Alright...at long last New Years part deux - DISNEY!

And here we go!

SO, we arrived at Disney Saturday morning after my eyes popped open at 7 a.m. and Josh informed me that it was too early to get up. : (

At least for him...I got up - showered, got coffee, played online and watched ESPN. Around 9-ish I made him get up and eat breakfast with me. We went to this cafe in the hotel, which was inundated with both Michigan State fans (who were def. "kicking rocks" later on) and Alabama folks. Josh's reaction: "I can't believe these people aren't tailgating already - what's wrong with them?" LOL! Seriously though. It was 9 a.m. and the game started at 1 p.m. Get with it people.

Then we were off to Disney - we drove there because we were staying at the Universal hotel. It wasn't a long/bad drive ... I just would really have been lovely to take the buses to and fro. But it worked.

Arriving at the happiest place on Earth!

First stop - Magic Kingdom! Now, I know for most people (adults really) this park is dated and kind of lame. That's the way Josh sees it. No big thrill rides (except Space Mountian). But, for me, it's about nostalgia. I love it. And they are tame (good for me). :)

We arrived via ferry. The first thing I noticed was that the park was way less crowded than Universal. The second thing I noticed was that they didn't sell alcohol there. This might explain the crowd situation. I mean I'm not a lush but it's vacation and you'd think that they'd make it available for all the poor parents dragging their litter through this park for eight hours.

YAY!

We got there and immediately did fast pass for Peter Pan - one of my favs. We did the Haunted Masion - loves it - and waited in line for an hour and forty minutes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - my all-time favorite ride. It's LIKE a roller coaster but it goes to the side rather than plunging downward. Anyway. It was fun. As we stood there ... FOREVER ... I started getting a little concerned about whether or not I should ride it. I started feeling a little tired/woozy/hung over as we stood in line. Once we got in the little car, I figured out where I'd puke if the need arose. Thankfully I made it and enjoyed.

Josh tried to convince me that it was just "as bad as" a roller coaster that goes upside down. No sale man. Nice try.

After that, we rode Peter Pan (smart move on that Fast Pass) and walked around. I discovered in "Future Land" this dude leading a group of "dancers" (and I use that term extremely LOOSELY). They were doing "Thriller" and it was scary. Truly. I told Josh "whatever that guy (teacher) doesn't get paid enough." Bizarre.

Just weird, especially with the mousy ears.

From there, we jumped on the monorail and zipped over to Epcot to check it out. I just wanted to see/have a drink at the countries.

Starting out.

Viv la France!

Britain

China

Japan

Italy - where I had some lovely Italian wine. One of my favorite things about the "countries" is that all the staff there REALLY is from there.

After Epicot, we figured that we should just keep rolling or we'd crash. We hopped on a bus and went to check out Hollywood Studios. We had planned on riding Star Wars but once we got there we found that it was out of service. Boo!

We walked around and did the great movie ride.

We checked out the city of lights there (which was way better than Ariton, Ala.).

Here are some of the other things we found ...

Betty White's bust.

"Casablanca" movie poster (and I got a new shirt - my other was SWEATY!)

We tried to get in for dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby but they told us that they didn't have anything available. At all. Like for the rest of the night. It was 5:30 p.m. - wtf? So we decided to dip around 9 p.m. - we were exhausted (walking SERIOUSLY for about eight hours - well WALKING and standing in line). I mean I run (when I wasn't broken) but walking works different muscles. Like the outside of my ankles were so sore.

We had planned to swing by Pleasure Island to stop in at the House of Blues (we had a coupon). Once we got there, it was clearly a no go. Too many people (some with friggin babies - and by the by who brings a baby to "Pleasure Island"? I guess it's "pleasure" for mommy and boredom for baby). SO we turned around and left. We did dinner at the TGI Friday, right by the hotel. Then we went to bed ... I slept like rock. Super fun.