A couple of weeks ago Amber & I headed to Orlando. It was a part work, part play trip. Monavie was having one of their Regional Events down there and needed a few more cashiers so Amber got to come along. We were in charge of the Monavie product store where we sell Monavie branded apparel and sales tools to distributors attending the event. It is like a mini-convention. We helped to set up the store, work in it while it was open the next day (8-6) and then took it down. The store was very busy and time went by really fast which is great for those of you who have ever worked at these convention type events.
On Friday night one of our vendors took us all out to dinner. Not just dinner, but a super fancy nice dinner at the #1 steakhouse in America, Charley's. Amber and I thought it would be wise to split the 24 oz. steak since we are older and I'm not sure my waistline would recover from eating the whole thing. The iPhone photo doesn't do it justice, but trust me it was the BEST steak I've ever eaten. Not to mention all of the delicious side dishes and dessert we ate along with it.
Here are some pictures of the event and the steak:
After the event was over it was time to PLAY! Amber & I extended a day and decided to do a hopper pass at Disney World. Since it was spring break we were prepared for hours in line and had our schedule of all the rides we wanted to go on at each park. We were very, very surprised that most rides had less than a 20 minute wait and usually we were waiting in an air conditioned line (what an awesome idea!). I was very, very impressed with Disney World and how clean and efficient it was. It really is the happiest place on earth even for 2 adults!! Our planning worked out perfectly and we got to go on all the rides we had planned to as well as many, many others.
Here is a re-cap of each park. I have learned that the wind blown, hot sweaty amusement park look is not my best look....oh well!!
#1 - Our first stop was Hollywood Studios. Since Amber and I are getting older we had come prepared and taken motion sickness medicine to make sure our trip to Disney World was enjoyable. This medicine was not enough for Amber who puked all over me and her on the simulated ride "Star Tours." Yes, that's right....Amber puked on me. GROSS!!!! To her credit she did a good job of aiming for our legs (easy to wash) and didn't hit any other riders who were also on the ride (lucky for them!). And I was happy (and disgusted) that she kept most of it in her mouth and swallowed it (yep that is disgusting, but I would have had even more on me if she hadn't done that).
My favorite rides were 'Aerosmith's Rockin Roller Coaster' which was an awesome roller coaster that just launched you into the dark unexpectedly. I also really liked the 'Tower of Terror' which basically shot you up and down and elevator shaft as part of the Twilight Zone. We also went on the new 'Toy Story' ride that was our longest wait of the day, but a pretty fun ride in 3D. I seriously don't understand how 3D works but it was cool except that Amber beat me on the target shooting during the ride :(
Next Stop.....EPCOT
Epcot was my least favorite of all the parks from a ride perspective, but it was definitely the most beautiful of all the parks. There were flowers everywhere and they had all the Disney prince and princesses landscaped. They were made out of flowers, grass, trees, etc. Seriously way cool!
We really only went on 1 ride here (Mission to Mars) which was another simulated ride that made us a tad sick, but also I really don't understand how they made it seem like I was blasting off into space. My face was flapping in the wind and my ears were popping and it felt just like blasting off into space would. Seriously, how do they do that when I know that I haven't even left the ground?
We also ate at Epcot in the country of "China." We had glorified Panda Express, but it was tasty, we were starving and only cost $8 with a drink. Seriously I was surprised that the food was reasonably priced.
Stop #3 was the Animal Kingdom. We really liked the Animal Kingdom and went on several rides there. We got there as instructed during the Parade so everyone was watching the parade while we enjoyed the rides. A couple of our favorites were:
Dinosaur Ride - I'm not sure what it was called, but was a roller coaster that turned around like a tea cup while on a track, but also was much like the dreaded Wild Mouse at Lagoon where you feel you might fall off the track! It was fun though.
Mt Everest Ride - This roller coaster was AWESOME! It had so many unexpected twist and turns and had the whole Abominable Snowman tearing apart the track theme! You went in and out of 'Mt Everest' and at one point the track ended and you went backwards through the ride. It was pretty cool.
Safari trip - They have a safari trip where you can see the animals in their "natural" surroundings. I hate to tell you this isn't like watching animals at the zoo. We were in a jeep and the animals were just roaming around the road. No fences, nothing. No biggie that we had giraffes, rhino's, elephants, crocodiles, etc, etc just roaming free. Good thing they are "used" to people and didn't attack us cause they certainly could if they wanted to. I even contemplated if perhaps they weren't real since it seems like a huge liability, but they said they were so I believe them.
Here are some pictures of the Animal Kingdom.
Our final stop of the day was the Magic Kingdom. We got there about 6pm and spent the rest of the night there. We went on favorites such as Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, & Pirates of the Caribbean. We had so much time left while we waited for the fireworks to start that we got to go on It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, the Carousel, Peter Pan, etc. We did some shopping and ate. There were seriously no lines! Sadly we didn't get to do Space Mountain since it was closed for repairs.
We also had time to meet Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora. We did wait in line for 10 minutes with NO kids to meet these princesses. I felt under dressed for the occasion since all the little girls were dressed as their favorite princess and I was in shorts. We got some looks, but we were on a special mission. See Amber needed a picture of Cinderella for Ashley (yeah Amber that makes up for not taking her to Disney World...LOL!) . Anyways, I got the bright idea that we should video Cinderella saying something to Ashley. Being the smart Mom that Amber is she thought we needed to have Cinderella saying something to Ashley like "Princesses don't cry or whine" so that Amber can use it to her parenting advantage. Needless to say the video is PRICELESS and I'm sure it will be used a lot in the McAllister home.
The last day was spent swimming at the pool before we took a late afternoon flight home. Since it wasn't super sunny we actually played in the pool and had a photo shoot.
Also I got HUGE blisters on the balls of each of my feet. I think working the convention the day before (all day) and then walking all over Disney World took it's toll on my feet. They made me walk so slowly that this is how I made my way through the Orlando airport. Let me tell you this it the WAY to go. I think I may fake an injury next time!!!
And finally......A couple of pictures of our hotel room......not to shabby!!
