We’ve been back for two weeks, and I am just getting around to uploading pictures and posting about it! Basically, it was wonderful! We rode a ton of rides and ate great food, and saw shows, and relaxed!

We arrived in Orlando late in the afternoon on Saturday, and explored our resort, the Coronado Springs, a bit. Then we went to downtown Disney and ate at Planet Hollywood. Neither of us had ever been to a Planet Hollywood, so it was a fun experience! After dinner, we saw the Cirque du Soleil: La Nouba.
It was incredible, right up to the last act where a trampoline artist broke his leg! That was kind of scary, but they carted him off stage on a stretcher and it looked like he was going to be okay. I hope he was, anyway!

The next day, we spent the morning at the Magic Kingdom, and then in the afternoon we spent time with a friend of mine from high school. Sean is living in Daytona Beach right now, and I also got to meet his serious girlfriend, Stephanie. She seems really nice and they make a cute couple!

The rest of the week was spent running around between the parks, eating amazing food! We got to see Fantasmic, which is a pretty cool show that features most of the Disney characters in some way or another, and a water screen with movie clips projected on it. We also saw mini, half hour broadway-style shows like the Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. I think Jonathan enjoyed the car stunt show and the Indiana Jones stunt show more, though! The car stunt show had a motorcyclist on fire, people driving backwards cars, and jumps off of ramps! It was pretty neat! I fell asleep during the Indiana Jones show, so I can’t tell you much about it.

Dining at Disney was pretty phenomenal. Our favorite, go figure, was a country-style restaurant that had an all-you-can-eat barbecue skillet, corn bread, salad with apple vinaigrette, corn on the cob, and things like that. I guess we are a little southern after all…haha! We also ate at an African buffet, which had amazing desserts and salads, and at a Mexican sit down restaurant where I ordered a delicious ribeye steak and we also got fancy jalapeno bread. One day for lunch, we ate at a hibachi grill in Epcot, and Jonathan got to try swordfish. He convinced me to try a bite, and it was okay. I’m not a big fish person.

Now for some park by park highlights..

Animal Kingdom:

Best ride: Dinosaur or the Safari or Everest. They were all good in different ways!
Best show: Lion King
Worst part of that day: it rained a TON and we got stuck eating in a terrible restaurant.

Magic Kingdom:
Best ride: All three mountains were good, although slight preference for Space mountain over Splash or Thunder.
Best non-ride attraction: Wishes, which is the fireworks show that they put on behind the castle! It was really, really magical!

Worst part: Most of fantasy-land was under remodelling so I didn’t get to have that fantasy-land experience, and we never quite made it to Toontown (although we both agreed it wasn’t worth missing something else for.)

Epcot:
Best Ride: for me, Soarin’, for Jonathan I’m pretty sure it was Test Track.
Best non-ride-attraction: That’s tough, I liked alot of Epcot, but I enjoyed Innoventions, which was like a science museum. But there was one area where you could be put in a video game! It was so much fun! I’ll ask Jonathan if he has the link and consider posting it here 😉 We also, of course, enjoyed the different countries and the Coca Cola Cool Zone. We also enjoyed the river ride inside the San Angel mountain. When you’re inside, it is painted and lit to look like you are OUTSIDE. It was really, really cool!
Worst part: The rain rained out alot of the country-based side shows like the Chinese acrobats and the Latin dancers. So we missed almost all of that.

Hollywood Studios:
Best Ride: I’d say it’s a toss-up between Aerosmith’s Rockin’ Roller Coaster and the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Loved them both!
Best non-ride attraction: I’d say Beauty and the Beast or Finding Nemo the Musical, I bet Jonathan would say one of the stunt shows. We both might agree that Fantasmic was better 😉
Worst Part: two of the rides/attractions that we really wanted to see were closed!!! It was a bummer!
Random Experience: While waiting in line at the ABC Commissary, we recognized the guy in front of us as being Jack from ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.” Not that either of us are admitting to watching that show… haha. I got my picture with him, too, and shortly thereafter a bunch of preteens showed up and started hyperventilating. I am glad I got my picture before that!

I have a ton more pictures, so I am considering creating an online photo thing. Any recommendations for photo-hosts? But just for fun, here are a few more: