Don't Drink and Drive, Eat a Pita to Stay Alive - Good bye from Jacksonville Beach

Lunch on the way in as we arrived in Jacksonville was at Olive Garden.  A few months ago when Lauryn and I had been out shopping together, I had picked up two gift cards from the restaurant of her choice for us to use on the last day of vacation; always a good choice and delicious as usual.

Jacksonville Beach is beautiful! Hard packed and easy to walk on, much like Daytona Beach, but without the cars on the beach, pristine clean, white sand; populated, but not crowded- near perfect.  We drove to the Hampton Inn and Suites….but it was not on the beach! Uh-oh, we chose the wrong location when keying into our GPS. We quickly re-routed and were only 10 minutes away from the correct Hampton Inn and Suites, Oceanfront. We had a corner room, with a nice ocean view, right over the gorgeous pool below, complete with water fall.  

As soon as we neared Jacksonville this morning, I told the girls the stories of when Bop and I used to come to Jax every year for the Pastor’s conferences, and every Sunday afternoon after church and lunch, my friend Kathy Rainwater and I would head to the beach for a few hours.  It was in January and too cold to swim, but we would sit on the beach and watch the waves, and God’s beautiful handiwork and enjoy visiting. We both love the beach and no-one else in our group cared for it, so we made this our yearly tradition.

When we would pass a souvenir shop, or a particular public beach entrance I would say something about, “ I remember that shop, Kathy and I shopped there for your gifts one year”  or “ this is where Kathy and I parked to enter the public beach area….”   Lauryn and Kelsi love to make fun of me and this presented the perfect opportunity… “ it’s Kathy again…. It’s all about Kathy “, they taunted.   That became a running joke while we were at the beach.

We spent some time on the beach and the water was so clear and warm.  Waves were a little strong and I had a hard time standing on my injured leg (Achilles tendon) in the shifting sand for long periods of time, so Dennis and took turns holding the camera and splashing in the water with the girls.  Up to the pool for a few minutes, and the water was just as warm and inviting. This pool, complete with waterfalls and Jacuzzi was beautiful.

We all took quick showers and while Dennis waited on the rest of us to get ready, he used my new laptop to cruise through restaurants in the area.  He found a couple of interesting places and Kelsi went over to the computer to look at one and for some reason, touched the screen – it moved!  “Nana, look – here, put your finger here and move!  You have a touch screen!”   “A what?  Really?”    We called Dennis over there and asked him to touch the screen and he was as shocked as were  - my laptop doubles as a tablet!  We had no idea we were getting that feature when we bought it last Saturday!  What a prize!

We settled on Salt Life for Dinner.  Again, the girls made fun of me because I said I had never heard of “Salt Life”.  Well, I have now, and their food was delicious!  On the way to dinner, we saw the funniest advertisement sign on a restaurant that specializes in Pita sandwiches:

“Don’t drink and drive, eat and Pita to stay alive”!

 Lauryn and Kelsi loved that and kept saying it over and over.  Lauryn snap- chatted it and changed it to “don’t text and drive, eat a Pita to stay alive”.  Hilarious - every time we passed the sign, we all began chanting the rhyme…. Guess you had to be there to appreciate the real humor.

At Salt Life Café, Kelsi and Lauryn had:

BEACH BOIL

shrimp, snow crab legs, sausage, corn, onions and potatoes served in our seasoned boil.

Bop had

SOUTHERN FRIED SHRIMP 14.99

seasoned hand-breaded shrimp, fried to perfection served with fries and our famous shack sauce.

And I had this wonderful dish:

SHRIMP BRO CHETTE• 15.99

large shrimp wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon, grilled with pineapples and brushed with hawaiian teriyaki glaze. served with tropical fried rice. garnished with sesame seeds.

Yum – O : ‘nuff said

We shopped quickly after dinner at a nearby store (yes, the one Kathy and I had been to in year’s past) but didn’t find anything of interest except we did pick up a crab net.  We went back to the beach for a while to try crabbing, and Lauryn did find a crab fossil and some interesting shells in-tact. We swam in the pool until about 9:20 (told Dennis we would be back by 9:00 – oops, didn’t mean to run a little late – he was a little worried).  Girls tried to make hot tea in the complementary drink area in the lobby, but the water was cold, so skip that – time for bed!

