Family Visit!

My family arrived Tuesday, October 23. I had both of my classes that day. As soon as my second class was over, I threw some clothes into a bag and hurried over to All Star Movies, the resort we were going to stay at. I was so excited to see my family. Once I arrived at the resort and had said hi to everyone, we all went out to eat. We went to an Italian restaurant near my apartment called Uno. It was so good. I was just happy to not have Disney food or cook something myself. It was really nice to just sit and talk with my family.

On Wednesday, my parents and Alex went to the Cast Member preview of the New Fantasyland with Sara Robbins. I scheduled my preview for Friday so Chris and Tyler could go. They were not arriving until Thursday night. Andrew and I slept in that morning since we had no where to be. In the afternoon, once everyone was back, I took Dad and the boys to Disney Quest, the huge arcade in Downtown Disney. I received a Holiday Pass in the mail that allowed me to get myself and three guests into Disney Quest for free. Once I was in there, I didn't want to leave. It was so cool! I got to play Fix-It Felix Jr. which is the game featured in the new Pixar movie, Wreck-It Ralph. I had so much fun in there, but I didn't stay because I had already made plans with Mom and Sara to go to the cast member store. We ran some errands and went to Cast Connection, which Mom seemed to like. There's some cool stuff in there if you go on the right day. Sometimes it's just a bunch of junk. After Cast Connection, Sara went back home, Mom walked around Downtown Disney and went back to the resort, and I went back to Disney Quest with Dad, Andrew, and Alex. I had so much fun in there. I'm glad I was only there for a couple hours though. I feel like I would have gotten bored after a while. I'm not too much of a game junkie.

Thursday, we went to Hollywood Studios with Sara Robbins. Andrew and I realized that we had the same Captain America shirt, so we decided to wear them and match! It was pretty cute. We got a picture with TWO green army men from Toy Story! That's a big deal. Normally they stay separate. We were all set up to take a picture with the taller army man when I noticed the other one standing near by, but out of the picture. Since he was standing there, not doing anything, I asked if he would also like to be in the picture. He seemed pretty excited that I asked and happily joined in for the photo. Later, we went to Epcot and tried some awesome food from different countries. That night, Chris and Tyler arrived. When I first saw them, Chris was eating and Tyler was in line to get ice cream. When Tyler joined us at the table with his ice cream, the top scoop fell on the floor. It was sad, but also really funny to see. Poor kid had to go back and ask for another top scoop.

Friday morning was my Fantasyland preview. I was very excited about this. When we made it back to the entrance to New Fantasyland, we saw an incredibly long line that we had to find the back of. Luckily, once we made it to the back of the line, it started moving and we were able to go into New Fantasyland. When you first walk in, you see Enchanted Tales With Belle. This is a character interactive attraction.

When you enter Maurice's Cottage, you are transported through a magic mirror to Beast's Castle. Once inside Beast's Castle, you talk to the wardrobe and Lumiere. The animatronic technology was VERY impressive. The wardrobe and Lumiere looked so real! After talking to the wardrobe, who tells you that you are going to retell the story of how Belle and Beast met to Belle, you enter the library, which is where you meet Lumiere. He moves around the mantle of the fireplace, talks, and even moves his arms. Then Belle comes in and a group of about ten guests tell Belle the story of the day she and Beast met. It wasn't really something I would care to do over and over again, but it was fun to do once or twice. Next to Enchanted Tales With Belle is the Be Our Guest restaurant. It is set in the ballroom of Beast's Castle. The restaurant was beautiful. I feel like it will be very crowded once it is full, but I'm not eating there so it doesn't matter! After the castle is Gaston's Tavern and Bonjour! Gifts. Gaston's Tavern serves Roasted Pork Shanks (super delicious!) and Lefou's Brew, which is a frozen apple juice sort of thing. I really liked both.

Outside of the Tavern is where you will meet Gaston. He gets to do something called a roaming set. This means that he can wander around wherever he likes, within a certain perimeter, and his attendant, photopass photographer, and line if he has one, will follow him! He was so funny. Gaston is one of my favorite characters to meet, just because I can't stop laughing when I hear the things he says. After the gift shop, you see Prince Eric's Castle, which is there the Under the Sea ride is. On this ride, you visit Ariel and her friends in the ocean. It was very well done. I really enjoyed it. The last thing in the New Fantasyland is Ariel's Grotto, which is where you meet Ariel in her mermaid form. Ariel was pretty funny too. She asked where we were from and when we said Texas, she said, "Oh! The lonely starfish state!" Instead of Lonestar state. That gave me a laugh. I really enjoyed all of the New Fantasyland and can't wait to see what else will be added!

After the Fantasyland Preview, we stuck around in Magic Kingdom for a little while so Chris and Tyler could see some of the things they hadn't seen before. We met Woody and Jessie, Stitch, Mickey, Cinderella, Aurora, and Rapunzel. I told Cinderella I liked her new dress and hair. She said thank you and then showed me her new slippers! They were very pretty. She also showed me that there were slippers on her dress, and C's for Cinderella and Charming and a heart in the middle. It was very cute how she was showing me. I love meeting characters! Aurora could tell Alex was nervous about meeting her, so she kissed him on the cheek! Rapunzel told me she really liked the braid I had in my hair and said she was going to have to tell the people in her kingdom that they should help her do her hair that way. I got a kick out of that. After meeting the princesses, we left Magic Kingdom because there was a Halloween Party that night. We planned to go to Hollywood Studios later that night to watch Fantasmic. Unfortunately, when we were on our way to Hollywood Studios, we found out that Fantasmic had been cancelled because of the heavy wind we were having, but the park was staying open an extra hour. We decided to ride Star Tours, the Star Wars ride, and see the Muppets show, that way when we came back to Studios, we would have already done those two things. When we were leaving the Muppets show, we found characters! I was really confused at first because it is very rare to find a bunch of characters together, at night, that have nothing to do with each other. On top of that, there were characters that NEVER do meet and greets, including Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and Megara from Hercules! I was super excited. I found out later that these characters were out because Fantasmic had been cancelled, but there was no rain, so the characters could still be out. We got to see Mulan, Mary Poppins and Mr. Penguin, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Jasmine and Jafar, Meg, Pooh, and Chip and Dale. I had so much fun. After that, we went back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

