Orlando Day 10 - Going Home

11/25/2014

Our hotel

Finally, a day I get to wake up late! Woo-hoo! For the past 7 weeks, I've been going to sleep at 2-3am everyday and waking up at 7am (Angel's a right little dictator on vacation--I get no slack for going to sleep late). She finally let me sleep in today because it's our last day and we have absolutely nothing to do today, except await our 6:30pm flight.

When I woke up, Angel expressed her amazement that I didn't hear the pounding of wind and rain on our windows this morning. It's not that the hotel's windows are crappy--the wind's that strong. She said it's been howling and pouring since 6am. She had the TV on in the other room and the news was blasting hurricane warnings (in place til 11am today), and they warned people not to go outside.

But since our checkout is at 1pm, we had to go outside. We went to the outlets to check if the official Disney outlet store had reopened (they'd been closed for remodeling). Boooo. They'd been hoping to open up for Black Friday shopping but it doesn't look like they will be. The clouds had cleared up at this point and it was nicely sunny out, though very, very humid. Even I was sweating in the short 5 minutes we were walking around the outlet. Gotta hop in the car and turn on the A/C full blast.

Since I have free lounge passes to United and they expire in June 2015, we thought we'd use them up in Orlando, as we probably won't be flying anywhere by June '15. The idea was we'd get to the airport early so to take full advantage of these passes. However, as I started driving toward the airport (it's a 40 minute drive), it started raining. Hard. So much rain poured down, it was extremely difficult--downright impossible at times--to get visibility of the roads. The windshield wipers weren't wiping away the rain fast enough for me to see beyond the windshield. It was super freaky, as we've never encountered this kind of weather in California before (we're talking about the Bay Area people who drive like grannies when it's sprinkling). Thank God most people here were driving 5-10 miles/hour, so I wouldn't be the only one honked at. There were also huge, huge pools of water just collecting by the sides of the roads--Orlando's roads aren't in the best shape, with loads of deep potholes all around. Anytime a car drives past, the pools of water can splatter up to 10 feet in the air.

Returning the car at the airport was a breeze. Thank God the return car area has a covered walkway into the airport, cuz we would've been soaking wet otherwise. The rain did not look like it was going to let up anytime soon. I did have a little problem with Alamo's gas policy and the manager was kind enough to refund half of it back. When we rented the car, the guy told us that we could return the car with an empty tank and they'd charge us only for fuel at the "discounted" rate of $2.75/gallon. 2.75?! Holy cow! Sign me up!

...As it turns out, $2.75/gallon is the average price around Orlando. That wasn't the part that ticked me off though, because I'd gladly pay Alamo the $2.75/gallon so that I don't have to fuel up myself. But they were gonna charge me for the whole tank when I returned it with the tank more than half full! I know, I know, don't get suckered into a "deal," but if the guy who sold me this option had told me this upfront, I wouldn't have opted for Alamo filling my tank. Instead, they hid it in a whole lotta little disclosure terms and they only gave me this paper with the terms & conditions after I agreed to the option. Shady.

Check-in was done in electronic kiosks, as they don't have booths with United personnel manning each booth. By the time we checked in, it was already past 4pm. We originally said we wanted to be at the airport by 3pm tops to take advantage of the lounge, but the rain slowed everything down.

Oh, our breakfast today was the leftovers from Be Our Guest. We microwaved them up and the steak was still oh-so-tender. The green beans were delicious! I'm kicking myself I didn't dig in while we were in the restaurant. I could eat those green beans every day...though they are cooked in a whole lotta butter.

Our lunch was the sandwich that Angel's been making for us every day in Orlando:

Yum. I'm salivating just looking at this picture. I'd like to get me one of these sandwiches now. Pronto.

United doesn't provide food for the 6 hour+ journey from one end of the country to the other. Ghetto! So we stocked up in the lounge. The whole airport doesn't have A/C (or so it seems), so it was not only damp from people coming in outta the rain, it was humid too. Gross. So if anything, go into the lounge to escape the humidity of the airport! Angel had been getting worked up (whenever the temperature rises, so does her temper) while we were checking in, but immediately after stepping into the United lounge, her temper dissipated. We sank into leather chairs and ate a shitload of crackers and cheese, yogurt-covered raisins and Chex mix (they didn't have anything else! If I'd paid $50 for the lounge pass, I'd be super ticked off. $50 for Chex mix?! Have they seen British Airways' lounges???). I tried to be all Starbucks again and made myself a cocoa-dusted cappuccino with vanilla sugar, cinnamon and a hint of nutmeg.