The next morning, we all grabbed a quick bite for breakfast from the complimentary offerings at Hampton, and made a quick visit back to the ocean and finished up at the pool.  I grabbed a quick nap while drying off, then upstairs to pack and out by 10:30 a.m. 

We stopped by the Salt Life store in town to pick up a gift for Lauryn’s friend, Wade, and she bought a strap for her glasses.  Homeward bound!

Arriving home about 6:45 p.m. we met Kristi and family at Rodney’s BBQ for dinner and swapped the girls, for my mom (she had been visiting Kristi while we were away).    Maybe it wasn’t perfect, maybe it cost a little more that I planned, but until Jacksonville and the last day, we stayed mostly under budget, so Bop and I call this trip a rousing success and a whole lot of fun!  Traveling with these two girls couldn’t have been any better.

I’ll end this the way it started with a few of our favorite things:

Favorite Character Experience:

Kelsi and Lauryn    Ariel

Penni                    Pocahontas

Favorite Ride:

Kelsi and Lauryn    Tower of Terror

Bop                       Tower of Terror and Star Tours

Penni                    Space Mountain and Star Tours

Favorite Meal:

Penni                    Salt Life (Jax Beach) and Hollywood and Vine

Bop                       Whispering Canyon Cafe

Lauryn                  Grand Floridian Café Steak

Kelsi                      Hollywood and Vine or Whispering Canyon Café

Thanks for following along – I love sharing our Disney Family experiences with all of you. Christian has already claimed his turn (probably with Savannah) next, so we’ll be back (2018)?

Until then,  have a magical day! 

One Final Spray

Returning the scooter (ECV) to bell services, and packing up after a lazy morning sleeping in on Thursday, we prepared to leave about 9:30 a.m.  

Ensuring everything was out of the bathroom and dressing area, and emptying the dirty clothes pop-up hamper, with Lysol can in my hand, we opted for a last picture in the Disney Resort room at the French Quarter – One Final Spray (of Lysol).

Chick-Filet was the breakfast of choice that morning as we left the World of Disney Resort area, then a quick stop by Wal-Mart for souvenirs for the three grandchildren at home.  Two Disney 2016 Beach Towels for Savannah and Kayna and a Darth Vader Beach Towel for Christian. 

With that all taken care of, we headed out on I-95 toward Jacksonville.  Now, get me to the beach!

Pass the Whip, please

In past years, bus transportation did not route park to park, you had to stop at a resort first. Now, thankfully, that has changed, and just a quick bus ride from Animal Kingdom and we arrived at the Magic Kingdom around 11:45. We had one hour before our lunch reservations so no rush, and maybe we could sneak in one ride before lunch.  Crowds were thick here.  I love this park, and even though Epcot is my favorite Disney park, the Magic Kingdom, as Kelsi says, just feels like the real Disney – she’s right, it really does.  We walked down mainstreet and through Cinderella’s Castle. Lines were long, and a quick glance at the MDE(my Disney experience Wait times) app, showed nothing under 40 minutes and that would push our lunch time.  The cute 4 D show, PhilHarMagic had a reasonable wait time (10 minutes) and a 15 minute show – that would work perfect, plus it would keep us out of the intense Florida summer heat.  I love how everyone in the audience reaches for Donald that is sitting 2 inches from our nose – well, when you have the special glasses on J

We walked across the bridge to the Beauty and the Beast Castle and checked in for lunch and issued the “Rose” pager. Within five (5) minutes, it lit and we walked into the castle where we placed our orders at the kiosk, paid, and set off to find a seat in one of three individually themed dining rooms: a) the ball room  - where the “Be Our Guest” dinner took place and Belle and Beast danced; b) The West Wing (with the Enchanted Rose) C) The Rose Room. 

We opted for the dark and forbidden West Wing, where lightning and thunder echo and flash throughout the room and the illuminated rose with petals falling sits as the centerpiece of the room.

Dennis, Kelsi and I ordered the Croque Monsieur (French for ham and cheese), and Lauryn had Shrimp and Broccoli. I love the atmosphere of this restaurant, probably more than the food – it’s just hmm – a ham and cheese sandwich.  We finished lunch, took some pictures and then exited for our first Fast Pass of the day on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

What fun -  this is a new ride for all of us (it had not opened when I was here last), very well themed, and a smooth roller coaster ride – perfect.  We had a little time before our next FP, so the girls grabbed a quick ride on the Carousel while we waited on a special “scooter” time given to us for “It’s a Small World”.    That song always gets stuck in my head. 

(weird bit of Trivia here on Small World - see Kelsi's name on the screen - this was near the end.  Disney tracks you through a radio frequency on your Magic Band (RIFD technology) and knows where and who you are throughout the park. Some rides will use this to flash a hello or goodbye to you - FUN, but a little strange).

 Next up, across the park to Frontier Land for Splash Mountain.  We kept to the right of the walking paths to avoid the line-up for the 3:00 p.m. parade and were on shortly after entering the line… always an exciting ride.

It was very hot but we were managing to stay relatively cool on rides and in stores or inside queues. What better way to stay cool than hydrate with a yummy Dole Whip Float at Aloha Isle. We ordered three (Kelsi, Lauryn and I) and Dennis opted for the Dole Whip in a cup.  This has to be my favorite Disney snack ever! Time for my favorite ride and of course, I got a FP, for this one – Space – Mountain style!!

Afterwards, we took a slow spin on People Mover and then onto Buzz Lightyear.  Dennis beat us all with a score of 100,000.  I think I scored about 18,000 and Lauryn had 7,000 – truth, I like to spin the car more than shoot the targets J.

Time for Dinner and a short break from the park as we made our way out of the Magic Kingdom and over to the monorail toward the Grand Floridian.  After traversing through the Contemporary and Polynesian resorts we arrived at our destination and took the elevator down to the Grand Floridian Café.  Lauryn sat down, looked at the menu and quickly announced,  “I’ve been eating kids meals for the last 2 days  (her choice, by the way) I’m having steak tonight – the NY Strip”.   She said it tasted great.  I had Mushroom Chicken, Bop – the Pork Chop Dinner, and Kelsi had the Shrimp and Penne Pasta.

We arrived back at the park in time for the night-time Electrical Parade and found a great place to sit along the curb right in front of the Train Station. The lights on the floats were pretty, but this parade seemed lacking somehow, just a few main characters and just missing the punch of “pixie dust” and magical imagination.  

Afterwards, we climbed the stairs to the top of the Train Station to view “Wishes” – the nighttime fireworks.  I had read this is a coveted spot by many repeat Disney lovers, so decided to give it a try.  Apparently, many people know about this little secret because it was fairly crowded, but we did find a place to sit, just had to move around once in a while to see Wishes; good view.

About half way through Wishes,  Kelsi and Lauryn went to visit Ariel in her grotto (it’s a tradition that began almost 13 years ago).

 Kelsi and Lauryn with Ariel

a very young Kelsi with Ariel (2004)

Then onto Thunder Mountain Railroad Rollercoaster (TMRR).  Bop and I met them at the exit of TMRR (after we passed through Adventure Land one more time and split another Dole Whip Float).  Kelsi and Laruyn, wanted to ride Splash Mountain again, but I didn’t want to get wet again, but we would make our way back over there after a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean.  While on Pirates, as we were floating calmly through the ride with all 4 of us in the very front of the boat, we came to the incline and small drop.  We hit some serious speed with our weight in the front of the boat and got soaked!  Ok – so may as well ride Splash with the girls now – I’m already wet.

It is about 11:45 p.m. now and the second Electrical Light Parade was passing through Frontier Land.  Once it finished, we crossed the street to head toward Splash, and sadly it was closed.   We were tired, and wet and Kelsi had developed some type of rash on her legs that was beginning to itch, so the girls initiated the “we’re done – let’s go” about midnight.  Walking toward the exit on Main street, we stopped to have a picture made and of course, had to stop at the Confectionary for a chocolate covered strawberry in honor of Ick (Ick’s favorite memory of DW).

note - Kelsi googled information on her rash and found out it is called a "Disney Rash"  caused by the heat from the pavement and the sun, bursting small blood-vessels near the skin. 

It was a great day and we accomplished everything we had set out to do and more.  Tomorrow, we wave goodbye to Mickey and head for the beach!  It’s been fun – and I have my Disney fix now until time to take the younger ones. 