The next day, we went to Epcot. Alex, Andrew, Tyler, and I all wore matching Wreck-It Ralph shirts. It was mostly my idea. I feel like a big part of the Disney experience is dressing alike to go to the parks and since Tyler had never been to Disney before, I didn't want him to miss out. Plus, I really liked the shirt. The highlight of my day was meeting Snow White. Nothing else really matters besides that. I had so much fun meeting her. She could tell I was excited, so she took extra time talking to me. She told me that I looked like her, so I told her she was my favorite princess. When I told her that, she asked why, so I told her because she was so nice, and was the first princess ever! She said those reasons were good ones, but asked me not to tell the queen because it would make her angry and her magic mirror tells her enough. Snow White told me about the time she was tricked by the queen into eating an apple. I laughed a little and she asked, "Did you hear about that?" I said yes and she added, "A lot of people seem to have heard about it. It's a little embarrassing." That made me laugh even more. She then asked me about my brothers and my Wreck-It Ralph shirt. When talking about my shirt, she said that Ralph sounded a lot like Grumpy! I told her that I agreed because I had been friends with Grumpy. We then talked about my experience with Grumpy and I told her about the kids giving Grumpy candy. She asked if he ate it and when I said yes, she said, "Well, good for him!" I really enjoyed meeting Snow White. Once we had done everything in Epcot that we were going to do for the afternoon, we went back to the resort for a nap. After napping, we went back to Epcot to watch Illuminations. I never really enjoyed Illuminations much, but I really liked it this time. Maybe that's because I had a better view this time! It really is a great show. All of the night time shows Disney offers are great.

Sunday, we went to Animal Kingdom and then back to Hollywood Studios. At Animal Kingdom, we watched Festival of the Lion King. I really like this show. It's so well done. Alex and I went to meet Chip and Dale at Camp Minnie-Mickey. That was fun. I love meeting the chipmunks! They are so funny together. Plus, Chip hugged me like we were best friends. That always brightens my day! Dale kept tickling Alex while the picture was being taken. I think the picture was better because of it because Alex actually gave a real smile. It was pretty cute. We also rode the Safari, Expedition Everest, and Dinosaur, and then watched the Flights of Wonder show and Finding Nemo The Musical. It was cool to go on Kilimanjaro Safari because just last week, zebras were added! After that, we headed back to the hotel for nap time and then to Hollywood Studios to try to see Fantasmic again! We were successful this time, thank goodness! I love Fantasmic. It is my favorite Disney show. The park was open late that night for Extra Magic Hours, so we were there late too! We went to a character dance party, too. That was pretty fun to see. Alex seemed like he would rather be anywhere else, but it's really fun to see Mickey and Minnie dancing around to kid music. I enjoyed it. My dad called it a Mickey Mosh Pit. That was pretty amusing.

Monday morning, everyone wanted to go back to Hollywood Studios to watch all the shows they hadn't seen yet. By this point, Andrew was getting sick and I was exhausted. After letting my family into the park, Andrew and I turned right back around and went back to the resort to go back to bed. We slept pretty much the entire day which was awesome! I had been so tired. After resting all day, I went to turn in my doctor's notes to Health Services to get my record card cleared. Disney works on a point system. Each time you call in, you get a point. I had 7. In order to extend my program, I needed less than 5 points. I was able to get my record card cleared, so now I only have one point! Yay! Let me add here that it was FREEZING Monday! I guess the hurricane blew in some cold weather or something because it was so cold! I had to wear a sweater, jacket, and a scarf! That night, we went back to Magic Kingdom to see the castle one last time before everyone went home. We ended up watching Wishes and the electrical parade. I had never actually watched the entire parade. It was really nice. Pete, from Pete's Dragon, saw me and said hi and then asked me what my name was. I answered him, even though I know he couldn't hear me. Then his dragon made some strange sound and Pete said, "Did you hear that? My dragon said he loves you! Elliot, what are you thinking? You don't even know that girl!" It was really funny. Things like that just make me so happy! I love when characters notice me. In my mind, it is such a big deal. We got to ride all the rides that night and I got a Winnie the Pooh Pillow Pet! Everyone did their last minute shopping and pin trading and waved goodbye to the Magic Kingdom.

The next day, I had class at 8:30 in the morning. Luckily, I got out at 11:30 instead of 12:30, so I was able to spend more time with my family! Once we had the room all packed up, we went back to Downtown Disney to wander around before saying our goodbyes. Chris and Tyler had already left for the airport, so it was just my family. I was sad to see them leave, but I will see them soon. I will be home in 33 days. That's such a short time! Plus, I have check points along the way. For example, I will find out if I am able to extend or not before then. And Thanksgiving happens before that! And the first few Christmas parties will be going on! So there's a lot going on between now and then to keep me occupied! I'm super excited to be home though. I hope I get to see everyone while I am back!

I hope everyone is doing well back home!