Disney World - Day 4 - Downtown Disney + Driving

Our final day, we decided to just do some shopping at Downtown Disney (DD) instead of going to a park.  This was mostly so that way I wouldn't have to drive back to NC exhausted and so we wouldn't get back super late.  We had both gotten a coupon at Magic Kingdom for 20% off certain stores at DW before 1pm, so we made sure that was put to good use.

We arrived too DD around 9 and the stores weren't even open yet.  Except for the Ghirardelli store, which was awesome because it was kinda chilly and we hadn't properly planned for that.  Yay for hot chocolate and pumpkin spice lattes.  We meandered around until the stores opened, staying mainly in the sunshine to keep warm.  At 10 on the dot we waltzed into the Christmas store.  It's a family tradition to always get a Christmas ornament from every vacation, I do not deviate from this expectation.  I had actually already purchased my ornament at Magic Kingdom, but Teh Sister was looking around.  After that, we went over to the art store, which we stopped in each time we saw one.  I bought my own Megara print because she's my fave Disney character, truth be told.  It might be in the name, it might be her personality, it might be her humor.. but "at least out loud, [she didn't] say [she's] in love."  She's my kind of girl.

The only down side with Teh Sister's obsession with Tarzan and my obsession with Hercules is that they aren't "princess" movies so they aren't popular Disney characters that could be found all over the parks.  Boooo.  Stupid pop princesses.

After the art store we hit up the World of Mickey or whatever the main find-all-the-things-here shop is to buy all the things we'd been eyeing since we'd arrived.  I only spent $100 with my coupon, I was super impressed.  Sadly, that didn't account for my pins (which I started collecting, despite my original decision not to..  Disney brainwashed me, I couldn't help myself.  Every morning when I see them when I open my closet, I still smile.  No regrets) or the lanyard or ears or Christmas ornament or random other items I'd picked up along the way, but considering all the things I'd been wanting, I felt like I did good.  Of course, one of the best purchases was the child-sized Minnie sweatshirt I got for myself.  Yay for being wee!

After doing our final wallet damage, we headed out of Disney to grab lunch.  We ended up going back to DD to sort out some purchase issues (which I'm being purposely vague about because it involves a surprise and I'd rather be safe than sorry if the surprisee actually reads Teh Blog) and then finally hitting the road around 2 to head back to NC.

Maleficent vs the Prince... in Legos. 

A Lego Dalmatian?  Be still my heart.

Bye DW!  I'll miss you, even if my wallet won't.

Other interesting things we found at Disney:

A kid was wearing this shirt.
I felt like it should belong to me instead.

Applicable for Teh Sister

The shirt Teh Sister ended up getting her BF.
She might have been peer pressured by me and my love of  Hunkules Hercules.

Never gets old.

I never really saw Gaston as a "villain" so I thought this was amusing.

The drive was mostly uninteresting.  Poor Yurtle got a lot of bug splat on her nose.  Hangar made me want to blow up a gas station for charging a cash vs card price (WTF?!).  I almost peed my pants because in SC gas stations aren't open on Sunday because people don't need gas on Jesus Day.  When we finally got to NC, Teh Sister's BF almost killed me with my suitcase because he insisted on getting it up the stairs for me and then dropped it on me (obviously now is when he should worry if I like him or not).

After giving him all his presents, it was dinner time and bed time.

The next day, I ran some civilization errands (PetSmart, Cook-Out, Priscilla's) and then headed back to MD.  Teh Greyhound Neighbor-Wife delivered Phil and Meri to the house before I arrived, so I didn't have to pick them up and it was awesome to get lovins from them.  I always miss my fur babies when I don't take them places with me.  I can't help it.

Overall, it was an excellent trip.  There were some bad times, like when we tried to get dinner at 9:05pm in Tomorrowland and the cafeteria place was closed and it was the only place that Teh Sister and I could really agree on.  We snacked during fireworks, but didn't really have dinner that night.  Fail.

There was also the torrential downpour when we were at Epcot, but really, are you in Florida if it doesn't rain at least once?  There was also some hangary problems, but they were quickly identified and remedied as best as possible.  Each day we went back to the hotel absolutely exhausted and each morning we tried to get a head start on the day and mostly failed at that.  We didn't use some of the fast passes we got, but we weren't worried about.  Mostly my goal for this trip was to not project my inner Teh Dad who is a trip nazi and everything must happen at a specific time.  I just let the schedule go and let things happen, saved myself a lot of stress and I got to enjoy morning chats rather than stress out about go, go, go!


YAYYYY DISNEY WORLD!!!!!

ALL the DISNEY!

