WDW (again!)

If someone had told me a year ago that I'd visit Walt Disney World twice this year, I wouldn't have believed it. As it turns out, though, I did! See the previous post for all the details on the Spring Break Girls' trip with my in-laws back in March. Since Mark and I were last there together in 2014, we'd been planning our next trip. Last fall, we booked a 9-day stay at Pop Century resort for this May. Here are some highlights!

Hotel--Pop Century
WDW has three different hotel levels: value, moderate, and deluxe. We've usually stayed in moderate-level resorts, but I've always been interested in checking out the value level to take advantage of a significant savings. So this year, we opted for Pop Century, a highly recommended value option. This hotel is themed with pop culture from different decades (50s-90s). We stayed in the 70s section. Overall, it went well--there are noticeable differences between the tiers, but we had a really good experience in terms of the bus transportation which was one of our biggest concerns. I think we'd stay there again if we needed to keep the budget a bit tighter in the future, but our favorite hotel so far is probably still Port Orleans French Quarter. What we'd really like is to stay at the Contemporary, but it's super expensive...we'll see if we make it someday!

One interesting perk of staying at Pop Century is that the Art of Animation resort is just a short walk away, across a small lake. It's a beautiful resort, and I really enjoyed wandering around there--it felt like stepping into the movies (Finding Nemo, Little Mermaid, Cars, and Lion King). We also ate breakfast at their food court one day when ours was packed with school groups, and we took their bus back from the parks when it came faster than ours. Very convenient!

Hollywood Studios
Of the four parks, Hollywood Studios is in the biggest state of transition. There are some cool plans for the future to open Toy Story and Star Wars themed areas, but this spring, there have been major closures of previous areas to make room for the new stuff. We still found plenty to enjoy there, though, and the crowds weren't as bad as we'd feared. With early mornings and use of FastPass +, we were able to see and do everything we really wanted to! I did get stung by a bee one day when we were here, so that was a bummer...but we went right over to the first aid and they fixed me right up! Before long I couldn't even feel the sting anymore (whatever they gave me worked like a charm). We both felt like Tower of Terror was one of our favorite rides this year. This is also the park with the exceptional Beauty and the Beast musical, Fantasmic! and Star Wars fireworks.

Belle in the Beauty and the Beast show

We ran into some storm troopers.

In a Star Wars area.

Frozen Sing Along Celebration

a Star Wars show

Animal Kingdom
This is the newest of the four parks, and I absolutely love it! There are only a handful of rides, but there are also a few shows we really enjoy (Finding Nemo and the Lion King) as well as a bird show, Flights of Wonder, which we saw for the first time on this trip. I think Mark and I agreed that the Expedition Everest roller coaster was our favorite roller coaster on this trip. My favorite thing about this park, though, is the atmosphere. It's just so well done, with so many authentic-feeling details to take in. Plus, if you're looking, there are elephants everywhere! This park is also gearing up to debut some new stuff, including some evening attractions and entertainment that was originally supposed to open in April, but which got delayed. Even though we didn't get to take part in all that, we really enjoyed what was there (and we'll have something new-to-us to look forward to next time).

possibly my favorite detail on this trip--can you read the sign?

At Rafiki's planet watch, an area we visited for the first time.

We had 3 great safaris!

Pre-show for Flights of Wonder

We got to see this hippo walking along under water!

Finding Nemo musical

Festival of the Lion King

Epcot
The best thing about Epcot in May is that the spring Flower and Garden Festival is still going on, so we get to see all the great topiaries around the park. We also really enjoyed the Illuminations fireworks this year, which we saw for the first time from the FastPass+ viewing area--it's perfect! We also caught a few of the performances in various countries, like the street performer in Italy and the acapella group in the US. Lots of walking in this park!

hidden Mickey in the big aquarium in future world

miniature railroad in Germany

orchids in Mexico

phone booth in Canada

Beauty and the Beast in France

Morocco

Italy

Bonsai trees in Japan

Ranger Mickey, in honor of the
National Parks 100 year anniversary

The only rainy day of the trip--
a couple hours during and after dinner on our last night.

