Well, this is embarrassing.

Is anyone still out there? Anyone still reading? If you are, I like you. 😉

I bet I win the record for “longest time ever to post a travel recap”. Yep, I’m still not done sharing my Spring Break trip! I’m embarrassed to say it’s going to be up almost two months after the first! Eek.

If you want to check out my first few Spring Break posts, here they are!

Day One: Downtown Disney

Day Two, Part One: HARRY POTTER WORLD!

Days Two and Three: Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios

I left off talking about how day four of my trip was magical…cheesy, yes, but so true!

We went to Disney World!

So, prior to actually going on this trip, my mom and I had been tossing around the idea of going to Disney World. I had been there three times previously, and am a huge Disney fan – the movies, songs, books, and of course, Disney World! Despite that, I wasn’t going to be torn up about it if we didn’t go.

However, after spending two days at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, we’d pretty much seen all we wanted to see, and did all we wanted to do. So, after some serious planning, we decided to go! For all that we were able to do in a single day (see plan below), I think the ticket prices were reasonable, and definitely worth it.

We wanted to make the most of the day and visit as many parks as possible, which of course meant buying a park-hopper ticket (additional cost, but worthwhile). The night before we sat down with our maps, time tables, and a notepad (yeah, for real) and figured out just how we were going to make it through three parks in one day.

Here was our plan of attack + how it actually ended up working out:

7:00 Wake up, eat breakfast, and mentally prepare for the day.
8:15 Park our car at Hollywood Studios, buy our ticket, and wait for the park to open.
9:00 Immediately jump on the Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster. Get in trouble for running through the park. Oops.

9:35 Get on a ferry to take us to Epcot.

10:00 Arrive at Epcot; walk past the World Showcase and through the HGTV Flower and Garden Show and get in line at Test Track. (Test Track was, by the way, vastly different from the last time I was there. I actually wouldn’t recommend it anymore – it’s less of a ride/attraction than it is a Chevy ad!)

11:00 World Showcase opens – take time to visit the different countries and have lunch at a pizzeria at which some very charming Italians work.

I think it’s safe to say that Italy was my favorite part of the World Showcase. The architecture is so beautiful it feels like they’ve transported you straight there!

I also, of course, loved England. And I spent WAY too much money on souvenirs there…but I now have a pretty cool GB bumper sticker now, thankyouverymuch. 😉

I seriously love Epcot. I think I could spend an entire day exploring that park!

1:30 Take the monorail to Magic Kingdom.
2:00 Arrive at Magic Kingdom; head straight to the Fast Pass booths in Tomorrowland. (They have a relatively new system where you pre-program three different Fast Pass tickets depending on the rides you want, the times you’re available, and how many tickets are left per ride. It was kind of confusing, but ended up working out well!)

2:30 Ride the Haunted Mansion!
2:45 Stop to watch a bit of the parade.

3:00 Get in line to ride Splash Mountain. (One of my favorite rides – so very Disney! This was the longest we had to wait our entire trip – it only ended up being about an hour!)

(source)

4:30 Pirates of the Caribbean.

5:00 Explore the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

Get some dinner and an ice cream sundae. Wait for our stomachs to settle and explore a bit more of the park.

7:00 Space Mountain!
7:30 Say goodbye to Magic Kingdom and get on a bus to go back to Hollywood Studios.
8:00 Somehow manage to get through the Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster lines in record time – again!
8:45 Wait in line to see Fantasmic!

9:45 After waiting on incredibly sore feet, we finally sit down and await the beginning of the show.
10:05 The show starts late. Mickey does about .5 seconds of his act…

(source)

10:06 Massive sheets of rain begin to pour down on us just as the announcer is saying “Ladies and gentlemen…”
10:10 The show is cancelled due to the rain; we hurry back through the rain to the tram which takes us back through the sideways downpour to our parking lot; we sprint through the lot and land safely in our car!

Whew. Talk about a photo barrage!

– – – – – – – – – –

To say it was a whirlwind of a day is an understatement. We covered three parks in the span of about 12 hours, managing to get on all our favorite rides, see our favorite attractions (and then some), and go back to a park for a show. I still can’t believe we did it. And to think, the longest we waited was an hour! Other than that, I think the longest wait time was about 20 minutes. It was just crazy; almost too easy for Spring Break!

I was really bummed the Fantasmic show was cancelled. I had seen it on the Disney trip I took with my orchestra back in 2007, and was so excited for my mom to see it. When we got back home, though, I found THIS video online and was able to show her. Oh well. 🙂

That evening we both crashed into bed. We were so tired, but I am so glad we made that last-minute decision to go to Disney World. When in Orlando…. 🙂

I think I’ll do one more post about this trip (hopefully soon!) to kind of wrap things up. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Have a great day!