Pre-Disney - Driving + Chocolate Museum
Disney World - Day 1 (Part 1) - Animal Kingdom
Disney World - Day 1 (Part 2) - Hollywood Studios
Disney World - Day 2 - Magic Kingdom
Disney World - Day 3 - Epcot
Disney World - Day 4 - Downtown Disney + Driving

Disney World - Day 3 - Epcot

Our 3rd day of Disney World was the most adult day of our entire trip and after being at Magic Kingdom the day before, it was much needed (as were the alcoholic beverages).

Epcot day was the only day it actually rained, despite the forecast predicting rain for all 4 days we were planning on being at DW.  And by "rained" I actually mean a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning, ya know, like Florida.  This was also the only day that I had actually made food reservations (lesson learned), which worked out nicely since we were eating lunch for the worst part of the rain storm.

Yay for the Flower and Garden Festival!

Dole Whip WITH coconut rum.
All is good in the world.

Only in Epcot.

OOOO CANADA!!
(At this point in the trip, some of my Canadian friends were in the midst of a blizzard where they subsequently lost power for several days, but at least I was thinking of them!)

Gettin' henna-ed.
Disney henna isn't nearly as good or as dark (or cheap) as Bahrain henna.  Boooo.

Teh Sister's henna

It wasn't raining as heavily as it had been while we had eaten lunch, so we were able to walk around.
We used Teh Sister's hair clips to help keep the panchos on.  You can take the girl out of the south, but you can't take the south out of the girl....

Origami birds!

We did the pick-a-pearl in Japan.
Totally awesome and worth it.

Even if we had to count down in Japanese every.single.time a pearl was opened.
I'm sure this guy was probably tired of it too.

Teh Sister ended up with a blue pearl and we both had them set into jewelry.
Yay new earrings for me and a new necklace charm for her!

The rain stopped!
Cantaloupe alcoholic beverage to celebrate!

Just makin' sure it was still there on our walk towards the front of Epcot so we could ride some rides.

Dear sunsets, ohhh, ohhhh how I miss you.

We had reservations for a princess dinner (even though we're not children, sorry not sorry ) and this was our facial expressions while waiting in line with all the familes.  We were for sure that we weren't prepared for what was about to happen.

But then we met Belle!

And Ariel!

And Cinderella!

The buffet/appetizer bar.
The brown cheese was the best thing on the plate (which I had before at Teh Monopoly's house, I felt so cultured)

Our waiter suggested we get "Prince of Norway" for our alcoholic selection.  I just begged if we could get the glowy drinks like others had, even though it wasn't supposed to come with the glow cube.
Our waiter, henceforth referred to as The Prince of Norway, told us that the bartender tried to give him some problems and I told him he should have told the bartender we were cute, to which he responded, "That's exactly what I did."

And Aurora!

And dinner was served.
I got the pork chop (per the Prince of Norway's (or waiter) suggestion)

Teh Sister got salmon.

And Snow White! (which was the most amusing character we got to meet since she asked what brought us to Disney World and I told her that it was a breakup celebration trip.  She wasn't quite sure how to respond to that so she went with "well, one day you will find your prince," before she left the table.  At which point the "Prince of Norway" came by with dessert, which officially made him our "prince" since he was actually from Norway and that was the drink he had suggested we get.  Additionally he was cute, I was dehydrated, and had consumed 3 alcoholic beverages that day (including his suggested beverage).  It was just good Teh Sister was there otherwise there might have been some very not subtle suggestions made about after work plans since we were his last table of the night.. and it was my breakup celebration trip, after all.

We shared the chocolate stuff, I devoured the white fluffy/strawberry stuff, and Teh Sister had the bread thingy that kinda tasted like apple cinnamon, but I really couldn't get past the big ball of what felt like Texas Roadhouse honey cinnamon butter on top.
(source since we didn't get a photo)

The Prince of Norway (our waiter)

Yay Norway!

Getting this photo was mildly awkward since a dude came out of the bathroom right as I was about to take the photo...
So it was just a girl, standing in front of the men's bathroom door, with the camera ready to go...  Not awkward at all..
And then he and his family are leaving as I'm trying to retake the photo and I hear him telling his wife about it laughing.
OMG I wish I could make these things up.

Teh Sister's new favorite photo of me.
Having foods was just thattt good... or this was my monkey face, I can't even remember.

Goodbye Epcot.  You were great!  (pic by Teh Sister)

ALL the DISNEY!

Pre-Disney - Driving + Chocolate Museum
Disney World - Day 1 (Part 1) - Animal Kingdom
Disney World - Day 1 (Part 2) - Hollywood Studios
Disney World - Day 2 - Magic Kingdom
Disney World - Day 3 - Epcot
Disney World - Day 4 - Downtown Disney + Driving