An Indian Princess and Cake Pops (Wed a.m.)

An Indian Princess and Cake Pops (Wed a.m.)

Up early again on Wednesday morning, headed to Animal Kingdom.  We had made our 3 Fast Pass reservations for later in the day at Magic Kingdom, so our plan here was to arrive early, ride three (3) rides and leave in time to make our lunch reservation at the Beauty and Beast Castle at 12:45.  We arrived again by rope drop and the girls headed off to ride Expedition Everest as soon as the park officially opened, while Dennis and I stopped by Starbucks for breakfast “Creature Comforts”. The Mickey Ears Cinnamon roll was so good and of course, I had to have my Vanilla Bean Frappuccino, Yum. 

Now my turn to find my favorite princess: Pocahontas. My great grandmother was full blooded Indian, and supposedly Indian Princess so the story goes from my paternal grandmother’s side of the family. She married my great grandfather, Reuben Levi Daugherty.  Like I said before, when at Disney – never too old to find the pixie dust moments:

While we were standing in line, Dennis took his camera out of the bag to shoot a few practice photo’s in the jungle type environment we were walking through when he discovered that there was no SD card in the camera. Uh-oh, my bad!  Working on my blog, Tuesday night, I had loaded the SD card into my computer to download the pictures from the last couple of days and left it in the slot when I shut it down for the night.  Dennis walked to the nearest souvenir shop to buy one, quickly, $40! Ouch – there went the budget for the day.  Thankfully, we had been running under budget on prior days.

Kelsi and Lauryn were also riding Primeaval Whirl and then we were to meet up at 11:00 a.m. at Kali River Rapids in the Asia section.  Dennis and I were early so I sent a text to Kelsi to let her know we were there waiting on them, whenever they were finished riding.  About that time, they walked around the corner, so Kelsi and I hopped on the wet rafting ride, while Bop and Lauryn opted to stay dry.  The day was already proving to be hot with a strong summer sun overhead, so the idea of getting wet was appealing to me.  We both only got heavily sprinkled as we watched a guy on our raft and a small boy get drenched.

(monkeys surround us)

The girls had not had breakfast yet, so we stopped back by “Creature Comforts” (aka Starbucks), and they opted for a Frappuccino and Cake Pops… interesting choice (that is allowed when you are on vacation and with Nana and Bop, I suppose).  Time to exit now and onto the Magic Kingdom!  

 

“More Milkshake”? ... “Just a little, please” … “Suuuurrre”!

“More Milkshake”? ... “Just a little, please” … “Suuuurrre”!

A lazy morning, we slept in and took our time getting ready to go to the Sassagoula Float Works Food court at our resort. Beignets were calling my name – it has been over five years since I have had one, and I am ready.  Unfortunately, they were not as good as I remembered, still good – but I think the dough was over worked – a little tough (according to Alton Brown’s theory).  Anna Grace or AG (Johnson) had a teacher work-day today and was coming to join us.  Laura (AG’s mom) and little sister, Abbi and AG met us right after breakfast and joined us for a couple of hours at the pool.

 Laura and Abbi headed home before lunch and the rest of us rode the ferry boat from our hotel to Disney Springs (new name for Downtown Disney) for lunch.  We had a couple of coupons for Earl of Sandwich, so that was our pick for lunch.  Kelsi bought a Minnie Ears Red Shirt and we window shopped for a while before heading back to get ready for dinner. Five (5) people (4 girls and 1 guy) need showers before leaving for our dinner reservations.   One person in the shower,  one getting ready to hop in, one coming out into the dressing area (love the privacy curtain in the dressing area that sections off the bedroom and TV section of the room).  Our assembly line worked well and we left on time.  Took a Resort Bus to the Magic Kingdom, and then planned to take the Ferry across Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at Whispering Canyon.   As we neared the queue area waiting on our boat, we could see the top of our ride rounding the corner to the dock – perfect timing!  Except for the jagged streak lighting up the sky amidst dark skies.  The Skipper at the dock explained to us that they just radioed to say they were taking our boat out of commission because of lightening in the area. The Disney boat masters were sending another boat – the large ferry that could still operate in lightening, but it would be a few minutes before it arrived.

