own. I pulled a rocking chair over and grabbed the prize. A blue handled white wash paintbrush. We did it!! We actually found one! Well, actually we found two, but we told another family were the second one was.

With the success of our find, we go back to the dock to hand our paintbrush over to the raft Captain to get our prize of free fast passes for the day. Now here's the thing. The website that I found this exciting info on is not a Disney site so therefore, they may not always tell the whole truth about things. For example, finding a paintbrush on Tom Sawyer's Island does not give you a free fast pass for your whole family for the whole day on all the rides. It gives you One free fast pass for your whole family for One ride that can be used anytime Once in that day. A bit disappointing, but we were still happy for what we received and had lots of fun getting pumped up about the search. Well worth doing!

The rest of the morning we spent getting our picture taken with some of the characters and princesses. I made Mack get his picture taken with the Princesses, much to his chagrin. 

We did a few of our favourite rides, like Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear and we also rode the WDW Railroad around the park. It was a beautiful ride. Nice way to see the back side of Thunder Mountain and get a look at all those crazy props that you go whizzing by on the ride. We watched the 'Celebrate It' parade too. It was a great start to our day. 

Around 2pm or so, Mackenzie and I headed back to the cabin for a bite to eat. We went for a swim at the second pool which was a great way to beat the heat of the day.

Then we went back to Magic Kingdom that evening with Tami and did a ton more rides, watched the Electric Parade and had a blast! We did every ride there was in TomorrowLand including Space Mountain, which for some reason I have a fear of. Loved it this time! 

We rode the People Mover a few times. That is a great way to see the park from a little higher vantage point and it is so relaxing. The best time to do the popular rides is during the fireworks and parade and after they are over as everyone is then leaving the park. No line ups. We used our free fast pass for Splash Mountain, and again got soaked.

Here are some classic pictures in front of Cinderella's Castle.

It was yet another fabulous day!