Over Thanksgiving Break of 2011, my family and I took a trip down to Orlando, Florida to go to Disney World for the first time. On Saturday November 19, 2011, we woke up at 3:30 in the morning and got on 3 flights that were 2 hours each, and between the flights there was about an hour wait. We finally landed at 6 in the evening, all of us jetlagged, tired, hungry, and my sister and I weren’t feeling so hot. When we touched ground in Florida a huge relief was lifted off my shoulders, I had the worst flying day I’ve ever had, my ears were killing me, my stomach hurt because I was hungry, and I didn’t have enough energy to be excited.
After eating chicken nuggets, my family and I made our way to find the bus that would be our ride back to the hotel. After a smooth bus ride to our Disney resort I was even sleepier, but I had started to feel better since we had eaten, It was nice not being more than 500 feet in the air, without a seatbelt sign above your head.
We checked in at Coronado Springs, and looked for our room for about 10 minutes, when we walked in I was shocked, it wasn’t very big for 4 people to be sharing for about 9 days, but I really liked these huge, dark brown wooden doors that would slide in front of the bathroom sink, we also had a flat screen TV, that was my favorite part of the room.
It was Monday, November 21, it was like any other day when we woke up around 10 in the morning and then loaded a bus and went on our way to The Magic Kingdom. When we arrived after the bumpy bus ride I was incredibly hungry, my stomach was screaming for food, particularly chicken noodle soup, which is exactly what I got, and it hit the spot.
When we finished eating, we used our fast passes on the Buzz Lightyear ride, I rode in the buggy with my mom, we each had a gun to aim at the targets, when you hit the target, your reward is more points, the whole time my mom was asking me to stop spinning, so she was clearly preoccupied asking me stop, but laughing while doing it, so I ended up winning with 4,000 more points then her, and had a blast spinning her.
After riding a ride at the Magic Kingdom, we loaded onto a monorail and made our way to Hollywood Studios for the first time. When we got there we walked in, and got map of the park. We then mapped out where we were going to go and what order. We first walked to check the lines for The Tower of Terror, and The Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, but no surprise here, both the lines were outrageously long, and we didn’t have that kind of time because we had a reservation at an Italian food restaurant.
We didn’t know what to do, but suddenly, a light bulb went off in my head, I remembered the Pixar Animation Studios was in this park; this was so significant to me because I loved all the movies they made.
We arrived and I whipped out my phone fast as lightning, and took pictures like a mad man. At the entrance there was an electric blue barrel, with blood red monkeys above it. As we went deeper in, there were crazy long lines, one for a ride, and the rest to take pictures with the major characters from Toy Story.
We then made our way to a behind the scenes stunt show. After the first demonstration my sister and I left for her to go to the bathroom. When my parents finally came out, they didn’t look to excited, and thought it was a waste of time, and it didn’t go into enough detail for them.
Suddenly the huge rain cloud that had been taunting us for about an hour broke, and it began raining buckets in a blink of the eye. We quickly made our way to the restaurant only to find it overflowing with hungry people hiding from the rain. When my mom finally made it to the front desk to tell the lady we were here for our reservations, the lady replied saying there was going to be a 45 minute to an hour wait. We discussed if it was worth the wait, but it was to my mom, she had been raving on and on about it all day and had been looking forward to it. So we waited in the gift shop across the way, it was full of people buying $8 ponchos, my dad almost did but I caught him in the nick of time, none of us really cared, we had a roof over our head. I was surprised how quickly the time went by.
When we got to our table we were immediately served bread, and ordered. I got a salad, and a spaghetti chicken dish, I really liked the noodles, but the chicken was really difficult to cut and chew. My sister got the same salad as I did and a clam and noodle dish, she didn’t like hers either. But my parents adored their steak. The best part of that meal was the dessert, I got a chocolate cheesecake. I would only return there for the dessert.
Before riding The Tower of Terror we went to the light show, Fantazmic; it was in a large outdoor podium. On a large, thin fan of water there were projections of old Mickey Mouse episodes or clips from movies, and every once in awhile a few Disney characters would go on the stage and talk, act or dance. If there was an explosion in the episodes water would shoot toward the crowd, but luckily it wasn’t far enough to get spectators wet. The end was my favorite part of the show, but not just because it was the end, but because the end there were fireworks, I wouldn’t go back to see that show again, some parts were a little odd and cheesy.
We rushed out of Fantazmic and practically ran to get in line for The Tower of Terror. This ride was based on the old show, The Twilight Zone, before getting on the ride everyone is led into a room to watch a corny video, which tells you the story behind the ride. It is supposed to be in an old hotel and the elevator has broken, and back in the day 5 people were turned to ghosts when the elevator was struck by lightening. We loaded an elevator with about 15 seats, and we stayed down on the seat by little gray locking waist seatbelt strap. When we dropped I got major butterflies, I held on with white knuckles, I was so scared and when we shot up, the doors would open so everyone could see the park, which showed how high you were compared to everything else. Overall this was one my favorite rides but I was so afraid, I ended going on it three times, it wasn’t until the third time I let go and put my hands up.
We made our way to what we thought was Pixar, but it was anything but that. We ended up at the Osborne Dancing Lights, it was a group of maybe 20 buildings covered from sidewalk to rooftop in lights, some would change colors, flash, or spell out words. It was a truly breathtaking setting, I attempted to take pictures with my phone, but I think only 4 out of 15 turned out. After being there for about 15 minutes I reunited with my family and asked if they were ready to go to Pixar, they were. It was too bad to leave the lights, but we had other things to do before the night was over.
After the lights we got distracted and went to a short Muppet movie, it was kind of random, but adorable and made everyone in the theater laugh at least once. We mainly went to make my mom happy; she adores the Muppets, when I would blandly describe a character she would answer with the correct name in a snap. I was happy we ended up going, at the beginning I didn’t know what my mom was dragging us into; it ended up being an enjoyable resting time.
We then made our way to Pixar, where I bought 2 Toy Story shirts, and strolled through it making sure we didn’t miss anything.
By then my sister had complained at least 5 times about being tired, so my mom and her made their way back to the hotel room, but the night was still young to my dad and I. We had wanted to go on The Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, but didn’t think it was worth spending 110 minutes waiting in line for! Before we decided to wait in line my dad got a hotdog and I got ice cream, the line was at 70 minutes and it we had wanted to go for awhile so we said heck with it lets do it! We waited in line for about 45 minutes; the line seemed to move pretty quickly.
Finally, when we got in the building, I thought there weren’t any more lines, and we would just get on and ride the ride, but boy was I wrong! We went inside, walked through a hall with posters, then passed some old music making technology then watched a cheesy video, AeroSmith were the actors, the ride was a super stretch limo to their concert with backstage passes.
After about 5 minutes we got onto the ride, sat for about 1 minute then shot off, fast as lightning into a dark tunnel. The ride was another one of my favorites, it was incredibly fast, it was dark with neon colors and signs, and best of all we went upside down and on a twist. I ended up going on that ride two times that night, it was so amazing and I would recommend that ride to anyone who loves thrilling rides that are fast paced and go upside down.
After riding the Tower of Terror earlier that night we just had to go on it once more before ending the best day of trip. I held on with white knuckles yet again this time, but I had such a great day I didn’t care. This was by far the best day of the trip, I will never forget it!