I texted Laura since her family had arrived early and she let the dining room know what was going on and that we would be few minutes late.  Her family explored the Wilderness Resort and joined in on a Hidden Mickey Scavenger Hunt. This resort is beautiful, yet rustic – very cool.  A little over my budget, but I love to visit here and this dinner tonight has become a Disney tradition for us; especially when we are with first-timers; so much fun.

We finally arrived about 10 minutes late and were seated quickly after arriving. Settling in, we ordered our food. This restaurant is by Southern terms, a hoot!  Loud and fun, while waiting on our food, Abbi sucked on a lemon (her mom’s doing…) and Sam and Lydia joined in the pony race (Stick horses) and the Hokey Pokey.  Most at our table ordered the Family Style Skillet (pork, beef, chicken, ribs, corn and potatoes, with salad). Lauryn and I ordered Ribs.

(Spoiler Alert below – if you have never been to Whispering Canyon)

As soon as our food arrived, Sam asked for Ketchup (we prompted him to ask) and the waitress “hollered” loudly, “We Need Ketchup”.   Three bottles arrived (people bring them from their own table), then two more, then a few more – whoa – enough! Everyone was laughing. The food is so good here and we enjoyed our visit here with our family, the Johnson’s.  The waitress came around asking for refills and asked me if I wanted more Milkshake, and I motioned that I just wanted a little more, and Sam ask for a Large refill of ice water and in her Southern drawl smiled and said, “Suuuurrrre”!  

The waitress appeared back with a tiny 3-4 inch cup of vanilla milkshake for me and a giant 1.5 liter glass of water for Sam. We laughed so hard and Sam kept mimicking her over and over saying “Suuuurrre”!  Sam kept eating “more potato’s and sausage, please” and insisted he needed to finish his very large water. 

I told him when he went to bed that night he was just going to blow up.  As we were settling the bill and preparing to leave – guess where Sam was - yep, restroom as right around the corner!  I have a feeling he may have had to stop again on the way home.  Lauryn and Kelsi of course had to share how many times I sprayed our shoes with Lysol. Laura just shook her head – she knows me and loves me anyway J

For a rest day, we stayed pretty busy, and with lightening in the area, and a busy day planned for tomorrow, we turned in early.   Night all!

Asleep at the Wheel - or in the Queue (Monday P.M. - Epcot)

Asleep at the Wheel – or in the Queue

I’m getting better at maneuvering on and off the Disney Bus Transportation with my scooter.  I rented for the entire length of stay from Buena Vista Scooters. Good company, and I would highly recommend them – they are very reasonable (less than half price of renting at the parks) and the price includes Damage Waiver and Insurance.  Within 10-15 minutes, we arrived at Epcot.  My finger scan didn’t work at the entrance, but a cast member with an I-Pad had me fixed in no-time and we were off to our next adventure: Lunch. We went to Sunshine Seasons Counter Serve in “The Land”.  Lauryn and I ate a kids meal, just something to hold us over until Dinner. Dennis had a chicken sandwich, that was 90% bread, and Kelsi ate weird fish taco’s (her description).  Well, not great – but we didn’t spend a fortune and we were satisfied- sort of, so now to the important stuff: Soarin’ is OPEN!

Just a quick news byte on Soarin’ to those who may not be Disney Nerds like me: This ride has been down for the installation of a new film and redesign, with a re-open date announced for June 17. Two weeks before we left, I received news from my Disney Travel Agent Site that the original (old) film would re-open on May 27^th!  Perfect, just time for our visit.  I love the old film – nothing wrong with soarin’ over California, excited to ride it again.  Wait time = 90 minutes; not surprised, and the wait was in the air conditioned, “The Land” building, so we waited…and waited…. (foot is beginning to  ache now).  At one point after we had been standing completely still for some time, the man standing beside Dennis touched his arm to move him along, because, he (Bop) was….. asleep! Ha, standing up. Think we are a little tired?

Well, the wait was worth it.  Love that ride.

at the 15 minute mark

At the hour mark

We decided to go ride the relaxing, slow boat “Living in the Land” ride, while we waited on our fast pass time.  We stopped for a giant warm pretzel with cheese, to split – it was so good, much better than the microwaved quickie pretzels from the gymnastic meet concession stands.