Note to self: never work at Starbucks. They'd fire me. My concoction tasted disgusting. You'd think all those lovely notes would work together!

So you know how United doesn't provide food? Well, after everyone boarded the airplane, the plane didn't take off for another TWO hours. The rain contributed in large part to the delay, but the pilot had also missed his turn in the queue to take off, so our plane had to go to the back of the queue. Grrrr. You'd think United would hand out food for free at this point! It's almost the same length in time across the Atlantic! But nope. Right after take-off, the flight attendants come around with a cart full of food that you can buy. It's like highway robbery, it is.

By the time we touched down in San Fran, people with connecting flights had only 10 minutes to make it to the connecting gates. There was an announcement on board to please sit in your seats so the people who have connections can go first and hopefully make their flights. For the most part, everyone cooperated and I'm completely amazed at how thoughtful people can be. Kinda restores your faith in humanity. While waiting for the airplane door to open, a woman with a connecting flight was standing next to my seat. She said her son's on leave for a couple of days, and this is the only time she ever gets to see him. She has only a few minutes to make her connection or she'll have to wait for a connecting flight to take off tomorrow morning. It's Thanksgiving and I really hope she made it home to see her son. United said they were holding all connecting flights for the passengers on our flight, so hopefully they came through for these people.

11/26/2014

We're now safely back home in good ole California with its balmy weather...and drought. If only they could transport all that rain water from Florida to California! It's a good thing we flew yesterday (right in the nick of time, too!) because I woke up today to see on the news that over 700 flights have been canceled today due to bad weather on the East Coast, including Florida. Yikes. Really sucks right before Thanksgiving. I'll try to upload videos onto the blog in the coming days.

So now we're back home to the headache of our remodeling project *wince*. And Black Friday. Let's see what kinda hysteria is going on this year...

Orlando Day 9 - Magic Kingdom, free FastPass to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

11/24/2014

Cinderella's Castle after the Frozen show--Elsa "creates" her Frozen castle to the tune of Let It Go

Last day in Magic Kingdom. Last (fun) day of our trip too. ;( Tomorrow we're flying home, so that doesn't count as vacation. More like torture.

Storm warnings have been increasing throughout the week. Epcot started out as a nice day, but ended with a freakin rainfall by the end of the night. Universal the next day wasn't much better. Cold, wet--only Harry Potter could put a smile on my face that day. We saw better weather during the middle of the week. Balmy, slightly breezy, perfect. Then it became waaaaay too hot and humid toward the end of the week. Oh, and it rains on sunny days too. Geesh, Orlando, make up your mind already! There's a 20 degree swing in weather from day to day, which makes it hard to figure out what to wear. First too little, then too much. It's a wonder more people don't get sick.

The evening news says there's hurricane warnings in place for tomorrow. Yikes. We're flying home tomorrow! Seriously crossing our fingers that the clouds will bypass Orlando tomorrow. Today's been relatively dry; a few splatters of rain in the afternoon but not too bad.

Chocolate apples? That's new.

By the time we got to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train this morning, the wait was already 120 minutes, so we thought we'd come back later in the day. As we were in Fantasyland riding the other rides, we kept checking in every so often to see how long the wait time was. Man, the wait time only grew longer and longer! Finally, around 4pm, we just sucked it up and got in line. Waited an hour in line...and the ride broke down. Grrr...

A worker made the announcement that they had no way of knowing when the ride would resume, so a lot of people in front of us left. And I mean it was an exodus of people leaving the line. Dude, you already waited more than an hour--what's 20 more minutes? My guess was it'd take 20 minutes to fix.

Well, that's good for us because that helped shave off an hour of waiting in line (my estimate of how much more we'd have to wait had the people in front of us all stayed in line). And wouldn't you know it...5 minutes after they made the announcement that the ride broke down, they started issuing FastPasses to everyone in the front of the line. So we got FastPasses to come back! Yee-haw!

Our FastPasses to Seven Dwarfs

The Seven Dwarfs Mine ride takes you thru:

We rode The Little Mermaid ride 7-8 times today because it's an awesome ride and we don't know when we'll get to visit California Adventure. We took advantage of the fireworks show to be in Fantasyland (that's when a lot of people take time out to watch the fireworks, so the lines at the rides aren't so long). Little Mermaid had no line, so the worker let us go on it again without having to get off, exit and wind thru that whole long queue again. I love the workers at Little Mermaid. Every time we go in, no matter which day it is, the workers are there with a smile on their faces. Not so much in Small World. Ironic.

