** Magic Mirror ** Back from the World! VIDEO ADDED!!!

angels.... Animal Kingdom has a safari that is one of the "ride" attractions and is free with your admission ticket..we did that in the morning and they do not stop for photo's.....most of what I have shared on here is from the Wild Africa Trek which we went on in the afternoon. The Wild Africa Trek is an extra cost/event ticket but they only take 10 people plus 2 guides and they will stop multiple times for photos, answer questions, and give you an appetizer of african foods. They also take photos of you and the animals and will send us a CD (free/included in the ticket cost). It was wonderful! When we booked the Wild Africa Trek there was a $50 off per ticket per person on Disney's website , I believe thru the end of October.

Allie the must have's are hard to narrow! The cannoli was good, but no different from any other I've tried. The dark mousse with chili pepper was something i would not normally make/cook and it was great! Plus it was only like a $1.50 so better to spend out of pocket and save your snack credits. The apple strudel was heavenly so I pick that as my favorite snack credit...and the iced godiva chocolate coffee drink as my favorite out of pocket expense (I think it was around $7.50).

When we returned to our room on Tuesday night we had this little girl waiting for us:

It was the only towel animal we had while we were there...but she was perfect to use as a place to prop up the Mousekeeping tip envelopes. I couldn't believe they had used so many trimmings to make her face.. too cute!

Wednesday morning we had intended to be up early but the alarm clock got hit a few times so by the time we made it to Hollywood Studios it was about 10:30am. We had no problems with buses while we were there and most were already at the shuttle stops or there within 5 - 10 minutes. It did seem like there were twice as many Epcot buses running and the longest we waited for was the Magic Kingdom bus and that was probably closer to 20 minutes. The morning buses seemed to run direct from our resort to the parks..the afternoon buses made the stops thru Riverside on the way. Most of the mornings a CM would be there to monitor the bus flow, we only saw 1 CM in the afternoon on Friday.

Upon arriving at Hollywood Studios there was a short line. There seemed to be a ton of people and even the check in CM said he wondered why everyone was there today. We took a left to head straight to the Sci Fi Dine In to check in for our 11am ADR's. This ended up being a good plan because everyone else must have turned right and we avoided lines all day. When we went by Star Wars the wait time was only 10 minutes but not wanting to risk getting called up on our reservations we grabbed a fast pass and waited at Sci Fi. Sci Fi opened at 11am so it was about fifteen minutes before we were seated. We had never been there before and really enjoyed the campy atmosphere. We had burgers and shakes and thought they were really good. The waitress was really nice, offering to take pictures of us together and the service was prompt even though they were flooded with customers all at one time. When we checked in they were turning people away because the whole morning was booked with ADR's. I thought I saw somewhere that Sci Fi was not going to be a meal choice next year.

By the time we were done it took a little bit to get our checks. I was starting to get nervous because we had to use our Star Wars fast pass by 1230pm and it was already 1220pm. We got checked out and walked in Star Wars with about 20 seconds to spare. No wait and we walked on. The non-fast pass line had only a 20 minute wait listed.

The Jedi's in training had come out to face Darth Vader...it was really cute to watch these kids battle it out. The CM's did such a great job encouraging them. If we had children I would have wanted them to do it!

We spend the rest of the day hitting the shows including Muppets 3D and Indiana Jones... and soon it was time for me to venture to the Tower of Terror.

Now I have never been on the Tower, and wasn't thrilled about going. While I don't mind high, fast, upside or jumping, something about elevators and free falling doesn't sound like a good time to me. This is AJ's favorite ride so I was a good sport and jumped right on in. Again, no line, we walked right up to the loading docks. I have to say that it wasn't exactly as bad as I had imagined...and I actually like the part where you go up and down without stopping and have that little free fall moment... we turned around and went right back on it so we could say we did it twice in a row. Now AJ wanted to do it 28 more times but luckily for me the lines were picking up again and she doesn't like standing around for long so I got out of going again (and again, and again).

We were right on time to catch Beauty and the Beast. A rain shower was moving in so it was also the perfect time to get out of the weather and sit down. I thought the costumes and show was top notch for a short performance.

