Disney World!

Our day started early with a mad dash to the new
Flights of Passage ride in Pandora at Animal 
Kingdom. We only had to wait in line about 20
minutes so our plan worked. The ride is amazing,
everyone needs to check it out. I would say it's in
my top 3 amusement park rides.

After Flights of Passage we ran over

and got in line for Na,Vi River Journey.

I think that line had around a 35 minute

wait. The river journey is visually stunning 

but is over pretty quickly and may not be

worth waiting over an hour for.

The work that went into creating Pandora

is amazing. It really seems like you're on

a different planet.

Dawn and Melissa grabbed a drink

and a snack at Pongu Pongu. The drink

is the Night Blossom. It's layers of fruit

juice with boba balls. Dawn liked it. I

thought it was good but very sweet. The

snack is Pineapple Lumpia. Pineapple 

Lumpia is cream cheese mixed with 

pineapple, wrapped in a lumpia wrapper 

and deep fried. Dawn didn't care for it

but I thought it was really good.

The floating islands of Pandora.

After checking out Pandora we ran

over to Dino Land to hop on Dinosaur.

This is always a fun, exciting ride. Very

interesting line before the ride too. I 

spotted several fossils on display that

were on loan from Montana State

University. After the ride we decided 

it was time to head to Disney Studios 

and EPCOT.

A nice view down Hollywood Blvd.

This was right before the March of

the First Order. Captain Phasma leads

a squad of stormtroopers up Hollywood 

Blvd. To watch a video I took of it click

here!

Dawn's favorite ride. I still can't 

believe they got rid of it in California.

Lunch was at the ABC Commissary.

I had a chicken club and Dawn had the

shrimp. I think Michael had a burger. My

chicken club was ok, nothing special though.

Dawns shrimp, on the other hand, were great.

     If you're a fan of Aerosmith you
will love this ride!

           

Quack...

In EPCOT we headed straight for

World Showcase to check out the

festival of the arts. Every country

puts out a special menu for this

festival. We were eager to see what 

we could find. Above was my first

stop, The Refreshment Port. There I

found an amazing looking bloody mary

and delicious Canadian cheddar

cheese soup. The bloody mary was the

Stow Away Mary. It was garnished with

celery, blue cheese olives, tomatoes and

a big fried chicken nugget. It was all

good, I did give Michael the chicken 

nugget thought. At $12 it was a bit

pricey but probably worth it. The

cheddar cheese soup was cheesy,

creamy and very good. I think it's 

available all year at the Refreshment 

Port now. Previously you could only

get it at Le Cellier.

Dawn's favorite...the caramel shop

in Germany.

My dad, Michael and I love Mission

Space. No one else will ever go on it

though. It's a very cool simulator of a

mission to mars complete with g forces

and simulated weightlessness. Very fun

but it is somewhat intense. The picture 

below is from inside the cockpit. Click

here for a short video I took.

Dawn had to try out the sushi in

Japan. It was good. The texture of

the dessert was a bit odd but the

flavor was good.

Below was Dawn's favorite item.

The Deconstructed Strawberry 

Cheesecake. I didn't try it but she

said it was amazing. Sure looks

Good.

The Spiced Beef with pine nuts, dried

cherries and hummus above was probably 

my favorite item of the night. Everything

was perfectly balanced in it. The

Mediterranean Flat Bread was also tasty.

If I recall correctly Melissa bought these

for us to share...good choice.

Below is Dawn's  Charcuterie board.

Meats and cheeses...can't go wrong

with that.

Above and below are menu items

Mom and Dad tried. My mom had

the chicken and lamb shawarma

platter. She loved it and said the

tzatziki sauce really stood out. Dad

had the Roasted Pork Roulade and

said it was very good.

The Almond Frangipane Cake on

the bottom was good but nothing

special and the Pop'tArt was really

good. I wish i had tried it.

Enjoying Kaki Gori (shaved ice)

from Japan. I had tangerine and
cherry.

We stayed at Shades of Green this

Trip. Melissa is retired military so

we were able to stay with her. The

grounds are very nice as is the entire

resort. It has a little less Disney theming

 then the other resorts. We didn't 

really have time to explore, but we

did eat at the buffet, which was good. I 

basically had a Thanksgiving dinner...

Yum!

The best gas station ever has the best

breakfast sandwich ever. It was so

good. When I think about the trip

this is one of the things that stands

out to me. Funny.....

I didn't think it was possible to pack as

much into one day as we did. It was 

tiring but so worth it. Animal

Kingdom, Disney Studios and EPCOT 

all in one day. Not to mention looking 

around and trying all the food at the

Festival of the Arts. We were dragging 

by the end of the day. What a great way

to get a vacation started though. At this

point we still had a seven day cruise on

one of the biggest cruise ships in the world 

and a couple days at Universal Studios to

look forward to. Coming up next...

Universal Studios.

A fun group in Morocco 

Links...

Click here for a ride on Spaceship Earth.

Click here for the morning rush at

Animal Kingdom.

Shades of Green