Princess ornaments

...and princesses dancing

With the Peter Pan ride, as the ship's about to take off on the journey to Neverland, the worker will wave her hand across the bar and *snap!* the bar magically falls into place on your lap. Love that!

Oh, yesterday they debuted the new queue at Peter Pan's Flight. We couldn't figure it out as we were waiting in line yesterday--when we came to Magic Kingdom earlier in the week, the line for Peter Pan was the basic Disneyland queue. You wait a bit outside, then wind around metal bars under the roof. But yesterday, there's a whole new section that opened up, and the line now winds thru the Darlings' home. There's artwork of Peter Pan on the walls, you can see the kids' rooms, toys, Nanna's doghouse. I thought it was because the first day we were here, the line wasn't that long because there weren't that many people in Disney World that day. Yesterday saw a significant increase in foot traffic. So I thought this is where they open up to when they have more people.

Nope. This is a brand new queue area that debuted very quietly, unannounced. But people in line had their smartphones and I guess there were already articles circulating online about the new queue. Ah, the digital age.

It's supposed to make waiting in line more bearable. They've done this with Winnie the Pooh's ride, Seven Dwarfs, Little Mermaid--I think it's working out well. Kids don't get antsy cuz they have stuff to play with while waiting in line. Oh, and the best thing about the new queue at Peter Pan?

Air conditioning.

It was freakin hot and humid today. Angel had just reached her boiling point when we stepped into the a/c'd room. Thank God. She's a right little monster when she's out of sorts.

The Frozen show:

We kept promising ourselves that we'd take pictures of Main Street and the entrance to Magic Kingdom during our time here. Alas, there was too much to do and we didn't have time to take pictures. So as we're leaving for the last time this trip, we managed this shot of the front entrance:

We were on a schedule because the hotel shuttle leaves at designated times, so had to hurry to catch the shuttle. That's what happens when you're having too much fun and you don't want to leave: you don't get pictures.

But it's been a magical trip, and Disney, for the most part (besides that horrible Small World experience), has lived up to our expectations.

Orlando Day 8 - Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest restaurant

11/23/2014

We checked out of our hotel today (below) to because my free vouchers were used up and the hotel's normal rate is more expensive than I would like to pay. I bid on Priceline and got us another hotel, also a very good location near Disney World. And roomier, which I didn't think was possible! Our old hotel was already ginormous, with a king-sized bed, kitchenette, laundry machine and dining area. Our new hotel room is actually 3 rooms--the first has two sofas and a writing desk, refrigerator, microwave and TV, then there's the bathroom, and our bedroom has a king-sized bed, another TV, and a lounge area. Orlando's not lacking for space, is it?

It's funny cuz the hotel maps show that Disney World is "just" across the street from the hotels, but Disney is so big (28,000 acres!) that to get to Magic Kingdom proper, it'll take a 15 minute drive! There's no way you can walk it because there's no roads for pedestrians. Kinda forces you to park in their parking lot for $17/day. Crikey, Disney knows how to print money. Universal took a page out of Disney's book. If Disney's charging $17 for parking, Universal also charges $17 for parking.

If Disney sells turkey legs, Universal also sells turkey legs. One of our favorite cookie and brownie distributor in Disneyland also sells at Disney World, and guess what? Universal also sells them.

The only time it's the other way around is when Universal raised their ticket prices this year. They justified this because now they have Harry Potter. Welp, that prompted Disney to raise their prices too. You'd think in the spirit of competition, Disney could now tout that they have cheaper prices to get more people to come. Well, Disney is not lacking in park goers, lemme tell you that. Slowest week of the year, my arse. I guess that just means you wait an hour or two in line as opposed to 5-6. >.<

Disney raised their prices because they view themselves as a luxury brand, which means they need luxury price tags attached. If Universal raises ticket prices, then Disney has to raise it even higher cuz they gotta be more expensive than Universal. Twisted logic. :T If Coach increases the price on their purses, does that mean LV raises theirs too?

Our free hotel

As always, start the day with a mad rush to the Seven Dwarfs ride. The wait time was 40-50 minutes today, so not too bad. Though by the time we got out, it was 70-90 minute wait time.