Of course, we had to do some of the traditional rides and I always like to see one of my favorite villains, the Wicked Witch-

I also found more balloons and I just couldn't stop taking a picture of them. How many balloon pictures does one really need? But I couldn't help myself..they just seem to scream DISNEY, FUN, HAPPY TIMES..so I think I came home with hundreds of balloon photos!

Along with the traditional rides we did the newer ones...the Aerosmith rollar coaster was fantastic...It was FAST! I loved it..again...we walked right on..I really couldn't believe our luck while we were there that almost everything was just walk on and no wait...

and you know whenever I find one of these, I just have to share it!

oh! and one more of these:

I always loved Hollywood Studios because of its Art Deco look... We have an antique barware collection and many of them are art deco themed....the window displays are really fascinating to me -

We went to the embroidery place at the entrance and spoke to the nicest CM who helped us find an Evil Queen patch. We wanted them on hand towels but they were out of towels and it would be days before they had another shipment. After much going back and forth we finally decided to have the patches made and get our own towels when we got home. We have our own shop here where we live who could put them on the hand towels for us. They are going to be a great compliment to my make over of the guest bathroom. We spent so much time there trying to figure out what we were doing and the CM was so patient that it warranted a trip to Guest Relations to let them know how pleased we were.

We finished up by the time the park was closing, 8pm and had fully expected to crash back in our room...but I guess we were finally getting our second wind and we only went back to the room to freshen up. After that we took the boat from POFQ and rode it to Downtown Disney. We walked around and checked out the stores we hadn't made it to on our first night.

We went to the Art of Disney and I fell in love with this...

but with a price tag like this: $1000.00 - a picture had to suffice ~

One of the Disney artists was there coloring in the sketches they sell...we had some fun with him and a CM when I asked if
he was "Disney endorsed". I ended up ordering an Evil Queen (surprised you are?) and had it sent back to the room. The price was $35 dollars which seemed pretty reasonable compared to my first picture love (see above) .

The whole week had been such a dream and had so many happy, magical moments..... but .... it was about to come to a crashing halt. The following day was our trip to the Magic Kingdom and that evening was MNSSHP. It had been torture to put the Magic Kingdom off till Thursday and I was beyond anticipation for the Halloween Party. So I went to bed Wednesday night like an excited child and by the end of the next night I was crushed. But.. I'm getting ahead of myself..so until tomorrow's update...I'll leave you with these photo's....

>) Good Morning everyone! Thank YOU for the great comments and for following along on my TR... Ok , I admit , I might be having a little fun with adding a few cliffhangers once in awhile

Thursday morning started out to be a beautiful day.....once again in the high 80's.....and that wonderful Florida humidity was reaching its 95% mark....... The first part of the day would end up being my fault, although I wouldn't know this till later.

We had been on the go pretty much non-stop (I mean, isn't that the point of vacation?) and our batteries needed a re-charge. Originally, we were going to get up, do the Magic Kingdom till about 1pm, take the monorail to Poly for our ADR's at the Kona Cafe...go back to POFQ to change into our Halloween costumes and be back at MK by 4pm to enjoy MNSSHP.

After pulling another late night at Downtown Disney the night before, we decided to pace ourselves a little slower and just enjoy sleeping in and taking a longer than usual breakfast in our room. We left about noon to MK but turned right around and hopped the Monorail to Poly. We walked around and checked out the gift stores and the reception building. The Kona Cafe was able to get us in about twenty minutes earlier than our reservations so it all seemed to be working out like clockwork.

But, before we went to the Cafe, we bought this and split it as our appetizer:

We loved the Kona Cafe and AJ raves it was the best meal of her trip. She had the sustainable fish of the day, Mahi Mahi, with forbidden black rice which was covered in a hibiscus syrup....The sauce was incredible and the whole dish was complimented in flavoring very well. I opted for the Terayaki Steak with pineapple salsa and it also was delicious. (Pics to follow later as soon as I get that other SD card downloaded).

After being out in the heat and humidity and realizing that every day we had continual on and off rainshowers, we decided not to wear our Gusteau's Ratatoullie Chef costumes. It was so hot and the idea of lugging our aprons with fake food in it around the park just didn't sound fun. So from the Poly we just took the monorail back to MK.