Magic Kingdom
In the end, if I had to choose just one park to visit, it would be the Magic Kingdom. It's the classic feel of Disney, and there are just so many great attractions there, many that I enjoy over and over again. We spent more time here than any other park, morning, noon, and night! We also took some time to see some things we hadn't during our previous trip, like Tom Sawyer island. Some of our favorite things here are Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Hall of Presidents, Philharmagic, Under the Seas, and the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. We also really enjoyed seeing the updated hub area in front of the castle (which was still in progress in 2014)--its such a good change. Everything is beautiful, and the area is so much less congested now. We especially enjoyed watching Celebrate the Magic from up close.

welcome show before park opening

in the Tangled courtyard,
one of the prettiest areas in the park

Cinderella fountain

Gaston's fountain

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

new personalized goodbye sign in It's a Small World

outside the Enchanted Tiki Room

Haunted Mansion

the Beast's Castle

Wreck it Ralph scene in Celebrate the Magic

more Celebrate the Magic

One of the highlights of our visit to the Magic Kingdom was seeing the Festival of Fantasy Parade. It was running when we were last there, but we didn't ever catch it. We found out a great spot to watch it on our first afternoon this time, and it was amazing! We made sure to see it one more time, too.

Keys to the Kingdom Tour
We also chose to take a 5-hour tour in the Magic Kingdom. No photos were allowed, and the tour gave a lot of cool backstage information that I prefer not to post here. If you're interested though, ask me sometime, and I'll tell you more! We enjoyed the tour, but we didn't feel like it's something we'd do again.

Food

In addition to all the usual wonderful meals and some new places we tried, we went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge one afternoon for their free Culinary Tour. This was more important to me than Mark, but we both really enjoyed it. We got to hear the story about two of the restaurants there (Boma and Jiko) from two different South African guides and sample some really tasty food. I think we'll consider returning to Jiko for dinner on our next trip.

Boma

Desserts--we got to try the famous zebra domes

Jiko

we tried the bread service

We always look forward to the food on this trip, so I took lots of pictures. Here are some of our favorite dishes:

Snacks

ice cream cookie sandwich from Sleepy Hollow

Mark's favorite, the cronut in Epcot

Plaza ice cream sundae in fresh waffle cone bowl

Las Ventanas--our best breakfast of the trip (at Coronado Springs resort). Scrambled eggs on quesadillas with potatoes and chorizo.

Captain Cook's--the classic Tonga Toast! I finally got a picture that (sort of) shows what the inside is like. This is such a bargain (rather than buying it at the table service Kona Cafe upstairs like we always did before).

Yak and Yeti--our favorite place to eat in Animal Kingdom. I got the side of fried green beans, and we split this shrimp appetizer and the Indian-style chicken dish.

Be Our Guest--still one of the toughest reservations to get. We were so pleased to be seated in the main ballroom near the snowy windows. We were also surprised by an opportunity to meet the Beast on our way out of the castle!

meat and cheese platter

lamb chops

our host, the Beast!

Sci-Fi Dine In Theater--we'd eaten here back in 2010 and decided to give it another shot. We're so glad we did! We had one of our best servers here, plus an awesome specialty burger topped with fried boursin cheese...yum! Notice that it's actually Walt Disney on the screen in the background here.

Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen--the Magic Kingdom's newest restaurant and our first meal of the trip. We loved it! This is definitely a place we'll go back to.

arepas--a South American dish

Tokyo Dining--an old favorite of ours in Japan in Epcot, but our first time with a window seat! The servers here are always so sweet. We get the same meal every time; this time, we were smart enough to split it. They sang us a cheerful song for our anniversary, too!

California Grill (w/Fireworks)--after having sushi here on our last trip, we knew we'd have to come back. This time, we booked our meal at the right time to watch Magic Kingdom fireworks from the restaurant's viewing areas. It was awesome! We also had an excellent server here who brought us a lovely complimentary dessert.

Narcoossee's--this is probably our favorite restaurant on property. Although our server this time was a bit snooty, the food was absolutely excellent. We split soft shell crab for an appetizer, halibut for dinner, then each had our own almond cheesecake. This is the best cheesecake in the world!

Overall, we had a great time! We certainly plan long days for ourselves, so we're totally exhausted by the time we get home, but we love it. It's been especially nice for me to come home to summer vacation, too. I'm sure we'll plan another trip sometime in the near future, but we're trying to think about what other new places we want to visit, too!