We went on Small World, which was a big mistake. This started tainting/souring our vacation in Disney. The wait time here was an hour (an hour! for Small World!), and by the time we reached the front, what does the employee do? She groups us with 2 significantly larger people in the same row. Have you seen the size of those boats?! I did NOT wait an hour in line so I could be squashed by a complete stranger. When we got on the boat, the woman sat on me. Yeah. SAT on me. Worse yet, it was hella hot and humid today, and the woman's body heat was all over me. *shudder*

She said "sorry," which I appreciated, but dude, Disney. NOT COOL. Use some judgement when you group strangers together, will yah? It infuriated me that the family in front of us had two kids that got a row all to themselves. A. Whole. Freakin. Row. All to themselves.

While I'm being squashed alive.

This happened on Pirates of the Caribbeans too. So don't go on those rides. Besides, the Small World in Disneyland is 1000 times better than the one here. Can't put my finger on why. Oh wait. Yes, I can. Disneyland doesn't group strangers together in an insanely small rowboat.

The wait time at Peter Pan today? 2 hours. It's sunny, the temperature's hot, plus it's the weekend before Thanksgiving, so there were a lot of people here today. It was hard just walking through Fantasyland at times, there were so many people.

Angel was getting very hot and very bothered by the humidity, so we took a break to sit down and wait for the parade to start, which was good, cuz a lot of people had the same idea. By the time we got to Main Street, a whole lotta people were already sitting down on the sidewalk (only the front row can sit, the rest has to stand). We were lucky to nab spots to sit, and so got a front row to see:

Flynn Rider

Alice in Wonderland

the Dwarfs

Snow White and Dopey

Cinderella's castle has very intricate mosaics that detail Cinderella's story:

The glass slipper!

Remember when I said we couldn't get the FastPass to Meet Anna & Elsa? It's not that we really wanted to meet them, it was more the idea that it's the most popular thing to do in Disney World right now, so that was the reason why we wanted the FastPass for it. Well, Enchanted Tales with Belle is one of the other hugely, insanely popular FastPass attractions in Magic Kingdom (they didn't start offering FastPass for this until sometime late 2013 or early 2014). We knew it was a kiddie attraction, but Angel got the FastPass anyway because it's so popular. Good thing too, cuz the wait time when we went was already over an hour.

If you wait in line without a FastPass, you'll have time to appreciate Maurice's Cottage at any rate (cuz the line winds around and into his cottage). With FastPass, you waltz on thru so you don't get to see Maurice's Cottage at all.

You start out in the antechamber where the Closet tells you what's about to happen: we're going to surprise Belle on her anniversary with Beast!

The Closet and her helper picks volunteers from the park-goers. If you have a kid, get them to volunteer. Seriously. You'll regret it if you don't.

Lumiere

We're ushered into the library with Lumiere, who does introductions, and then Belle comes out. Lumiere retells the story of how Belle meets Beast and falls in love, and the volunteers (the kids) act out their parts (Mrs. Potts, Chip, etc.). Belle thanks them for the wonderful anniversary present of retelling the tale, and takes pictures individually with each kid. If your kid didn't volunteer, then he/she doesn't get a picture with Belle. The kids that volunteer also get keepsake bookmarks with her John Hancock on it.

Belle

We felt kinda stupid in Enchanted Tales with Belle because we were the only adults there without kids. Just warning all you adults out there without kids, you might not want to do this.

Enchanted Tales with Belle and the Be Our Guest restaurant both opened in December 2012, so they're both relatively new and I think that's why they're so popular. Perhaps in time the hysteria will die down a little? Here's hoping cuz the Be Our Guest restaurant was so anal. They won't allow people who don't have reservations to walk beyond these stone gates:

Be Our Guest restaurant

Even if you just want a picture outside the restaurant or inside the restaurant, you're outta luck. You can't go thru the gates if you don't have a reservation. Which kinda sucked for us, because we did have a reservation...for nighttime. But I wanna take a picture of it during the day!

They wouldn't let me thru.

Dammit.

So we come back at 6:15 pm for our 6:30pm reservation. They said to arrive 15 minutes early. They don't tell you that you'll be waiting there for 45 minutes. Sheesh. What was the point of arriving 15 minutes early???

Baby's all sad like this gargoyle cuz she's starving and she wants to eat already, dammit!

