Disney World (November 2019) - Day 2 Hollywood Studios

Hi again from yet another dreary Southwest Louisiana! Is it spring yet? :)

Speaking of spring, I've been de-cluttering, organizing, and doing a little spring cleaning. It's crazy how fast things accumulate and become un-oraganized. I always tell myself, I'm going to fold this neatly every time from now on or put things back exactly where they go every single time then...yeah right, life happens. Anyway, I've strayed from my main point here. While sorting and organizing things in my closet, I came across....none other than...my long lost Princess Half Marathon video footage from 2019! To check out that footage, head over to YouTube!

Fast forward to our November trip and here we are at Hollywood Studios/EPCOT. We spent our time after the Enchanted 10K exploring Star Wars land and having dinner at the Food & Wine Festival.

If you have missed any of those recaps, check them out below. Links will be updated as those posts become available.

Disney Travel Day: Wine and Dine Expo & Animal Kingdom
Disney Day 2: Wine and Dine 10K & Kids Races & Hollywood Studios/Epcot
Disney Day 3: Wine and Dine Half Marathon & Magic Kingdom
Disney Day 4: Boarding the Disney Dream
Disney Day 5: Castaway Cay
Disney Day 6: Nassau
Disney Day 7: At Sea Day
Disney Day 8: Disney Springs and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Our first stop at Hollywood Studios was in Toy Story land for our Toy Story Mania fast passes. On our way there, we passed a DVC booth and they gave Brayden stickers for DAYS!

SO many stickers!!

For Toy Story Mania, Brayden and I shared a car while Jason was in his own.

Brayden was mesmerized by the ride and didn't really attempt to play! Haha!

I thought I beat Jason, but he squeaked ahead of me by 4,000 points. We always like to make this game (and Buzz) a little competition. It's always up in the air who will win!

For lunch, we decided to stop by Woody's Lunch Box since none of us had eaten there before.

I give it an A. It was all really good!

Even though we weren't on the dining plan for this trip, we decided to order the Lunch Box Tart. Together, our group ordered and split the raspberry and the chocolate hazelnut.They were both really tasty, but the hazelnut one won in our book!

Before walking over to Star Wars land, we had to stop by the One Man's Dream exhibit for my traditional "Karen" picture! So fun!

Finally, we ventured over into Star Wars land. The lines were too long to wait in for the rides, so we spent our time wandering and observing!

Oh yes, and drinking Blue Milk!

Everyone in our group got in on the action, too!

The verdict? I liked it. Jason did not. Whomp whomp. Oh well!

We said goodbye to Star Wars land and Hollywood Studios, then set out for EPCOT and dinner at the Food & Wine Festival!

This was our first time riding the Skyliner and Brayden instantly fell in love!

The ride over to EPCOT was a super easy one and we enjoyed the journey!

Once inside EPCOT, we rode Spaceship Earth, then decided to take a break at the DVC lounge inside Journey to Imagination.

Although we had 7 total guests with us, we were still able to get everyone in and we all enjoyed the break!

Up next was the Food & Wine Festival! Since this was planned to be our dinner for the evening, Jason and I decided to order several dishes to try (and we shared a few of them, too)!

Our journey began at Hawaii with the pork sliders. These are so good!

Up next was Canada with the filet and cheese soup with pretzel roll (my favorite)!

Our next stop was in Brazil for the pork belly. This dish came highly recommended by my friend Lisa and it was delicious!

As we made our way around World Showcase, I had to stop in Germany for (yet another) traditional picture!

This is one I take every single trip!

 

Last but not least, we ended our evening with dessert at the Islands of the Caribbean booth for a Questio (I think)! 

It was the perfect way to end our evening and our day at Walt Disney World!

Up next: Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom

Wine & Dine Half Marathon Costume Reveal

Happy Halloween! What better way to celebrate than with a little runDisney costume reveal?

The ideas for my Wine & Dine Half Marathon costume have been absolutely all over the place. Since I'm traveling with a group of friends for this trip, our original plan was to run as different characters from Toy Story. Well, that idea got scrapped a while back and after a lot of deliberation in my own head, I finally decided what I wanted to do.

This costume has been sitting in my closet for a while...actually, a long while. You see, about 6 years ago, Jason and I were invited to a Disney themed 16 year old's birthday party with the catch that everyone who came had to dress in costume. So, Jason and I did just that...and our outfits were a huge hit!

I'm still not quite sure how I convinced him to dress up as a Wildcat from High School Musical, but he agreed!

So, with the reboot of an all new High School Musical on the upcoming brand new Disney+, I thought it was due time to pull that old costume out of the closet and finally wear it to a runDisney event. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this before!

Although this costume took a little bit of tweaking from its previous state, and I look a hot mess because I currently have pink eye (seriously), here it is!

As you can see, the inspiration for this one came from the cheerleaders in the middle of this shot.

