The Happiest Place on Earth

Darrell and I celebrated our one year anniversary (has it really been that long??) with Mickey Mouse! When Darrell and I made plans to come stay with his family in Florida for six weeks this summer, we decided to make a trip to Disney World as well--and what better time to go than for our one year anniversary?

I went to Disney World when I was in middle school and absolutely loved it, and at age 23, I still loved it! We also went to Universal Studios as well, which was a new experience for me, but also awesome.

We left on the morning of our one year anniversary, which happened to be the same day that Tropical Storm Debby was pouring buckets and buckets of water on pretty much the whole state of Florida. We decided to brave the weather and make the six hour drive, and let's just say I'm happy that we made it to Orlando. There were times it was pouring so hard we could hardly see in front of us. I hope to never drive through that kind of weather again.

Once we made it safely there, we spent the first afternoon/evening at Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. It is a five story building full of virtual reality games. Darrell and I had both gone there when we were younger and thought it was SO neat. We still had a great time there, but we were surprised with the lack of updated graphics on all of the games.

The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster was hands down my favorite thing there. You ride around in bumper cars and pick up balls to shoot at the other cars. If you hit the other cars, it makes them spin out of control. Darrell and I were a great team and were spinning all kinds of poor kids out of control.

That night, we stayed at a hotel right outside of the Universal Studios entrance. 

The next day we headed to Islands of Adventure. The forecast was calling for rain all day long, so we grabbed our rain coats and accepted the fact that we were going to get wet. The whole day was basically off and on rain and sun. It honestly wasn't as bad as I was expecting, and may have even been a blessing in disguise by cutting down wait time on the rides.

Darrell was in heaven at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I know I should probably not say this in public, but I just never really got into Harry Potter. I probably did not appreciate it as much as Darrell did, but I was impressed by it all! 

 I actually had shipped my rain coat to Ohio, so I didn't have one to wear at the park. Thankfully, my father-in-law gave me an old one to wear. Darrell told me I looked like a penguin.

 Here is Darrell drinking his Butter Beer in front of Hogwarts. What a happy boy! Butter Beer was delicious--we each had two glasses!!

 We also ate lunch at Three Broomsticks and Darrell said it was just as he pictured it from the book. He even drank pumpkin juice with his lunch.

I think Darrell may have been a little embarrassed of me, but I thought the Dr. Seuss land was so cute! I really felt like we stepped into a Dr. Seuss book.

My personal favorite ride at Islands of Adventure was the Spider Man one. It was a 4-D type ride and just so much fun.

Darrell's favorite was the Hulk roller coaster. I love roller coasters, but for some reason this one just didn't do it for me. I think it's because we sat in the back row and I felt like my body was being jerked in opposite directions at the same time.

 Overall it was an exciting day for us. I thought it was fun to be at a theme park I had never been to before because everything was new to me.

The next day we spent the day at the Universal Studios park. For some reason, we didn't carry the camera around with us that day, so I only have one picture.

It was such a fun park with a lot of cool rides. I think my favorite was the Mummy roller coaster--it was all in the dark! 

That night we headed over to Downtown Disney again and had dinner at Planet Hollywood. What a neat restaurant! There is just so much to look at. They had a pair of Shaq's shoes on display and Darrell and I could not get over how HUGE they were. I don't think this picture does it justice, but wow.

That night, we switched hotels and stayed at Disney's All Star Movie's Resort. We got to stay in the Toy Story building and they had huge replicas of the Toy Story characters. When we checked into our hotel, they asked us if we were celebrating anything. We told them it was our anniversary, so they gave us pins to wear around the parks. We were hoping to get some perks from this and at one of the candy stores, they did give us a special treat. It was really sweet because everyone kept wishing us a happy anniversary.

 I thought it was so neat that they made you feel like you were the size of the toys because the door to Andy's room was so big!

Our hotel also had Mickey Mouse waffles, and how could you pass that up?

We only had two days to visit all four parks at Disney World, so I did some major planning to make sure we could hit all of the attractions that we wanted to.

The first morning, we headed to Epcot where we only did a few things. Call us crazy, but we wanted to get to Hollywood Studios!

Hollywood Studios was just as good as I remembered. Beauty and the Beast was my absolute favorite movie growing up, so the little Broadway-style show was one of my favorites. Our other top choices at this park were the Tower of Terror, Rock 'n Roller Coaster, and a new Toy Story ride.

 We stayed at this park until it closed and watched the Fantasmic show on the water. 

 After three days of amusement parks, we were wiped out! Here is Darrell waiting for our bus back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up and headed for Animal Kingdom. This park has improved drastically since I was there about 10 years ago. 

We went on the Kilimanjaro Jungle Safari and saw quite a few different animals.

 And they have a new 40 minute Broadway play of Finding Nemo. It was impressive!

 And a dinosaur ride! On this one, you ride around a little car through the semi-dark and a big dinosaur pops right out at you. Right at the same time, they take a picture. It was one of those where I was embarrassed as soon as they took it because I knew I looked scared. I wish I had taken a picture of it because Darrell and I both looked legitimately frightened.

They even have a roller coaster at the park now. It was a welcomed surprised how much we enjoyed our time at this park.

Our last stop was Magic Kingdom. I just love the huge castle! When I went to Disneyland a few years ago, I was a little disappointed with the size of the castle. I thought maybe I had just grown up and thought it wasn't as impressive, but I was excited Disney World didn't let me down.

I had read online about the famous Dole Whips at Disney World and I decided we had to have them! Oh my goodness. They were so delicious. I got a pineapple/vanilla swirl ice cream in pineapple juice. Yummy!

I am pretty sure Magic Kingdom has the most impressive fireworks show ever. We were blown away!

Normally the park closes at 11:00 pm, but the night that we were there, guests who were staying in a Disney Hotel could stay at the park until 2:00 am! The park was so crowded and so hot during the day, so we had to take advantage of this time. It was definitely more crowded than I was expecting, but we were able to do so many rides. Space Mountain was my definite favorite! Only one person sits in each row on that ride, so I sat in the front and Darrell sat behind me. I could hear all of his screams and laughs during the ride and I think it made it that much more fun. He is so funny!

Thanks Orlando for such a fun week!!

And Happy 1 Year to my sweet husband. It really has been the best year yet and I am the luckiest girl!