We wait on the bridge leading into the restaurant. Finally, our name is called out. And that's when you get to go beyond the iron gates (there's two sets of gates--first, the stone one. If you have a reservation, you're allowed to go thru this gate. But you can't go thru the iron gate 'til your name is called to go inside the restaurant).

Entrance to the restaurant (or Beast's Castle, as they like to call it)

The Grand Entrance

Napkin folded into a rose--cool!

The waiter comes up with warm bread and butter, which we dug into cuz we were starving. I ordered the shrimp and scallop in puff pastry with lobster sauce:

The scallop was oh-so-buttery and the shrimp was plump and juicy, but the spinach in lobster sauce tasted weirdly like Chinese food. It didn't taste lobster-y at all. Ooh, I just realized--it might've been the sherry in the sauce! It tastes kinda like the Chinese XO sauce that I don't really like.

Angel ordered strip steak with green beans and fries:

The steak comes with a herb butter melted on top. Angel asked if she could get some truffle aioli on the side (the truffle butter usually only comes with the roasted chicken dish). Because it's Disney, the waiter said, "of course." So we got not 1, not 2, but 3 side dishes of the truffle aioli. The fries were OMG how-do-they-do-this it's so tasty! I kept taking Angel's fries cuz I've never had fries this good before. I can't describe the texture but I can still feel the texture of biting down on it...so lightly crisped on the outside, so fluffy on the inside. *sigh*

The strip steak must've been poached in a vat of butter because it was freakin delicious. So, so, soooo tender. Angel wanted medium-rare, and man, did the chef deliver. Who knew strip steak could be so tender? Damn I'm salivating right now.

I didn't try her green beans, but Angel was digging right into it, so it must've been yummy cuz she usually hates vegetables with a vengeance.

Beast makes an appearance:

The dessert cart

"Try the grey stuff, it's delicious! Don't believe me, ask the dishes!" Lumiere sings in Be Our Guest. Disney chefs conjured up a dessert called "The Grey Stuff" in an ode to the song:

The Grey Stuff

We knew we definitely wanted to try The Grey Stuff before we came to Orlando. The whole trip, we kept wondering what the grey stuff was. I originally thought Lumiere referred to a savory pate cuz in France, a lot of the pates have a greyish hue to them. But it's on a dessert, so what can the grey stuff be? We went thru variations of cocoa powder, vanilla bean, heck, straight up food coloring...

...but we never thought of cookies n cream. Duh!

Why didn't that occur to me? It seems so simple and straightforward now that I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner. Right after I tasted it, I wanted a Jack n the Box Oreo cookie shake (aaaahhh road trip memories). The grey stuff is a cookies n cream mousse that was slightly overwhipped, aka foamy. Angel liked it, but I don't like mousse and foam, so I let her have it. Plus, I think they baked the brownies individually (as in those brownie pans with individual cavities) and ours was over-baked. My teeth hurt crunching down on the brownie portion, so Angel ate the whole thing herself. Props for presentation, though. And marketing. Grey Stuff. Brilliant.

The ballroom aka restaurant

The Be Our Guest restaurant has 3 different dining rooms. By far the largest is the ballroom (pictured above), and that's where we ate. The lighting's very dim, so our pictures didn't turn out very good, but I hope you can see how grand the scale of it is. When I originally made the reservation, I crossed my fingers that we would be dining in the ballroom because that's where Belle waltzed with Beast waltzed!

One of the other dining rooms is the West Wing, where Beast slashed the portrait of his human self:

And where the magic rose is:

This unicorn tapestry has been popping up everywhere during our trip. It was in Stirling Castle in Scotland, in Harry Potter, and now in Beast's Castle:

The third room of Be Our Guest has a life-sized version of Beast and Belle dancing like a revolving musical box:

It also has tapestries, this time of Beauty and the Beast:

There's "snow" falling outside the windows!

Recognize this stained glass window?

Orlando Day 7 - Disney Hollywood Studios, Frozen Sing-A-Long, Toy Story Midway Mania

11/22/2014

One of Baby's favorite movies

Hollywood Studios is a separate park from the Magic Kingdom, as is Epcot. So you either choose to do a park a day or you have to purchase the more expensive park-hopper option. We chose to do a park a day, so today's Hollywood Studios for us. Before we went, I was skeptical that they would have enough attractions to warrant a full day here, but now I know better.

It's a very entertaining park, actually. They don't have many rides (most of the attractions are shows), but the rides they do have--JACKPOT. Angel didn't want to leave at the end of the night, that's how good it is.

