Week 16

Until I find the courage to resize my own photos, I will be using Alexia's Facebook album as my primary resource. All photos from this album courtesy of Alexia. Until further notice.

Sunday, September 11.
Dinoland - 11:00-17:30

Monday, September 12.
Asia - 11:30-18:00

Alexia and Michael made it! I met up with them in Downtown Disney and we grabbed pizza (butternut squash soup for Alexia) at Wolfgang Puck Express. They were exhausted from the wedding they attended that weekend and their trip so they went back to their hotel (All-Star Music) around 22:00. Ricky worked until 2:00 and was therefore unable to join us for this first night of Disney Magic.

Tuesday, September 13.

Epcot // Hollywood Studios.

The plan today was to meet up at 9:00-ish at the turnstiles. I caught the C-bus to Epcot and then managed to catch the West bus inside the back area and went through all the countries at the back of the park. So I caught the East bus back to the main gate and remembered halfway there that a Maingate Pass is helpful to let guests into the park. I called Ricky in my moment of panic and he was in the bus two minutes later to meet up with us. I found Alexia and Michael who proceeded to apply sunscreen while we waited our extra fifteen minutes for Ricky to make it. I believe I could have gone to Guest Relations to fix my Maingate issue, but I would rather Ricky not know about that... I owe him two of his Maingate Passes.

We spent a few hours at Epcot, we rode Soarin' and Test Track and then went through all the countries before heading over to the buses. Alexia and Michael were lucky enough to have their photo taken with Aladdin and Jasmine, Alexia was in heaven. We ate in France a quick lunch of delicious ham/cheese croissants and rustiques. Michael grabbed a sauerkraut/bratwurst sandwich in Germany.

We then went on to visit Hollywood Studios where we saw the "Lights, Cameras, Action" show where we see car stunts, and how they film car-chase scenes in movies. We followed that up with the Indiana Jones Stunt show. It really is amazing how sets can be changed so fast and stunts be so real. We also rode the Star Tours, the 3D attraction that has a number of beginnings and ends requiring Guests to visit multiple times hehehe. Michael was recognized as the Rebel Spy which made the experience that much better, his face appeared on the screen. For dinner we had some burgers and nuggets across from the Fantasmic Amphitheater where we went to see the show. Ricky had managed to get us on the VIP list so we had beautiful, center sits up high. After that we grabbed our bus home, Alexia and Michael headed back to their hotel.

Wednesday, September 14.

Animal Kingdom // Magic Kingdom.

A better start to this day, nothing can go wrong when I go to my second home. We managed to get to the park at the same time and I remembered to grab my Maingate Pass. We focused on riding the rides since we met up at 10:00 instead of 9:00. We went straight up to Africa to grab fastpasses from the Safaris and then made our way to Asia where we rode the Kali River Rapids and Everest. We then went down to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur and made our way back up to Asia to grab boneless chicken wings from Mr. Kamal. They are new (a few weeks at most) and much better than the original chicken nuggets. We then went back up to the Safaris and made that our last ride before going down to the buses and over to the Magic Kingdom. By then it was already 14:00 and we were trying to make it there for the 15:00 Parade.

We made it to find that Ricky was already there waiting for us. The Parade was great, right afterwards we worked to beat the crowd and go ride Pirates of the Caribbean. We crossed the park again to get ice cream on Main street while ignoring Alexia's complaints about going back and forth. After taking a few minutes to eat our ice cream and feed a duck we made our way to the Rose Garden to take some Photopass photos and boom. Michael proposed.

Weeks and weeks of planning on his part, a few visits of the Magic Kingdom on Ricky and my side. Alexia was in shock, from the silly questions she didn't even believe it, then she got mad at all three of us for not telling her anything. How silly is that? With all these emotions we went on to Tomorrowland and went to the Laugh Floor where Michael was once again on the big screen as the one who dances, and still giddy from Alexia accepting his proposal he danced for the large public we were a part of... three times. It was great. We then rode Space Mountain, the runaway train, and Splash Mountain. We then had a burger at a little Far West bar-like quick service restaurant and watched the Electrical Parade. After that we went back to the main square in front of the castle and watched the end of Memories and all of Wishes. A magical evening once again. The monorail was packed by the time we made it out so we all took the bus back to the All-Star Music resort and Ricky and I caught the K-route back from there.

Thursday, September 15.

Universal Studios.

I'm not sure I should be writing about Universal Studios if I work at Disney, but let's be honest, Universal Studios' Island of Adventure is pretty amazing. We started by riding the Harry Potter ride inside the castle, it is just a breath-taking experience. The mix of flying, movie watching, real objects grabbing at you, it all seems so real.

After that Alexia crashed. All the emotions and constant running around done the last few days were too much. Michael and Ricky went to ride the Jurassic Park water ride and the Hulk a few times while Alexia drank coke and took tons of photos. Overall a pretty successful day.

Did I mention that we rented a car? No? We did. With the Cast discount we paid about $40.00 for the day. We drove around a bit after Universal, went to the huge gift shops around town and at 21:00 we made our way to Kobe steakhouse near Vista. I have never been to a Japanese restaurant like that where they cook right in front of you, it is absolutely amazing. Delicious five-course meal, from start to finish we were clapping. Ricky had excused himself during our appetizer and managed to let someone know that Michael and Alexia were engaged so they received cupcakes as desert. Oh Ricky, way to go above and beyond, I would give you a Fanatic Card if I could.

We then dropped them off at their resort and made our way back to Hertz. As we were about to drop off the key we realized we hadn't refilled the fuel so we went back to the car and went by 7/11 to fill up. We then walked home, at midnight. Beautiful night.

Friday, September 16.

Downtown Disney. Alexia and Michael finished up their shopping, Alexia had a fever so they left a little earlier to catch some sleep at the airport.

Saturday, September 17.
Flametree Restrooms - 11:30-18:00

I never had Flametree restrooms for such a long period of time, I never want those restrooms again. There is only one set of guest restrooms and the other two that have to be cleaned are the Flametree kitchen and the break area restrooms. Those are clean at all times. The guest restroom only takes up so much time if you know how to organize things. I'm just glad I didn't have to start at 9:30.