Week #6 - Special Visitors, New Experiences, & Fun with Friends!

Welcome back! This week starts off on February 16th...yes, I'm still two weeks behind on posts, maybe I'll catch up someday! :) Anyways, that day I just went to church and then to work so it was a pretty typical Sunday.

This week was exciting because I had some special visitors who had came in to Orlando! My aunt, uncle, cousin, and my uncle's parents all had decided to come for a Disney vacation while I was here working.

On that Monday morning, I picked up my aunt Stephanie and cousin Emily from their hotel to head to Disney Springs for a breakfast at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, where we had some yummy waffles and breakfast pizza before Emily's reservation at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. It was really neat finally being able to see the inside of the boutique, because I had never been to an appointment here and had only heard about it online. It's for little girls up to age 12 to go and get all dolled up in a princess dress with their hair, makeup, and nails done. Emily seemed to love it, and it was fun to get to watch the process of how the fairy godmothers work their magic!

Once Emily had been transformed into a princess, we all went to Magic Kingdom for their first day in the parks. We had a few Fastpasses and were able to ride some classic Disney rides, although it was very busy and the Presidents Day holiday made wait times pretty long. For dinner, we ate at Tony's Town Square, and I thought it was a really nice restaurant with a great atmosphere and some delicious Italian food! The calamari and chicken alfredo were both so good. When it got close to time for fireworks, we grabbed an ice cream snack from the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor and found a good spot and it was so great being able to all watch Happily Ever After together. Before ending the night, we took a quick ride on Dumbo and had a magical moment as they let us ride twice in a row! All in all, it was a very crowded Presidents Day at Magic Kingdom, but a terrific day nonetheless!  

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What a magical picture!

Tony's Town Square Chicken Alfredo

Riding Dumbo at night!

Tuesday they planned to visit Animal Kingdom, and since I had work most of the day. it was perfect that they were able to see me working! I said hi to them and did some pin trading as they came off Kilimanjaro Safaris while I was working at our safari cart.

The next morning, I met up with them all at Epcot to start a full park day. We rode Spaceship Earth, ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons, rode Soarin' and The Seas with Nemo, and explored some of the Festival of the Arts. Emily loves painting, so I think she enjoyed helping paint the mural and seeing the chalk art! After that, we headed over to World Showcase and started exploring the countries. Luckily, we came across several characters, and were able to meet both Alice in Wonderland and Minnie Mouse which was a lot of fun.

The Seas with Nemo & Friends

Once we got over to Germany, we stopped for our dinner reservation at Biergarten. I love the food there and the fun stage entertainment, and I always leave stuffed since it's a huge buffet of both regular dinner food plus desserts! Oh, and I learned something new - Germans drink something called Spezi, which is a mixture of Coke and Orange Fanta...I drank it with dinner and it was pretty tasty! :)

After eating dinner, I said goodbye to them since they were heading out soon afterwards and I was busy the last couple of days they were going to be there. It was so great being able to spend some time with them all and show them around the parks. I'm glad they chose to come visit Disney all together for the first time while I was working here!

I had plans that night to meet up with some friends - my roommate Courtney and my friends Shelby and Erin all came over to Epcot and met me in World Showcase. We watched the Disney on Broadway show on stage and Shelby and I got some nachos and margaritas from Mexico which were amazing! Finally, we topped off the night by watching Epcot Forever. It was my first time watching it, and it was a cute fireworks display honoring the attractions, past and present, of the park.

Thursday I just had work, and then when I got home that night the roommates and I all decided to go get a late night snack at Waffle House. I had never been there before, so it was a fun experience. Nice to say I had finally been to one because I thought it was hilarious on the drive down to Florida that pretty much every single interstate exit had a Waffle House sign! So another bucket list item was checked off the list. 

Friday was yet another work day. That night, I met up with Torie, who I had met through the DCP Christian Girls group I'm in, and we hung out at Disney Springs for awhile. We did some shopping at World of Disney and then shared a pizza at Blaze, one of my favorite places to eat at Springs. It was such a great night being able to spend time with a new friend! 

Saturday I didn't start work until late afternoon, so I decided to take advantage of the first part of the day by visiting Magic Kingdom. It was the princess marathon weekend, so unsurprisingly, the park was very busy, but I had a Fastpass for Small World so I went on it. Then I just sat in the warm sunshine on the hub grass on Main Street and soaked up the magical view while eating some delicious corn dogs from Casey's Corner - a true Disney classic meal! It was one of those days where it just really hit me how blessed I am to be living out my dream here. I'm so thankful for it! 

And that was another week! Thanks for taking the time to read my updates. I'll be writing to you all again real soon!