I used all runner-friendly material for this costume:

• Shirt: BCG Brand from Academy
• Skirt: SparkleSkirts.com
• Jacket: Adidas from Academy
• Headband: Red Sparkle Sweaty Bands
• Earrings: Red Paw Logo from Amazon

The EHS letters were cut from the Silhouette machine on red heat press vinyl and the red/white stripes are pieces of ribbon that were heat pressed onto the shirt. The wildcat logo was printed onto a heat press sheet, pressed onto an old piece of white t-shirt material, then hand stitched onto the jacket (so it's not permanent).

This should be a fun (and hopefully less rainy) Wine & Dine Half from the last one I ran (can anyone say splash & dash?). If you see me out there, don't hesitate to say hello!!

If you're running this weekend, I wish you the best of luck! Happy running!!

10th Anniversary Vacay - Day 1 WDW

Travel day is one of my favorite parts of a vacation. There's an air of excitement and the thrill of a new adventure that always seems to ring heavy in the air.

This travel day was no exception! We began ours early on a Friday morning with an outgoing flight at 6:30 a.m. We'd planned to land in Orlando around 9:45 a.m. and with our bags marked for the mouse's house, we were able to head straight for Magical Express.

Much to our surprise, a bus was waiting for us when we arrived and there was no line at the Magical Express counter (that almost never happens)!

Our resort of choice for this trip was Caribbean Beach (for one night...more on the resort later) and after a quick stop for check in, we were on our way to Animal Kingdom.

This was our first trip back since becoming Annual Passholders and we were super excited to use the special entrance, just because we could!

The first thing we spotted after entering the park was DiVine! Have you ever noticed her in the past? I think I've only ever seen her once or twice before. 

We also stopped for a quick picture in front of the Tree of Life, simply because we could!

Our first fast passes of the day were for Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris. Both were fabulous as always!

After a few rides, we realized it was past lunch time! Instead of choosing one restaurant, we decided to try a couple different dishes and split them.

Our first was at Flame Tree Barbecue for the Baked Mac & Cheese with Pulled Pork.  Since we'd never noticed this item on the menu, we definitely had to try and we loved it!! This dish is a new hit!

I also wanted to try the Cheeseburger Steamed Pods at Satu'li Canteen. We weren't as impressed with these although they did have good flavor. Flame Tree still reigns as our favorite quick service in Animal Kingdom.

After lunch, we wandered through and enjoyed the scenery of Pandora.

The colors were so vibrant and I couldn't wait to return at night to see it all lit up!

I was honestly shocked at the size of Pandora (it seemed a little on the small side to me), but I wanted to experience everything Pandora had to offer before giving it my final opinion.

Up next was a little afternoon snack of the Night Blossom and the Pongo Lumpia. Again, we split both of these between the two of us.

The Night Blossom was just a tad bit too sweet for me, but the Pongu Lumpia...y'all. OMG. I would and will return to Pandora simply to have a bite of this deliciousness!!

Simply described as a pineapple cream cheese spring roll, this piece of heaven was truly amazing! In between all of that, we also managed to squeeze in a showing of Lion King which we loved as always!

Somewhere in between all of that, we spent a good half hour attempting to dodge the rain which came as a steady downpour! Thankfully we stayed relatively dry, thanks to a combination of the beginning of the fast pass queue for Flights of Passage and the floating mountains!

Mid-afternoon, we decided to return to Caribbean Beach to make sure our bags all made it to our room. With my luck, had we not gone to check, the bags wouldn't have been there...but thankfully, they were! Having our bags was especially important as we were boarding the Disney Fantasy the following day!

For dinner that evening, we stopped by Epcot for about 45 minutes to try a few Food & Wine dishes. I definitely wish we'd had more time there but oh well...

I loved how they utilized the walkway from Future World into World Showcase which made room for several additional booths!

The first stop on our list was at Canada for cheese soup and the filet. Both were delicious!

We also stopped at Hawaii so Jason could order a pork slider....

...and we finished our evening at China for pot stickers and the roasted duck bao bun. We also enjoyed these as well!

At the end of our super busy day, we returned to Animal Kingdom for our 8 p.m. fast passes for Flights of Passage.

Y'all.

This ride DEFINITELY lived up to the hype! I seriously feel as if it's the best ride at Disney World right now, hands down.

After finishing up with Flights of Passage, we made a bee-line for the Na'vi River Journey standby line. Although the suggested time said 40 minutes, we were in and out in 20 minutes which was really nice!

Pandora at night was amazing to see! We really enjoyed exploring the area at night and can't wait to return!

Don't ask how we managed to squeeze all of that into one day - I'm exhausted just writing about it! However, we had an amazing first day of our trip and loved trying new (to us) things!

Thanks for following along! Check out more from our amazing Disney Fantasy cruise at the links below:

Missed a recap? Check them out here:

• Day 1 Animal Kingdom and Epcot & VLOG
• Day 2 Boarding the Disney Fantasy & VLOG
• Day 3 Day at Sea with Remy Brunch & VLOG
• Day 4 Cozumel & Chichen Itza & VLOG
• Day 5 - Grand Cayman & Sting Ray City & VLOG
• Day 6 - Jamaica & Ziplining & VLOG
• Day 7 - Second Day at Sea with Palo Brunch & VLOG
• Day 8 - Castaway Cay Day & VLOG

Have a great day!