Real tickets from the Mary Poppins premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1964

Angel said this Mickey monument was being built the last time she was here back in the early 2000s:

Bust of Walt Disney

There's a show about car stunts that was hugely entertaining. They did car chase after car chase, in different, innovative sequences. Then they show you how they set up each sequence. For example, there's this one sequence where the good guy (red car) is being chased by 5 bad guys (black cars), and the red car is driving in reverse, trying to get away from the bad guys. The whole time, I was thinking, Damn, that guy drives awesome in reverse! Turns out, they tore out the back half of the car (the trunk area) and installed a driver's seat there. Aaaahhhh. So the driver in the red car looks like he's driving in reverse, but in actuality, he's driving straight forward. Neat, huh? The spectacular finale:

Disney is super wicked, in that they know Frozen's popular, so they've deliberately separated the Frozen attractions into each park, which means you have no choice but to visit all the parks. Epcot is getting a Frozen ride (they tore down a Norway ride to accomplish this), Magic Kingdom has Meet Anna & Elsa, the Frozen Nighttime Spectacular show where the castle lights up into thousands of twinkling lights, and Anna & Elsa are in the parades.

Hollywood Studios has the Frozen Sing-A-Long:

The "historians" of Arendelle take you thru the storyline, reliving each major plot point. When the songs come up, they have huge screens on each side of the stage with the words so you can karoake along. All the kiddies were singing along. So why wasn't Angel? :P

Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff all make an appearance:

C'mon, Angel, sing along!

When you leave the Sing-A-Long theater, they give you Frozen ornaments as keepsakes to take home!

Frozen cupcakes!

Hollywood Studios also has a Frozen playground, complete with snow where kids can make snowmans and snow sculptures. It's a timed event, which means that everyone gets (probably) 15 minutes playing in the snow. They let in a certain number of people; when the rink gets filled, they close it off for 15 minutes. Which means there's a loooonnnng line of families waiting in line to go play in the playground.

Elsa's Castle

The playground and adjoining shop and cafe are called Wandering Oaken's Trading Post. Angel and I kept trying to figure out who was Wandering Oaken. I thought he was the snow monster that Elsa conjured up.

Even this didn't clue us in:

Yoo-hoo!

It wasn't until I returned home and rewatched Frozen, that *ding!* Ooooh, it's the huge German dude who owns the supplies shop!

We saw Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage! I remember watching this show the first (and only) time we came here, way back in the '90s when I was a little girl. I remember the human-sized Mrs. Potts dancing on stage, and Belle and Beast dancing too. It hasn't changed much since then, so it's a nice nostalgic feeling~

The theatre holds 1500 people. No way! 1500?! The theatre was completely packed--and considering they do multiple shows a day, can you imagine how many people watch this show in one day? Crazy!

We saw Voyage of the Little Mermaid, also something I remember from when we were here in the '90s. Though I don't remember Eric making an appearance last time:

They have the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights light up at nighttime for Christmas:

It's named Osborne because the Osborne family started this tradition of holiday lighting out of their home in Arkansas. Over time, it grew and grew and outgrew their house. In 1995, Disney World and Osborne collaborated to bring this spectacle to the masses each year for Christmas. There's a lot of hidden Mickeys lurking about. During daytime, the street looks like a New York movie-set street.

And now we come to Angel's favorite ride of ALL the parks. Toy Story's Midway Mania:

You need glasses here cuz it's 4-D.

Two people sit in one car and you're off on a journey thru all your favorite midway games (the games are a lot like the Circus Circus games we played as kids). Woody, Buzz, the whole gang pops up as you're using your plastic gun to aim, shoot, fire at the interactive 4-D games.

C-U-P. Cup!

Angel loves this ride so much, we rode it 3-4 times back to back. The afternoon lines are crazy long wait times, but if you come in the evening when the park's about to close, there's almost nobody in line.

The ride opened in 2008 and cost $80 million to design and build. Many parts of the control system came courtesy of Disney's sponsors, Siemens and Hewlett-Packard. Since the games are essentially software (like a giant X-box), they can change the games at any time so it never gets boring to go on the ride.

Our arms were so sore from shooting the plastic guns! You can get serious carpal tunnel from doing this the whole day! Angel used her bicep to pull the lever; I used my forearm (gotta do it repeatedly at top speed). Different people, different techniques.

We finished the night watching Fantasia. Just as good as Disneyland's. Must go there sometime, musn't we?