I picked the song for this blog title since it is the ultimate Disney World song. Its a little late but here’s a quick recap of my roadtrip to Orlando with Tatum:
I picked Tatum up from Buckhead Church on Tuesday, December 30 and we began the 6.5 hour drive down south (noticed its not capitalized because Florida is not part of the South, there is a difference). We were armed with my iPod so we rocked out to some old-school teen pop (specifically ‘N Sync) which made it really fun. About the time we were getting hungry for dinner, we were approaching Gainesville, FL so we pulled off in my UGA-decked out car and proceeded to go to a Chick-fil-A inside the mall- me in my red UGA shirt and black track suit (I might have also been wearing my Georgia flip-flops). Suprisingly, no one said anything to us. We grabbed our food to go and continued on our way. We checked in our hotel and then Tatum made me go work out with her in the fitness room (which wasn’t much).
Wednesday was Disney day! We got up early in an effort to get to the parks when they opened so we could try to get ahead of some of the crowds. First stop was Hollywood Studios (formally known as MGM). I had never been so I wanted to make sure we got that one in. I was lucky to be traveling with such a Disney expert because she knew right what we needed to do and where to go. We grabbed fast passes for Tower of Terror and then stood in line for the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. We did a few other things in the park and then we decided to head out to grab some lunch and then go to another park. We grabbed us some Subway and then headed to the Magic Kingdom. I was so excited because it would be the first time I had been in 18 years! We waited in line to get through the gates but then when we got up to the booth, they informed us that the park was CLOSED!!! Apparently they were at capacity and couldn’t let anymore people in!!! I was so incredibly bummed! They gave us this little card with a number on it where we could call to check the status of the park. After a lot of driving around and trying to think of what we should do, we decided to go check out Epcot while we waited to see if some people would clear out of Disney. I had never been to Epcot either so I wanted to at least walk through to see what it was all about.
I think I forgot to mention that we had bought a park hopper pass and also you just have to pay for parking once and then that ticket is good to park at any other park– that’s how we were able to so freely go around to wherever.
Epcot wasn’t closed but there were a TON of people there because all the rides had ridiculously long lines! The shortest line we found was 70 minutes and the longest was 250 minutes! We decided to go with the shortest, which was the GM Fast Track. We stood in the single rider line since that’s the one with a 70 minute wait– we figured it would be fine if we didn’t get to ride together. Well, just so happens there was a Disney employee standing out there who was asking trivia questions and whoever got it right got free fast passes. We didn’t get the first 2 she asked but then everyone kept pushing her to do 1 more. This time I was armed and ready with my Blackberry and I won! Tatum and I got 2 fast passes that put us way ahead in line. I don’t think Tatum would’ve lasted if we hadn’t gotten them =) After the ride we walked through the International section and I made Tatum take tons of pics in the China section. When we finished that tour we explored the Imagine secion (can’t remember exactly what its called) where they have different games and stuff you can try out. Tatum and I starred in our own video game and then we got to ride some Segways. All this time we were constantly calling the Disney number to get the status of the Magic Kingdom and it finally said it was open! We left Epcot and decided we would go grab dinner before heading over. Our logic was that it was late in the day and so all the families had probably gone home and we would have no trouble getting in (this was New Years Eve remember).
We found an Outback for dinner which ended up being a terrible experience. They somehow lost our order so it took FOREVER to get our food. We ate pretty quick once we got it and then we were in a hurry to get to Magic Kingdom. We asked for our checks, which we got and immediately gave our credit cards. Then for whatever reason it took them forever to run our cards– like 15 minutes or so! Needless to say we were really ready to get out of there! We headed over to Magic Kingdom and when we got to the gate– get this– we were told they were closed AGAIN! I asked the guy how long they had been closed because we had called the number and they said they were open and apparently they closed 10 MINUTES before we got there (stupid Outback!!!!). There was no hope of them opening again because it was already like 9 PM.
I was really frustrated and stressing at this moment so we pulled in a gas station to figure out what we were going to do. I was determined to be out somewhere for new years! After I got some sugar in my system, I calmed down and we decided we would just go back to Hollywood Studios. It turned out to be pretty good because we got to see it all lit up (there were tons of lights!) and we did some shopping that we didn’t get to do earlier in the day. We stayed on the main street to watch the fireworks and then we booked it out of there to try to beat all the traffic. Overall it was a pretty fun day.
Thursday (New Years Day) was the Georgia bowl game, which we thankfully won. Afterwards we decided to go to Downtown Disney, which was really cool. I wished we would’ve had more time to spend there. I got a few more souviners for a trip and Tatum was all about finding some Tigger stuff for little Luke Franklin (one of the cutest kids ever!).
Okay, so I really abbreviated the end since this is turning into the longest post ever. Overall it was a really fun trip (especially since it was like 70+ degrees down there!). Here are links to the pics we took for those of you who haven’t already seen them on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2480113&l=36dfd&id=4910683
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2480132&l=54446&id=4910683