Now, time for Dennis’ medical visit to “Mission Space”.  Last time he rode this and had a kidney stone, it took care of it immediately – let’s see if we can have a repeat performance. Spinning and G-Force , I’m sitting this one out – I can’t do spinning.   I really wanted a Crème Brulee for dessert tonight but we are eating dinner in China, at “Nine Dragons” and France is on the other side of the lake.  Kelsi and I discussed and made a plan.  Since I am not riding Mission Space, I will take my scooter (ECV) to France while they ride Mission Space, get 2 Crème Brulee’s (Kelsi and I) and meet them in China at 6:15 for our dinner reservations.

I love walking (or in this case, riding) through all the countries, so took my time and enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of each one. 

Topiary in France of Beauty and the Beast

The “Spinners” (60’s – 70’s group) were in concert in the “American Gardens” as I passed by and I stopped to listen to 2 songs : “Making my way back to you”, and “ I’ll be around”,  they still sounded great, what fun. Passing Germany and Italy, I rounded the curve to the large, colorful Pagoda.  Bop, Kelsi and Lauryn were walking towards me, laughing and all looking at their i-phones.  They had a recording they wanted me to see: A Cast member had spotted Kelsi’s birthday button and had stopped to serenade her. He had stopped her in the middle of the Epcot walkway between Mexico and China and said, “… wait, let me serenade you“, to which she looked confused and said “what does that mean” -  (hope her English teacher is not reading this).  It was cute as he sang a very formal “Happy Birthday” to her.

Dinner was good: Kelsi, Lauryn and I had Orange, Sesame Chicken with Fried Rice (Lauryn had Broccoli). Dennis had Steak and Shrimp.

Creme Brulee' for desert and Chinese for dinner: Frinese for dinner!

We came out to a wet sidewalk, which meant a wet scooter.  The Lotus Blossom Quick Serve stand was nearby so napkins will dry the seat and we are on the way.

After dinner, we had one more ride we wanted to try and conquer without a Fast Pass and I knew the line would be long. Kelsi’s app said 75 minute wait, so since this was our last ride at Epcot, we decided it would be worth the wait. Always sounds like such a good idea, until you have been in line with hundreds of other people for over an hour, then weariness begins to set in.  Finally, we made it to the design (pre-ride) staging room.  Dennis and Kelsi designed a sleek powerful car, and Lauryn and I designed a red, turbo charged sports car with super efficiency; both red.  We should have snapped a screen shot of our car design, but they were both red and looked cool. Doors are opening now and time to ride.  I love the ending of this ride as hair blowing in the wind, we raced around the track a couple of times.

8:45 p.m.  and we were done! Exhausted and a quick bus ride back to the French Quarter and time for a swim. The water felt so good and we stayed about 30 minutes when lightening started in the area and they closed the pool. Tomorrow is our “off-day”.  Swimming, shopping and spending time with our family, the Johnson’s, who live about 45 minutes away from the Mouse.  

Holy Terror, Here We Come!

Monday May 30, 2016

I was the first one awake early Monday morning.  As I opened my daily devotional and thanked the Lord for providing for us, and to really hear from HIM today, the scripture was like an angel in my ear, as I read Psalm 56: 3-4

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
⁴     In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?

Ok – maybe you think it is silly to pray for how I was feeling about getting on a ride, but I take every little concern to God, including this – If I am getting on this ride, I want to know it’s ok with my Father in Heaven and my best friend.  Upon Kelsi’s insistence and her love for “ Tower of Terror” at Hollywood Studio’s, I promised her I would ride it.  And yes, I was having 2^nd thoughts.  But God’s Word really did comfort me and in some strange way, give me comfort and peace – like a “seal of approval”.

I researched this ride for the last two months – I knew how the pulley’s work, I knew where the handles are at your side to hold on to, and I knew that when we entered the room where the temperature changed to warm, the first drop sequence was about to begin. So this was the setup for this morning’s agenda. We had a 9:00 fast pass for Tower of Terror at Disney Hollywood Studio’s.

We were at the bus stop around 8:15 a.m. at our resort, and I had a few Ritz crackers and some bottled water while we waited on the bus. Breakfast would be at 10:00, after Tower of Terror and wanted just a little something on my stomach before riding… but not much!

We arrived at Rope Drop and had to wait about 20 minutes. 

Arriving at Tower of Terror, we were too early for our Fast Passes, and I asked about the stand by time because it said 20 minutes but everyone was just going straight in – the cast member said it was more like five (5 minutes) so we decided to go ahead and ride it. Good – I was weary of the anticipation – let’s get on with this!!  The line was short and before long we were entering our elevator.

Cute story line and very well done, entering the Twilight Zone, with Ghostly characters and movement into dark corridors of the old hotel. You could feel slight movements of ascending slowly in an elevator. Finally we passed through an area and into a box like compartment (elevator shaft) where the temperature changed (warmer) and we were pulled up quickly then pulled down – it is not a drop, because you can feel the pressure of being pulled downward. Then pushed up, pulled down – not bad, I’m still breathing; this is fun!  Then I realized we had completed the 4^th sequence, and we were pulled up and plunged down again –what, ok, breathing a little heavy now  this is # 5 and I “think” the doors opened (window at the top of the tower) this time – surely, it’s over, nope after that drop, pulled up one more time – then pushed down. Final time. Whew, I made it.  Fun? Yes!  But that was enough for a little while for me.  I will ride it again, definitely,  It is probably in my top 7 rides on my list. Thank you, Kelsi for insisting I conquer my fears – Holy Terror, I did it!

My head is down, so you can't really see me in this picture  (middle row 3rd from the end on the left - Dennis is beside me and that is Kelsi to my left and Lauryn beside her)

(see that death grip? - yeah, I have a battle scar from that - bruise on my right upper arm)

Rockin’ Roller Coaster was close-by so we went to check the stand-by line, 40 minutes, hmm – we didn’t really have time before breakfast.  It was right at our original Fast Pass time for Tower of Terror, so Dennis, Kelsi and Lauryn took the elevator to the 13^th floor for a second time.  I’ll wait until next trip to revisit. 

Next up – time for breakfast reservations at Hollywood and Vine with Jake, Sophia, Doc McStuffins, and Handy Mandy. This buffet is really good and at some point during the meal, Kelsi declared, “ this is the best breakfast I have ever had”.   Kelsi called Christian when Jake passed by our table and face timed him so he could see.  Pictures and autographs with characters – never too old J  it’s a Disney tradition – gotta do it.

It took a little while for all of the characters to pass by and pose for the obligatory picture, so by the time we had paid our bill, and walked out – our food had time to settle before the next ride.  We said good bye to one of the cast members, Mikey, from Puerto Rico that we had been talking to before breakfast – nice guy.  He was telling us about having to learn the language when he first moved here and how kids in his class at school tricked him on the meaning of some words…  got him a trouble a couple of times – uh oh!   You can strike up some interesting conversations with Disney cast members.

Somewhere around 11:30 – fast pass time for Rockin’ Roller Coaster. As we took off in the big limousine to the pulsing Aero Smith concert, the G-force (0 to 60 in about 5 seconds) is strong – the last 2 seconds I began to think “ok – enough of this…” as our first inversion happened and then I was fine, as the force from the blast off lifted away. This ride is totally in the dark, and it was my first time, so I had no idea what was coming.  Drops, Spirals, and shooting upwards – very fun! Glad I rode it – once, I don’t think I’ll be riding that one again.  I really liked the roller coaster ride, just not the blast off.

Shaky legs for a couple of seconds as I exited the ride – it’s intense, and the jerkiness bothered Dennis’ neck some, but we are impressing our grandkids – ha! J Truth is, we like these rides, our bodies just not so much.

A few minutes left before time for our 3^rd fast pass, so we popped into the Great Movie Ride.  Settle back and just relax and catch my breath for a few minutes for this slow, classic ride through the movies ride.  Always love seeing the Wicked Witch of the West legs and ruby slippers under Dorothy’s house, and of course, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Harrison Ford.

Time now for Star Tours – my favorite ride at Hollywood Studio’s. It is a simulator ride, but Disney does an excellent job making it feel and look so real.  After exiting, Dennis snapped a few photos of Dark Vader on stage to send to Christian. Here ya go, buddy, just for you!

We made our way to the exit of The Studio’s and found the bus to Epcot for the rest of the day, but not before getting a couple of Frozen Lemonade’s.  It is HOT,  gotta stay hydrated.   See you over by the big White Spaceship Earth!